T-Mobile in NoVA (Arlington, Winchester: house, live in, pricing)

[JavaJunkieDC]

I have Verizon for my wireless carrier and have for years. I'm kicking around the idea of leaving them for T-Mobile, but I worry about the poor coverage. I live in Arlington Heights (near Rt. 50) and I have NO landline. Does T-Mobile coverage suck around here? Also how it is on Metro? I'm guessing non-existent.

Coverage in other parts of the country/world aren't of concern to me as I only travel out of the DC area maybe once a year.

[Erix]

I've spoken to many people here who have T-Mobile and many of them seem to like it mainly because of the pricing. I wouldn't think there would be much to worry about in downtown Arlington, or anywhere within the beltway. Verizon is popular because that's the only network which seems to work inside many of the buildings in DC and many metro tunnels and stations, and for that much you really do pay a premium (I know because I have Verizon, and find their pricing is unfairly rigid).

By the way, is your screen name an indication for your love for coffee or your technical expertise?

[JavaJunkieDC]

Coffee. ;-)

[dkf747]

T-Mobile works fine for me pretty much everywhere in the DC area. Verizon did too.

[JavaJunkieDC]

Yeah, I figured. I had them a number of years ago and didn't have any issues as I recall, but that was long before smart phones. I used to be their customer when they were called Voice Stream.

I'll probably stick with Verizon, though. At least for now.

[Opacy]

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile a few months back. Basically anywhere in Arlington/DC/most of NoVA you should be fine. T-Mobile's real problem is that their (data, at least) coverage gets pretty crappy real quick once you leave the urban/suburban areas. I assume their voice coverage should be good though, although deep in big buildings you can sometimes lose it. Supposedly they bought some more spectrum to handle that.

I actually don't really use my phone for calling that much, as funny as that sounds. I do get decent data coverage in some of the Metro stations, but I've never tried calling anyone yet from a station.

For me, the pain points with T-Mobile are pretty minor considering I'm saving 30-40 bucks a month over when I was with Verizon.

[NOVA_guy]

I had T-Mobile for about 6 years before switching to AT&T... there was the normal dropping of calls sometimes or people telling me they tried calling me but I never received it, for the most part their service was pretty good.

[leavingwash]

I have T Mobile and have great coverage 4-5 bars around most of the major cities and roads here. That said, at my house here in Sterling NO bars. A block in any direction perfect signal but not at my house.

There is a coverage checker where you put in the address and it can tell you how clear the signal will be.

Good luck

[Bigfoot424]

I've been wondering about T Mobile as well. I hope to move out to Winchester soon so I need to know about that area. I've had it with Verizon. I've been with them for way too many years now.

[JavaJunkieDC]

Originally Posted by leavingwash

I have T Mobile and have great coverage 4-5 bars around most of the major cities and roads here. That said, at my house here in Sterling NO bars. A block in any direction perfect signal but not at my house.

There is a coverage checker where you put in the address and it can tell you how clear the signal will be.

Good luck

Yeah, but isn't that coverage checker put out by T-Mobile? That's the only one I've been able to find. So of course they're going to say, "coverage at this location is EXCELLENT!" I think I may start asking people in my apt. building as I see them in passing.