[cchough]

I'm currently on AT&T but with 2 phone-ready kids I'm thinking about switching to the 6GB for $40 per line (4th line free) deal from T-Mobile. I live in Almaden and commute up to the city. Overall, what are your thoughts on T-mobile coverage in the Bay Area? Thanks!

 

[California_Dave]

I actually have better T-Mobile coverage at my house in the Berkeley hills than I did with Verizon. However in most places the coverage is worse with T-Mobile than ATT or Verizon. In general, around town and on major highways, the service is acceptable to me. There are small gaps in coverage here and there, but I have no problem streaming music or video until I get into the hills.

For riding, the coverage can be a bit lacking, even in the Bay Area; I will have service on ridge-tops, but generally not on hillsides or in ravines (East Bay, Tamarancho, Annnadel).

Overall, the tradeoff is worth it to me. YMMV.

 

[MondoRides]

I switched the family from AT&T to T-Mobile about 6 months ago and find the coverage a little worse but still acceptable. I'm in the East Bay and commute to San Mateo so we are traveling different corridors but typically drive all over the Bay Area for weekend riding. I frequently stream music from my phone while driving and rarely lose connectivity with T-Mobile.

 

[Brah]

Oakland here. I'd second MondoRides --- coverage isn't great, but I'm still on it over ATT. Also you miss ATT coverage more when in more remote areas of CA. But the price is less and some of features (no charge for music streaming, etc.) are good.

 

[Cayenne_Pepa]

For kids, go Metro PCS pre-paid. Metro is owned by T-Mobile and shares their 4G LTE network.

 

[Shamis]

I hate T-Mobile. My company was bought out last year by a cheap ass organization who penny pinches everything. We were all forced to change from ATT to T Mobile and carry IPhones. I'm a traveling a Service Engineer and can't tell you how annoying it is to have dropped calls and no data when talking to or at customer sites. Very embarrassing when customers give you **** over using TMobile.

Having spewed that rant above, I do know that T-Mobile has a huge campaign of upgrading towers and bandwidth. I live in the Mountains above Los Gatos near Lexingtion and have no data. T Mobile has been telling me for over a year that they are upgrading towers in my area but have no ETA because of low population percentage up here. Either way, I find myself with no phone or data service quite often even in metro areas around the country.

 

[GuyFromNovato]

we switched to T-Mobile for the integrated wifi calling feature, which is very useful in unique locations that att didn't serve well, like my mom and sister house and a vacation spot with virtually no cell service, but has wifi....Last time I went down 5 I had spotty data/Pandora service. When I go to north lake Tahoe its good most of the way.

 

[shapethings]

I'm inline with many others: live in Oakland, switched from AT&T to T-mo to save a lot more money.

I ride alone almost all the time and miss having better coverage at assorted mountain bike locations, but not enough to switch back to AT&T.

 

[LegionX]

My family was on a grandfathered unlimited plan on Verizon, but when they charged more we moved to TMobile. In San Francisco service was spotty especially riding near China Camp, and Tamarancho. Switched to AT&T and it's much better.

DirecTV customers get unlimited data on AT&T but no tethering. That may be another way to go. It's pretty reasonable and you don't have the overages.