T-Mobile Coverage
I was thinking of switching my cell phone to T-Mobile since it doesn’t require contracts anymore and has some decent prices. How good is the coverage? I would guess coverage is fine in Duluth/Superior, but how good is it as you head toward Ashland?
According to this map, the Twin Ports is good-to-excellent, but the South Shore doesn’t look too hot.
That’s weird. We had T-Mobile when we moved here in 2005, and by 2010, they through us off the plan because they had no towers up here.
Duluth is ok, but a lot of surrounding areas of the Twin Ports are extremely hit and miss.
Coverage is good in the metro. But another issue is the real deal you are receiving from T-Mobile. I suggest that you do a cost by cost review with their competition. I found that there is no gain by having the no-contract option. I believe that the state of Washington has required them to be more transparent in their ads. It’s not the deal that it appears to be. Remember, you pay for their non-subsidized phones if you want a smart phone. But the company is great and I’ve found terrific coverage world-wide. But they are now expensive since they dumped the contract requirement.
I’ve had T-Mobile since 2005 – mainly got it because my Minneapolis bro recommended it, and more so due to T-Mobile having huge international coverage and I planned to travel a bit, also have many contacts in other countries as well, and at the time no one else offered international anything.
I signed up online and they assigned me a number out of Brainerd where they have a tower, so a few people weird out at that, as it’s technically long-distance for some to call who call from landlines. Oh well.
As far as the contract, mine ended in 2007 and I only have a very basic mobile phone – old skool Nokia flip-fone (no smartphone) and it runs $54.99/mo ($15 of that is unlimited messaging due to all the text fiends in my life or I’d ditch that extra cost) $63.49/mo total with taxes and fees.
A Duluth friend had his T-Mobile pulled same as Rhetoricguy in 2010. I thought mine would be pulled too, but never has. Perhaps due to the number being assigned out of the Brainerd area? I dunno. I wasn’t gonna ask and alert them.
I never have a problem with local coverage, and in fact have had coverage in many locations others did not and would borrow my mobile or just be amazed that I had service. Last year I even had great coverage in a small town in rural Guatemala. Parts of NZ were a challenge though.
T-Mobile uses/roams the local towers, but as I understand, have none of their own in Duluth and won’t. Currently my screen reads T-Mobile as my operator, and when I use the menu to manually search/choose an operator, it currently shows two choices: T-Mobile or Cingular. I’ve seen others as well, depending on where I am.
Can’t speak to the Ashland coverage as I’ve not gone up that way since having T-Mobile. This tower search map shows nothing for that area, but it’d most-likely pick up other networks depending on their coverage.
Wanna take me for a road trip and find out?
I’ve used T-Mobile for many years. Service in and around Duluth is good.
Where else can you get phone plans with unlimited everything for $50/month. They also have one of the best pre-pay plans available for data.
CREDO is also excellent…reasonable voice and data plans, sprint service and they do good things with the money you send them.
We just switched to T-Mobile after using Sprint for ten years. Coverage has been good and the prices are hard to beat.