I warned about ending my relationship with T-Mobile a couple weeks ago, but now have followed through. Our differences were irreconcilable.
Over the last month, I have traveled to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Spain. While T-Mobile promises unlimited, complimentary 2G/EDGE data in each of these countries, my actual experience was woeful. In Germany, Italy, and Spain my data simply did not work. I even tried to enable the $5/day “high speed” plan and it would not activate. When I called T-Mobile, the wait time to speak to an agent was over one hour. When I finally got through, the agent was also unable to activate it.
I can live with EDGE speeds: that is sufficient to stay on top of email and messaging. But I cannot accept nothing at all. It creates a roadblock to business and unneeded stress.
Even more concerning, however, is an increased number of dropped calls I have experienced lately in LA…it brought me back 10 years. Data speeds in Los Angeles have also been extremely slow lately for me on my iPhone X.
The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was last Friday evening. I just returned from an 11hr flight on Norwegian from London without wi-fi and faced about an hour of rush hour traffic to get home. My plan was to schedule my blog posts for the following morning during the Uber trip, so I could just have dinner with my family and go to bed upon arrival at home.
But the tethering did not work. It simply did not work. And when I called T-Mobile customer service I was again met with an extended hold time. Thankfully, the Uber driver let me use his hotspot and I got my work done. But that was it for T-Mobile.
The Switch to Verizon
So yesterday I headed over to the Verizon store and made the switch. Yes, it will cost me a bit more per month, but I don’t care. Already I see a tremendous improvement in data speeds. I’m returning to Europe next week and I’m fully prepared to drop $10/day for 500MB of high speed coverage. The productivity gain over T-Mobile will be worth so much more.
T-Mobile, we had a nice run. My wife still has T-Mobile so you’re not totally out of the family yet. But as the years went by, we just grew apart. So long amigo.
> Read More: New Apple iPhone eSim Technology Perfect For Travelers
I’ve been using Verizon forever. Service is fine. I could’ve switched to Sprint and got a year for my wife and I for free buy reliability is far more important than the cost savings. The $10 a day does add up for traveling but I just spent $115000 for a stupid KAWS sculpture for my office so I think I will be ok.
T-Mobile free data roaming has worked great for me most everywhere around the world, including Tasmania, but in Dubai free data roaming was unexpectedly better on Sprint.
I have no complaints about T-mobile when I travel overseas. I just returned a trip from Mexico, Honduras and Bahamas. I experienced slow speed on 2G but it was free!
Yeah I don’t have problems with T-Mobile anywhere. And 3 lines unlimited everything including tethering for $100 flat per month is good with me
We’ve had T-Mobile for over ten years. We had Cinglair back may years ago. Crazy dropped calls . Well, just this month…I got a different phone cause I thought the problem was with my phone. I’ve called T-Mobile and they keep resetting location. It worked for a day, then out again. Ridiculous number of dropped calls, connection problems, then they wanted to replace my phone. Another used one with different issues. I deal with the public, and it’s of T-Mobile customers are having same issues. Yeah. So our phones are unlocked . My friend has no trouble with Verizon. I’m the only one with problems. Now probably dump t-mobile soon.
Love T-Mobile myself. Traveled in Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and Mexico, worked for me!! Love $ savings and gifts each week.
(I didn’t see where to initiate my own comment, I’m just adding here.)
I just signed up for T-Mobile today. BA!! Just the SIM card…I don’t travel much, but surely loVe to try and switch my phone choice, and the world operates on GSM way more than CDMA. Verizon the better carrier in certain aspects, but it is not the most “free”…so I went with T-Mobile.
If only Project Fi would become an all phone carrier *le sigh*
I have a personal T-Mobile phone and a Verizon business phone. I have international service on both and travel extensively. T-mobile switches without issues and have fewer roaming instances than Verizon. Also the overage cost on Verizon is outrageous. Glad my company pays for it. In the US, I have better remote area coverage with Verizon than T-Mobile. In large metros, no difference. Good luck on your new union!
I have been with T-Mobile for 14 years. Never ever I have had a single problem with them. I have roamed France, Austria, Armenia and Russia. Free data worked great for me.
I have traveled to Spain, Malaysia, HK, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Singapore etc and always get T-mobile service. In some places, a little slow but still works. I love T-mobile for international travel.
We’re TMobile customers. Been so for thirteen years. Recently our service has been horrible whenever we travel to Northern Minnesota, where our cabin is located. We used to get excellent service there. Not anymore. Whatever TMobile did in that area, they sure messed up. Now we get absolutely no service there. We complained several times. But no improvement. Crazy thing is, my wife recently went to Central America and she had great TMobile service from there . ….as if she was just across town. It looks like TMobile is about to lose us to Verizon soon if they cant get their poop in a group real soon.
I am not sure where in northern mn your cabin is. But, I grewup in International Falls and have lived in Bemidji for the last 20 years. The issues are not exclusive to T-Mobile. There are holes in all four carriers here that are due to issues out of their control. Mostly sovereign reservations, and wildlife reserves. If you’re cabin is near the bwca only att ans sprint have coverage there and between bemidji and big falls has no service from any carrier
FYI I have T-Mobile and I recently went to visit my sister at her cabin in northern Minnesota. No cell service for my phone but she uses Verizon and she also had no cell phone service. Checked with other people around the lake who used AT&T and no one had cell phone service! If your cabin was located a little bit closer to one of the local towns you might get service.
I have T-Mobile and it started out good a couple of years ago, now it totally sucks! I live in Orlando, Fl and I only get 1 bar signals at my house, I’m not in the Boondocks so why? I travel to St.Thomas, Virgin Islands where T-Mobile does not work at all
Poor signals, dropped calls, horrible customer service and poorly trained tech support agents…..but you can get a good deal on service plans I’ve had it. Time to switch to a real phone company
May be that you switched your phone. Perhaps upgraded to a different model. Through the years I have discovered that may make the difference. I have no issues with my Samsung Note 8
I am also a MN user. Finally, after way too many dropped calls and poor access in both MN and CA, I switched to ATT. It will be interesting to see if anything improves in terms of service, Making the switch wasn’t an easy process so the start isn’t good. I am cautiously optimistic about his this will play out. Going to China later this month so that will be a decent test.
I wonder if this guy ever proofreads his stuff before posting? The sheer amount of grammatical errors is amazing! The grammar nullifies any point he’s making, because his ignorance begs the question; Does he know how to work his phone?
Like what?
As you misuse ‘begs the question.’
Something about Glass houses and stones.
,??
Speaking of grammatical errors, you should say the NUMBER of errors, not the AMOUNT!!!
Speaking of errors, you should say number of errors, not amount!!
Own T-Mobile over 12 years, it is free around world. In home data speed always over 100mbps.
Also, own Verizon (from work), it is just piece shit, speed can not reach 1/20 of my T-Mobile, it cannot travel anywhere even our neighbors Canada or Mexico
Reading this while on vacation in Italy on my T-MOBILE phone and plan. Worked as advertised in Rome, Florence, Pavia, and Bellagio. Occasional delays with SMS but overall a good experience. AND IT’S FREE.
Ur inept
I’m in Germany now and have had absolutely no problems with calls, data, tethering, hotspot, or texts. Google Project Pi is the best.
I have been with T Mobile for 15 years. I have 6 line family plans. I am the biggest promoter for Tmobile. I traveled a lot. I have been to all over Europe. Plus Eastern European countries. Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro. Middle east, Dubai, Abudhabi, Qatar. South Asia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka. All over Caribbean. Colombia, Mexico. Some of places I go are very rural. The never had a major issue. Ofcourse there are spots that no one would have any signal what’s so ever. Only reason I am keeping Tmobile because of the reliability of the international service and it’s free. Some times I have more issues in the States side.
I had to laugh at your article, your experience, and at the hollow fear I have now with the pending merger. We are Sprint customers and have been for years. Ee’re able to do all the things you talk about being unable to do, when we travel overseas. Sprint high-speed unlimited overseas data: $25/week. Always works. Also, when I call Sprint the wait times aren’t a problem. Now I’m concerned that this merger will screw up our nice Sprint experience.
I’ve had all three. Sprint sucks. Verizon service sucks even worse, costs nearly double (not just “a bit more,”) but has excellent coverage. T-Mobile has excellent service most of the time, better coverage than Sprint all of the time and costs half of what Verizon does. Just wait until 5g… T-Mobile owns most of the bandwidth. Verizon is only planning to have 5g in hotspots. T-Mobile will have it everywhere. Generally paid advertisements or sponsored endorsements are required to have that posted… This has the stink of a sponsored endorsement because at least half was blatant lies.
Fear Not. Tmobile customer service is great. You can call and usually go right through. Sometimes there is a 6 minute hold time. I often just use FB messenger and I get everything done. 5 lines for $110 unlimited is hard to beat also. Tje service on Verizon is only marginally better as far as coverage is concerned. I have Verizon for work my family isnon tmobile. We see little difference, even out in the sticks. It ised to be that tmobile only worked in cities, but thats a thing of the past. Tmobile had a service charge of $10 for something my wife turned on. I called about my bill, he told me About it. I said I guess my wofe turned it one, please turn it off so we dont get charged. He said you have been a customer for a lomg time. I’m going to refund all that you have paid for the service. Bam’ $80 refunded to my account without me even asking for it! In summary; you will love the merger.
I had to laugh at your article, your experience, and at the hollow fear I have now with the pending merger. We are Sprint customers and have been for years. We’re able to do all the things you talk about being unable to do, when we travel overseas. Sprint high-speed unlimited overseas data: $25/week. Always works. Also, when I call Sprint the wait times aren’t a problem. Now I’m concerned that this merger will screw up our nice Sprint experience.
Just sounds like you were too dumb to turn on your global roaming…lol you see this all the time…”it didn’t work” well did you turn on roaming? “No, it says I would be charged…”did TMobile say that or your phone? “The phone” well there you go…we told you you could roam
Who are these people saying T-Mobile overseas was fine? Paid schills? I was in Paris in July and absolutely could not get my data to work reliably. it was extremely frustrating especially when you cannot pull up a boarding pass or have to make split Second decisions on buses trains and other things. I also called T-Mobile support and they basically said it is what it is. Do not rely on T-Mobile when you travel! Mark my word you will be sorry. I am using a Google pixel.
Google Fi is the way to go. I switched over from Verizon two years ago and haven’t looked back…both in terms of domestic and int’l coverage.
I second Project Fi. I’ve had it for 3 years come October – I was a pilot tester via invite way back in the day – and haven’t looked back. And I’m an iPhone user, too. It’s been amazing. Though Matthew might still have issues as Project Fi runs on T-Mobile if you’re in the US and using an iPhone. So his domestic carrier issues may not be totally fixed. But for 90% of domestic US use and 100% of international use, it’s been a Godsend. I’ve probably saved close to $2000 over the years based on how much international travel I use and how much data I use compared to what I’d be baying at the big 3 on “normal” plans.
Totally Agree!! We travel back and forth to Munich several time a year and the service has been amazing. Real LTE speeds. Also, I was able to register my sim on a friends phone and use my iPhone easily.
Love project Fi myself. Only downfall is phone options. They don’t offer Samsung phones and not that I use them, then don’t offer iiPhone. Granted I have been using my Note 9 on their Network in multiple countries with almost no hiccups. Only downfall is I can not receive MMS. Honestly doesn’t bother me. What’s app me instead if the photo is that improtant.
Second that. Switching from T-Mobile to Verizon is like switching from McDonald’s to Burger King. Same sh*t, different carrier. Either get a skyroam or switch at least one device to Fi.
I think I’ve found the “best of all worlds” solution. The Pixel 2 / 2 XL (and presumably, the forthcoming 3 / 3 XL), have both an eSIM for Project Fi and a physical SIM slot, into which I’ve inserted a Verizon SIM chip and subscribed to V’s $30 prepaid plan. So it’s like having access to 3 of the 4 major U.S. mobile carriers (V, TMo, Sprint) for $60 per month. This is useful in areas of poor TMo coverage (SF Metro, Sierra foothills), where the V signal is strong. The Project Fi eSIM provides me with the benefits of TMo’s superb, low-cost, GSM international roaming voice, SMS, and data coverage, in my case, when I’m traveling anywhere in Brazil.
I have FI as well, and I always seem to have decent service no matter where in the north woods of Wisconsin I roam. Shout out to the “signal info” app for helping me force switch carriers on the rare odd connection issues.
Plus with FI you get the latest and greatest Android updates and monthly security updates too.
I think TMobile is great and I experienced 3G speeds in the country where you didn’t have a connection. I think the problem was with your phone
It’s not just me. My business partner also switched.
Man the only thing u have to do while you are abroad is turn on data roaming if not it wont work and u adding that faster data for 5 would have not made a difference if data roaming was off, i hope everything goes good with Verizon
I think it was your phone.
You will find that Verizon now switches you to gsm in Europe which is the same as TMobile. Take advantage of WiFi. My friends have iPhone on Verizon and hate to leave our shores.
Hate to say it but I also have T-Mobile and had good service not only in most the countries you mentioned but also in several other countries in Europe, south America and even in a few Asian countries… I agree it might be your iPhone, I have an Android and the research I’ve done shows that the newer Android phones antanas are better then iPhones in the sense that they can access more LTE band’s… Hope you have a better experience next time
I have no problem with T-Mobile in Europe or Asia. Technically I could even be connected when I was in North Korea (the other side of JSA). The only problem is Alaska where coverage is really terrible.
Hey Matt i don’t blame you, T-mobile is a network for kids in high school but not for busy travelers, i was att customer, never had problems with them but they turn little expensive and I decided to move to T-mobile but believe me iam not satisfied with the service, i hate call my wife from my driveway and the call just go through voicemail because slack of coverage signal.
Double check you’re not blocked on her phone. I did that once.
Never had any problem in EU or UK. T-mobile works fine.
I have traveled throughout Europe. I never used providers phone only unlocked midranges such as Motorola G4, Microsoft Lumia 650, now I have Sony xz1 (my first flagship ever), and never, ever had a single glitch with T-Mobile. Here in the North East part of country… No problem… I know least 10 other people with T-Mobile and none has any problems… Honestly, you sound like that guy who switched from Verizon to Sprint ( can you hear me now- guy)…
I think it is your phone; if not, probably the plan you were on. You did not specify which T-Mobile plan. I am on T-Mobile One Plus and everywhere is fine from my experience.
Was also on T-Mobile One Plus.
I have noticed awesome coverage with new 600 MHz frequencies that T-Mobile recently turned on everywhere, I noticed that you have an iPhone x which does not have the atenna , however the new iPhones do, I have Galaxy note 9 and have crazy good coverage and I travel quite a bit
Did you sign up for the veteran discount, by chance? I did, and my international roaming has been messed up since. When it works, I get slower speeds despite paying the premium for the international plus plan.
I switched to T-Mobile 2 years ago and it’s been great. I just came from a trip to Portugal and used WhatsApp. I had better connections using data than WiFi at times. There are many factors that affect coverage,including the phone used and it’s settings. I hate to tell you but going to Verizon may not be your answer.
It’s possibly just your luck or where you were. A friend of mine was just in Italy and he was using his phone like crazy. I was in Germany (Dresden and Berlin) a few years ago and TMobile worked fantastically. I’ve also used it in Thailand, Cambodia, Dubai, Mexico, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway with no issues.
I also live in LA and phone has only dropped calls in dead zones I know about. Verizon has better coverage for sure tho so if you’re in a T-Mobile dead some you should switch but I find it weird to complain about places where personally I had fantastic luck with. Verizon is a no go for me unless it’s absolutely my only choice after the shady shit they pulled on me. They created an account for someone under my name without consulting me or notifying me (after the Equifax breach) and made me go thru hell to get it fixed. That including sending me to collections for their mess up.
Michael, you must have a lousy phone, that’s why. I didn’t have any issues while a month in Europe with my Samsung Note 8 and it worked GREAT with TMobile putting you on the best European networks. If you have an outdated phone, yes you will have issues. TMo is the ONLY carrier that let you access FREE internet abroad. Good luck with Verizon. They’re no good and a rip off
I’m guessing that one of two scenarios applies: you have an I Phone that’s not supported in Europe (happened to my brother), or, you have an unlocked phone, or a phone not automatically updated to add the Telekom Internet APN with the required password. I had to manually add the APN with the password to my Nexus 6P. Haven’t had a problem since.
Lots of First-World problem talk on here.
No. One. Cares.
The end.
Just curious of the type of phone you have, also if you restart your phone everyday.
Agreed. The common denominator to anyone I know complaining about speed is iPhone.
What part of LA are you in? In the Valley my T-Mobile speeds have never been faster, its regularly over 40Mbps and maxes out my phone at 150Mbps at home.
Service at LAX is non existent though.
Pasadena area. I’ve literally averaged one dropped call a day lately. It has been aggravating.
I’ve had the same problem with calls, although I hardly make them. Sometimes I’ll miss a call without it ringing and other times I’ll try to call someone and the phone will just drop back to dialer after 20 seconds as it wouldn’t even connect.
Would really like to see a report with VZ the next time you travel, I’m curious about their international roaming. Having service in LAX will probably help a lot too.
Just in case you need to go back:
https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/how-to-join-us
Seriously, same. I will watch the call cycle through 4G, LTE, and H+ before finally dropping the call. And this is with a T-Mob provided signal booster!
As you are new to Verizon, something I learned..
The travelpass feature has to be formally added to your account as an optional feature (enabled, so to speak).
Make sure customer service (via phone or online chat?) adds it before you go. Once it is on the account as an optional feature it seems to stay on indefinitely to be used on the fly as you travel. This was my experience as a VZW customer..
I’ve had a great experience using TMos intl data. I just got back from a trip to Germany, Spain, and the UK earlier this month and my phone worked just fine in all countries. Was the data 4G speeds? No. Was it all I needed to use Google maps, browse social media, and post pictures? Yup. Not sure why you had issues unless you were trying to stream Netflix or something.
You were posting pictures? T-Mobile data, over the years, has never allowed that for me on my multiple iPhones.
I am using a Samsung Note 8. Have used previous Samsung phones overseas as well on Tmo with no issues.
It’s probably your phones with the issues of posting your pictures. When I really want to post photos with my iPhone, the screen turns all grey when scrolling through them, like in the 3D keyboard cursor feature. It can’t seem to handle the stress if th oing through my thousands of photos. Yes I have over 35,000 photos on my iPhone 6 s Plus, but we both know they are actually in iCloud. In order to send multiple photos, I have to take a screenshot of my original photo, then post the copied photo screenshot even for social media or with private messaging. I have had this particular iPhone less than a year, it replaced the one before that continually froze up and failed when I depended on bn it. iPhones are expensive extravagant luxuries in our western world. With my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, it is trouble free with only minor adjustments in the settings.
I have an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy Note because they compliment each other. One does somethings better than the other one.
Uhh, iCloud doesn’t relieve your phone memory unless you delete them off your phone, it’s not like Google photos.
The issue is always with iPhones international when it comes to T-Mobile. My family is split half between iPhones and androids. At the same time, same country. No problems with the androids. I phones. Non existent service and data.
I think it is iPhones… Because Apple doesn’t want to adapt to other Frequencies it costs money. And they use one size fits all to maximize profits. I use oneplus with dual Sims. I can use both local lte and T-Mobile and it rocks. iPhone is not the best phone for global roaming. I heard the new iPhones have dual Sims… But that might not solve the problems with limited frequency compatibility. Let’s face it. Qualcomm is the King in cellphone frequency.
India, Singapore, Bahrain, Korea 4 countries, no issues with T-Mobile. Posted pics, browsed email, Facebook, etc. Oogle pixel 2 XL.
Maybe your problem isn’t T-Mobile. Maybe it’s the fact you’re an iPhone fan boy. There is a great alternative to the iPhone. Maybe you have heard of it. It’s called Android. You should crawl out from the iPhone rock you’ve been living under and give it a try.
TMobile worked great for me. Must be your iPhone. I’ve had the Nexus 6, Samsung Galaxy S5 and now the pixel on T-Mobile and roaming works as well as 2G speeds let it. Hell I was even Facebook video chatting. Grainy and pixelated, but it still worked enough for me to see my wife and son.
I switched from Sprint to Verizon several years ago, and love the service in the rural US. I was awes several years ago in desolate central Nevada in a town of 250 people with the nearest similar-sized town forty miles away, I not only had phone service, but actually had 2x speed data service. The place looked like I was on the movie Tremors, but I actually could (slowly) surf the internet!
How much did Verizon pay you to write this fiction?
My thoughts exactly! I work for the airlines, have used tmobile in Canada, Portugal, Gibraltar, Spain, France, Monoco, Ireland, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Prague, Italy, Malta, Finland and Estonia. In all places I was able to use google maps for driving navigation and post to social media. Never had an issue texting or anything. Was it blazing speeds? No, but it sufficed.
The iPhone’s is NOT a 4g device with the 600mhz spectrum and thats why ypur voice and especially data were terrible
I don’t understand why this is news. Cellular phones and the service providers are a business, not a family that you are ‘stuck’ with. If tmobile isn’t working and you think that Verizon will, then great, switch. I hope that the switch works for you and whatever your needs are. I just understand why everyone needs to make a huge deal about switching phone carriers all of the time.
It’s because of your iPhone. They suck. I had the same experience as the person above. Out of the country. I have TMobile and Samsung. My wife has iPhone. My phone worked. Hers did not. I swear iphones are so overrated.
I agree 100%. I had iPhone 8 until a month ago. Calls dropped sporadically, data tremendously slow while in Germany and Switzerland. Then I switched to a BlackBerry KeyOne. Went to the same client in Germany, different phone, same SIM card. Boom it was fantastic.
This seems like an Verizon ad, we travel alot and recently returned from our family Europe (Germany, Italy, Greece) trip and Tmobile was amazing and FREE.
I agree
Last month in France and now in Italy no problem at all.
Visited Ireland, UK, France, Turkey, Pakistan during last 3 years. T-Mobile worked just fine on roaming at all places. Free 2G data was good enough for my basic use like using Google Maps, messaging, VoIP calls, even sent and received photos on 2G. And yes I used Android phone.
If you encountered problems at not just one place but all countries, I think the issue is with your’s and your business partner’s phone setup.
I usually buy local SIM cards but travel with some business associates who use international roaming on iPhones. I am their unofficial IT guy. I have found that when they cannot get good or any international data, it is often possible to choose a different roaming provider manually. Change settings/carrier from auto to manual, iPhone will search for available networks, then choose from a list.
I am not defending T-Mobile, just mentioning a possible work-around.
T-Mobile is utter trash. I’m not sure how people use it. I was traveling with a friend in the Balkans last month. It would take 20+ minutes for iMessage photos to download on her T-Mobile phone. The same photos would download instantly on my ATT phone, even while I was streaming Pandora.
Tmobile real name is tsuck. They never work as they say and there service is as bad as sprint. And when they combine they will further fall flat. I had horrible time with them
T-Mobile is great when you’re young and want to save money and be cool. But when you actually need to get stuff done, Verizon and AT&T are better. Sure, you’re going to pay more; that’s a fact. But as we learn, it’s worth it to have the reliability and the speed.
I use AT&T’s $10/day plan basically everywhere. If it’s not available, I buy a SIM. With the new iPhone, the dual SIM makes that even easier. It’s a no-brainer for anybody on more than a college budget.
Bull. I’m an old and busy attorney. My worst experience ever has been with at&t, T-Mobile is a big improvement. I’m getting better service with Blackberry keyone internationally than with my iPhone though.
I used my phone while traveling to Japan and I was able to use Reddit, maps, post photos, and make Google voice calls all on roaming 2g. It was brutal compared to regular speeds, but it certainly worked for me. Sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you. Good luck with Verizon.
Did you get ur sim switched? Was roaming on? Or were you just like it doesn’t work! I’m switching! There are multiple work arounds to get things fix. I have worked for some of these mobil retailers and there are almost always a work around
Yes, SIM was switched.
I’ve traveled to Germany, Italy and Malaysia and had no problems whatsoever. I suspect your device is at play, whether it be the settings, defective issue, etc.
Multiple devices? This has plagued my Google Pixel 2 as well as well as my iPhone 6,7, and 8.
I’ve had major issues on my Pixel XL 2. We left Verizon because of the price and they were always screwing up our bill. T-Mobile came out with the fancy smancy military plan. It’s a great price with great add-ons, but the service sucks. Dropped calls all day, missed calls without a ring, no signal in big cities, yet BFE KS is full bars? It makes no sense. They always say towers are under maintenance. And we don’t travel abroad.
So multiple phone’s not working, the common denominator is you. Stop blaming everything else and realize it’s user error.
This reads like a verizon ad, the author probably signed up for a contract as well. Go prepaid and you go with whoever works for how long it does. Who cares who the brand is.
Not a Verizon ad. If Verizon doesn’t provide a vastly improved experience, I’ll dump them quickly.
Love T-Mobile myself. Traveled in Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, and Mexico, worked for me!! Love $ savings and gifts each week.
Just use the WhatsApp messenger. No charge for texting, calls or even video calls on T-Mobile anywhere in Europe. Works awesome.
I’m here in slc and up till recently I loved T-Mobile but I have also noticed their network has had issues lately like a few more dropped calls their data is up and down one second I’ll get good speeds then I’ll average around 1 mbps but what really pushed me away is even with a good credit rating if I wanted to get the new xs max I’d have to fork over almost 450 upfront so to me it was a lot of things that finally pushed me away!!
Don’t travel internationally with an iPhone. Doesn’t matter what carrier you have,.
I travel to those countries weekly with T-Mobile and have exceptional service. Something seems strange.
For years I have used t mobile roaming everywhere with little to no problem. Except with an iPhone. No more iPhones. LG works great for me anywhere. Granted, I’m.not really carried away with the new t mobile version of customer service. I believe the last version was better.
And at no point did you think that it could have been the iPhone’s fault. People with the iPhone X have been complaining about poor WiFi and LTE reception. It only got blown out of proportion with the new XS, or whatever they calling it now. My friend has an iPhone X and she only got 2 bars on the wifi and was standing 3 feet from the router. All my other devices work just fine. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve had T-MOBILE for over 5 years when I switched from At&T. Are they perfect, no, but don’t always think it is 100% the carriers fault when reception is bad.
Working great on Verizon. I don’t think it was the phone.
We haven’t experienced those problems with T-mobile on our international trips (Spain, plus several countries in Central and South America). We’ve used both iPhones and Samsung phones. It’s not fast, but definitely usable for maps, email downloads, ordering a ride, etc.
I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since 2002.
I brought my family into T-Mobile from a variety of service providers.
Because I’m grandfathered we have totally unlimited data unlimited calls unlimited text messages and for six lines we pay a total of about $110.
That’s because we’ve taken advantage of all the deals that were offered with T-Mobile is very generous about and you must catch during the window that the offer is made for extra lines for free monthly service.
I travel to Europe this summer and then counted slow data speeds until I purchased the $5 a day plan which I think now is $10 a day.
I found great success with calls using Whatsapp.
And did all of my emailing from a place where I knew I had better speed then coming through the cellular portion of the phone.
When I used Wi-Fi access my cellular speeds were not that bad considering I was on an island in the Mediterranean.
To sum up it’s going to be hard to convince me that any other service provider is as good as T-Mobile.
Occasionally there are delays and what I usually do is I leave my number and they call back in the appointed time.
I don’t make unrealistic deadlines and expect even in 2018 the digital world to be perfect instantaneous and non-problematic.
I’ve learned over the years to accept the flaws of many of the different systems but by far T-Mobile has the overall best service for the best price and the best customer service when I’m polite and kind on the phone.
Sounds like you have a lot of time on your hands. It is a phone…it is not a life or death situation. Doing work in you Uber? Get over yourself, your blogs are not that popular anyway.
I don’t have service with T-Mobile half the time, big mistake switching
I always use WhatsApp. Free phone calls and video calls and text on T-Mobile. No other way to go!
Just came back from Bali, making layover stops in Germany, Singapore, and Australia. Had service everywhere, including flawless service in Bali, Indonesia over the 5 days we were there. Galaxy Note 9 on Tmobile here. Your problems with international roaming are your problems alone. Perhaps, or rather likely, it’s your device, iPhones are overrated.
That’s doesn’t mean that Tmobile is perfect. In NYC during times of peak congestion, it does slow down. In a few spots I have had issues making calls despite having what appeared to be strong signal. But it’s nothing that gets in the way on a typical day. Overall, I think Tmobile is great for the money. I’m sure Verizon is better, but I’m happy.
Great article Matthew I find I’m still with T-Mobile but just barely I understand your frustrations I don’t even go out of the country .I live in Florida. And like a bad marriage I keep hoping it’ll get better but I honestly do not know how much more I can take
It was your device, as everyone else has already said.
Kind of not cool that A. You didn’t consider the possibility that it was device related and B. You talked shit about T-Mobile and blogged about it when they did no wrong. Maybe you should retract your article.
Not my device. How do you explain same problem on Pixel 2?
It’s a non-tmo device…
Nowhere in your article did you mention any problems with the pixel 2. And to put it simply, Tmobile does not control international cellular companies. They are either contracted with them to provide service or are covering the cost. On the Note 9 I have to go into settings and physically search for network providers when I land in a foreign country. Once I have a list, I have the phone automatically choose one, and shortly thereafter I get a text from. Tmobile welcoming me to the country and outlining the roaming terms. Again, if your phone is not connecting to a foreign carrier, the problem is your phone. Tmobile has nothing to do with it. Logically, this makes sense. You’re not connecting to Tmobile, you’re connecting to a carrier that has an agreement with Tmobile. Sorry, but the problem is yours and yours alone.
That being said, I have had issues with my old galaxy s7 in foreign countries. It would connect and work, but eventually drop the connection, although it still appeared to be connected. I would reselect the proper carrier and it would work again. But again, this points to a device problem, not a Tmobile problem.
Listen not for nothing but he pays tmobile for service period. Whatever arrangements tmobile has with foreign carriers is not his concern, as again he’s not sending those carriers monthly payments. So I would beg to differ and say its definitely tmobiles problem its cost them revenue. Definitely something they should care about enough to take a look into and make sure these carriers aren’t throttling foreign coverage or something else shady they themselves would pull.
I had problems in Asia once with a non tmo device I was using on tmo and it took them all of 2mins to sort it out. Updated the APN for roaming to use IPV6 and I was off and running.
You’ll be back… They always come back.
FYI- try messaging a rep. When I was in Dubai I had great signal, then we hopped a plane and went to Egypt and had no service. I couldn’t even call customer care. I messaged a rep and they fixed it!
Your service issues may have been in part to your device. The iPhone X had a huge problem on the network.
Why were your hold times so long? T-Mobile has a dedicated team just for your area of the country. You talk to the same group of about 30 agents everytime you call. When I call, I’m almost immediately connected to an agent each time. I’m not discounting your experience, I’m simply curious.
He’s full of crap Doug, plain and simple.
Hi,
I just came from Spain and visited Barcelona, Granada, Toledo and Madrid and T-Mobile service was perfect . I used my iPhone X.
The internet speed was 280 kbps, but was enough for FaceTime.
You are full of shit need to think before you posted your article
Well, using TMobile for years, travelling the Caribbean, Canada and Europe, mainly Spain, UK and Germany. Never any problems, could even make WhatsApp calls…
I was just in the Netherlands with my complimentary T-Mobile 2G service. However, it never worked. A simple text message (no picture, just text) took a minute to go through if at all. I travel frequently but not enough for this to be such an inconvenience that I’d be willing to break up with T-Mobile. I’ve recently had att and sprint which both love to play billing games. With T-Mobile I’ve never once had to call to question a charge. So I’ll stick around plus on tuesdays they give away free stuff!
I’ve yet to come across anyone with Verizon who’s internet speeds come anywhere near mine on Tmobile. Also, in my 12 years with tmobile I have never waited more than 5 or 10 minutes for a rep on the phone. That’s been one of my biggest reasons for staying with them, data speed and good customer service. Let’s not even discuss the benefits of wifi calling when your stuck in some conference room that feels like a coffin and still able to send/rcv calls and texts when everyone else is banging their phones on the table in frustration. In the beginning I stuck with tmobile because it was CHEAP and I was a broke early 20 something, but it kinda sucked. That’s long in the past. In fact, I just called them about a plan question Monday around 530p eastern, less than 30 seconds before I spoke to someone. The biggest complaint I ever hear about Verizon is their abysmal customer service and ridiculous hold times. I’d put money on it it was a hardware problem. Sometimes phones just have bad radios in them. I travel all over for both work and pleasure, west and east coast, north and south. Service is fine everywhere. Even had service in the Dominican. I have no doubt you had issues, I just doubt it was at the fault of tmobile.
While I won’t rule out the T-mobile service being a factor in your bad experience, unless you bought an international version of the iPhone or Pixel 2 which has all frequencies both installed AND enabled on the wireless chip, you likely could not connect well to some of the wireless frequencies in other countries. T-Mobile’s cattier settings on your iPhone may have been updated recently to disable access to certain frequencies as well. Only the engineers at T-Mobile world likely be appraised of this information so their contracted customer service wouldn’t know what’s going on.
That is weird as the last 3 years I went to Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and The Netherlands and my iPhone 6S worked perfectly on T-Mobile. Even welcoming me to each country.
Glendale Galleria Verizon store, i see.
Correct.
TMobile has been great for us in lots of countries around the world. Most recently we used it for GPS in southern Italy and it worked almost perfectly. And we’ve used IPhones the whole time with no problem at all.
I was in Europe recently and my tmoblie android phone works excellent I met a few tourists mainly from Florida and they have the same problem with their tmoblie iPhone too I think it’s a iPhone issue try Android phones bro and you will not go wrong sorry
You read like a Verizon ad plant. The red Kool aid must be tasty. Can you pay me now? Good 🙂
I’m sorry about your experience but I agree with everyone else that it was your phone. I’ve never had a problem in a supported country. TMobile’s parent company is Deutsch Telekom in Germany. So you’d like us to believe that when the CEO attends meetings he can’t connect? I find that the biggest flag saying they offer service there. The only place I’ve been that didn’t have service was Cuba. I’ve been on a volcano in Costa Rica and had service.
I also have to disagree with the customer service aspect. I’ve honestly never experienced a wait time of more than a few minutes except when they had a massive outage about 8 years ago.
I did not read all the comments, so please forgive this if it’s redundant. I spend a tremendous amount of time in Europe and Asia and all I can say is Google Project fi. No I’m not Google affiliated. Yes there are a few little things to learn to maximize the cost structure. I’m absolutely thrilled with this plan. Data works in any country exactly the way it works back in the States. There are no extra per day charges of any kind. I don’t have to subscribe to anything or do anything. It just works. Beyond that, whenever I’m connected to Wi-Fi in a foreign country I can make and receive my phone calls exactly as if I’m back home in the States with no extra charges. Just make sure to keep it on airplane mode when you’re making those calls. I’m not at all interested in participating in a brand Warfare environment, but if you really do travel outside of the United States regularly, you would do well to consider Project fi’s offerings. The only potential negative is the cost of data from this plan if you are a super heavy user. I just tend to limit my data usage by doing the heavy lifting when I’m connected to Wi-Fi.
I second the motion that it’s the iPhone. Currently have friends in Europe. One has an iPhone the other has a Samsung. iPhone can’t do anything – post pictures, send text, do social media. Samsung has no problem – texts, posts photos, does social media no problem. I’ve never had any problem with T-Mobile overseas or in Central America. I personally haven’t been to Europe yet.
May be you should change your phone, not T-mobile ! I just came from France and I had not a single hiccup with the data, message, and voice calls! Tried it in different cities like London, Cairo, and Istanbul and I the experience was similar! No issues at all!
I even made whatsapp call with no interruptions!
Good luck with Verizon and their terrible customer service and unjustifiable high rates!
By the way I am using oneplus 6 phone which won’t work on Verizon!
Dude! You did a big mistake!
Although I do not think that is the culprit, let’s just say it is my phone. I am wed to my iPhone much more than I am wed to T-Mobile. There is no way I am deviating from Apple.
I just returned from living in London for two years and traveled extensively in Europe. My wife and I both kept T-Mobile serviced which was used primarily when traveling and for our kids phones (who would always call using WhatsApp). T-Mobile service overall was stellar. We aren’t iPhone users however.
Hey. I had an iPhone 6S when I went to London Last year on T-Mobile and it was fine. EDGE speeds were usable and I used it for texting and light data it worked fine. In NYC, it still worked okay but I noticed areas in near me that are in a full blitz of gentrification and tall luxury apartment complexes are going up, the network has degraded tremendously from signal strength to days speeds. It’s attricious in some pockets but impressive in others. However it isn’t bothering me. Your needs are different from mine as you are a businessman and I am a locomotive engineer trainee and with that your swap is valid. However it is true that T-Mobile’s Band 71 has fixed a lot of the coverage issues in a significant rate. It is understandable to not take that gamble and run on to Verizon but honestly your coverage woes would’ve been fixed with band 71. PS. Ignore the android “I hate iphone” formers. Coverage is coverage no matter the handset.
I have not traveled to all those places while relying on my t-mobile phone, but I did go all over Italy without any issues at all. I don’t have an iPhone but wonder if you have the correct gsm bands on your phone too make use of them? I ensured I did before I went.
Also seems strange to me to compare a “free service” to one that cost $10 a day! If I paid for that on my 10 day trip that would almost be 3 months of my current t-mobile bill.
Fee thing I can agree on is not having a good connection at your home base is just not acceptable, even if it is cheap I would jabber no use for it.
My point was that I would have paid more (and tired to pay the $5/day more) for the T-Mobile high-speed service, but was unable to initiate it.
Google fi. It just works wherever I go, very reasonable. Not to sound like an ad.
Matthew, your not the world traveler you think…And an Iphone is not a business phone imho.
You say T-Mobile is for children…That iPhone is for children! Sorry for hurting people’s feelings about a glorified iPod with a dialer! But it’s true, Apple is NOT an innovator, well known fact!
Irrespective of that, AND that others have told you the issue is Apple, their phone(s), AND their unwillingness to add/make available frequencies to the radio on their previous phones to connect YOU…until this latest phone released anyways, I can help!
Didn’t you read that info specifically when Apple released their phones last year and Tmobile? I know I saw it, and I don’t even care about Apple junk…
Sooooooo, three options, keeping T-Mobile or not:
1) get a dual SIM phone for traveling if you travel a LOT, buy international SIM for it to travel outside the USA, best case scenario (and that’s NOT an Iphone, as there is no such thing). Then you CAN use one phone, and it will be fast as hell in and out of the USA…and will get ALL the frequencies worldwide just about. Oh, you won’t drop calls either…Ever!
2) get a phone with as many frequencies available to its radio as possible, as it WILL impact your coverage, speeds, and roaming network to which you connect, USA and internationally, especially if that’s an Apple phone! And you’ll live with the 128k speed, it’s not THAT bad…and definitely good enough for email, GPS, and anything else but for video streaming, or video calls
3) to keep using your old iPhone, but make it “4g” in other countries, go get an international phone, NO voice, JUST data, nothing special…and use ITS mobile hotspot to get the speeds you WANT over Wi-Fi, and use Google voice/alternative for free calls! Or any other voip service that suits you.
I prefer choice one, but it’s hard to wait for the phone you want to come out in specific variants! So I’m on a note 9, as I upgraded from my international dual SIM note 8! And I’m happy about that & I use the old note 8 to tether to. Done. And easy…
I’m in Mexico, Greece, France, Spain, and Italy often. I’m in those places EVERY year for months at a time, incl now in Italy, I get 4G all day, with literally 80MB/s down, and 50MB/s up speed, usually rivaling the crappy and slow service provided by hotels and airports! I’d send you a speedtest pic but cannot here. Email me, and I will.
Nooooooo, I can’t stand the “free” T-Mobile 2g in all honesty, and the upgraded 256k is NOT worth it, esp when you pay T-Mobile $15/month for THAT… when I pay $20 euros for 80gb of 4g anywhere in Europe, choose your favorite carrier! I’m using TIM right now fyi, last year it was Vodafone.
I hope I was helpful, to you and your followers. Honestly, this is the first “reply” to an article I’ve done in years, but felt my experience could help a FEW people out there figure all this out without any fuss, including you!
I had switched from AT&T to Tmobil a few years back because of the promise of international data and text. It was a promise I found to be mostly hollow. What was worse my phone on T-Mobile would often fail to connect or show no service when my wife on AT&T had no issues. Finally I switched back.
At the time I switched AT&T was not only cheaper but unlike Verizon still offered the ability to talk on the phone and surf at the same time. They also have a $10 day international Data plan which works like a champ when I use it.
Just out of curiousity why Verizon over AT&T?
First time on your blog (but frequent some others) and came across this.
I know it’s sort of moot since you’ve already switched but it’s possible that your international 2G didn’t work well because of your radio settings. I’m not sure nor have I scientifically tested this but I think if I don’t switch off LTE, even though I can’t connect to it, it’ll keep scanning and trying to grab a signal and switch over which interrupts my EDGE connection periodically.
Having traveled with t-mobile internationally on at least 2 dozen occasions, I’ve found that switching LTE off makes a gigantic difference for me.
Using t-mo for a long wile. Travel a lot. 2 G data works fine in Europe. Worked in Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and even in evil Russia I had no problems. No problems with hotspot in US that so ever… My guess is… there’s a problem whith iPhone X, ruther than with t-mo
Looks like a band issue to be. T-Mobile has been phasing out the lower bands for some time now.
Been a t-mobile customer for about 15 years, currently on One Plus plan. I spend an inordinate amount of time in Asia for work – Japan, S. Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore – currently have a Samsung Galaxy S8 and haven’t had any issues with t-mobile, the coverage or the LTE speeds over there.
At home in Virgina coverage sucks, but t-mobile has a “wifi calling” feature built in if you get the t-mobile specific models, and that works great while I’m at home (or other places with wifi!). I agree with some of the other comments, if you haven’t used an android phone like an S8 or S9, you really should.
In som cases, it’s much cheaper to just get a local Sim card. When in London I got a sim card and around 2gb of data for like 25 bucks.
I have to agree with you. I try to use the free 2G in Amsterdam, Paris and london and it just did not work. I was very disappointed.
To each his own but your reasoning is nothing short of idiotic. On top of that I bet you purchased a new device device. I wonder at any point did you think, hey is there S wrong with my phone?
Nope, kept iPhone X. New iPhone is not worth upgrading to.
No wonder you travel so much. No one wants you around. I say ditch the phone and and go buy a bicycle. Oh wait, you’d probably talk trash about that too. First problems.
Don’t get an iPhone ..I’ll get issues all over heheh
I have to say I am an old guy that has had T Mobile for a while and have NEVER had a problem with it. Of course I rarely leave Dayton!
Was a TMobile customer from about 6 weeks. Switched back to AT&T. We travel a lot in the US. Lots of NO SERVICE Messages, dropped calls, and poor data speeds. What good is lower rates when your service is habitually absent? TMobile was unreliable for us.
Sorry to say this Matt but you are a disgrace to journalism. Just because you had issues doesn’t give you the right to give other people a poor report. You have zip for actual data as to why this problem went, and just because your iPhone works with Verizon doesn’t not mean it wasn’t an iPhone issue. You have no facts. Dropped calls does not equal network problem. You totally jumped to conclusions on everything. “Dicorcing” T-Mobile? Really? Are you a baby-raging teenager, or a man? Thinks and act like a grown up.
You need to be smarter than the equipment you operate (either that or you are paid by Verizon). T-Mobile overseas (many trips to Europe and Asia) is seamless. The only place I have issues is in Montreal.
I am also considering moving away from T-mobile. I had the same data issue in India recently. Also in NJ at client site there is no Tmobile sign l but ATT works fine. Also this is monthly credit for deals is worse than 2 year agreements. I also see erratic data and callsissue in my area than last few years.
Full of crap, you probably had one issue with your phone and flipped a wig. And for the record Att and Verizon all have the same bill credit promos.
I’ve been also thinking about leaving T-Mobile. Have been with them 20 years and is considered a loyal customer with the ones that have only 2 or 3 years of service with them. Yeah it may sound petty but I’m just that way. I love prestige. Amex Platinum holder, Marriott Platinum Elite Member. Hilton Gold etc. But yet after 20 years I’m just the same as a 2 year subscriber. So I figure why be so committed to something that’s not committed to me.
I travel in Asia from ny Thailand to Philippines T mobile was the best
We just decided to drop T-Mobile yesterday, we’re switching to AT&T as soon as our phones come in. We’ve been with T-Mobile for 6 year, but can’t even use our phones inside anymore. We’ve been using one of their repeaters and wifi calling for the past two years. The last straw was finding out it would cost an extra $40 to add a line for my daughter plus the cost of a new phone. I couldn’t justify the expense for the lack of service.
Okay first off… Get yourself an incountry SIM for a network over there. It’ll cost you 30$ and gets setup in 10 minutes. Youll have several GB of data and pay a lot less than doing a US based out of country plan
If you really are an “avid” traveler you should have an unlocked phone which is easy to swap SIMs in and out of. And start using data enabled texting apps. It’s a no brainier.
Second you switched to the CDMA network which works even worse overseas from my experience. Because CDMA is outdated and rare. Good luck.
cant speak to the international issues but if in areas of US congestion, just turn off LTE, the “4G” or hspa speeds should be sufficient to get you through
Nothing wrong with Tmobile global data. It is the best value out there. It must be your phone that was the problem. My family and friends never had any problems with the data. Call quality is where they lag behind Verizon.
I don’t get it why you just did not get a local sim card there? It makes no sense to try to get your stateside cell provider to work overseas. Any world traveler would have an unlocked GSM phone. And if cost is not an issue you would have a dual sim card phone. You can’t blame Tmobile really. As for Verizon good luck with that since they use CDMA technology. You’ll still be roaming regardless.
Listen not for nothing but he pays tmobile for service period. Whatever arrangements tmobile has with foreign carriers is not his concern, as again he’s not sending those carriers monthly payments. So I would beg to differ and say its definitely tmobiles problem its cost them revenue. Definitely something they should care about enough to take a look into and make sure these carriers aren’t throttling foreign coverage or something else shady they themselves would pull.
Well he damn sure didn’t take the right measure to make sure it works. TMO is a German company. Their base is EUROPE..dude didn’t turn on his global roaming and I can guarantee..PIXEL 2 XL USER HERE and never had an issue
Crazy number of responses to this post! I am in Portland and I had AT&T several years ago, ok maybe a few decades, and hated it. People at work who have AT&T have to go outside to get a signal. My primary phone is a Pixel on Verizon. I get a 20% discount through work so it’s a decent deal. I also have a Nexus 6 on Fi. I have tested the signal everywhere I’ve gone and I have to say Fi has always been equivalent. There is a Tmo dead zone near my house but Fi picks up Sprint just fine there. If I didn’t get the discount, I’d switch exclusively to Fi, I do see using Comcast as a MVNO is a cheap way of getting Verizon, not sure of the international plan though. Anyone tried Comcast?
If the international data coverage is important to you, you should consider Project Fi. Same high speed internationally as home at the same price.
I’ve been using TMobile for over 13 years. Have traveled to Taiwan, HK, Japan, China, Australia, Canada, NZ. 2G/Edge is totally acceptable. Fast enough for navigation using Google Map. Can’t beat the free SMS. $0.20/min call is cheaper than buying local SIM card in some countries. In Los Angeles there are areas with poor reception but same goes AT&T and Sprint. Verizon coverage better but not that much better to justify the cost difference. I have 5 lines costing $120/month
I surely hoped that you sir tipped the Uber driver … As everyone should. Not tipping drivers is like not tipping waiters, food delivery, taxis, hotel room maids, etc … But the increasing number of shameless people who don’t tip Uber drivers is very scary and real among the new generations of Americans.
Been with t mobile over 21 years. More than john.
Have poor service in parts of st Paul
The new 600 meg.will help.
Look what t m charges vets. 50 % off. They are good to vets
Bye.
I just left tmobile and switched to Xfinity mobile. The reason I left was for slow data and many dropped calls. I even waited 24 hours for some text messages to come through and I had the galaxy so plus with unlimited data. I don’t travel out of my city much but I do use my phone for work and data was an issue. Since I have switched data has not been an issue at all, so much better. It is pretty much Verizon for cheaper price than actual Verizon.
Never had problem in Europe and everywhere, great service and excellent customer service and data speed in USa one of the best.
Sounds like another case of someone not knowing the difference between a bad carrier and a bad phone. You are blaming coverage issues on a single device experience. This is really a personal perspective issue. I understand you had phone issues and its not phone. Especiall when work for most people revolves around our noses being glued to our phones. A few months ago my wife was complaing about her phone issues, we are both T-Mobile customers for 6 years. We made the switch to Verizon just as you did. Low and behold we had the same issues as before. In fact my data speeds were even slower. It was a month later we switched back to T-Mobile, took advantage of their promotions and bought the iPhone XS Max. And that was the difference. Same network, T-Mobile, different phone. I went from seeing 20mbps speeds to over a 100mbps. Sometimes the difference is the hardware, not the carrier.
I will spare you the gory details but I dumped T-Mobile years ago and have never looked back. I have Verizon and happy with the customer service as well as reception. Many times I’m the only one in the group that has bars and Verizon.
While T-Mobile in the US moved over to IP6, In Europe APN’s are configured as IP4. APN’s in the US are configured by default for IP6. In your phone’s settings it’s a better idea to set the Roaming IP protocol either as IP4 OR IP4/6. This has worked for me many times. The carriers often send provisioning SMS messages which can change those settings (or even when you replace your old SIM with a new one.
Had absolutely no issues using TM in Asia! But will probably switch to Sprint for value wise…
Doesn’t work in Montana let alone out of the country. I’m tired of fighting with them over the years. They had to send me a cell booster just for my phone to work in my own home in NM.
Ok, first off try turning your phone to 2g in the U.S. and see what happens. I already know what will happen, the same thing that happened when you were overseas. If you try and tell me otherwise I’ll know your full of it. Second, you could of had 3g if you weren’t penny pinching and got the one plus service. I mean come on avid traveller you tried to enable higher speeds anyway for $5 bucks a day! That’s just plain stupid. $10 dollars more it would have been unlimited 3g. I will however agree that call quality is rather, well crap for lack of a better word. Can’t get through to customer service in less than an hour, never experienced that either so more BS. Not sure about your slow data in LA either, my phone’s fast as hell in LA. Maybe you need to do some phone maintenance. Good luck with Verizon lol!
I think you had something wrong with your phone or settings. I’ve been using tmobile on international trips for the last 2.5 years… 19 countries and although I’ve had some really really slow internet…. I’ve never had it go out at all unless in a cave or underground in general.
Don’t get me wrong, i have plenty of complaints about tmobile. But international data is def not one of them 🙂
You bought an iPhone (X lol). Apple with there crappy modems and overpriced phones. Sounds like you just didn’t know what you were doing or how to travel, Verizon is not better international. Also I’ve sat on the phone for 2 hours waiting for Verizon to talk about an Enterprise business account! So good luck with them. Or the time our internet would slow from 150/150 to 5/20 after an hour of rebooting the NOC, but they wouldn’t replace it with the new boxes (bpon to gpon I believe)I unlessgraded to 1Gig speeds even though they acknowledged the old boxes had this issue.
I’ll stick with my two lines of unlimited everything (plus never had an issue tethering) for $60.
Well let us Know when you get Back if you Have a $500.00 Verizon Phone Bill!!!! Because that is the Problem with Verizon from what I have seen over the Years!!!!!
Damn, I just realized why he posted this… Nobody ever reads any of his other crap so he basically trolled everyone here so he could finally get some responses. Can’t believe I fell for it.
Dude, Google Fi on Pixel works overseas! FRANCE, Japan, Mexico. Fast & cheap.
T-Mobile has worked for me on my iPhone X but Google Fi is way faster. I carry both phones overseas.
World traveler? Get with the program. Verizon sucks overseas. Nobody but the US uses CDMA. GSM is the world standard. TMobile started out as a major European brand. It works for free but is slow. Pixel/Google Fi is the real deal.
+1 it’s a device issue. Did you even try resetting the device? T-Mobile is the most cutting edge network (imho) so your device might have had an out of date configuration. Upgrading to a 600 MHz capable device would also help your domestic coverage.
All in all your experience seems to be atypical, T-Mobile had the highest customer satisfaction in 2017 according to two independent research firms.
I’m not trying to convince you to switch back, but considering how many more commenters here have had my experience and not yours, I think you should clarify in your article exactly what you did and didn’t do. I hope T-Mobile sees this and reaches out to you.
I don’t normally read your blog but as a travel & tech enthusiast this showed up in my Google news feed. Or maybe this article is trending… but I hope it is the former reason. I’m tired of good companies being dragged through the mud while the likes of Apple can get away with almost anything.
My teathering and hotspot was downgraded too. When i called, long holds, then they said would speecup- why was it slowed? I pau for it, and when needed its not available!
I do wonder if you were struggling more due to the iPhone. Sprint and Verizon got Qualcomm versions. T-Mobile and AT&T got the Intel. Already reports of bad reception on the new releases and they are all Intel this time. I’m with T-Mobile but I moved to Android after having my 7 Plus become utterly useless even for simple in-state travel (Texas). Add in dropped calls, slow data, and I thought I’d try a different phone before leaving a carrier I’ve been with over a decade. It’s worked out well for me.
Ah well, everyone will do what is best for themselves.
I had some great experiences with T-Mobile. In South Africa in 2014, I had to call the free outside US customer service # but they got me up and running. It was fine from the start of the trip in JoBurg and up to Sodwana Bay. We drove to South to Durban and that is when I had to call and reset. I live near Canada and drive to Vancouver frequently. Great. Taiwan and Indonesia great in 2016, Italy great in 2017, but slower than I would like. 2018 Panama was fine in February and in June Frankfurt, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary all fine. Slow in Hungary though and I was on TMobile. They can do better.
Well…that’s the Glendale Galleria. Crazy that I recognized it by the first picture alone. I really need to stop eating daily at that Subway in the second pic.
As for the data reception…don’t be expecting miracles. In the AppleOne building right across from the Macy’s in that mall I’m getting sub 1mbps on Verizon. Kinda thinking of switching to T-Mobile because of it. Bought my Excess Max full out from Apple so I wouldn’t be locked in.
This is definitely a case of it’s you not me. I’m from LA and I travel internationally a bit and don’t have the issues you do. At all. My guess is that it’s your crappy iPhone. Try a oneplus. In fact, I’m going to double down on a T-Mobile optimized 6t next month and enjoy the sweet sweet 600mhz bands…
You definitely most not have been doing something right. Did you have data roaming on? If so, you probably just had a bad phone. I’ve been traveling Europe, and T-Mobile has been a blessing. As for wait times, never have I ever been on hold for longer than 10min with them. Good luck using CDMA overseas, btw. Bad choices all over if you ask me.
Same experience. I’m deployed overseas and despite having T-Mobile One Plus the service has been absolute garbage. Their customer service was crappy too. My wife’s back home in Fort Worth, Texas and has had nothing but issues. We ended up switching to Verizon as well, and I just picked up a local sim and pay for data every month in the country I’m in.
Last month, my girlfriend and I went to London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Greece (Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos). Our T-Mobile roaming worked just fine for us at acceptable speeds.
I live in NEW YORK and I am sure other networks may have better coverage but T-Mobile has the full pckage to suit my needs
I just came back from Spain and Europe and all worked amazingly well. Granted it was 2 and 3g it was free unlike every other US competitor!
I USA based but currently in Scotland and love Tmo. On others overseas trips Tmo also worked great and inexpensive compared to Verizon. I think either your expensive iPhone or sim card is the issue. Be better prepared next time.
I have been with T-Mobile for 14yrs. Never had any issues. My daughter traveled to London, Ireland and Wales. We never had any issues with TMobile when she was there.
I feel T-Mobile is one of the better cellular companies out there.
This one I don’t understand… I’m a touring musician, writing this in a van in the German countryside; I switched to T-Mobile the moment they added free international roaming. I retired my pill bottle full of Sim cards from around the world and never looked back.
The data is almost always fast enough even for free what’s app and telegram voice calls and it always works, all over Russia, even in the middle of Siberia. In Ukraine. In Turkey; everywhere in Europe.
(It didn’t work in Serbia, but we were warned by text before we hit the Hungary/Serbia border.)
I agree with other posters: it’s your phone. The reason I believe this is that on a European tour a couple of years ago, when I left France for Britain my data no longer worked. At the time I had two phones, a Nokia windows phone and a xiaomi Android phone. I switched the SIM card from one to the other and it worked fine.
Eventually I figured out that there were some apn tricks that could deal with the situation.
I love t-mobile; it immeasurably improved my life.
Dear Matthew…
How can it be? T-mobile works great for me and my husband.
This past January we were in Beijing where social media (FB, WA) is forbidden, yet through my meager T-mobile 2gb, I happily posted photos as we traveled through Beijing and surrounding areas. My Chinese friends could not get over the fact that I was connected, as when they travel to China they go off the social media grid.
I also travel a lot, so this year, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Norway, oh, and twice a year I live in South Africa where it works beautifully.
T-mobile and my trusted Sony Xperia Xz premium, we miss no opportunities to post my travel photos and even call back home, paying $0.20 per minute, which beats hotel rates.
Oh, and my plan allows me to test for free while in flight…
Maybe it’s your phone?
You’re problems are iPhone related
I’ve T-Mobile for about 5 years and free international texting and data works really well.
I’ve traveled at least to 20 countries within the last 2-3 years. Sometimes it’s slower, especially in some rural areas.
Making a switch will increase your phone bill much more than just a few bucks. $10 per day when you travel 1-2 weeks a month adds up.
I also never had to wait more than 5 min when I called T-Mobile customers service.
I sadly agree, that the service on the West Coast is questionable. I had AT$T before and experienced the same poor service in LA or SF.
Thank you for uncongesting the TMo network and good luck paying for questionable Verizon enterprises such as Tumblr.
In the US, Sprint, Verizon and US Cellular use CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. Most of the rest of the world uses GSM. I wonder if your cellular network settings are on CDMA… Because it would make sense that your phone is working better now that you’re on Verizon… Also, if traveling to Europe so often, I advise getting a prepaid plan from any country there as they have free roaming within Europe. I was with B&you (Bouygues) in France. For 25 EUR a month I had over 50g of data, free roaming within Europe, free calls to the US and 120 countries…
I don’t thing you meant T-Mobile. You must be mistaking. I have had T-Mobke for over 3 years and have never had to wait longer than 2 min on hold. The service has been reliable through out the US, Mexico and Canada. I have not traveled to Europe but, I am willing to bet you I will be talking and surfing like a local. I truly believe you have an agenda against Tmobile. Not sure why. But, I am also willing to bet you your device was either not configured correctly or out dated. Which, is not Tmobile’s fault.
Sorry it sounds like a bogus claim to boost Verizon. I admit TMobile has it’s cons but to switch to any other network is just way too expensive. As far as service and data TMobile cannot be heat.
I have no interest in boosting Verizon. As I said above, I’ll dump them quickly if I do not see a vast improvement.
Could it be just that your phone does not support the 2g bands in Europe? It may not be the carrier fault but the phone’s.
Having said that, I just returned from a trip to India. Yes there’s data connectivity but nothing to rave about. My local sim was cheaper and my data was blazing fast.
Get off your iPhone get a Google pixel and sign up with Google project fi. You will never go back to any other carrier specially if you travel a lot
I have had T-Mobile for 6 years now and have never experienced the issues you’ve experienced. I’ve travelled all through North America and the Caribbean and rarely have any data or voice issues. Heck, in St. Thomas my friend who has Verizon needed to use my phone because she couldn’t get service with hers. I’ve also recently travelled to Italy, Greece and Spain and had no issues (including using my free GoGo WiFi on the flight thanks to T-Mobile). Whenever I do call Customer Care for anything, if the wait time is more than 2 minutes, (which is rare) they give me the option to set a specific time for them to call me back. I do my part by making sure my phone is kept updated as well.
Have you considered Project FI? Traveling to South America and Korea was a breaze with that service. No slow down in speeds and can switch carriers on the fly when I run into speed or connection issues.
Have considered it, but my understanding is that it still uses T-Mobile in the USA. My problem was not just weak international data but an increasing number of dropped calls and poor signal in the USA.
Although you noted that you are wedded to your iPhone, I found that my optimal solution is with a Pixel 2 XL The eSIM uses Project Fi, which connects to the strongest signal from T-Mobile, Sprint, or US Cellular. A physical SIM Verizon card is linked to the cheapest $30 prepaid Verizon plan. For a total of $60 per month (+V’s taxes), I get superb coverage in skyscrapers and underground in San Francisco, in remote parts of the Sierra Nevada, and abroad. If the Pixel 3 XL, to be announced by Google on 9 October 2018, contains Band 71 (600 mHz), I will upgrade my phone because Fi coverage will improve even further in rural areas and urban buildings, so I would then be able to jettison my Verizon SIM and $30 prepaid service, once Band 71 transmissions are fully implemented in Northern California.
T-Mobile & Verizon both sucks. Congratulations on your decision of switching but Verizon is not the one. It is AT&T when it comes to prices with the best coverage, AT&T it is. However I see you do lot of international traveling, for roaming their are lot of options. I use Google fi for roaming, I am not using regular AT&T line, I am on prepaid which used to be go phone, regular line can have outrageous fees just like Verizon and T-Mobile. I had T-Mobile for more then 6 years and I live in PA. I had to make a emergency call but their was no service. My point is T-Mobile gives so many things to their subscriber yet they can’t give the basic service, so I don’t have time for that, I switched to att and I have service everywhere including in the cabin. If you have more questions please email me asif@reupzone.com
I have never had problems with TMobile in Europe. I have been to Germany, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria etc. Also, it is 3g data and works perfect for me.
I agree. I’ve been using TMobile for over 5 years and it seems the service and customer service keeps getting worse every year. Not a day goes by without a dropped call or meager data speeds. It does work fantastic in other countries though
I think the main issue is that TMobile does not view big cities in California as important. If you look at their reports of new towers or updated systems it is never in SF, LA, or SD. Yet most of their growth has been in these cities. They only seem to care about their coverage he makes and not the quality of service . I loved them, but I’m also waiting for that last straw
I was with tmobile about 7 years I love its travel around the world free sms and data ,I do no what is divorced mean
Maybe it’s a California issue with T mobile? I also dumped them for Verizon after months of debating their cheap costs compared with Verizon. But what’s the point of having a cheap service if your calls are often dropping…? I switched Sept 2016 and I’ve never looked back.
How much Verizon paid you for such an amazing advertising buddy? Lol.
I’m in Germany right now and have absolutely no problems with my T-Mobile coverage. Yes it’s 2G and that’s like ancient dial up. And I even added international service to get faster coverage but haven’t seen it and can live without it.
I was in China 2 weeks ago and the 2G wS just fine. Now in Germany, I’m in a remote area east of Schwerin and I have strong 5 bars of good ‘Ole 2g service.
Dont be so crappy about your service and I suspect at some point you will return to T-Mobile. You’re welcome.
Our free international roaming with TMobile worked fine in Italy, France,Japan and the Philippines. And this was for all four phones on our Family plan.
That’s disappointing to hear of your experience. Two years ago we went to Serbia and Hungary and T-mobile data worked flawlessly. We used google maps everyday. Thank god we had it because we got into a bind at one point and used google translate to communicate with people. In the smaller towns in Serbia English was not common.
I’ve been with T-Mobile for over 10 years, have had numerous issues. They seem to be applying the thumb screws to what perks that they have . Including wifi calling , true unlimited data etc. Sure I have an all singing n dancing rate of $95 / month . I travel extensively int n Dom n experience way too many disappointments. N agree with other posters re. The excessive wait times and generally crappy service, with a huge slice of arrgance. I’m definitely tittering on change…….
I’m a Sprint customer, nothing against Verizon, nothing against T-Mobile, I think it was your phone/phones. Well, other than the customer service. Band issues.
Omg Verizon hahahhaaa you just wait…
I was with them and I divorcd them years ago T-Mobile is where I am now and will never leave them I travel far from the states and each country I’ve been to o get a welcome text from T-Mobile here recently I’ve been to Thailand and Taiwan both countres I had a welcome text… Verizon is all I got was a charge and that was when. I went to Mexico
T-MOBILE forever
Don’t recall what speeds abroad for the One Plus International (I believe this plan is now gone but current subscribers are grandfathered in) but no issues here in Italy, Austria, France, Belgium and remote parts of Netherlands with it. In fact after doing some testing side by side of upload and download speeds, Tmobile is faster in Chicago than Verizon. Better price, better and faster service (especially customer service as a cherry on top) and switching from VZN after 10 years to T-Mobile was a no brainer.
Well I just switched as well to my dismay my T.obile service let me down in the good old US of A. The customer service reps can be clueless and misinformation rampant. I’d rather pay more and actually get what I’m paying for with VZW than to play less and get less than nothing. Farewell TMobile Tuesday’s
I was a long time AT&T customer and on a whim I switched to T-Mobile. What a mistake it was. I had a situation where I was in the back roads/ country of New Mexico and had a flat tire and not phone coverage. T-Mobile, not phone signal and flat tire. When I got back into civilization I went immediately to Verizon and switched service.
Wow your poster and I got a lot of attention. And it sounds like you want to a lot but it very strange that you had long hold times and agency cannot help you. When I call a live voice answers immediately and says “Hi Joseph and you are with your team of experts!” Full disclosure: I have 12 iPhone lines on my personal account so maybe they have me elevated to a special status. In any event the competence displayed by this “team of experts” has been fabulous. As for international data, I spend much of my time in Asia and have had zero issues with data connrctivity (T-Mobile One +). Stateside I split my time between Orange County and Las Vegas. Zero speed issues / Zero dropped calls. I moved from Verizon five years ago and have never looked back. But everyone has their own situation.
How much did Verizon pay you to trash T-Mobile?
They didn’t have to pay Matthew anything, they are ostensibly bad.
Ironically I’d have expected T-Mobile to be stellar in Germany where they are based. Quite the opposite! I was in Germany for a week in a few cities and everywhere I went, I’d constantly get either “No Service” (particularly on the train rides between major cities) or really incredibly sluggish speeds. I have used the 2g service in Spain and many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America without too many issues. But the European service has definitely tanked recently. Even in London it was really bad. Trying to enable the day pass was a major pain as well. On top of that I never really knew if it was active at any time so was cautious with making phone calls. Even though I tried to keep it active always, I ended up getting charged for several phone calls as I had no clue if it was active.
I did for a while have another line on Verizon and traveled with them. Yeah the $10/day stings a bit more, but it just works. Takes ZERO effort. Turn the phone on and it works. Done. It was so nice to be walking down the streets of Vienna and being able to Facetime back home without being stuck to wi-fi only. Verizon has it nailed for international now in my opinion. Yes it will cost more, but it just works. Tmobile is now far behind. I will always give them credit for being pioneers here, but this whole day pass thing is more stress to deal with what it is worth.
How do you know Verizon will be better when you haven’t tried it?
My business partner has used Verizon for years.
I switched to T-Mobile for a trip to England last September since my usual lost cost provider does not have International Data. While doing so, the store rep told me my service might be spotty because T-Mobile changed something (sorry, can’t remember techy details) and that older phones like mine might not pick up the signal from all the towers. Boy, was she right! I had made a temporary switch to T-Mobile in summer 2016 for a Europe trip, same phone, and the service was great. This time, it was horrible. Super spotty, super slow. Back to my usual carrier now and have all bars lighted up again-nice! Anyway-the inconsistency- some getting great service, others terrible, may lie in the age of the phone.
I need a solution for Unlimited Global Data Roaming.
I used to get this Global Unlimited roaming data with T-Mobile One international for bellow USD 55/month
Since I spend more than 6 months away from USA, I was cut from T-Mobiles International Unlimited Data roaming. T-Mobile now cut it since they alleged according to the TOS (Terms of Service) bellow it’s not allowed to use beyond 50% of the data plan abroad in 2 months of the year.
• Results in more than 50% of your voice and/or data usage being Off-Net (i.e., connected to another provider’s network) for any 2 billing cycles within any 12-month period;
https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/legal/terms-and-conditions#EPPUSYD
Verizon and AT&T alternatives charge Global Data roaming above $10/GB, on top of the more than $20 base fee.
So I better buy a 2 SIM phone, and a local SIM card for data when traveling….can get more than 1GB of data with USD 10 , and keep my USA # with a carrier that charges USD 20 base fee to keep my #
I hate t mobile!
When you want to speak to someone you’re forced to call overseas. (Philippines to be exact) don’t know why but we Americans need our own operators here in our own states!
All of the companies have overseas customer No service
I must express my admiration for your generosity supporting all those that should
have help on your area. Your very own commitment to passing the message across was certainly invaluable and has continually
made those much like me to reach their objectives.
Your new warm and helpful report indicates much to me and even further to
my colleagues. Warm regards; from all of us.