jonathanm1978

Luckily, that hasn't arisen in my area where I am, aside from having B14 (well, ALL of AT&T signal) not work at all in Coosa county, Alabama. I wish there was a service for first responders that would go to ANY available carrier, provider, etc..and in the absolute worst case scenario, would give us service. I've been on an ambulance, trying to find an address, and my driver actually had to pull over and we pulled out a map book and tried to find the road using the "old fashioned way".. and that takes valuable time away that sometimes may be vital to someone surviving. BUT, I will say that I've only seen that in Coosa county... both my Tmo and AT&T phones had zero service and I couldn't get GPS, and neither could my driver (VZW service). Maybe satellite will help with that in those times where that occurs.. but that's an extreme example. Edit to add: Let me add some context to this.. Coosa county isn't regular coverage area for my job.. so it's not a regular thing that we are dispatched to Coosa county.. and actually, there's been a change and that county now has it's own ambulance service that operates.. so the only time we might receive a request is if it's a multiple casualty scenario, or it's a transfer going home from our contracted hospital. The way that reads above, it may seem like we are just out without some sort of GPS gadget to direct us on where to go, but for the most part, we know our coverage area pretty well. Dispatch can also give us cross streets for reference inside our coverage area (and our home county). Coosa just isn't a regular area for my job to run in.

I've wondered if being on the first responder plan has the priority over other 'regular' lines in the same way firstnet does (or, supposed to do with B14...I've seen normal customers on AT&T hit B14 so it's not {specifically} for Firstnet only)...

I also wanted to post a speed test result.. I only do these once in a while from my home area because we are gonna be the last to see changes, like load balancing. Right now they are digging all over the place for fiber installs, so I'm not sure what the hold-up is on making the upload speed a little more in-line with download speeds, but here is the most recent from my area: https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10133670525

I dont know where my pricing falls into the mix.. I have to send in my EMT license from national registry and state every year to keep the price that I have.. I think it's called a first responder plan. But here's the breakdown: 3 voice lines, 1 "connected" device, 2 wearables (my s23 ultra, wife's s23 ultra, daughter's phone, and my galaxy tablet, wife and I both have samsung watches). The pricing breakdown is $213.50 for plans, $82.42 for equipment, and $95.12 for services (protection plans and I think that netflix stuff is in this). The total is $391.04 for all of it. So is that good? From my understanding, and I might be wrong, I think my tablet is the only device that will have a price increase of $2.00/mo on the plan it has. I got a text saying that my "connected device" plan will be adjusted.. and I only have one that falls under that connected device umbrella, if I'm reading correctly. I understand both sides of the argument.. I don't want to pay more for something that was promised to never increase... but I do get that we're in some dire economic times and I've seen investments from both 401k and my own stock purchases just remain stagnant for nearly 3 years now. The 401k has took the hardest hit and hasn't been able to reach the price it was at in 2020..and is still about 10k shy of that point. I had a bunch of Sprint stock that I held on to until it was no longer a thing..and it was swapped out for T-mobile stock. That stock has just recently got a small jump to the highest that I've seen it since the merger.. I think like $161.00 last I checked. I'm sure some analyst somewhere figured in the churn that will come with the rate plan increases that they are implementing and it was decided that losing a few customers would be less of a hit than increasing the bottom line price on some plans. I could understand if they were increasing across the board on everything, but from what I see, that's not the case unless I am not comprehending this text that I rec'd correctly.

It would be great if firstnet didn't rely soley on AT&T towers to provide cellular service.. but B14 seems like it's already crowded.

The balancing between up and down still lacking but looks like speed has been improved on both since the last test that I did.. https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/9961537959

I may take my Air 3 and grab some pics of the tower that I live a mile away from, just for curiosity. I am sure there is a more appropriate place to post pics like that, if I do grab them.. or would this be the best thread? Hasn't quite been a year since Tmo colocated with AT&T on that particular tower that I'm referring to.. Been wondering what equipment they installed (I get b71 along with a couple other frequencies.. I'll get more details later on freqs).

Is that an esim thing now, or can you do physical sim + esim with that? I have firstnet and I'd love to be able to something like that. Definitely going to have to look at this whenever I decide to move from the S23U. I waited 3 years on the last upgrade and got lucky that I upgraded right before Sprint billing was switched over to Tmo. In fact, my call with Sievert's office even verified that for me.. dont remember verbatim how she told me..but basically if you had devices financed with Sprint, all of that was just accepted to Tmo and you continued that regardless of the limit placed on the account by their newly implemented "Hard R r-tard" rules for sh*tting on the sprint folks. I had a screen problem with my GN20 and NOBODY could repair it..even with the protection plus plus super plus whatever plan... so I kept it for a few months after the break, then decided maybe it would be a good idea to upgrade prior to what I anticipated would be a nightmare to move over to Tmo billing.

So, if I wanted to do something like this with Samsung, I assume to start with -- the initial phone -- would need to be paid off thru T-mobile (the one that I currently have thru Tmo is leased S23 ultra). So I would have to finish the lease, buy out the device from them, unlock it and then trade it in to Samsung..

Got a call last night from the office of Sievert... After about a 38 minutes convo... nothing really going to change with the credit stuff. Basically.. i got a consolation prize, since the initial reason that I even found out about this was because I tried to buy a new watch line for my wife to upgrade her wifi only galaxy watch, basically they covered the amount that was being req'd as a "down payment"..which came to around $246. Probably maxxed out that $2k equipment financing credit now with that watch being add to the bottom line for whatever the period is (I think it's like 12mos).. But I was told there's just all these factors that go into their decisions... and it's not going to change. According to her, they dont do the 6month reevaluation and it's a constant thing now on a per-customer basis...blah blah thanks for umpteen dozen years and is there anything else we can do for you?

Seems as though former-Sprint/now T-mobile customers just keep getting the raw end of the merger when it comes to everything from devices, to plans, to the benefits of such.. As a first responder, i never had anything with Sprint as far as a discount..but with T-mobile, after jumping thru several hoops, sending a copy of my EMT national registry card and my state licensure to practice in my state, i finally was able to get a small discount (totals around $40/mo total)... But so far, that's the only real benefit that i've seen from the merger, as Sprint never offered that sort of thing. After seeing the website tell me that I could upgrade a watch repeatedly, I finally decided to get one for my wife for Christmas.. and after trying to get the $350 off deal 5 or 6 times, each time, after I would click "proceed to checkout", the amount due today would change from $35 to $349 or so every single time... I finally went to the store, and point blank asked what did the former Sprint customers get from the merger besides a good screwing by T-mobile...because apparently I can't even lease a watch or phone now, because of the account limits that I've been placed under. I was a Sprint customer, in good standing, for 14 years before the merger. That equates to NOTHING with T-mobile. I asked about how many lines I was approved for, and the store associate told me 10. Ok great.. so what about device financing / leasing? $2000.00. THAT is the problem. They've limited people who were Sprint customers to like $2k in device purchasing.. so you can't upgrade, or even add a line, unless you're willing to pay the entire $1000+ possibly per phone. If I needed to add a line with Sprint, in the past, I would just add the line, lease or whatever, and pay the device off after a few months of paying it down. Now, that's not an option anymore... If I want to add a line now, I either pay full price or do without... there's no in between. That doesn't seem like good customer appreciation for the longest account-holders that came over from Sprint. Fired off an email to Mike Sievert this morning about this very thing...because to me, being approved to have 10 lines, but limited to $2000 in device purchasing power seems counter productive and quite frankly, STUPID AF. Even with Firstnet, if I decided that I want a new phone, I just pick the phone and pay it off over time, usually within 6 months..but usually I'll finance for 4-5 months before paying it off just to lower that big charge upfront.. But Firstnet isn't T-mobile...and vice versa.. Just seems like Tmo doesn't really care if Sprint customers stay or go... Why else would they limit people who have been around the longest?

I also had this with Sprint...and it transitioned with the move to T-mo... I just checked and it's still there for the 7.99/mo ... I wonder if they'll zero out those who have this for a 12-month period?

Definitely affects me. Sprint for 13 years, switched over to T-mo billing and hit with this stupid sh*t. I thought "maybe if I pay off this, pay off that" ..but no... I paid off a watch and immediately tried to add a new watch...but couldn't do it. Told to call by the website...so I did. I wasn't informed of the CL or any amount... but i'm sure that I'm already over that as we just upgraded back in April to new S23 ultras on 2 lines. I don't understand their motives...but really considering just going with firstnet for all my lines, even though I despise AT&T.

I've been having problems with people unable to call me, and so is my wife. I live in an area with decent 5g UC n71... (both s23 ultra). Wifi calling doesn't seem to make a difference. It'll randomly drop a call on wifi calling... But with cellular, it won't even ring if someone attempts to call.

Is there a post to reference to how it can be enabled on an S23 ultra? Or is it something network side that has to be done?

Mine was done yesterday. I received a text message saying 'welcome to tmobile billing' or whatever.

My tablet SIM is locked to my tablet... I was swapping between Tablet and unlocked hotspot a few weeks back..now suddenly the hotspot won't even connect with Tmo SIM installed. Works fine with Firstnet SIM installed.

I dunno what Tmobile is doing but I've seen 3 different types of 5g today...

That was my question too but I didn't want to fill up the comments with things that possibly have been discussed...Hopefully Tmo can just reapply for the authorizations without much hassle... And then, I hope it's just a software upgrade for the current hardware on the tower and doesn't require a fresh climb to make use of it. Not sure what they are putting on towers nowadays..

Any clue what the hold-up would be for the FCC to not give Tmo their licenses??

Edited to add the speedtest.. I'll dig into that auction so i don't have to ask dumb questions that I'm sure have been covered already.. Preshiate the info!!

I'll check the engineering screen and get back to you... SCP just shows n71.

They've really got the new n71 unbalanced for my area. DL topping around 400mbps, and uploads around 10mbps. I'm not sure what the ideal U/L should be, but I would rather it be balanced more.. but I guess in time it'll be balanced out.

I was told that I would've already been switched if it hadn't been for my tablet still being under an open lease, and i didn't want to buy it out to go ahead and switch (really no benefit to switching to TMo billing....as the amount should stay the same minus the payment on the lease of the tablet).. That's really good news.. to finally be in a time where advancements in tech aren't 5+ years out to see something happen. I remember upgrading phones in hopes of getting clearwire B41... then it never came to fruition... same for other tech that we upgraded phones in hopes of getting service without using a femtocell... It's great to see tech actually advancing forward. We held off on upgrading the old Note 20 5g because I knew there wasn't really any benefit since we didn't have cell coverage here yet. Now, with knowing they've got coverage, it makes it all worthwhile.