T-Mobile Service Plans and Coverage Review

Coverage:  T-Mobile's coverage can be spotty in a few areas around the United States and Mexico, but not as bad as most people proclaim it to be.  Their features and flexibility far outweigh the lack of connectivity in most areas and provide the most valuable data plans.  If you don't have coverage in many areas simply make calls through T-Mobile's WiFi android app on some smartphones.  This is huge so you don't if you make a lot of calls indoors in remote places.  If you live in a major metropolitan area, it is likely you will have comparable coverage to AT&T and Verizon 3G in most areas.  One benefit of being a smaller carrier is that you are likely competing against fewer customers for network capacity. T-Mobile now has the best 4G (HSPA+) coverage and its great to be a customer with fewer people competing for coverage on the HSPA+ network.  The difference between 3G and 4G LTE is not that significant in my opinion if you are not downloading the video.  Nevada and some of the mountain states are some notable dead zones in their coverage network and even Northern California and Oregon have quite a few miles where service is not available. T-Mobile has network coverage in every state except Alaska; reception in rural areas can be spotty. Also, as with all carriers, the reception will vary due to location. International coverage is available in more than 187 countries. Their website does have a nice feature that allows you to check coverage areas by inputting your zip code and overlaps nicely with dead zones reported on our map on the right. If you travel a lot, they do have international service options, but it will cost you as roaming charges do apply.

Plans:  T-Mobile leads these carriers in free minutes and value now offering unlimited plans without long-term contracts. Prepaid cards are affordable if you only want a short-term plan.  For the money, they offer the freest minutes of any plan and likely the most value, depending on where you live. T-Mobile offers more plans that are typically less expensive, particularly for Internet access, text, and multimedia messaging services. They offer several plans, including business plans, pre-paid, family, and individual plans. They do offer free phones, subsidized phones, including camera phones, but if you want to choose a different phone than the one they offer you will have to pay for it.

Other features

• Unlimited data plans still exist for some customers, grandfathered. 
• Offers unlimited calling plans without long-term contracts is a great selling point
• As a GSM carrier and a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile has extensive international roaming and thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States and Europe.
• Of the major carriers, T-Mobile received the highest customer service rating by J.D. Power and Associates for several consecutive years.
• T-Mobile is the only major carrier not to offer push-to-talk services.
• We recommended you monitor your text messaging usage closely and get on an unlimited plan so you don't get charged the outrageous .25 cents per message if you go over.
  
• Has 4G Coverage now in most cities. 
• 5G LTE plans will come soon but 4G HSPA+ is plenty fast.  
• T-Mobile has an Android phone with unlimited data plans.  We highly recommend it!
• T-Mobile & Sprint merged but they are keeping separate business brand units similar to when they purchased MetroPCS. 

Finding the best cell phone coverage just got easier by comparing cell phone coverage reports from other customers. Which wireless carrier has the worst cell phone coverage?

Other Reviews:

• AT&T Service Plans and Coverage Review
• Verizon Wireless Service Plans and Coverage Review
• Sprint Wireless Service Plans and Coverage Review

Feedback is always welcome.  Please submit your comments below.

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How to Get Cell Reception on Your Property

We get hundreds of emails from property and landowners who are interested in leasing their land for a cell tower. Here are some ways we have discovered that are effective at getting a new cell tower.   These factors will come into play when carriers are considering your property:  distance to adjacent towers, population density, broadband providers in the area, customer density, city zoning laws & public safety.

If you are experiencing poor or no cell reception on your property, there are several steps you can take to improve the situation:

Why Won't Wireless Carriers Admit Coverage Problems?

Does Admission of Guilt = Class Action Lawsuits?

There can be several reasons why wireless carriers may be hesitant to openly admit problems with their network coverage or services:

Verizon & AT&T Compatible iPhone 5 LTE

Verizon & AT&T Compatible iPhone 5 LTE

Apple now how the power to do what is right for consumers.  It's about time that consumers have the ability to switch to any LTE carrier without having to buy a new phone.  The United States desperately needs a way for consumers to choose a carrier not by quality of service in their region and easily switch if that service changes.  Most mobile phone consumers around the World have the luxury of picking their smartphone first and their carrier second.  The United States is a bit backwards and the carriers control and subsidize the handset costs in order to lock customers in.

However, this could all change if Apple launches the iPhone 5 that is carrier agnostic.  LTE is designed around the World to be cross carrier compatible.  However, the US carriers seem like they are structuring the technology of phones to once again be incompatible.  The Government and FCC must regulate to make sure that LTE is compatible across carriers because consumers want to pick the best service in their area.  Increased competition is what LTE needs in order for consumers to get a fair shake.

I also really hate the way carriers are currently positioning the draconian "data caps" and screwing consumers.  This really ticks me off and is not a good sign that mobile consumers are going to have many choices in the future. The FCC needs to get involved in this process and make sure LTE phone compatibility is achieved.  Sprint and T-Mobile better hold off and stick to their unlimited data plans because I will never sign up for a data plan or contract that has data caps.   I am not convinced that LTE is that much better than HSPA+ and will have to wait and see if tablets are the reason to upgrade from 3G to 4G.  

Florida Couple Gets Out of an AT&T Contract

Florida Complaints Added From Article

Boynton Beach couple frustrated by cellphone 'dead zone'

(The map on the right shows you additional cell phone coverage complaints for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile generated in just two days from the Palm Beach Post article.  One regional newspaper in Florida has generated hundreds of additional complaints and show you the power of social media to suggest change and demand transparency!) 

By SUSAN SALISBURY - Staff Writer
Full Palm Beach Post Article
Posted: 8:29 a.m. Friday, June 3, 2011

Michelle Peters' AT&T iPhone worked fine when she bought it in October, but when she moved a few miles away she found she was in a "dead zone."

"Our cellphones don't work where we live, and AT&T won't let us out of our contract," Peters, 36, said last week.

When Peters, who works as a makeup artist in Palm Beach, was at home, her cellphone service was unreliable, with dropped calls or no service at all. Her fiancé, Patrick Hurley, 32, a property manager and fellow AT&T customer, had the same problem at their residence north of Gateway Boulevard near Congress Avenue.

Two days after The Palm Beach Post contacted AT&T on their behalf, the company agreed to give them a credit for $599.96, the amount of the cancellation fee for both phones.

While Peters and Hurley are happy with the resolution, they want others to know about their frustration.

"For four months, I have called. They said it was the trees, the weather, the buildings. I said, 'Either way I said, I do not have service,' " Peters said. The couple was told AT&T map lacked a tower in the area, but one would be coming soon, Hurley said.

The last straw came when the couple accidentally set off their burglar alarm and their phones did not work.

"At that point, it became a safety issue," Peters said.

AT&T spokeswoman Kelly Starling said that Peters lives within the provider's footprint, but outlined reasons for the problem.

"Wireless devices are radios and are ruled by the laws of physics. Thick walls, trees, tall buildings, hilly terrain or bad weather can cause interference," Starling said .

AT&T's website shows Peters' address as having "moderate" coverage, the lowest category after "best" and "good." Peters and Hurley tried AT&T's suggestions such as purchasing a 3G MicroCell that acts as a mini-cell tower, but that didn't help, they said .

Starling said AT&T is continually investing in its network to provide the most advanced mobile broadband service. In April, the company announced plans to upgrade 200 local cell sites in the Palm Beach County/Treasure Coast network. The Gateway Boulevard area is one of those benefiting.

Jeff Cohn, founder of Deadcellzones.com, said the scenario is common. The website, which relies on customer reports, shows where so-called dead zones are for AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Palm Beach County has worse coverage than most areas, he said.

"Carriers give us false information about where they provide coverage. The government doesn't require them to do so. There is actual coverage and there is theoretical coverage," Cohn said.

In medium-sized areas such as Palm Beach County, the problem is often due to an insufficient number of cell towers, he said. It can be a problem in areas where no one wants to live near a cell tower.

"Cities are notoriously hard on the carriers in terms of putting up new cell towers," Cohn said.

To get around that, companies are installing smaller antennas on telephone poles, he said.

Cohn said while a cellphone contract may state the service cannot be canceled after 30 days, there is what's known as a "material adverse clause" that allows customers to terminate their agreements if they prove there are problems. He suggests checking his website's maps, then presenting the information to your carrier.  AT&T maps are not always accurate. 

Cohn said one way around the problem is to use a wi-fi network, technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connection, for cellphones. However, AT&T does not allow customers to route cellphone calls through a wi-fi network.

"The future of cellular is not necessarily in the cell towers," Cohn said. "It has to be with better utilization of wi-fi networks."

How to Avoid Early Termination Fees

Buy your phone outright without any subsidy and unlock it. It's that simple! However, if you are already in a contract and need some help read these two posts that will help you get some ideas on how to get out of a contract & how to drop early termination fees if you already purchased the phone.

Savvy smartphone users are among the most likely to leave their current carrier. According to a recent survey, 31% of U.S. consumers are ready to switch wireless providers. Some may even want to dump their carriers entirely and use their Gmail, Google Voice services in the cloud for almost free. Early termination fees are rising and carrier loyalty is fragile at best. Prior to the rise of smartphones, carrier loyalty has been tied more to network coverage and for many it still is. Consumers don’t want to worry about signal strength or proximity to a cellular tower in order to use a phone in their home or at the office.

The carriers realize that customer loyalty is not what it used to be in this age of cloud computing and Wi-Fi VoIP. So what do they do to keep their customers? Make you think they have been upgrading their networks with faster data services and new cloud syncing services. Now that smartphones are available on all the major U.S. carriers contracts or hand-cuffs have become the discussion more than the service. The carriers have answered this with higher termination fees.

Verizon was first this year, doubling the cost to get out of a contract from $350 from $175 on smartphones. AT&T followed suit by boosting its termination fee to $325, adding a higher exit barrier for consumers who want to leave the carrier. Increased upfront hardware subsidy costs at the time of purchase are the excuses given to the media but that is a lie since phone prices from the manufacture have actually decreased not doubled.

My advice to carriers if they want to keep their customers happy is pretty simple. Don’t raise the barriers for customers to leave your network by increasing termination costs. Why not let your service speak for itself by providing better coverage at a reasonable price. Consumers are becoming more phone savvy all the time and they can solve most of the problems themselves with WiFi.

Related Posts:
Customer Churn: Coverage vs.Contracts

How to Save Money on Phone Bills

One of the biggest expense items for companies who have large mobile workforces are the monthly cell phone bills.  Companies typically do their best to get all employees under one carrier in order to theoretically save money and get a deal.  However, how do you know that you are getting a deal?

1)  Are you buying new phones for each employee to be on the same plan?
2)  Are you auditing the monthly call activity over your employees?
3)  Are they getting the best service possible in your area?
4)  If all of your employees are on one carrier are you locked into a "good" price?
5)  Should you be encouraging your employees to use free WiFi more often instead of the expensive 4G or WiMax plans?
6)  What if you could give each of your employees a choice of which carrier and the handset or smart phone they wanted to use?
7)  Are you employees spending too much time managing their phone services and reporting expenses?
8)  Are you wasting valuable productivity time provisioning phones to your new employees and getting phones back from employees no longer with the company?
9)  Are you using VoIP for international calls?
10) Lastly, are you auditing and keeping track of the coverage service quality that your employees are getting and using this as leverage when you renew your contract?

Here are some companies that might help you make cheaper international calls with VoIP and audit your cell phone call activity through the carrier. Auditing your call activity is very important these days as dropped calls and coverage quality is actually getting worse as data speeds increase.  Most of these hosted solutions working with cell phones using unified communications tools and are sold directly to small businesses and directly to consumers.

Google Voice - Gives small businesses a second business number and makes voicemail more efficient.  It will also save money on international calls.
Skype - Great for video conferencing and making international calls and for businesses of any size.

Second Voice -  Large enterprises can audit and manage employee phones by adding a second number to an existing employee cell phone. 

Toktumi - Hosted PBX that gives employees a second number and has apps for your smartphone  

Truphone - Cheap VoIP calls from your mobile phone over WiFi
Ring Central - Get 800 numbers and virtual PBX with VoIP for calls
Vonage - VoIP phone service target to home users
Fonality - Viritual PBX in a box for small to medium sized enterprises
Virtual PBX - Hosted PBX for small business
Vbuzzer - VoIP software for PC

10 Reasons Why Skype Will Make You Rich

Skype's IPO could be one of the hottest new technology stocks to hit Wall Street since Google's IPO at $100 per share in 2004.  If Skype (now the largest wireless carrier in the world) does in fact do a silent auction IPO (similar to Google's IPO process) and only sells a small portion of the company (< 25%)  I think the stock will fly higher.  Owning shares of the Skype IPO could make you rich and dumping your wireless carrier could save you even more money and make your richer.   Here are 10 reasons why this could be one of the most exciting and disruptive companies to big telecom over the next decade.  The day of reckoning may soon be here . . .

#1 - Making quality 3G phone calls over AT&T, Verizon, Sprint & T-Mobile is impossible.  It is a rarity these days when my call doesn't drop in the first few seconds or on a call.  The carrier networks are just horrible and do not work and the problem is only getting worse.

#2 - If you have ever used Skype to make international phone calls you know just how special and unique the service is.  The voice and video quality is tremendous.  I am always perplexed why the same video quality experience can't be achieved when make Skype calls inside the US.  I say it's big telecom technical shenanigans screwing with VoIP packets across the network.

#3 - The service is currently FREE for Skype to Skype calls.  As soon as this company is public the shareholders will likely demand more profits and demand the company expand its advertising capabilities for its free users.  Personally, I don't really care because Google did the same thing and I think their search advertising is highly relevant.

#4 - Making Skype to any phone line is dirt cheap and will likely soon be free as well as soon as their advertising CPMs are high enough to pull the 2 cents per minute rates.

#5 - Skype will soon be the largest carrier in the world with over 500+ million active users and they have 13% of the International call market share according to The Inquisitr.  China Mobile is #2 with 527 million users, #17 Verizon 92M, #17 AT&T 87M, Sprint 48M, T-Mobile USA 33M.

#6 - Skype's annual revenue will near $1B next year even though only 6% of their customers are paying for minutes according to Tech Crunch.  Skype is wildly underpricing the value of their service and yet most consumers continue to pay their wireless carrier $50 per month or $600 per year.

#7 - US wireless carriers are still hawking prepaid data plans where minutes expire.  This is a complete scam and will likely be disrupted in the coming years as consumers and businesses get smart.  Pay as you go and advertising-based plans could save most users thousands of dollars per year.

#8 - Every smartphone will soon have a front-end video camera and some time of Skype or Google Voice software client on the phone eventually.   With Google Voice gaining steam this will only continue to educate consumers that VoIP phone calls over Wifi is the only way to make calls.

#9 - US wireless carriers are investing billions of dollars to build out 4G, LTE, WiMAX networks when more like more than 50%+ of phone calls are made indoors.   Wifi is still the best solution to connect through Skype to VoIP and likely will be for years to come.  Why do you need an expensive voice service?

#10 - Have you ever tried shopping for a phone in Europe or Asia?  Well, guess what you get to pick the wireless service FIRST and then the carrier.  Sounds backward doesn't it having to chose the iPhone being locked into AT&T.  Consumers are tired of cell phones being tied to specific carriers and want a standard platform where all phones work on all carriers. No more contracts and horrible wireless service carriers who's only value is lining the pocketbooks of shareholders with huge dividends.  Skype's service and Android operating system may soon have the power, scale and leverage to make this happen throughout the world with a Skype Phone.

How to Jailbreak the iPhone For T-Mobile

iPhone can be unlocked, which means you can use the phone on any GSM network

Free Mobile TV Available Worldwide Except US

Mobile TV is Common Everywhere Except the United States and Europe

Isn't it embarrassing that free, on-the-go Mobile TV viewing is common just about everywhere except the United States and Europe?  US operator resistance and a maze of conflicting technical standards and program licensing hurdles have kept the technology out of the global mainstream. Why the lack of independence of content distribution and handset contracts has not caused a consumer revolt yet in the US still has me dumbfounded.   Because we are still being bamboozled by government bureaucrats and corporate executive thieves while the FCC turns their head the other way.

When South Korea the World Cup in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, life will not necessarily grind to a halt back in Seoul.   Many fans will instead follow a live broadcast of the match on their mobile phones. In South Korea, free-to-air mobile TV is a five-year-old fact of life. According to the country’s broadcasters, 27 million people — 56 percent of the population — watch regularly.

While South Koreans are the world leaders in mobile TV viewing, the technology is also catching on in China, southeast Asia, India, Africa and Latin America, where 80 million people now have cellphones that can receive free, live TV broadcasts.  At least 40 million people are watching live TV this year on mobile phones, and most live in emerging markets where operators, which prefer to sell TV programming for a fee through their wireless networks, do not control the sale of handsets.

In the complex world of wireless communication, free-to-air mobile TV technology is relatively simple. With a tiny receiver chip and telescoping antenna, a mobile phone can receive free digital or analog programming like any other television.

In South Korea, 25 million people watch free digital terrestrial broadcasts on mobile handsets and two million pay to subscribe to satellite programming, according to Korean broadcasters. The typical screen made by Samsung is a three-inch, or 7.6-centimeter, diagonal. Batteries support three to six hours of viewing. In Korea, free mobile TV broadcasts are interspersed with ads.

Where are you Google TV?

Telegent is shipping about 750,000 chips each month to handset makers, most designed for viewing analog broadcasts in markets like Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Russia, Nigeria, Thailand, Egypt and China. Brazil is one of Telegent’s biggest markets.

But with the level of data traffic surging on wireless networks around the world, some operators are beginning to look to free-to-air mobile TV — which operates independently and adds no additional traffic burden on an operator’s network — as a way to retain customers.

In April, 12 broadcasters and television content owners in the United States, including Fox, NBC, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst and Cox Media, formed a joint venture to pool their broadcasting spectrum and eventually deliver mobile TV to 150 million people. The U.S. effort is in its initial stages, and no deadlines have been set for adoption.

Samsung, which includes mobile TV chips as standard technology in its high-end smartphones in South Korea, is making a handset for Sprint that works on the U.S. mobile broadcast standard, ATSC-M/H. Samsung also makes a DVB-H phone for Europe, two that work on Latin America’s ISDB-T standard and an analog handset for Southeast Asia.

On May 24, Sprint and nine broadcasters in the Washington-Baltimore area began a four-month trial that will broadcast programming to mobile phones, netbook computers and portable DVD players made by Samsung, LG Electronics and Dell.

Dave Lougee, the president of Gannett Broadcasting, said the organizers of the trial, a group of 900 U.S. television stations called the Open Mobile Video Coalition, were hopeful consumers would take to the technology.

The trial is being supported by every facet of the U.S. television industry, including content owners, broadcasters, broadcast equipment makers and advertisers, represented by the Television Bureau of Advertisers and The Ad Council.  Read more

Related Story:
Comcast Dismisses Google TV As Competitor