3 ms·

I was a happy T-Mobile customer for a few years, and until I recently moved I was reliably getting speeds in the neighborhood of 40mbps down and 10+mbps up over

I was a happy T-Mobile customer for a few years, and until I recently moved I was reliably getting speeds in the neighborhood of 40mbps down and 10+mbps up over 4G in my bedroom - consistently faster than our expensive home DSL, and unlimited*. I ended up using it for things like Twitch streaming. Unfortunately, when I moved to San Jose my 4G reliability went into the toilet - inconsistent signal and average down/up speeds of <1mbps. Even getting a cell booster didn't fix it, so I had to switch carriers. :( It makes me wonder how much of T-mobile's speed is lack of congestion and how much is just better investment in hardware. The towers near my new apartment seemed to be in bad shape and customer service often told me they were shut off for repairs. It's interesting that t-mobile offers free unlimited roaming in some other countries (like Canada) but the performance there definitely suffers. One reason for that is all traffic getting routed back to the states, but it's interesting to consider what all the behind-the-scenes business deals are like to make that possible.

matwood 9y ago
> It makes me wonder how much of T-mobile's speed is lack of congestion and how much is just better investment in hardware. TMO poisoned pill a couple of take over bids and used the money on infrastructure [1]. Their network has greatly expanded in the last couple of years in both coverage and speed. > The towers near my new apartment seemed to be in bad shape Many (most?) towers are no longer owned by the providers. Separate companies now deal in 'vertical real estate', and sell space on the towers. It's possible this was a legacy TMO owned tower though. > It's interesting that t-mobile offers free unlimited roaming in some other countries (like Canada) but the performance there definitely suffers. One reason for that is all traffic getting routed back to the states Are you talking about data or voice? TMO offers international as part of their normal plans, and they are one of the main reasons I use/like TMO. The free tier is 2-3g speed, but the pay for/regular tier is the same thing you would have anywhere else. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/12/att-admits-defeat-on-t-mobile-takeover-will-pay-4-billion-breakup-fee/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/12/att-admits-defea...
smileysteve 9y ago
> It's interesting that t-mobile offers free unlimited roaming in some other countries (like Canada) but the performance there definitely suffers Mostly that they throttle this to 128kbps.
URSpider94 9y ago
Cell service in the South Bay just generally sucks, and has for years -- lots of NIMBYism preventing construction of towers, coupled with some of the highest population density in the country, coupled with very high smartphone ownership and mobile usage.
URSpider94 9y ago
Also, TMO offers unlimited data roaming, and $.20/minute calling, pretty much world-wide. The data is capped at 2G speeds (that's the main reason it's slow), so it's painful for interactive web apps but more than fast enough to pull down emails or grab a public transit timetable from Google Maps, if you're patient. For anyone who travels overseas more than once or twice a year, this is a godsend.

matwood 9y ago

> It makes me wonder how much of T-mobile's speed is lack of congestion and how much is just better investment in hardware. TMO poisoned pill a couple of take over bids and used the money on infrastructure [1]. Their network has greatly expanded in the last couple of years in both coverage and speed. > The towers near my new apartment seemed to be in bad shape Many (most?) towers are no longer owned by the providers. Separate companies now deal in 'vertical real estate', and sell space on the towers. It's possible this was a legacy TMO owned tower though. > It's interesting that t-mobile offers free unlimited roaming in some other countries (like Canada) but the performance there definitely suffers. One reason for that is all traffic getting routed back to the states Are you talking about data or voice? TMO offers international as part of their normal plans, and they are one of the main reasons I use/like TMO. The free tier is 2-3g speed, but the pay for/regular tier is the same thing you would have anywhere else. [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/12/att-admits-defeat-on-t-mobile-takeover-will-pay-4-billion-breakup-fee/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/12/att-admits-defea...

smileysteve 9y ago

> It's interesting that t-mobile offers free unlimited roaming in some other countries (like Canada) but the performance there definitely suffers Mostly that they throttle this to 128kbps.

URSpider94 9y ago

Cell service in the South Bay just generally sucks, and has for years -- lots of NIMBYism preventing construction of towers, coupled with some of the highest population density in the country, coupled with very high smartphone ownership and mobile usage.

URSpider94 9y ago

Also, TMO offers unlimited data roaming, and $.20/minute calling, pretty much world-wide. The data is capped at 2G speeds (that's the main reason it's slow), so it's painful for interactive web apps but more than fast enough to pull down emails or grab a public transit timetable from Google Maps, if you're patient. For anyone who travels overseas more than once or twice a year, this is a godsend.