T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion

[richy]

Interesting Sprint isn't mentioned. I wonder if they don't want to  upset a merger \ acquisition? It's not like Sprint aren't a major competitor.  

 

This is a pretty costly move, it will be interesting to see how well it works. 

[jamisonshaw125]

That comment was posted by HarryHoudini..... A coincidence?

[Deval]

Interesting Sprint isn't mentioned. I wonder if they don't want to  upset a merger \ acquisition? It's not like Sprint aren't a major competitor.  

 

This is a pretty costly move, it will be interesting to see how well it works. 

 

A lot of T-Mobile's recent moves have been costly, sacrificing long term profit for short term customer gain. I think the hope is that those customer gains will equate to long term revenue/profit.

[GinaDee]

Interesting Sprint isn't mentioned. I wonder if they don't want to  upset a merger \ acquisition? It's not like Sprint aren't a major competitor.  

 

This is a pretty costly move, it will be interesting to see how well it works. 

 

If Sprint and T-Mobile don't merge and Sprint's NV picks up the pace later next year Legere likely start to target them too moreso. I believe Dan Hesse will open up the marketing machine next Summer once Spark covers enough POPS to market.

 

Last time I remember T-Mo mentioning Sprint in a negative ad was here:  

Edited December 19, 2013 by GinaDee

[Jaggrey]

It seems that T-Mobile in some places is suffering from that same circuit fallback issue that Sprint was having with their newer tri-band phones.  When the phone is on LTE, most of the time when someone calls it just goes to voicemail.  I've been having this issue recently and I've seen quite a few threads online with others suffering from the same thing.  At least when Sprint was having this issue the phone stayed on 3g until whatever needed to be fixed on the tower level was fixed.  Annoying.... at least they're working on it.

[S4GRU]

It seems that T-Mobile in some places is suffering from that same circuit fallback issue that Sprint was having with their newer tri-band phones. When the phone is on LTE, most of the time when someone calls it just goes to voicemail. I've been having this issue recently and I've seen quite a few threads online with others suffering from the same thing. At least when Sprint was having this issue the phone stayed on 3g until whatever needed to be fixed on the tower level was fixed. Annoying.... at least they're working on it.

My wife has had the same issue with AT&T too with the Nexus 5. I haven't. But I am not in LTE coverage very often either. Except with AT&T, it doesn't appear that texts are going through LTE like they do on Sprint. So when she gets back on WCDMA, she will get all her texts at once.

 

And if you call AT&T customer service, they will just cut you off and tell you it has to be the device and they do not support the Nexus 5. Then they they to sell you a phone they do support. I hate AT&T. At least Sprint (and Tmo) are doing something about it.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[lynyrd65]

My wife has had the same issue with AT&T too with the Nexus 5. I haven't. But I am not in LTE coverage very often either. Except with AT&T, it doesn't appear that texts are going through LTE like they do on Sprint. So when she gets back on WCDMA, she will get all her texts at once.

 

And if you call AT&T customer service, they will just cut you off and tell you it has to be the device and they do not support the Nexus 5. Then they they to sell you a phone they do support. I hate AT&T. At least Sprint (and Tmo) are doing something about it.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I use Google voice to make up for issues like that (only having WiFi in some areas).

 

Since my number is with them I can see if I've missed a call and can text without cell service.

 

If you have a way to port out without an ETF Google voice can fix that issue (at the expense of MMS and group texting functionality)

[Jaggrey]

My wife has had the same issue with AT&T too with the Nexus 5. I haven't. But I am not in LTE coverage very often either. Except with AT&T, it doesn't appear that texts are going through LTE like they do on Sprint. So when she gets back on WCDMA, she will get all her texts at once.

 

And if you call AT&T customer service, they will just cut you off and tell you it has to be the device and they do not support the Nexus 5. Then they they to sell you a phone they do support. I hate AT&T. At least Sprint (and Tmo) are doing something about it.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I'm wondering if it's an Android issue.  It doesn't seem to be phone specific but more network it seems.  My friend also on T-Mo but with a BB Z10 isn't having the issue.  On T-Mo, I'm pretty sure the texts are going thru LTE.  But whenever this issue started happening, I started getting texts only when I was on WCDMA / HSPA.  I hope they rectify the issue soon; I have LTE turned off on my phone in the meantime.  Also helps that I was near my quota for the month

[S4GRU]

I'm wondering if it's an Android issue.  It doesn't seem to be phone specific but more network it seems.  My friend also on T-Mo but with a BB Z10 isn't having the issue.  On T-Mo, I'm pretty sure the texts are going thru LTE.  But whenever this issue started happening, I started getting texts only when I was on WCDMA / HSPA.  I hope they rectify the issue soon; I have LTE turned off on my phone in the meantime.  Also helps that I was near my quota for the month

 

No, it's single path transmission.  It requires a network with a well functioning CSFB network.  SVLTE Android devices are unaffected.  The Z10 may be designed to work like the iPhone.  So it may be true to say that the OEM's that are using Android have decided to use a technology that utilizes CSFB on provider networks.  However, it is not an issue with Android software in and of itself.  An Android OEM could build a device that runs single path LTE like an iPhone or BB.

 

Robert

[Jaggrey]

No, it's single path transmission.  It requires a network with a well functioning CSFB network.  SVLTE Android devices are unaffected.  The Z10 may be designed to work like the iPhone.  So it may be true to say that the OEM's that are using Android have decided to use a technology that utilizes CSFB on provider networks.  However, it is not an issue with Android software in and of itself.  An Android OEM could build a device that runs single path LTE like an iPhone or BB.

 

Robert

That I get, but what I'm wondering is why these problems have started happening suddenly.  I understand the concept of the CSFB network but I don't get why it was working for some time then stopped.  The reason I brought up Android is because of the timing of getting the 4.3+ updates on several phones and this problem surfacing.

[S4GRU]

That I get, but what I'm wondering is why these problems have started happening suddenly.  I understand the concept of the CSFB network but I don't get why it was working for some time then stopped.  The reason I brought up Android is because of the timing of getting the 4.3+ updates on several phones and this problem surfacing.

 

In my area it didn't happen until AT&T started deploying LTE.  When we are on WCDMA, we have no issues.

 

Robert

[gnoj]

I didn't get a chance to reply to AJ's post here before the topic was closed, but you can still find the old T-Mobile coverage map here. That remains the map that is linked to from T-Mobile's business site. No idea why they bothered to put together the new one for the regular website, other than perhaps to obfuscate their large expanse of EDGE-only coverage.

[Jaggrey]

In my area it didn't happen until AT&T started deploying LTE.  When we are on WCDMA, we have no issues.

 

Robert

Weird... you'd think there'd be more noise about this issue.

[Fraydog]

Can anyone explain the love Matt Yglesias has for T-Mobile?

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/12/the_10_best_business_decisions_of_2013_apple_netflix_google_and_more.html

[Nickel]

Can anyone explain the love Matt Yglesias has for T-Mobile?

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/12/the_10_best_business_decisions_of_2013_apple_netflix_google_and_more.html

He's probably influenced by the tech media's infatuation with T-Mobile.

[GinaDee]

T-

 

Can anyone explain the love Matt Yglesias has for T-Mobile?

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/12/the_10_best_business_decisions_of_2013_apple_netflix_google_and_more.html

 

Tech sites will love or hate any carrier or product.  For the moment T-Mobile is hot.  A couple of years back they were on their deathbed.  Should that change again the bloggers will show them disdain. 

[richy]

T-

 

 

Tech sites will love or hate any carrier or product.  For the moment T-Mobile is hot.  A couple of years back they were on their deathbed.  Should that change again the bloggers will show them disdain. 

 

Are you perchance suggesting that some \ many journos and bloggers are fickle creatures that ride waves of public sentiment with little or no objectivity  

[GinaDee]

Are you perchance suggesting that some \ many journos and bloggers are fickle creatures that ride waves of public sentiment with little or no objectivity

 

Absolutely!  It's like politics and religion.   Most people only believe what they want to.  

[The Dave]

It's just convenient that you never hear anything negative about Verizon despite the fact that in many markets, they are completely bogged down and nearly at Edge speeds on their LTE network

[Fraydog]

VZW's AWS network is plenty fast where you can get it. The problem is that VZW was kind of slow to densify their grid and deploy for that spectrum. I've been on VZW AWS LTE. It's as fast as Spark.

 

VZW has also only deployed it in as many places as Spark. VZW has only said there would be 5000 AWS LTE sites by the end of 2013. Pretty similar number to Spark enabled sites, actually.

[S4GRU]

It's just convenient that you never hear anything negative about Verizon despite the fact that in many markets, they are completely bogged down and nearly at Edge speeds on their LTE network

. I went with ATT here because their WCDMA performs better than VZW LTE 750 here. VZW LTE now bogs down between 250kbps - 2Mbps on most sites here at peak times. They are deploying AWS already here. But it is going slow. And they don't fire up each site when its done like Sprint.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[lynyrd65]

. I went with ATT here because their WCDMA performs better than VZW LTE 750 here. VZW LTE now bogs down between 250kbps - 2Mbps on most sites here at peak times. They are deploying AWS already here. But it is going slow. And they don't fire up each site when its done like Sprint.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Your city is probably one of the next markets to get AT&T LTE too. I was surprised to find out Rapid City was HSPA-only for its relatively large size.

 

Many small towns in Oklahoma have LTE from AT&T now, even areas where they lack 700mhz spectrum (using AWS I assume).

[S4GRU]

Your city is probably one of the next markets to get AT&T LTE too. I was surprised to find out Rapid City was HSPA-only for its relatively large size.

 

Many small towns in Oklahoma have LTE from AT&T now, even areas where they lack 700mhz spectrum (using AWS I assume).

Yep. I have run into crews at two sites so far. In Progress.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[travismheim]

I just spent the last day reading through all 82 pages of this topic. The only thing I really have to add is about roaming. One of the reasons I am on Sprint and not T-Mobile is because of the roaming agreements they have. I'm confident I can make or receive a call/text pretty much anywhere a cell phone can even be used. I don't venture out into the sticks often, but when I do it's reassuring I can make a call to a friend or a tow truck for example, if I needed help. I don't need high speed data in the middle of nowhere, but I do need my phone to function as a phone. Until T-Mobile fixes that, I will never consider them as my primary wireless service provider.

[The Dave]

I just spent the last day reading through all 82 pages of this topic. The only thing I really have to add is about roaming. One of the reasons I am on Sprint and not T-Mobile is because of the roaming agreements they have. I'm confident I can make or receive a call/text pretty much anywhere a cell phone can even be used. I don't venture out into the sticks often, but when I do it's reassuring I can make a call to a friend or a tow truck for example, if I needed help. I don't need high speed data in the middle of nowhere, but I do need my phone to function as a phone. Until T-Mobile fixes that, I will never consider them as my primary wireless service provider.

That is true, I cannot think of a single time that I've been without the ability to make a phone call or send a text message with Sprint. When I had TMobile, I would be either stuck with no service or "Emergency Only" once I got within 3 miles of my house.