So still haveing issues with coverage

dragon1562
Userlevel 6
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About a month ago  now i had made a post regarding abismal LTE speeds in my area when connecting to a tower in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. I called in yesterday to see the status on the upgrades and work on the towers in my area and was informed that everything is completed and should be working fine. However i am still only able to have down load speed of about .1 if its non peak hours and .01 during if its just about any other time. Upload speeds are usually fine about 3mb up been when I was on the phone with the tech team I wasn't getting any upload at all. I ran numerous tests connecting to 4 different servers to make sure that it wasn't on the sever side.

So my question regarding this issue that has been on going is this what can i do?

 

I have filed numerous trouble tickets and given various physical locations in which you can run tests and yet nothing seems to change or get better. The issues does not just effect data speeds service quality has progressively gotten worse despite having a very strong signal when running the tests and trying to perform other functions like phone calls. I personally use a Nexus 6p but the service issues effect both android and IOS devices alike even with other people that are not on my account.

 

My location is in Koppel, PA zipcode 16136 if you need to check the coverage map and it shows excellent coverage but that is not the expience that you get in these areas. Even calls don't seem to work properly ( what happens is the call connects but the person can't hear you or vice versa.

 

I love T-mobile so i would really like things to get better

 

Sincerely,

Dennis

156 replies

dragon1562
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Hey just wanted to thank you for touching base with me. Know that i am always eager for status updates when feasible and will do my part to make sure things improve not just for the benefit of me as a customer but to make it beneficial to T-mobile as well by providing any extra information that you may need from me.

tmo_marissa
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@dragon1562‌ of course!  Thank you for being so helpful in this forum - I know you've done a lot of research and can see how useful it's proving for other users, which is amazing.  I wish that we were able to award spectrum like community points because you're earning it! 😜  Seriously, though, thanks for the feedback, and if I see anything upcoming that we're able to share I will absolutely think of you.

@jcap334‌, thank you for chiming in!  I'm sorry that the conversations you've had with T-Force haven't felt productive.  Have you spoken with our Tech support team and filed any trouble tickets?  If the speeds you're experiencing are inconsistent with the network performance we expect in those areas, we can file a ticket to request that our engineering teams review the matter.  You'll be given a number to call back and check on, or we'll set a follow-up appointment to call you back and update you - sometimes, if there are planned improvements within the next few months that can be made public, the engineering response will actually include that information, which is sweet!  It also helps because sometimes the specific address you provide when the ticket is filed is in an area where we expect A but because of the physical location of towers/antennae you're really getting B, and they'll explain as much.  Lastly, if there is a problem, this will alert engineering to fix it.  Have we advised you that what you're getting is what's expected? 

- Marissa

J

I appreciate your response, however I have completely given up on any hope of T-Mobile giving me consistent performance. In their defense, I have amazing speeds in many areas, from 16MBits/sec all the way up to 100MBit/sec occasionally.

I usually get slow/unusable speeds in areas that are very populated. For example. Many parts of Philadelphia, PA, Trenton, NJ, last winter at Universal Orlando.

I would have to file hundreds of trouble tickets in all these areas when T-Mobile should be monitoring these towers on their own without input from customers. I have been having slow data speeds during peak hours in various areas for over a year now with no signs of improvement. As much as I respect T-Mobile as a company and what they have done to shake up the industry, if I continue to have these issues into 2017, I'm switching to Verizon.

tmo_marissa
Rank
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Fair enough, @jcap334‌.  You have to do what's in your best interest - if we can't provide the experience that you expect for the money you pay for your service, then it's understandable.  I know our priority right now above and beyond all else is to expand and strengthen our footprint, so hopefully it won't come to that.  You're absolutely right - it's not a reasonable ask to have you file tickets for every area you've been dissatisfied with speeds!  If there are issues close to home, though - at your home address or work address - we would love to hear from you about them so that we can investigate.  It's your choice because it's your time, but we may be able to provide some insight with engineering's response to a ticket that a layperson simply can't give you.  We might also be able to fit you with a coverage solution, like a CellSpot or booster, that could improve your experience at home, if that's an issue?  It sounds like you've already reached out a bunch, though, so hopefully that's an offer that we've already made/you're already taking advantage of.

- Marissa

J

I already have a 4G LTE Cellspot at my home purely for kicks. I don't need it. I have a decent signal in my apartment. But if I'm outside around my apartment, that doesn't do me any good. I just took a speedtest today outside my apartment on Century Ln, Bensalem, PA 19020. Check out these awesome numbers which I've been getting for over a year now.

dragon1562
Userlevel 6
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Dang dude looking at your results it looks like they have done almost as much as they can. They have band 12 and band 4 in your area. Also your speeds are something i would kill for compared to what i get with 5 bars which is litterly .01 down.

J

It's pathetic, isn't it? Band 4 20x20 coupled with Band 12 5x5 should not be this slow. On an uncongested tower I can pull 80 - 100MBit/sec.

My T-Mobile LTE Cellspot broadcasts Band 4 10x10 and can peak at around 64MBit/sec. Of course that is just me on my own personal tower lol. Doing some math, 25x25 should peak at around 150MBit/sec give or take!

A

AFAIK, 25x25 LTE is not defined.

dragon1562
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‌well in the mean time as I wait for coverage to improve I just use my other AT&T phone for any of my data needs and try my best to avoid texting on my t-mobile device and instead opt to use apps like facebook messenger since it is ironically much more reliable

J

drnewcomb2, 25x25 LTE I meant was 20x20 Band 4 + Band 12 5x5.

dragon, I know what you mean! Texting on T-Mobile especially between other carriers is completely unreliable. Sometimes there are minutes to many hours of a delay to sending/receiving! Everybody I frequently talk to I hound them to not text and use Messenger instead lol!

Back on the subject of coverage and speed. I have made my decision to switch back to Verizon mostly based on the fact that the new Google Pixel phone is being offered by them. I am sick of the inconsistent network performance, going inside of a building and having a chance of having little to no signal, and when traveling far and wide around the country, dealing with areas with roaming on AT&T and no signal at all.

dragon1562
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‌to be fair I don't fault them for SMS not being as reliable as other options due to all the variables  that effect the sevice I just can't understand how I have a better experience on 2g some when. It comes to texting needs lol. Honestly I would recommend staying away from Verzion and waiting a bit longer get the pixel unlocked and see if things get better where you live since it has support for some of the more recent tech being deployed . Also to be frank your speeds although not stellar are usable for most things . If you must switch go to att you get much more data then Verizon offers.

J

I travel a lot so I need the most consistent coverage I can get. I was recenty at Cherry Springs State Park, PA and the ONLY carrier that has service there is Verizon. All the rest are dead, no signal.

dragon1562
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‌thats pretty interesting from my personal experience AT&T has had excellent coverage throughout most of the US that I have been to. Don't think that I doubt your statement I just find it interesting that Verizon would have a monopoly on that area for cell coverage.

tidbits
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Not all that interesting. Back when GTE(Verizon's old name) was around they made all sorts of shady deals that even stuck down to today. Even here in Hawaii there are some places where Verizon is long because they have towers where no tower is able to be built. So they w

A 




jcap334 wrote:



.......I have made my decision to switch back to Verizon mostly based on the fact that the new Google Pixel phone is being offered by them. .........

I understand that you can also buy the Pixel unlocked, direct from Google, for the same price. It's not exclusive to Verizon; they're just the only carrier offering it. Maybe Google refused to lock it and that was too much for the other carriers.

A 








tidbits wrote:......Back when GTE(Verizon's old name) .......

Bell Atlantic, AirTouch, PrimeCo, GTE, Alltel, etc.

theartiszan
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It's an exclusive deal between Verizon and Google that they are the only carrier to offer it. Not that it wouldn't be locked. The Verizon one will have locked bootloader too.

dragon1562
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The Google Pixel works on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, not just Verizon - CNET‌

The Piexel C should work with any carrier as per this article and the spec sheet listed on googles website.

J

Greetings from Rutland, VT roaming on AT&T. I'm so over this. I guess the roaming agreement is throttling down to 1G speeds which don't work for ANYTHING!

dragon1562
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Just as a update speeds are seriously terrible still when connecting to the Ellwood tower. However i will say speeds have improved when i went into the city of Pittsburgh today. There is terrible coverage on the highway itself which is disappointing seeing as its a major turnpike plus you can litterly look at all the towers.

I'm just commenting as a update to make sure this forum is active. Just to emphasis how terrible the service is for Koppel/Ellwood area the download speeds where quite litterly 0 just straight up 0 while upload was 3mb this test was ran at 6 am so the network should not have been to congested. This is a very serious issue. I don't like having usable service only half the time.

Hope things can get better soon i would seriously be quite happy and satisfied if speeds would at least be around 5mb down which is not so much to ask for in my opinion and sorry if this was unnecessary just want to make sure this thread does not get marked assumed resolved or anything.

J

Trust me and believe me, it will never be resolved. It has been well over a year since my speed issues have been occurring with T-Mobile. I've been submitting endless complaints which have been met with the same canned responses. Unfulfilled promises of improvements "soon".

I am so sick of loading up Google Maps during my travels having a full signal and the app saying "limited results slow connection". Once I get my hands on the new Google Pixel, it's Verizon for me. I'm willing to pay a little more for something that actually works when I need it.

dragon1562
Userlevel 6
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‌I don't man I have watched the coverage in my area go from 2g to LTE and have seen the inpro countless times. However they have ignored my area tie all started happening ironically after a bad store that damaged the tower but they fixed it and said that it's working properly which means it just comes down to congestion because we get 4-5 bars of service. Anywho the point is things do get better consistently it's just seems like you got to live closer to the city then I do for it to be reasonably fast . I'll wait because I like Tmobile for various reasons but i understand your feelings to trust me

dragon1562
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holy cow i should have really reread what i posted auto correct messed up a lot of what i said anywho. Its been a while since anyone else has commented on here. Also i was wondering J cap has service never improved around you at all or is it just certain places where it stays bad.

K

Do you have the new phones with LTE Band 12?

dragon1562
Userlevel 6
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Yes i have tested the network in my area with devices such as the nexus 6p (my current phone) the iPhone 7 plus, galaxy s7 etc. However this should not matter to much since the tower that has the issues with the abysmal speeds is using band 2 and has excellent signal strength to begin with. If you need any other info don't be afraid to ask me and i appreciate you taking the time to try and help.

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