After 15+ years with AT&T Mobile I decided to switch to T-Mobile. The reasons I switched to T-Mobile are in the Good section. The reasons are went back to AT& are in the Bad/Ugly sections. I was with T-Mobile for five days and used the phone in the Bay Area (east bay and San Francisco).
The Good
- Excellent customer service. Any time I reached out to them on Twitter via DM, I’d get a reply within 10-15 minutes. They genuinely want to help you 👏
- Price. T-Mobile monthly price per line is usually $10-$15 cheaper than AT&T or Verizon. For example, right now they have a promotion where you pay $40/line. For three lines it is $120 and the nice thing is that all taxes and fees are included. In California, you get close to $5/line in taxes and fees. They also include Standard Netflix subscription (with 2 or more lines), that’s another $10.99 🤑
- I like their Un-Carrier principles 🙌
- It’s also fun to watch their CEO John Legere tweet and make fun of the competition 🤪
- Extra benefits such as texting and data abroad (although at very slow speed), free in-flight texting on Go-go enabled flights (and one hour free internet) ✈️
- If coverage where you live is not good, T-Mobile will send you a free CellSpot or signal extender for free. CellSpot connects to your WiFi and creates a mini cell tower right in your house 📶
The Bad
- Coverage is weak. In places where their coverage map shows strong coverage, you get weak coverage. My service was showing 1-2 bars most of the time 👎
- T-Mobile support will offer you a free CellSpot or signal extender if coverage where you live is not good. I think they know their coverage is not good so they right away offer these units for free 📡
- Call quality (voice) is not as good (at least compared to AT&T).☎︎
- Many other people are also reporting that they have bad service/coverage 📴
- Anytime you tweet about bad coverage (like here), T-Mobile support will respond (that’s good) and tell you they will help. After a few tweets like that you realize there is nothing they can do (they can’t magically add more towers) 🙅♂️
- T-Mobile CEO John Legere making of the competition is fun at the first. When you realize the service is far behind the competition, these tweets are not as fun anymore 😶
The Ugly
- Coverage inside buildings is very bad and in some cases non-existent. I was in the heart of San Francisco with virtually no coverage inside an office building even thought their coverage map said it was in strong coverage area 😡
The Disappointment
I was eager to try T-Mobile due to everything I listed in the Good section. I was genuinely surprised and disappointment at how poor quality their service/coverage is in 2019. I always knew that T-Mobile was behind AT&T and Verizon in coverage but I didn’t realize how far behind, even today. I complete understand that each carrier has some areas where coverage is not good but I was expecting much stronger service/coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area and coverage inside buildings is even worse 😔
I think T-Mobile knows its network is not as good and so has to be different than AT&T/Verizon on something else – and that something is lower prices (and that does attract new customers).
I like T-Mobile and what they stand for. T-Mobile is in the process of merging with Spring. I hope after the merger is finalized, they will significantly improve their coverage and I will give them another try 🙏
Max Katz 
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