T-Mobile USA Offers EDGE Across 90% of GRPS Network

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23982' target='_blank'>http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=23982</a><br /><br /></div><i>"T-Mobile USA Inc. said it has launched EDGE services across 90 percent of its GPRS-enabled network and that the higher-speed wireless data service now is commercially available to customers with EDGE-enabled devices. The carrier was expected to launch EDGE earlier this year, but delayed the service due to a lack of compelling devices. T-Mobile USA currently offers a pair of EDGE-enabled handsets from Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp. A company spokesman said customers can continue to access the EDGE services for the same price as their current GRPS rate plans, but that the carrier would begin looking at possible EDGE-specific pricing plans sometime in the future."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/tmo.gif" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/><br /><br />The EDGE network would enable T-Mobile customers to surf the Internet at speeds averaging between 100 to 130 Kbps. Even though this speed is a lot better than the current 20 to 45 Kbps, it still is no match for the 300 to 500 Kbps offered by Verizon and Sprint on their EV-DO based networks. Cingular is already offering EDGE nationwide and has started offering 3G speeds using UMTS technology. T-Mobile has no plans to offer 3G technology, they I believe are betting on the Wi-Fi hot spots. The <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,9097">HTC Tornado</a> is the perfect device for the T-Mobile network, it has EDGE and Wi-Fi. ;-)

[Mark Larson]

Great news! Although since no current Smartphones support EDGE, we're left in the land of slow downloads until the next generation comes out, if they don't skip over to UMTS immediately. Maybe its time to grab a cheap V330 for tethering?

[Sven Johannsen]

I wonder if your having an Edge capable device and T-Mobiles $20 all-you-can-eat data plan, now gets you Edge speeds.

It is hard to tell if that is the case on Cingular's network. They have several data plans, one of which is also a $20 all-you-can-eat plan, which i have. It seems like what you get out of the higher priced plans is Edge, but it is not clear on their site. It is hard for me to tell if I would get better speeds with my $20 all-you-can-eat plan, if I had an Edge device.

[Kris Kumar]

Great news! Although since no current Smartphones support EDGE, we're left in the land of slow downloads until the next generation comes out, if they don't skip over to UMTS immediately. Maybe its time to grab a cheap V330 for tethering?

You are right, and as always the future is where the fun is...sigh...Some of the new ones will have EDGE, Moto Q and HTC Tornado. HTC Tornado, like all other HTC products will be sold under different names and by different vendors, so hopefully we will get it here soon. :-)

[Kris Kumar]

I wonder if your having an Edge capable device and T-Mobiles $20 all-you-can-eat data plan, now gets you Edge speeds.

According to the news article it seems like that is the case. If you have EDGE capable device then you can take advantage of the faster network at the current rates. And let's hope that it will stay the same.

I could not find any official press release or information on the T-Mobile web site. T-Mobile is keeping a low profile about this upgrade. :roll:

[brian_r_baker]

Hmm, if only I could get an edge PC card for my laptop. Then I could just put my SIM in there when I'm away from home if I needed access!

[Kris Kumar]

I haven't checked it out, but Cingular may have one. And hopefully it is unlocked. Or maybe E-bay.

I am guessing that T-Mobile might be making a formal announcement and adding more products. Hopefully the HTC Tornado. ;-)

[me]

Is the Audiovox SMT-5600 EDGE-capable?

[Ned]

[i]"T-Mobile USA Inc. said it has launched EDGE services across 90 percent of its GPRS-enabled network and that the higher-speed wireless data service now is commercially available to customers with EDGE-enabled devices.

This is definitely NON-news at best. Ninety percent of T-Mobile's coverage in the US is virtually no coverage at all. They even show everyone on their web site (see http://www.tmobile.com/coverage/?class=coverage for T-Mobile coverage) how little coverage they have. T-Mobile is a NON-entity as far as I'm concerned.

As an exercise, compare T-Mobile to Cingular coverage, and I wouldn't even call Cingular's coverage great, and I think you'll come to the same conclusion, 90% of T-Mobile coverage is basically no coverage at all.

[Sven Johannsen]

Is the Audiovox SMT-5600 EDGE-capable?No

[Mark Larson]

This is definitely NON-news at best. Ninety percent of T-Mobile's coverage in the US is virtually no coverage at all. They even show everyone on their web site (see http://www.tmobile.com/coverage/?class=coverage for T-Mobile coverage) how little coverage they have. T-Mobile is a NON-entity as far as I'm concerned.

As an exercise, compare T-Mobile to Cingular coverage, and I wouldn't even call Cingular's coverage great, and I think you'll come to the same conclusion, 90% of T-Mobile coverage is basically no coverage at all. Speak for yourself, sir. T-Mobile has worked everywhere I've wanted it to work, and a few places where I didn't expect it to.

You often visit places where a single ZIP code exists for a couple of houses? Those are the areas where T-Mobile doesn't have coverage, and I usually fly over those places. :lol:

They are the only carrier with a decent customer service department, their phones aren't half bad, and their service is fast and effective. I can count on one finger the number of dropped calls or slow data connections I've had with T-Mobile.

[Ned]

I'm sorry Mark, that you seem so offended, but speaking for myself and thousands of former T-Mobile northeast USA customers who were so dissatisfied with their coverage that we went to Cingular, of all companies, who has about as bad a customer service department as exists, T-Mobile is a non-entity.

In the Philadelphia, PA area (6th largest metropolitan area in the country) I can't drive from center-city Philadelphia to any northern suburb, less than 20 miles away, without losing the T-Mobile signal 3 or 4 times and usually when I get there, I get little or no service.

When I travel to Washington DC or New York by train there are large gaps in service. When I travel between Philadelphia and Boston, if I go more than 10 miles from I95 it's little or no service again.

Maybe T-Mobile isn't so bad in the "heartland" of the country, but here in the Northeast it's awful except in the big cities, though not their suburbs.

For me T-Mobile was unusable. I can't count on my hands and feet the number of dropped calls or no-service showing on my screen in a single morning. Great customer service doesn't help much when you have to call them on a land line. In fact, that's how I had to call customer service to cancel my account. At least with Cingular I can call customer service on my cell phone.

[me]

....I think you'll come to the same conclusion, 90% of T-Mobile coverage is basically no coverage at all.

No, I don't come to that same conclusion at all.

Have you ever used T-Mobile service? If not, how have you become an expert on its coverage, or lack of it?

My carrier has been T-Mobile for a couple years now. I live in the Los Angeles, CA area. I get good coverage here everywhere I go. This includes when I have traveled out of town, including all over California.

Of course I cannot speak for how the coverage is everywhere in the country, but if T-Mo coverage was practically non-existent, as you claim, their user base would also be practically non-existent. No one would stay with a carrier with which they could not get any connection, no matter how low the price! (And carriers have a 14 day trial period before one is locked into a contract.) Just the fact that many thousands of people throughout the country are subscribed to T-Mobile service, tells me that your claim that their coverage is little or non-existent could not be true.

I cannot compare with all the other carriers, except one. My former carrier was Sprint. I get MUCH BETTER COVERAGE with T-Mobile than I had with Sprint. (To be fair, it has been a couple of years since I changed, so Sprint might have improved since then. But as of a couple years ago, Sprint's coverage here sucked, and T-Mobile is MUCH better!

[Ned]

Well "me", or is that you... anyway.

Try going down Sepulveda/PCH from Hermosa Beach South for a few miles and see how good the service is from T-Mobile. Try traveling around Redondo Beach and tell me you don't get dropped T-Mobile calls. Try going east down Manhattan Beach Blvd to get to the 405 and tell me how good the service is. My son finally got tired of the dropped calls in LA and switched to Cingular early this year. He tells me he doesn't love Cingular, but at least he can make his calls regularly.

I'll swear by T-Mobile in Scotland and most of the rest of the UK, but not in the US where some local areas may be great, but traveling with T-Mobile in the US isn't great. Traveling in the Caribbean with T-Mobile isn't particularly great either.

Until T-Mobile can at least get to the same level of national coverage as Cingular, to me they're a non-entity. By the way, I want Cingular to up the ante on coverage as it could be better too.

I was in Alaska for a couple of weeks recently. People we met from San Francisco love T-Mobile, but they said they don't travel much. It was interesting that I had no trouble making calls from Fairbanks, the Alaskan RailRoad from Fairbanks through Denali or on the road to Anchorage or anywhere in the Inside Passage, but outside of Anchorage or Juneau they borrowed my phone.

Now if you think perhaps I'm a Cingular salesperson think again. I really don't particularly like the company and have had a number of arguments with them, though not about coverage. Their customer service is second to none in being completely unresponsive, and their insurance policy, oh my gosh, it can't get worse..., but I'm a heavy cell phone user (1,500 - 2,000 minutes per month, most on the job) and I travel a lot in the US, (30,000 to 50,000 air miles per year to give you an idea) as well as travel quite a bit outside the country, so GSM seems to be the way to go, and no one in the US has better GSM coverage than Cingular IMHO.

So rave about T-Mobile customer service, but don't tell me their nationwide coverage deserves a pat on the back. It just doesn't cut it.

Oh...I almost forgot "me", you asked if I've ever subscribed to T-Mobile. I guess you missed my second post right above your post in this topic. I'm one of the thousands in the northeast who dropped T-Mobile for Cingular, and the service was bad enough that I had to use a land line to call them to cancel my account.

[Sven Johannsen]

Interesting that this elicits such fervor. Seems that T-Mobile is great for those it works for. Doesn't seem to be a shortage of those folks either, or they wouldn't be in business.

I too am one who switched form T-Mobile to Cingular for coverage issues. No problems where I lived, but we moved our offices, and I do some traveling, which made Cingular's coverage a better fit.

I'm excited about T-Mobiles Edge service because they will likely offer some of the best pricing around. Can't do anything but pressure Cingular to lower theirs. It took them a while, but Cingular did finally come down to match T-Mobile's $20 all you can eat GPRS. Hopefully T-Mobiles foray into EDGE will have a similar affect on Cingulars data pricing.

[stephman]

Interesting that this elicits such fervor. Seems that T-Mobile is great for those it works for. Doesn't seem to be a shortage of those folks either, or they wouldn't be in business.

I too am one who switched form T-Mobile to Cingular for coverage issues. No problems where I lived, but we moved our offices, and I do some traveling, which made Cingular's coverage a better fit.

I'm excited about T-Mobiles Edge service because they will likely offer some of the best pricing around. Can't do anything but pressure Cingular to lower theirs. It took them a while, but Cingular did finally come down to match T-Mobile's $20 all you can eat GPRS. Hopefully T-Mobiles foray into EDGE will have a similar affect on Cingulars data pricing.

Please post a link, because I see no where on Cingular's site that they have $20 all you can eat GPRS/EDGE. That's one of the things keeping me from Cingular.

As for Ned above. You really shouldn't generalize about the NorthEast and T-Mobiles coverage. I live in the NorhEast as well, CT, and get no where near the shoddy coverage as you describe. Every carrier has it's crap coverage areas. But everyone's experiences are different due to many different factors. Just be glad you had a choice and were able to switch to a carrier who seems to be better suited for your needs.

[Sven Johannsen]

Please post a link, because I see no where on Cingular's site that they have $20 all you can eat GPRS/EDGE. That's one of the things keeping me from Cingular.

https://www.cingular.com/media/media_net_purchase

Look at MEdia Net Unlimited

And I didn't say GPRS/EDGE, just GPRS. Their EDGE plans are higher, best I can tell, which is why T-Mobile currently including Edge in their regular data plan is a good thing.

It's been that way for a couple of months, and was only $25 before that. It gives me internet access for web, e-mail (PoP and Hotmail), IM, etc. Doesn't cover Text Messaging or Multimedia Messaging. If you are in to that stuff you can always pay by the instance or get a plan for those.

AFAIK, T-Mobiles plan didn't cover those things either.

[stephman]

Please post a link, because I see no where on Cingular's site that they have $20 all you can eat GPRS/EDGE. That's one of the things keeping me from Cingular.

https://www.cingular.com/media/media_net_purchase

Look at MEdia Net Unlimited

And I didn't say GPRS/EDGE, just GPRS. Their EDGE plans are higher, best I can tell, which is why T-Mobile currently including Edge in their regular data plan is a good thing.

It's been that way for a couple of months, and was only $25 before that. It gives me internet access for web, e-mail (PoP and Hotmail), IM, etc. Doesn't cover Text Messaging or Multimedia Messaging. If you are in to that stuff you can always pay by the instance or get a plan for those.

AFAIK, T-Mobiles plan didn't cover those things either.

Awesome, thanks for the link. My bad with adding "EDGE" to that statement...fingers just kept typing.

In reviewing there Media plans from the link you posted, I found their "Media Legal Notice" page with some info that alittle disheartening.

http://www.cingular.com/media/media_legal
"MEdia Net
MEdia Net is not equivalent to landline Internet. Only select sites accessible through a mobile connection are available. You are restricted from using a home page other than the Cingular home page. MEdia Net is billed by total volume data sent and received (in kilobytes). Fractions of a kilobyte MEdia Net sessions are rounded up to whole kilobytes. Kilobyte totals may include network overhead. If you switch your phone connection from GPRS to a Circuit-Switch Data connection, you will be billed airtime in one-minute increments as provided by your rate plan. Caller ID blocking is not available when using MEdia Net, and your wireless number is transmitted to Internet sites you visit. Cingular provides connectivity for access to MEdia Net. Information is provided by unaffiliated content providers and is subject to change at any time without notice. MEdia Net packages are not available on PDAs, RIM devices, or PC card modems. MEdia Net packages are not intended for tethering. Cingular reserves the right to remove customers from MEdia Net packages for the use of a wireless device as an interface to other devices or networks, as determined by Cingular, including but not limited to device tethering. "

From the looks of it, I would not be able to use this plan as I would want to use a PDA phone and their legal notice says this is not for such device.
I'm curious if they consider a MS WM smartphone a PDA?

So to get unlimited data with a PDA phone, I'd have to sign up for their
Data Connect Unlimited which looks to be $39.99/month.
$44.99 without a qualifying phone plan.
http://onlinestorez.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/wireless-phone-plans/cell-phone-plans.jsp?catid=2206800007

[revolution.cx]

I have no passions about this one way or the other, just annoyances, but when travelling outside of a populated area or away from a major interstate I've had nothing but problems with T-Mobile. On the west coast there have been many areas where travelling companions with ATT/Cingular had coverage and my Tmo phone had "network denied, searching".

Tmo has its good points but coverage isn't one of them.

[Sven Johannsen]

Stephman, hopefully someone here can shed some light on this for you. I use Cingulars Unlimited MediaNet on my SMT5600 all the time. I also use the phone as a BT modem for my X50v, to take advantage of the bigger screen when needed. I have played with it in my MPX220. I have essentialy full use of the intenet, limited by PIE more than anything else. It actually took me a while to get into Cingulars MediaNet page with the SMT5600. It's actually a good jumping of point, so it is in my Favorites. With NetFront on the PPC I even lose some of the limitations. I can't see how slipping the SIM I have into a 6315, or other PPC phone would be any different, but I don't have a PPCPE to try it with.

Maybe someone here can verify if they have the $20 plan and a Phone Edition. Possibly posting a question over at PPC Thoughts might get some response as I expect there are more phone edition guys over there.

I did get the SMT5600 from Cingular BTW and signed up for the unlimited Media Net at the same time. If they had a problem with that, at least, they wouldn't have let me do it.

[stephman]

Stephman, hopefully someone here can shed some light on this for you. I use Cingulars Unlimited MediaNet on my SMT5600 all the time. I also use the phone as a BT modem for my X50v, to take advantage of the bigger screen when needed. I have played with it in my MPX220. I have essentialy full use of the intenet, limited by PIE more than anything else. It actually took me a while to get into Cingulars MediaNet page with the SMT5600. It's actually a good jumping of point, so it is in my Favorites. With NetFront on the PPC I even lose some of the limitations. I can't see how slipping the SIM I have into a 6315, or other PPC phone would be any different, but I don't have a PPCPE to try it with.

Maybe someone here can verify if they have the $20 plan and a Phone Edition. Possibly posting a question over at PPC Thoughts might get some response as I expect there are more phone edition guys over there.

I did get the SMT5600 from Cingular BTW and signed up for the unlimited Media Net at the same time. If they had a problem with that, at least, they wouldn't have let me do it.
Sven, thanks for the info and suggestion.

[Ned]

[quote=sven]As for Ned above. You really shouldn't generalize about the NorthEast and T-Mobiles coverage. I live in the NorhEast as well, CT, and get no where near the shoddy coverage as you describe...

I travel up and down the Northeast extensively for both my computer consulting work and to referee soccer games. I didn't generalize a thing about T-Mobile, I experienced it. I had never met a single person who traveled throughout our country who thought T-Mobile had good coverage in this country until I expressed my opinion on this forum. We are each entitled to express our opinion, believe it or not. On T-Mobile's quality of coverage we're clearly going to have to agree that we disagree.

Now to GPRS/Edge information on Cingular. Cingular's MEdia Net Unlimited package at $19.99 per month allows you unlimited MBs of connection whether it's through GPRS or Edge. Cingular doesn't care how you connect, they only care how much you connect. I use a non-Edge unit while another member of our household uses a unit with Edge. His Internet speed is much better than mine, though not overwhelmingly better. We have never had an extra charge for Internet on his phone because he's using Edge to connect. Furthermore, I confirmed with Cingular Customer Service that there is no extra charge for using Edge on their system as opposed to GPRS.

[Sven Johannsen]

Now to GPRS/Edge information on Cingular. Cingular's MEdia Net Unlimited package at $19.99 per month allows you unlimited MBs of connection whether it's through GPRS or Edge. Cingular doesn't care how you connect, they only care how much you connect. I use a non-Edge unit while another member of our household uses a unit with Edge. His Internet speed is much better than mine, though not overwhelmingly better. We have never had an extra charge for Internet on his phone because he's using Edge to connect. Furthermore, I confirmed with Cingular Customer Service that there is no extra charge for using Edge on their system as opposed to GPRS.

Glad to hear it. I've been eyeing the upcoming HPs, but am waiting till the WM5 models are out. Wouldn't mind getting to take advantage of EDGE, but wouldn't pay extra for it.

[Ned]

I agree with you. As soon as some of those WM2005 babies are out I'm going to take a look.

I must say that I have a long list of what they must include before I buy another phone though.

[Kris Kumar]

Thought I should add my thoughts on T-Mobile service over here.

As a T-Mobile customer for the last 3+ years. I would say that they have decent/usable coverage in metros and most freeways/thruways. :-)

But once you are out of a big city or off a major highway, thats it..the service goes kaput. :-(

The thing that keeps me on T-Mobile is a combination of things
- It works at my home, it works at my work, and in my home city
- Low cost
- When I rarely need to call them, they have good customer service

That said, ever since the merger between Cingular and AT&amp;T, I have been wanting to switch, now that their data rates are getting closer to T-Mobile's. I might do it, if they have a compelling device. My next year of service would go to whosoever brings out the WiFi based Smartphone at &lt;$200. ;-)