t-mobile vs. at&t – in ma’ neighborhood

My work phone is AT&T – but Kristen and I have T-Mobile for my home phone (@Home service is great - $10/mo unlimited), her cell phone, and my old personal cell. I’ve had them for a few years now, and I must say, T-Mobile wins hands down. Not only is their service coverage superior in the places I frequent, their customer service is flat out awesome. I’ve been experimenting in the mobile realm for sometime now, and I’m venturing out to more platforms to beef up my résumé and my skill set. For part of that, I need a cell service I can switch between devices quickly, and with no contract. I spoke to a woman @ T-Mobile named Mindy, who was in Maine. I explained to her that I need three things:

• Limited phone service, but at least nights & weekends and myFaves
• Unlimited data service
• No contract
• Ability to quickly switch between three devices.

Not only was she extremely helpful and knowledgeable, she spoke clear English and sounded genuinely pleased to help me find exactly what I needed – no upselling, no pressure, no bullshit – and best of all, I don’t have to resign any contracts or sign new ones.

I have two primary reasons for switching. For starters, AT&T sucks in my neighborhood. That ‘more bars in more places’ stuff is a bunch of crap. Yesterday, I was at my p’s house in Salisbury, and I had two calls drop within 10 minutes on AT&T. Calls get dropped on a regular basis when I’m driving home from work as well, so I know it’s not localized to this apartment…T-Mobile, on the other hand, is fantastic. Take a look below. I took both of these in my house, at my desk, which is about 15 feet from the balcony, facing North. Pay attention to the signal bars: 2 for AT&T (which is the same on the balcony), 5 for T-Mobile (the 9 minute delay between images is from my having to find the screenshot software for the blackberry to get a clean shot).

Secondly, their policy on devices is great – as long as it doesn’t screw things up, they don’t seem to care what you do – they’ll even help configure your non-T-Mobile devices to access their stuff. I know that if I was to put the SIM from my BlackBerry (AT&T) into this iPhone, it would completely screw things up – my data plan would get changed, which would mean that whenever that triggered, I’d have to go have that conversation with my boss about why my phone bill is $4000.

Anyway, the point of this post is to simply say that T-Mobile rocks, and if you’re up for cell renewal, give them a shout and let ‘em know what’s up. I figure that with everyone else bitching about companies and everything else online, it’d be nice to give props to a company that actually delivers.