T-Mobile Prepaid Coverage

skinien · Jun 15, 2013

Hoping someone who knows can clarify this for me:

I'm a Verizon customer and thinking about switching to T-Mobile so that I have a wider selection of phones to choose from (read: Nexus). I'm trying out their network on a prepaid $30 plan. So far, it's been pretty good although I hit a spot in the mall yesterday that didn't have any service. I notice that on T-Mobile's site, their coverage maps have a link to view "Prepaid Coverage". When you click on it, it basically shows you a limited 2G/Voice coverage area with a bunch of low quality spots throughout San Diego.

Does anyone know if that's true - do their prepaid plans have a smaller coverage area than postpaid? I know that their postpaid allow you to roam on at&t, but my understanding is the roaming is only applicable for areas where T-Mobile doesn't have native coverage.

Thanks!

jhawkkw · Jun 15, 2013

That is one of the downsides of prepaid. Coverage is generally weaker because you don't get to use the roaming agreements that carriers have with other carriers or tower maintainers. T-Mobile's coverage maps generally assume that you're outside because signal weakens indoors, especially with t-mobile since it uses the highest average frequency with 1900MHz for EDGE/2G and 1700MHz for HSPA and LTE. Lower frequencies like AT&T's 850MHz for HSPA or 700MHz for LTE penetrate buildings better. However these higher frequencies do translate to faster data speeds when you have a connection.

skinien · Jun 15, 2013

Thanks for the reply.

Here's something I noticed that's a bit weird. When running a speedtest on my Nexus 4 with T-mobile prepaid, it won't find any servers in my area. It seems to only point me to the midwest. The coordinates are correct so I know the app knows my location.

Joshb101 · Jun 15, 2013

Is your GPS on?

skinien · Jun 16, 2013

Yes, GPS is on. The coordinates that come up when I use the app are correct.

yfan · Jun 17, 2013

As far as I know, T-mobile prepaid and postpaid have the exact same access to T-mobile's network. Both prepaid and postpaid customers also have roaming voice coverage. Prepaid customers do not, however, have roaming data, which postpaid customers do.

diemerm · Jun 17, 2013

I've been on T-Mobile's prepaid $30/month plan for about a year now. The only difference I notice between prepaid/postpaid is that on the prepaid plans they do not allow call forwarding.

Unfortunately this makes it so your phone cannot use Visual Voicemail, or any other voicemail service such as Google Voice.

Having to dial in for voicemail can be a pain at times, but all the money I've been saving definitely makes up for it!!

tube517 · Jun 17, 2013

I have the $30 plan and I use T-Mobile Visual Voicemail

diemerm · Jun 17, 2013

tube517 said:
I have the $30 plan and I use T-Mobile Visual Voicemail

thanks for posting this... I just downloaded Visual Voicemail on the app store and it works!!!

when I first got this plan, I tried the same thing and it gave me an error message. I then called T-Mobile and they told me prepaid plans don't include Visual Voicemail, hence the error message.

I wonder if they changed that policy? Either way, I'm glad its working now... my $30/month plan just became that much better of a deal!!

bob60626 · Jun 17, 2013

I use Visual Voicemail on my stuff (I wonder if I can get it on my tablet for my phone's number??

), it didn't always work. I think I've been able to use it for about five months, maybe.

timelord65 · Jul 25, 2013

yfan said:
As far as I know, Both prepaid and postpaid customers also have roaming voice coverage. Prepaid customers do not, however, have roaming data, which postpaid customers do.

I don't think t-mobile does roam onto at&t towers at all for prepaid. I know of an area where t-mobile has no signal and no calls can be made. Yet my friend has an at&t phone and has two bars and calls go through, no problem.

mogelijk · Jul 25, 2013

timelord65 said:
I don't think t-mobile does roam onto at&t towers at all for prepaid. I know of an area where t-mobile has no signal and no calls can be made. Yet my friend has an at&t phone and has two bars and calls go through, no problem.

Prepaid does get voice roaming, though it doesn't appear to get it everywhere that the postpaid plans do. If you compare the Prepaid Voice coverage map to the Postpaid coverage map, postpaid has coverage in a couple of areas where prepaid doesn't. At the same time, if you compare the Prepaid voice coverage map to the Prepaid data coverage map, the difference is areas where you are roaming on Prepaid.

My thought is that the difference in prepaid and postpaid roaming is that T-Mobile has contracts with some regional carriers that prepaid don't get to use, though it could also be that they can't use AT&T towers in areas where AT&T has poor bandwidth/coverage.

Petrah · Jul 26, 2013

diemerm said:
I've been on T-Mobile's prepaid $30/month plan for about a year now. The only difference I notice between prepaid/postpaid is that on the prepaid plans they do not allow call forwarding.

Unfortunately this makes it so your phone cannot use Visual Voicemail, or any other voicemail service such as Google Voice.

Having to dial in for voicemail can be a pain at times, but all the money I've been saving definitely makes up for it!!

Just to clarify (I Know it's an old post, but for anyone else reading the thread), and speaking from personal experience you can indeed use Google Voice for voicemail. It gets sent right to your email where you can play it and listen to it. Nothing special is required and you do not need to disable your T-Mobile voicemail to use it. Groove IP also works well along with Google Voice.

T-Mobile Prepaid Coverage

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