Why is T-Mobile so cheap?

TMO is getting better, but their rural coverage is still lacking in many areas. Keep this in mind if you go to rural areas on a regular basis. Also consider that TMO uses mainly the 1900 band which does not travel as for or penetrate buildings as well as the 850 band. As long as TMO works where you need it to then you will be fine. Personally for me TMO does not cover large areas that I go to on a weekly basis, so for me it won't work, for you, maybe.

-Jay

 

T-Mobile has been competitive ever since they bought VoiceStream and has been expanding their network with 3 or 4+ thousand cell sites per year. In the areas T-Mobile serves, their native network is generally very well built out. Rural areas, T-Mobile sometimes does not cover, although they include roaming in rural areas for free, and all your features will work while roaming, so it really is not that big of a deal.
T-Mobile Customer Service is great, and they are a very competitive provider (obviously...as you pointed out). There is not more "fine print" with T-Mobile than there is with other carriers.

 

In my experience, T-Mobile has been surprisingly great! I use it in rural areas, and have found coverage to be as good as the CDMA networks in the area. I have been shocked at the coverage. On travels, it has also been quite good, and in TX better than VZW. T-Mobile seems to have many, many roaming partners for areas they don't natively cover. I have used the service in the upper midwest: MN, IA, SD, NE, IL, MO, southwest: CA, NV, UT, AZ, and a litlte in the east. It has pleasantly surprised me with coverage. The customer service is outstanding and the prices good. The MyFaves is also a great feature. I mostly have positive comments, and I hope you are happy with your decision. Good luck!

 

One big reason why they are so cheap.

They haven't had to invest a lot of money into high speed data networks like other carriers have. This allows them to keep their prices low (which they need to do to compete with the larger carriers).

 

We will see what happens over the next year or two when 3g on the T-Mobile network will really take off. My guess is that they are still going to keep prices low to stay competitive and lure people onto their network.

 

That is a good point. Currently they do not have a 3G high speed data network. From what I hear they are planning a 3G network, but I do not think it is operational anywhere yet.

-Jay

 

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.9800/209; U; en))

you generaly get what you pay for. but they are cheap.

 

Sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don't. I can pay $400 for an iPhone, and $60 or whatever a month, but if the network my expensive phone is one does not provide me service where I am, this statement does not hold true anymore.

 

I think for the most part tmobile is a good deal

 

I have had TMobile prepaid for 21 months (and a long time ago when they were Powertel/VoiceStream) and I am mostly pleased wth their customer service and value. The downside is that their service doesnt work well inside my place. I have used a Nokia 6010 (current), 6030, Motorola V195s (current), and the Motorola RIZR Z3. the Nokias performed ok vs the Motos but they all garble and/or drop calls inside. My other beef is the lack of sites... I can go 10 miles to the south of Tallahassee along a state road and have no service ... and all other companies have native service. They cover the interstates well, but since AT&T's the other GSM carrier, TMobile does not roam on them in the rural parts of the panhandle away from the interstates/cities

I would love to go to TMobile but the lack of service at my place prevents me from signing on the dotted line. So I'll be happy with the prepaid

Also, Verizon has spoiled me with the high speed 3G service... I don't think I could go down to an EDGE connection or a GPRS (If I get a sidekick ID) even though their data is probably less than half the price I am paying to Verizon.

 

T-mobile is cheap because they are a gsm provider (which is cheaper tech than CDMA which verizon & sprint use) and they are smaller the Cingular in terms of coverage area so they are cheaper to compete better.