Switching from Verizon to T-Mobile: Sorting the hype from reality

Hello all, I am in the very early stages of converting all 5 of our phones over to TMo and trying to sort out sales hype from reality. After being offered an impressive deal with Tmo, I called Verizon's customer retention department to tell them I was quitting and they in turn told me Tmo is not telling me everything and proceeded to contradict what the Tmo sales people are saying. Here are my questions, and what Tmo reps and Verizon is telling me:

UNLIMITED DATA

Me) Can I get Unlimited Data?

Tmo) Yes we will sell an unlimited data plan per this rate $X/month

Verizon on Tmobile) T-Mobile only provides unlimited data on T-Mobile towers. If you roam, T-Mobile will limit you to 2 gigs at full speed and then anything over that you will be throttled

Me Back to Tmo rep) Say, Verizon 's retention dept says you will throttle me over 2 gigs if I am not on T-Mobile towers, is that true?

Tmo in reply) False, we do not throttle you while roaming on an unlimited plan. If you buy a 2, 3 gig plan however and you go over you will be throttled. There is no additional charge however for going over 2 or 3 gigs on a 2 o 3 gig plan

So whats the real story here?

DATA SPEEDS

Me) what kind of speed can I get out of TMobile

Tmo) 4G where we have towers

Verison) Tmo does not have many 4G towers, it will suck in most places (a paraphrase, not a quote)

Verizon has pretty decent speeds most places here in Florida, I get 3G or 4G most anywhere in the state. I can't tell what I am going to get on T-Mobile if 4G is not available, what do you get, dialup?.

INTERNATIONAL CALLING WHILE ABROAD
(I go out of the country alot)

Me) My current verizon plan includes 100 megs a month of international data for $25 and in most places I go, inbound and outbound calls are $1.99 a minute. What does T-Mobile charge

Tmo) International data is now free and calls are twenty cents a minute

Verzon (no comment)

I CANT GET A CELL PHONE SIGNAL IN MY HOUSE

me) what do I do

Tmo) If you have wifi in your house, you can set your T-Mobile phone to call using wifi, for in and out calls as well as data

verizon [I currently have a box called a network extender attached to my router that creates a cell phone signal in the house, verizon phones do not yet work for calling on WIFI ]


EARLY TERMINATION FEES

Me) you advertise you will pay my early termination fees with Verizon. How do I get paid and how fast do I get the money, I got 5 lines and they are going to screw me good

Tmo) Within one month we will send you a VISA card, up to $350 per line

Verizon) We are going to screw you good if you quit with early termination fees. However, we would hate to lose the $400 a month you spend on 5 lines and international features, so if you stay, we will give you an absolutely staggering additional gigabyte each month for 12 whole months.

I do not know yet if $350 wll be enough to pay VZW termination charges. However I did accept the amazing extra gig.

Hope you all can provide some real world comment on these, thanks so much for all comments

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The only cases I've heard of t-mobile throttling unlimited data is when you use mobile hotspot or tethering without paying for it. You mentioned International though. T-mobile overseas is not the same as T-mobile USA, so there's a good chance that you would be throttled if you use a lot of data, depending on where you are.

Keep in mind too that T-mobile is still rolling out their 4g LTE coverage. They only have it in major cities at this point. However, they have HSPA+ speeds almost everywhere else, which is still pretty fast "4g". Verizon has wide spread LTE coverage and in general has better overall coverage than T-mobile, so I've been told. This is probably why Verizon is more expensive.

Keep in mind that for T-mobile to pay your ETF's you have to buy a phone outright from them or pay a montly fee on a phone. That means you would have to do this for all 5 of your lines. Although you could make some money back from selling your Verizon phones.

Originally Posted by tavenger5

The only cases I've heard of t-mobile throttling unlimited data is when you use mobile hotspot or tethering without paying for it. You mentioned International though. T-mobile overseas is not the same as T-mobile USA, so there's a good chance that you would be throttled if you use a lot of data, depending on where you are.

Keep in mind too that T-mobile is still rolling out their 4g LTE coverage. They only have it in major cities at this point. However, they have HSPA+ speeds almost everywhere else, which is still pretty fast "4g". Verizon has wide spread LTE coverage and in general has better overall coverage than T-mobile, so I've been told. This is probably why Verizon is more expensive.

Keep in mind that for T-mobile to pay your ETF's you have to buy a phone outright from them or pay a montly fee on a phone. That means you would have to do this for all 5 of your lines. Although you could make some money back from selling your Verizon phones.

Many thanks for the reply. When I go out of the country on Verizon, my phone will switch to GSM mode , and generally data speeds are slow, it usually shows as "Edge". I am not up on how Edge compares to the others you mentioned, got some research to do. In any case, when I am overseas, its fast enough for email.

One thing you mentioned, and I did appreciate it alot, was tethering.I use VZW's mobile wifi hot spot feature alot, it runs my IPAD or laptop, and our plan allows any phone to share with any device at no extra cost. I sort of assumed I could do that at no extra cost but I will have to research what the charges will be and see if bring s the estimated total monthly closer to what i am paying now