When I left T-Mobile for Verizon in 2011, I was frustrated by a few things. Mainly that T-Mobile wasn't offering the iPhone and that I would always have to jump through the hoops of unlocking an AT&T iPhone to run on T-Mobile and only have access to 2G service. It's also worth mentioning that at the time T-Mobile's other offerings for phones was pretty lousy too. Their top Android phones at the time were unbearably slow so it wasn't like I was going to get a great experience with a different phone. When I switched to Verizon, I was also single and therefore in a better position to handle the increase in my bill.
When I first joined Verizon, I had a plan with 450 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data for $80 a month (about $87 after taxes), also included was unlimited calls and texts to Verizon customers. I was generally happy with this plan, but later there were a few changes that made me wonder about the way Verizon treats its customers. I later bought an iPad with a Verizon data plan. I was a little miffed at the time when I found out they got rid of their $20 a month tablet plan and in order to purchase the iPad from their store I had to activate that day for $35 and then pay $30 a month for 2GB. This took my bill up to $110 a month ($120 after taxes). Later that year I decided I wanted to upgrade to an iPhone 5. I knew going into this upgrade that Verizon was forcing its customers to give up their previous plan and choose their Share Everything (in your wallet) plan. Still, the $80 plan I had was serving me well since I didn't need the extra minutes and texts. When I realized I wasn't going to get an iPhone 5 on eBay for a reasonable price, I reluctantly went forward with the upgrade when I became eligible. The problem with the Share Everything plan is they essentially force you into unlimited minutes and texts even if you don't need them and put strict limitations on your data usage. I went from having unlimited phone data and 2GB of tablet data to having 2GB between the two for the same $110 a month I was paying before. Not only that, but I could only save $10 a month if I took my iPad off the tablet plan, so to have a phone with 2GB of data would be $100 instead of the $80 I was previously paying to get unlimited data. Soon after upgrading, my frustrations furthered when I was charged $15 for barely going over. This came as a surprise as I had been tracking my usage with the My Verizon app. On the last day of the month, I was still under (according to the app) and turned off data on my phone hoping to avoid going over. Unfortunately I must have already been over and the app did not have the up to date data usage. I tried to argue this when on the phone with customer service, but the agent actually told me the app was not accurate. I find it ridiculous if we're trying to track our usage to avoid going over that we can't trust the data that they provide us. Considering how little I actually went over, it would have been nice if they had reduced my $15 overage at least some, or retroactively upgraded me to a higher tier of data so I would only be charged $10, as I probably would have done that if I felt I needed to. This lead me to wonder how honest Verizon really is with their customers, and their customer service didn't prove themselves to be accommodating at all. I find it hard to believe that they don't have up to the minute data on each customer's usage, or they do not have a way to calculate it effectively on the fly. I could have turned off my data a day earlier if I had seen how close I really was to my data cap.
Last summer I got married, and as part of that I brought my wife's phone onto my plan. This brought my bill all the way up to $175. With each month that passed, I looked at that $175 coming off my credit card each month and really started wondering if I was getting my money's worth. That question would also come each time I tested my data speeds on Verizon's LTE network. When I first bought my iPad two years ago, my LTE speeds generally would range from 13-20 Mbps. At the time I was pretty happy with what I was getting as it's comparable to what most people get at home. Over time, it started slowing down some. It hadn't slowed down enough to concern me at the time when I bought my iPhone 5, but since then I have seen speeds I drop dramatically. It seems likely to be congestion related as there are obviously more LTE devices being added to their network by the day, but for the rates they are charging their customers, they need to be doing more to keep their network up to speed. In recent months, I was typically getting anywhere from 4 to 8 Mbps on LTE. This may be fine for most functionality you perform with a smartphone or tablet, but the arrow is obviously pointing down on the speeds we can expect from their network, enough to have you wonder if they'll even be able to keep speeds above what most would consider 3G.
One of the things I sacrificed using a Verizon iPhone 5 on T-Mobile is not having access to T-Mobile's LTE network. Honestly, it hasn't made much difference as I am getting similar, and in some locations better, speeds on T-mobile's HSPA+ network than I was on Verizon's LTE. My monthly bill with T-Mobile right now is around $120 a month, and that includes $22 for monthly installments paying for my wife's iPhone 5S. We traded in her old iPhone 4S to pay my Verizon termination fee and even with a new phone we are saving close to $50 a month. I know some will argue how great Verizon's coverage is, but in my experience that just meant you would get 1 or 2 bars in a few obscure places not covered by T-Mobile. I haven't been to a city yet where T-Mobile's coverage seemed lacking, and I'm not sure why so many people on the internet are adamant that T-Mobile's coverage is subpar.
T-Mobile is a different company from when I left them in 2011. They had been purchased by AT&T, and their CEO at the time seemed apathetic about their situation. After the merger was nixed by the Department of Justice, John Legere took over as CEO and has made a world of difference. T-Mobile today is all about shaking up the industry and killing off the policies of cell phone providers that have been treating customers unfairly for years. They've killed contracts. They offer phones in monthly installments. They let you bring your own phone and not be forced to pay the higher rates of the contract carriers. They offer early upgrade programs that are far more consumer friendly than those of the contract carriers. They offer a free data plan for tablets. A company that offers these things to the consumer is a company I want to stand behind.
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