Has T-Mobile Coverage Outside Cities Improved Recently?

[formercanuck]

Anywhere i've been the last few years.. it's been native T-Mobile with a bit of roaming sprinkled in.. usually on Bug Tussel, Viaero, and US Cellular, otherwise i'm native T-Mobile anywhere I've needed it.

Sprint on the other hand, driving between cities, i'd usually need 3G roaming on Verizon. T-Mobile has actively improved with 600/700MHz rurally (contrary to what some want to believe here) especially around the midwest where they used to be terrible for having "islands" of coverage outside of the city.

Where I typically go, in California, it's T-mobile, or "Emergency Service" on AT&T or VZW. In parts of MI, I can roam on At&t, but mostly haven't needed to, as at least 1 new site exists in the UP, north of St. Ignace, and Sprint roaming appears to help between mile 198 and 188 on i-75. Some reports of Sprint sites near Big Bear also help. They hav a ways to go in rural communities, but have filled in some gaps "in between".

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[brad15]

Where I typically go, in California, it's T-mobile, or "Emergency Service" on AT&T or VZW. In parts of MI, I can roam on At&t, but mostly haven't needed to, as at least 1 new site exists in the UP, north of St. Ignace, and Sprint roaming appears to help between mile 198 and 188 on i-75. Some reports of Sprint sites near Big Bear also help. They hav a ways to go in rural communities, but have filled in some gaps "in between".

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I do not go to MI often.. but in WI, IL, IN, and OH... I have not seen "Emergency Only" in a few years, other than under ORD airport where T-Mobile is not on the DAS.

MI makes sense though as the northern half and the UP is so sparsely populated.. I doubt they can get any decently priced backhaul until they're finished integrating Sprint's IP assets. I'm sure they'll get that filled in.

[formercanuck]

I personally haven't been through much of the UP. I've been on the north shore of Lake Superior quite a bit, however. I'd almost consider relocating up there to get out of California.

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[Theghostlad82]

I do not go to MI often.. but in WI, IL, IN, and OH... I have not seen "Emergency Only" in a few years, other than under ORD airport where T-Mobile is not on the DAS.

MI makes sense though as the northern half and the UP is so sparsely populated.. I doubt they can get any decently priced backhaul until they're finished integrating Sprint's IP assets. I'm sure they'll get that filled in.

As far as northern michigan and the UP being sparsely populated, this is both true and false. Full time residents? Yes it's sparsely populated, visitors? No not really. The northern part of the state and the UP are where people from the southern part of the state refer to when they say they are going up north for the week. Now last year I'm sure tourism from out of state was way down, but I would bet in state tourism to the area remained very high. As far as not seeing emergency only in ohio, there are still many rural areas in the central part of the state that have no native tmobile service. In ohio service has improved in the cities and the suburbs (these generally were areas that tmobile always covered, they just added capacity and improved speeds in these areas) but I haven't seen much, if any, new native coverage in the rural areas I've traveled thru.

[DRNewcomb]

I personally haven't been through much of the UP. I've been on the north shore of Lake Superior quite a bit, however. I'd almost consider relocating up there to get out of California.

UP is a "special" place. I overheard a conversation between locals when one of them said, "I like to get my snow fences up by Labor Day." Sorry, but it would take a lot of global warming for me to live that far north.

That was a few years ago. T-Mobile still roamed AT&T's GSM network and a lot of AT&T's towers had GSM-ER, primarily to provide service over water.

[Andy84094]

I do not go to MI often.. but in WI, IL, IN, and OH... I have not seen "Emergency Only" in a few years, other than under ORD airport where T-Mobile is not on the DAS.

Are you referring to underground employee-only areas? T-Mobile is definitely on the DAS at ORD in passenger terminal areas, including the underground tunnel connecting United Concourses C&B.

[Theghostlad82]

UP is a "special" place. I overheard a conversation between locals when one of them said, "I like to get my snow fences up by Labor Day." Sorry, but it would take a lot of global warming for me to live that far north.

That was a few years ago. T-Mobile still roamed AT&T's GSM network and a lot of AT&T's towers had GSM-ER, primarily to provide service over water.

Definitely takes a special person to live in the UP year round. A lot of people tend to just have hunting cabins up there they visit a few times a year. Summers are pretty up there though, winters not so much.

[formercanuck]

UP is a "special" place. I overheard a conversation between locals when one of them said, "I like to get my snow fences up by Labor Day." Sorry, but it would take a lot of global warming for me to live that far north.

That was a few years ago. T-Mobile still roamed AT&T's GSM network and a lot of AT&T's towers had GSM-ER, primarily to provide service over water.

Well, if you're down in Louisiana, summer in the UP is probably more like October weather. I can only relate to the north shore on places like White River, Wawa, Smooth Rock Falls, Elliot Lake and Sault Ste. Marie.. lake effect makes a huge difference. Summers are in the upper 70s, with a high chance of mosquito.

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[formercanuck]

Definitely takes a special person to live in the UP year round. A lot of people tend to just have hunting cabins up there they visit a few times a year. Summers are pretty up there though, winters not so much.

That depends on what you like to do. If you like snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing in the winter, swimming, fishing, nature and a whole lot of outdoors... Then it's the place for you. Living +20 years north of Lake Superior gives one a different perspective on things. These days much of it has gone bust except for the gold industry.
It sure is different than here in L.A.


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[brad15]

Are you referring to underground employee-only areas? T-Mobile is definitely on the DAS at ORD in passenger terminal areas, including the underground tunnel connecting United Concourses C&B.

Exactly why I said "under" the airport - it's the same in MDW. ONLY on DAS in passenger areas.

T-Mobile works perfectly fine in the passenger areas, but for some reason (I assume to save money?) has opted to not put DAS in places where employees/pilots/crew would be, even though they gladly promote themselves to airport employees with Amplified?

Definitely takes a special person to live in the UP year round. A lot of people tend to just have hunting cabins up there they visit a few times a year. Summers are pretty up there though, winters not so much.

Agreed on that though. There's a lot to do.. but it's definitely not for everyone. I have family up in Houghton that work at the university.. I visit in summer... and as much as I love winter would not dare live up there year round.

All of my visits in/out the last few years have been by airplane though, so it's all been places that T-Mobile has worked fine when I've needed it.. I've not "driven" around the northern part of Michigan in quite some time as my visits have been super short for things like lunch/dinner.

[Andy84094]

Exactly why I said "under" the airport - it's the same in MDW. ONLY on DAS in passenger areas.

T-Mobile works perfectly fine in the passenger areas, but for some reason (I assume to save money?) has opted to not put DAS in places where employees/pilots/crew would be, even though they gladly promote themselves to airport employees with Amplified?

Is/was Sprint on the DAS in employee-only areas at ORD & MDW?

[brad15]

Is/was Sprint on the DAS in employee-only areas at ORD & MDW?

I cannot honestly say as I've not used Sprint in any serious capacity for a few years. I know Verizon is on the DAS down there, AT&T is not but generally works "okay" on Band 14/Band 17/Band 5 - speeds are not fantastic but calls still work.

T-Mobile on the other hand seems to be flat "No Service" in parts.

[jakeuten]

I personally haven't been through much of the UP. I've been on the north shore of Lake Superior quite a bit, however. I'd almost consider relocating up there to get out of California.

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Duluth is calling your name, I just know it.


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[formercanuck]

Lol I haven't been that far south in western Ontario. Been to Thunder Bay a handful of times. Much of NW Ontario was great in the 80s and 90s, but has fallen. Some day I hope to do the circle trip of Lake Superior.

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[MEDIX1011]

I recently did a 4 state roadtrip

Texas-NM-Arizona-Colorado

One area that was really bad was HWY 87 (four lanes) from NM/Tx state line to Amarillo
There were a few 4G only sites that were totally unresponsive datawise and coverage gaps

I did almost the same road trip in 2017 and saw some other areas that had improved since then

Also between I10 and in Tusayan at the Grand Canyon entrance has TMO 5G now, in 2017 it was roaming on Commnet with a data usage cap
Parts of the SouthEast Rim inside the Grand Canyon Park had 5G as well, but the rest of the park was Commnet 3G roaming that was basically useless, but definitely an improvement in some areas from 2017, especially if you stay in Tusayan