T-Mobile Should Be Independent

By now, most of you know that At&t and T-Mobile USA started a transaction that involves At&t acquiring T-Mobile, its customers and all of its gorgeous wireless spectrum. Personally, I think T-Mobile should stay independent from any other US carrier and continue to do business as normal. In my opinion, T-Mobile is afraid to continue doing business on its own and being bought out sounds much better than just picking the company off of the ground and moving forward.

T-Mobile, by customer base, is the worst of the big four carriers. They have the least customer loyalty and their 3G service isn’t up to par with the rest. If you ask me, those are the only two things that threaten T-Mobile’s prosperity in this market. I’ll use myself as an example:

“It was the summer of 2009 and I was fresh out of my freshman year of college. I was working at a law firm and needed a new cell phone. My mother was using a Pearl Flip 8220 on one of T-Mobile’s cheaper pay as you go plans. I walked into the T-Mobile store in an attempt to join my mother’s plan and instead, walked out of there with my own plan and a brand new, free, Curve 8900. The plan consisted of unlimited everything.” – I’ll pause there. T-Mobile pretty much said my credit was good enough for me to choose ANY phone in the store and I didn’t have to pay for the first month. Not to mention, this unlimited plan was less than $90 after taxes & miscellaneous fees. Let’s pick it back up. “About two months later, my mom gets tired of her phone, her plan and decides she wants in on the unlimited goodness. I walk into the store to add her line and guess what. She gets a free Curve 8900, and the first month free. One month goes by and my younger sister follows suit with the first month free and a T-Mobile G1.” – Oh, I forgot to mention that I was approved for 3 lines automatically. Initially, everything was well. We all enjoyed T-Mobile and that Curve 8900 was the beginning of my BlackBerry addiction.

UMA – Unidentified Mobile Access – means that you can use your mobile device wherever there is free WiFi. Now, I don’t just mean, browse the web and upload photos to Facebook. You can send text messages and make phone calls. I don’t know of any other US carrier that offers UMA. Why? Because the other carriers are selfish and want you to user their services for everything. For months I would sit on my 8900 connected to my home WiFi and wouldn’t complain one bit. T-Mobile’s service couldn’t get through the house well, but, with UMA, I was saved.

Now, I’m from Philadelphia, PA, where every carrier has 3G service. There were plenty of areas in the city that didn’t get the service but, it was there. In February of 2010, I switched my plan to Even More Plus. This allowed me to not be in contract anymore, and purchase any new phone that I desired by putting it on a 24 month installment plan. So, I bought a Bold 9700. I loved that Bold very much and it served me well along with T-Mobile’s awesome 3G service. Until…I left for boot camp in May of 2010. My training school was in Pensacola, Florida. There was no T-Mobile 3G service in that city. For months I put up with up with slow EDGE service until finally, I left T-Mobile for a BlackBerry Torch and At&t’s 3G. At this moment, I regret that decision. The Torch is a nice device but it lacks battery life and basic BlackBerry principles. At&t has terrible service – here’s transition from T-Mobile being bad to At&t being worse.

When I made the switch to At&t I had to purchase my BlackBerry Torch 9800 that same day for $99.99 – pause – the Torch was out for months and I couldn’t get it for free. That T-Mobile Curve 8900 was out for less time when I bought it back in 2009. I currently pay more for my family plan with 3 devices, 2 of which have 2GB of data, while one has 200MB, 1400 shared any time minutes & unlimited nights and weekends, than I paid for unlimited everything using T-Mobile. Can anyone see the connection here?

I’ve dropped more calls on At&t’s service in one week than I’ve ever dropped for the entire 1 year & 9 months using T-Mobile – no exaggeration. T-Mobile didn’t have 3G in Pensacola…[side note: dumbest business move ever – when navy students first arrive to Pensacola they can’t leave base(Corry Station) for a minimum of 28 days and the only cell phone store around is a T-Mobile store – so, why not make sure there is 3G so when these students(who have plenty of money fresh out of boot camp) can leave base, they don’t jump ship to another carrier(like I did)]…but T-Mobile’s 3G is far more stable and reliable than At&t’s anyway. Someone from Sprint went on to say that if At&t knew how to manage wireless spectrum, they wouldn’t need to acquire T-Mobile. T-Mobile is throwing in the towel just because the opponent can hit harder. At&t has no endurance. A few good body shots and At&t could fall. T-Mobile is afraid to fight and it’s going to hurt so many people in the long run; I hope you understood the metaphor.

I truly hope that T-Mobile users get grandfathered into the acquisition with their unlimited data & UMA, otherwise, At&t users are going to flee to Verizon. Sprint is the At&t of CDMA carriers. I always said I didn’t want to use a CDMA carrier but staying with AT&t after T-Mobile is gone might be suicide. T-Mobile needs to express roll out a lot more 3G alongside the HSPA+ service to help keep customers content. They need to speak with device manufacturers about selling better devices also. If T-Mobile sold the BlackBerry Torch, I wouldn’t have left. I wanted 3G but, I wanted the Torch more.

In conclusion, At&t has really bad service and even worse customer service. I’ve grown to really dislike them(dropping calls with 5 bars[maximum possible] of service). T-Mobile is a better company overall and they care about customers buy offering UMA and continuing the unlimited data plan to this day. I’ve never had any personal issues with T-Mobile. They just need more 3G. This was quite long but I hope you can see where I am coming from. Let’s keep hope alive. Enjoy your BlackBerry.