Sprint vs T-Mobile?

Hey guys, just looking for a little help here. I currently have a plan with Sprint where I end up paying $80 a month. I used to get a discount because of my employer, but I'm no longer with the company so I lost that. Now paying for the service seems absurd. I also pay $35 monthly for my little sister's Virgin Mobile phone. That's $115 worth of phone bills, and I'm looking for a way out. 

I keep seeing T-Mobile commercials that say you can get 4 lines for $100, with 2GB of data per person. I could then get my brother and mother to go in with me, as they both pay $35 a month for Virgin Mobile as well. I think I only really use 1GB a month, so I'm not worried about that. What I am concerned about is the quality of the providers. Does anyone have any experience with T-Mobile? Truthfully, I've been pretty disappointed with Sprint's coverage in my area, so I can't see it being that bad. Additionally, they're showing on commercials that you can now make phone calls whenever you're in a WiFi hotspot, which I routinely am in. 

Anyone see any drawbacks? All and any advice would be extremely helpful. Thanks guys! 

T-Mobile offers the "7 Night Stand" test drive.  They'll send you an iPhone 5S to use for a week, you can test data, phone reception, anything else you're concerned about for a week. 

I did this recently and decided to move my family to T-Mobile. 

When you look at their coverage maps, they seem to be well covered in metro and surround areas and then drop off in rural areas.

If you don't live in those rural areas or drive through them frequently, then it seems like a worthwhile move.

Plus the cheap/free domestic and international data for tables is awesome.

theemadgamer said:

T-Mobile offers the "7 Night Stand" test drive. They'll send you an iPhone 5S to use for a week, you can test data, phone reception, anything else you're concerned about for a week.

I did this recently and decided to move my family to T-Mobile.

When you look at their coverage maps, they seem to be well covered in metro and surround areas and then drop off in rural areas.

If you don't live in those rural areas or drive through them frequently, then it seems like a worthwhile move.

Plus the cheap/free domestic and international data for tables is awesome.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. It's a pretty steep hold on my account for the week ($700), but I think I'm going to try the 7 night stand. Looking at the map, it says I should have very strong reception. What kind of plan did you go with, and what do you pay? Any sneaky charges I should be on the lookout for?

I went with the 4 phones, $100 bucks.  No sneaky charges, they offer all kinds of add on services which you can just decline.

I also added two tablets, one on demand (free, 200 megs a month of data) and one with 1GB of data for $10.

What I love about all of these is that there can be no over the plan limit charges, as they all just throttle down to slower speed if a user uses all their data.  So no surprise changes and no data cut offs.  And I can add data to any device (mine any time for just one month if needed.

Added convenience of small amount of free international data, WIN/WIN.

Awesome, thanks for all the info. I'll be stopping in a store tomorrow.

I was with Sprint for almost ten years and finally changed to Tmobile this past year.  I am very happy with the change.  I was able to get rid of the sprint airwave that I had to use for service in my own house and now get 4g just fine with Tmobile.  I ended up buying a refurbished samsung galaxy s3 and hopping on the $30 pay as you go walmart plan.  Unlimited text, 4g data up to 5gig, and 100 min...I barely use minutes so it was a good plan for me.  Saves me $40 a month.  I think it just depends on your area and I'd definitely recommend doing a test drive.  

Alright guys, I'm feeling a little confused again. I was expecting to see TMobile offering the same deal as the other 3 main carriers - a new iPhone would be $199 with a 2 year contract. Is that not actually a thing? Do they need have two year contracts? 

If you're in a decent coverage area, you can also go with Metro PCS.
4 lines for $100 tax included and no contract. The phones are kinda cheap too. It's worth it if you're going with a Lumia. 500 GB full speed and it's lowered after that but it's unlimited.

I gotta say, since your other family members have Virgin Mobile, give that a thought too. I just switched to Boost (relatively the same) and it works good for me. Just gotta watch the coverage map.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm not necessarily interested in prepaid phones. I've had Virgin Mobile, and it was fine I guess, but I'm too used to having my iPhone 5. I don't see how I could downgrade. 

If you won't upgrade any time soon, then MetroPCS might be good because they support the iPhone 5 after they flash it.

The Orange Alert said:

Alright guys, I'm feeling a little confused again. I was expecting to see TMobile offering the same deal as the other 3 main carriers - a new iPhone would be $199 with a 2 year contract. Is that not actually a thing? Do they need have two year contracts?

Click to expand...

I was in T-Mobile a few weeks ago when looking for phones, and I was informed that they no longer do contracts. You pay full price for your phone (or bring your own) and they give you a cheaper plan in exchange. I ended up going with Verizon instead, since the whole reason I was switching was to get a deal on the 5s.

Unfortunately iPhones sold for Sprint, unlike Verizon, are locked and can't be used on Tmo. In this situation the best course of action is to buy a Tmo compatible iPhone and sell your current Virgin phone. There's no harm in trying especially when there is a sale for 1 cent prepaid Sims. As for the calls over wifi while it is a new feature for iOS8, it seems that the iPhone 5 was excluded from that feature.