MetroPCS 4G Service Issues [telecom]

It's because the engineering groups don't communicate with the customer service groups. Therefore the droids on the CS side can't do much else than record your gripes and potentially files a ticket with the technical side.

they do say they'll be making massive upgrades to both systems. So we'll see what holds for the future.

I strongly suspect when push comes to shove I'll end up on the T-Mobil side which is an interesting to me since I was once an OmniPoint customer, then VoiceStream, and T-Mobil customer before going to MetroPCS.

Curious: but for OmniPoint and MetroPCS, I followed your footsteps exactly.

Late summer of 2000 I returned from Belgium with an unlocked 3-band Motorola TimePort of the P-7389 persuasion, and sought a carrier for it. Only choice in my neck of the woods would have been OmniPoint -- but they had zero interest in selling me a SIM or making a customer of me and my TimePort.

A few days later (once Labor Day had come and gone) it was no longer OmniPoint, it was VoiceStream, and they were more than happy to sell me a SIM and make a customer of me. And customer of VoiceStream, and later T-Mobile, I've been ever since.

What drove you to MetroPCS, if I may be so bold as to ask?

Cheers, -- tlvp

The pricing. I was paying $50 a month for basic service on T-Mobil - for the same money I got unlimited 4G service for voice, text and net through MetroPCS.

I've got two phones with them now - any my bill for the month right now? $90. I'm loving that.

I have a pre-paid T-Mobile that does not work in my basement office near exit 114 of the Garden State Parkway. However, I do get AT&T in the basement so I'm probably going to switch my unlocked T-Mobile over to AT&T. My cost with either one is about $100 per year so price is not an issue but dependable service is.

That's really odd. T-Mobil used to be Voicestream which used to be OmniPoint.

They built out along all the major and secondary highways. So if your office is near the GSP you should have service.

But then you're in a basement - of a building that likely has rebar and screening - an effective Faraday cage!

If you have DSL or cable or similar internet acvailable, talk to T-Mobile about getting a Femtocell (AT&T's name). Its a little box that acts as a cell site.

This a 2 story residential colonial with a basement with cinder block walls so I don't think there is any rebar or screening in the walls. If I'm in the basement and go to "Network Selection", the only thing I see on the "Network List" is AT&T. If I go to the second floor, I can see both AT&T and T-Mobile on the "Network List" with no problem. Even though I am retired AT&T, I still prefer T-Mobile but only if it works in the basement.

Femtocell requires a router and internet connection which I have plus about $200. However, when I lose power, I lose the router and the internet. A cell repeater would also work but has the same problem when I lose power. I was without power during Sandy for 11 days and T-Mobile was worthless. For a period of time, T-Mobile was using the AT&T network and it worked fine. I use about $100 a year on prepaid so the $200 for a femtocell would buy me 2 years on AT&T prepaid.

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:05:20 -0400

It was recently written:

Unfortunately T-Mobile's spectrum only uses 1700 and 1900 Mhz spectrum for their network. The 1.7 and 1.9 Ghz range does not do as well as lower frequencies such as 700 and 850 which AT&T possesses for building penetration as well as the area it covers. AT&T inherited the 850 "cellular" spectrum the ancient days of analog cellular when only two entities were awarded cellular licenses in an area the "A" and "B" carriers. T-Mobile never has had any of the lower spectrum frequencies whereas AT&T has the legacy cellular spectrum and have also acquired some 700 Mhz spectrum.

Aha! Thanks for that explanation. So it looks like T-Mobile will never work in the basement unless I employ other solutions mentioned by several OP's in another section of this thread.