The End of T-Mobile Service, or is it?

Since 1996 I've been a T-Mobile subscriber, traveling from Ominpoint to Voicestream to T-Mobile and taking all of my grandfathered goodies such as Buddytime with me. 

Looks like today I'm faced with a decision on whether or not to keep service.  Now mind you, I've gone through some crazy times in order to get my service to work.  Duct taping my 3650 to the back door which at that time was the only place that I could get reception.  Utilizing the bluetooth abilities on all of my devices to use SMS Tray just so that I could send and receive messages while being connected.  Lol Matthew has been witness to most of this craziness through the years!

Last years announcement of T-Mobile buying out Suncom during the spectrum auction was what I wanted to hear.  North Carolina doesn't have native T-Mobile coverage and being here for 6+ years I've tried every trick possible to get it to work.  As of last week Suncom towers were shut down, thus causing a disruption of my service.  What's odd is that the roaming agreement between Suncom and AT&T does not convert or change to T-Mobile... meaning T-Mo doesn't have an agreement with AT&T here in the Carolina's.  BUMMER!!!

Fortunately, I have call fowarding turned on, but that means that I'll miss messages.  Part of me wants to port the number out but I love my rate plan too much and haven't come across anything comparable to what I have for the price that I have.  That may seem like a childish approach, but consumerwise its smart.

So I'm faced with "what to do".  I look at it like this.  I've waited this long, maybe I can wait just a tad bit longer.  (sigh).  In the meantime I'll use AT&T (who drops calls like crazy) until I can figure something out.

Comments

[Admiral]

It really stinks that we don't have many GSM/wCDMA competitors in the US. I used to be with T-Mobile (omni-->voice-->T), and switched to cingular due to the better family talk plans at the time. At least back then there were 3. Now there are only two. Frustrating!

[PhoneBoy]

Why wouldn't T-Mobile simply change the existing Suncom towers to T-Mobile instead of just shutting them down? This doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

I imagine this "hole" in the roaming agreements will get worked out shortly. What does T-Mobile have to say about it?

[Darla]

@PhoneBoy

Well when I called them to discuss the matter, I was simply offered to use that T-Mobile@Home service... which I couldn't quite understand since that isn't the solution that I was looking for.

Apparently, they had to go look up some documenation regarding the roaming issue, but I agree that they shouldn't have just shut off the towers. Now the next issue is contacting AT&T about the possible roaming issue. Whats weird is that I have a T-Mobile UK sim which roams on AT&T with no problems. But as Admiral said... it's just sad that there are only 2 GSM providers in the US. There should be a better footprint of roaming to compensate the holes.

[christexaport]

I wished the GSM carriers had open roaming agreements amongst each other on GSM AND WCDMA, creating a nationwide 3G GSM network. That'd force manufacturers to implement quadband WCDMA devices.

Darla, don't leave T-Mobile. You know from day one, they keep promises, and take care of subscribers. They even allowed my upgrade subsidy to by my first Nseries device from CompUSA, an N90 back in '06. So long ago...

Their network will be more advanced with better capacity at buildout, and devices are coming. I'm sure a roaming agreement will occur soon. And you still have all the old school perks. You'll rue the day you have to depend on at&t while travelling. Spotty spotty. Just be patient and stick with big Magenta.

By the way. Let Nokia know we're the ones preaching the Symbian gospel! T-Mobile's subscribers deserve some S60 AWS support! Unlocked capitol has always been T-Mobile!

[Farhan]

Cell companies in US are ripping off the consumers , I was in US in July got ATT prepaid , the damn thing cost me 10c per min of receiving the call which was costing my mum USD 1.00 for an hour calling all the way from Pakistan . The data connectivity was shaky and at 100kb / 10c was way too expensive , i get unlimited EDGE in Pakistan for USD 9 per month with free MMS thrown in . ATT people told me my N958gb is not compatible with them which I happily used all over US . You guys need some heavy competition , in Pakistan we have 5 cell companies , Orascom (Mobilink ) , Telenor , Zong ( China Mobile ) , Ufone ( Etisalat - Dubai) and Waridtel ( Abudhabi group) none indigenious but all offering rates making cell phone calls the cheapest in the world in Pakistan . Long live competition

[Maciek]

Farhan,

We'll welcome you with open arms if you'll choose to start another GSM carrier on our turf.

[colin small]

looks like no love for NC 3G.

http://tmonews.com/2008/09/t-mobile-officially-announces-3g-cities/