Last Friday, lured by the promise of a newly-launched LTE network and usage plan rates that would save us more than $50.00 per month, we switched from AT&T to T-Mobile.
Thirty-six hours later, we came crawling back to AT&T, our tails between our legs, begging them to charge us more.
Right up front: I’m no fan of AT&T. In fact, AT&T is one of those very few companies I actively loathe. From their online account tools (that will let you add any service, but that won’t let you discontinue any) to their on-hold recordings (that tell me I should go to their website to help myself … when the only reason I’m calling is because their website won’t let me help myself) to their customer service reps (who are forced to put more emphasis on upselling than on supporting customers) … everything about AT&T strikes me as an experiment designed to answer the question: “Just how much can we get away with before customers show up at our doors with pitchforks and torches?”
So: why did we switch back?
Here’s why: T-Mobile might be friendlier and cheaper … but their network in Atlanta is a joke.
Standing outside, in the open sunlight, my iPhone could see T-Mobile’s LTE network about 50% of the time. The rest of the time, it downshifted not to a slower 3G network, but all the way down to T-Mobile’s Edge network, which reduces incoming data to a crawl.
Once indoors, the situation gets worse. Inside a building, I never saw any data network other than the slow, outdated Edge network. And when I moved more than a few feet from a window — by walking to the core of our condo building, for example, or going to the restroom at work — I lost not only the data network, but the cellular network, too.
In short: switching to T-Mobile reduced the iPhone I depend on almost constantly to an expensive hunk of junk that could neither reach the Internet nor make calls.
I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I got home Monday night and Clyde said, “Let’s go to the AT&T store and switch back.”
AT&T may not know a thing about customer service. They may have a web site designed by the Marquis de Sade. They may grossly overcharge for their services, especially when compared to what foreign carriers charge their customers. And thy may not even care about you as a customer. (When we called to say we were leaving, they made zero effort to retain us.)
But they know how to build a fast, reliable network that’s available virtually everywhere, indoors or out. In the end, that counts for something.
If you’re an iPhone user, and you’re thinking of switching, be advised: T-Mobile’s performance in an around Atlanta is not a bargain at any price.
I was with AT&T from late 2004 until the iPhone 5 came out. Paid my $200, broke my contract, and went to Verizon Wireless and haven’t looked back. I miss talk and surf but my phone actually functions as a phone again.