T-Mobile: My initial experience in the Los Angeles area

Hi guys:

I'm new to T-Mobile but I already see I made a huge mistake porting my Verizon number over so hastily.

I'm in the Los Angeles area and I literally feel I warped back to 2001 when it was the norm for mobile phones "not," to work indoors and to encounter numerous dead spots. I'm so used to EVDO so the GPRS thing is a bit disconcerting and very slow.

I purchased the Pearl Gray RAZR online for $ 49.99. I knew T-Mobile was weak a few years ago, but I've heard they have gotten much much better now that we are so close to 2007.

Don't get me wrong. I know there are plenty of areas where the service is great and I know every carrier has their good and bad areas. However, I cannot remember the last time I ever had "no service," with Verizon or Sprint while shopping indoors at so many local retailers throughout the Greater Los Angeles area. I've had weak spots with every carrier but I'm just so especially surprised at all the dead spots I've recently encountered.

Today, while visiting friends through Long Beach, CA., I encountered 4 large retail locations, one large gym, and my friends place where I had absolutely zero service indoors:

Wal-Mart: North Long Beach
Wal-Mart: Off of 5th Ave
Circuit City: Off of Bellflower Ave
Best Buy: Signal Hill area off of Cherry Ave
Gold's Gym: Pine Ave
My friends condo: Belmont Shores

I visited my parents house in the High Desert. Not even a 1/4 mile from the 15 FWY, my RAZR had 1 bar. I knew that by the time I got to their place there would be no service. Sure enough, pull up to their neighborhood and bam: No coverage. Couldn't even make a 911 call if I prayed. Just to think? Just last night I was trying to convince my parents to ditch their VZW family plan and go for the new $49.99 per month share plan. I'm glad they said no or I wouldn't hear the end of it.

I'm still in shock on how poorly built the T-Mobile network is compared to Verizon or Sprint "overall." I have heard so many positive experiences from others so I assume all of you guys live and travel very close to T-Mobile cell sites.

Looking at their national maps, I know T-Mobile has added huge swaths of 850 MHz roaming. However, does anyone know if Southern California is excluded? Does any local T-Mobile user know if it's possible to force your phone to roam off of the Cingular network when needed?

All the areas above where I had zero service with T-Mobile, my Helio phone worked fine. I'm starting to realize why their pricing plans are so cheap. But this is Southern Cali. We're the number 2 market in the US. I thought all the carriers would work great or at least similarly by now this late in the game.

The only reason I may keep my service is so I can get some cool unlocked phones. I might just drop my pricing plan to the bare minimun or go pre-paid instead. Also, the three times I've called T-Mobile customer service I have to say were great. The reps were very professional over the phone and very courteous. And, I have to say... one great point is that the battery lasts forever. I guess that is because its a GSM device compared to the CDMA powered devices I've been used to.

 

Hi Telekom:

Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Keep in mind you are speaking to someone who isn't naive to the industry or wireless technology. After reading all the hoopla from JD Powers and such, do you really blame me for my upfront faith in the product?

Actually, T-Mobile works well at our corp. office. I also checked out their online coverage tool and it showed excellent service in the areas I'd use the service the most. When I got the phone in the mail, it worked fine so I just simply ported my number over so that my number would be working by the time I got home. I'm so busy that I have to get things done in a flash and use my free time wisely.

I travel a lot in my postion on the road throughout Southern Cali. It's impossible for me to verify that I'll have decent coverage in every spot. That said, I've had the opportunity to test the service thoroughly and have been through so many poor areas that the comparison to the other carriers I've mentioned was easy. Looking at their coverage maps, I can see many discrepencies now that I've been able to test their service in the areas of question.

As I said, coverage at my office is decent and although not perfect, I can still make calls from home. It's only when you have the opportunity like me to travel around do you notice the problem.

I believe because of the congestion, my phone may be locking on to AMR HR. While driving on the freeways, my calls are choppy and garbly every half mile or so. The hissing and popping is pretty loud and not what I'm used to due to CDMA noise cancellation. I just may do some hacking and see if I can force the codec to FR.

I still have 5 days left on my 14 day get out jail free card. You are right. I guess I'll have to make my decision pretty fast otherwise I'll get stuck with the ETF. At that point, yes, it will be my fault if I wind up paying the ETF knowing what I know.

 

Yeah. It was odd when I was at the store and when trying to call my GF I kept getting call failed. Retry. Over and over again. It brought back memories of my wireless past so long ago.

It's such a shame. I actually find myself making excuses to keep the service even though inside I should know better. I really want it to work just as well if not better because I'm a dork.

You know the service is bad when you lose service in the parking lot before you enter the store. Geez.

 

No WAAAAAAYYYYYY !!!!!

I hear Metro PCS is launching very soon with their corporate offices somewhere in OC. It is rumored that Telefonica Moviles may also start a MVNO as well using the T-Mobile network next year based in OC too.

T-Mobile already is a MVNO of Telefonica in Spain.

 

Would they MVNO off another carrier until they can get on their feet? I can't see VZW allowing them to sell unlimited local voice plans on their network, but I'm not sure if another carrier might?

I can see Metro PCS being popular by those who only call locally and don't need all the cool 3G apps.

I hear they kick butt in a few markets where they have launched at least on a small scale.