[surfsquish]

I have been a customer with T-Mobile for a while and I recently moved to an area where the service is not so great. I get excellent service everywhere except in my house. I currently have the 8800 and I tried the 8820 with WI FI and it worked OK. Lots of dropped calls and noise in the background in my house.

I ordered the Curve 8900 from T-Mobile and I should get it sometimes next week. Considering its a newer phone, would it help improve the service or am I basically beating a dead horse.

My wife has Verizon and she gets perfect service everywhere. I want to switch to Verizon and get the blackberry Tour but its a more expensive service with the Data Plan.

Would the Curve 8900 with T-Mobile improve the phone service?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[lobo411]

You're beating a dead horse. It doesn't matter what phone you have--you can't change the fact that T-mobile has the worst network in the United States. I just came back from a multi-city trip (Los Angeles, Boston, Connecticut, New York City, Washington DC, Dallas/Fort Worth) and everywhere I went I usually had only about 1-2 bars.

[aplata]

My opinion, when at home I use UMA and I have great reception and even better than EDGE. I do get only 1 bar on EDGE at home and do get dropped calls. Minor static issues only when multiple kids use internet and hog bandwith. My two cents.

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[IWearMyKswiss]

i had the same problem. great service everywhere except inside my home. but thank goodness for UMA. it has saved me alot of headaches and trips to certain parts of the house where i get service

[TheMightiestPen]

I think you just need to change carriers.

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[omuzikworld]

Make the switch!

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[petaf]

I so wanted a Verizon phone. Best coverage everywhere. But not in my house. Thank God for UMA and my 8900.

[dermanj]

Would the Curve 8900 with T-Mobile improve the phone service?

Interesting mix of responses here. I fear the people who are telling you to switch carriers might be missing the point (i.e., with

As a T-Mobile customer with an 8900 as well as an 8320, here's what I say:

As long as you have a decent broadband internet connection and a good wireless router with strong wifi signal in your house, you'll be in very good shape with UMA on the 8900 (or 8320, for that matter).

If you don't have a good wifi signal in your house, it should be fairly easy to improve that situation. Wireless routers are pretty inexpensive these days, and in my experience, some routers (especially newer ones) do a much better job than others when it comes to putting out a strong signal.

[jamdown2]

I too have been Tmobile for years and I have spotty signals strength in my house.
In fact whenever I have a party at my house the only carriers with ANY signal is TMO and ATT.

Thank god for a good wifi signal and UMA no more drop calls in my house

[tigerarmy123]

I'm having problems finding applications (ringtones, wallpaper, etc) for my 8900
Seems that every thing I try downloading I get an error installing or running
Anything. I've downloaded a couple of ringtones and that is about it. Any recommendations?

[skindoc]

I have been with T-mo for a few years now too, and I was on the brink of switching when .231 finally came out an improved one of my most aggravating issues: crappy UMA experience. It's not perfect, but it's certainly better. I am a big fan of UMA and took advantage of it when I was in Punta Cana: I did not incur any International Roaming charges when calling back to the US.

Even now, UMA is a mixed bag. In my home (with DSL and a Linksys router), I get frustrated at what should be the ultimate solution to poor signal strength from the nearest cell tower. In one of my two offices, the UMA experience is flawless (T1 line and an Apple Airport wireless basestation). In the office with broadband (not sure what type) plus a Linksys wireless router, I have trouble hanging on to the UMA signal and the handoff to EDGE (even with the box for allowing inter-point access handover checked "yes") just blows and the dropped calls drive me nuts.

My entire family is on Verizon and have no complaints as such.

T-mo customer services reps have treated me very well over the years with various issue (equip replacement, changing plans without extending the contract, etc.), so I kinda like staying. In addition, I am on contract with my new 8900 and the upcoming Onyx, (with 3G and UMA, possibly coming to T-mo USA) keep me from jumping ship at the moment.

Just my thoughts.

[anon(2199561)]

Just switched from ATT to Tmo, wife is on VZ. All three had average reception in house, but UMA is outstanding and I love free wifi calling when I'm overseas. Coeverage is generally not as good but I can make all the calls I need and I get unlimited everything for about 70. VZ and ATT can't touch that.

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[jamestbrewer]

Issues with UMA can often be from the router, wireless connection, local network traffic or the broadband connection. If have any of these issues and are not able to address them I would suggest going with another carrier.

In my house UMA calls work perfectly, but when I visit some of my friends I get choppy UMA connections due to crappy routers and bad default setups. My friends with UMA handsets and those bad routers are surprised when they come to my house and find out that it can work so well. Also, I find that on some wifi networks enabling encryption causes more problems.

[r.pad]

You're beating a dead horse. It doesn't matter what phone you have--you can't change the fact that T-mobile has the worst network in the United States. I just came back from a multi-city trip (Los Angeles, Boston, Connecticut, New York City, Washington DC, Dallas/Fort Worth) and everywhere I went I usually had only about 1-2 bars.

That's funny, my experience with T-Mobile in NY and LA has been excellent and far better than AT&T.

[Brollic]

I'm having problems finding applications (ringtones, wallpaper, etc) for my 8900
Seems that every thing I try downloading I get an error installing or running
Anything. I've downloaded a couple of ringtones and that is about it. Any recommendations?

Here's a suggestion... start a NEW thread...

[Vidge]

Been with TMob for a number of years. Loving the UMA service, which solved completely for me the issue of reception at home.

[feeltheboost]

KEEP T-Mobile!!!! Get a WiFi router and get the UMA service for your 8900. It basically lets you create your own cell phone signal at home. If you have a "black hole" in your house for WiFi signal, you can add another router in the Network to act as another access point. That's what I did. There's no way I'd ever get rid of T-Mobile due to the UMA feature. I used to have Verizon, but not anymore. We ended our Verizon contracts early to get T-Mobile because of UMA. T-Mobile and Blackberries go together like Cookies and Milk.

[exelant]

I agree with those who like the UMA service from TMo. Sure they have good signals in some locations and not so good in others, but a good connection with your router will solve your connection problems at home. Here is a guide that has helped some people - there is also a very good WiFi guide in the FAQ thread by bmcclure. I save hundreds of minutes a month along with having one of the lowest monthly rates going.

My wife travels to East and Western Europe, the Middle East and South America for work and always has service. I'm sure if I lived in a location with a poor TMo overall signal I'd switch, but your 8900 should be a good device to use when you get your router connection issues worked out. BTW I use a linksys WRT 54g router and it works great - we also have TMo's version of Voip for $10 a month! That saved us $60 a month right there for our land line number. Good luck.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f100/uma-setup-how-206217/

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[exelant]

Here's a link to that WiFi guide I mentioned.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f3/comp...ifi-how-47229/

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[Artemis68]

Is your home the only place where you have poor reception? If so, get a Wi-Fi router for UMA and your problem is solved.

However, if you get bad service almost everywhere and you're willing to spend the extra money, then go for Verizon. You said your wife has Verizon? You could probably save money on a family plan with her.

Personally, I'm not switching because I'm a college student and T-Mobile is the cheapest, but if I was somewhere with NO reception and I had extra money, then I'd go to Verizon.

[surfsquish]

Thanks everyone for the response. Its very much truly appreciated.

Yes, my home is the only area with bad signal. It works good everywhere else.

I should be getting the 8900 in a couple of days and I will hook it up to my WI FI router.

Its a regular WI FI router from BEC technologies and looks pretty average.

I will be super stoked if UMA has a continuous service and works flawless in my house. Its 60 Dollars savings for me per month if I stay with T-Mobile rather than switching to Verizon.

Thanks again everyone

[ClintRo]

I also find that the reception on the 8900 is better than what I was getting on my 8120 and my GFs 8100. So the mobile signal might improve with your upgrade.

[Doctor A]

I dropped same conversation 4 times several days ago when on wifi preferred setting when upstairs. Wifi signal upstairs is 2/3 of max and cellular usually 1-2 bars max. However things did not work well that day but have had problem since day one. I called Customer support and they had me speak with pda specialist and best they could suggest was set on wifi only but I would probably leave home and forget to change back. I really like T-Mobile and instead of leaving I made a $220 crap table bet and bought new sealed up Shadow 2009 on ebay. I know, damn Windows Mobile 6.1 and will probably regret this. However when I am downstairs where 8900 was always SOS the Shadow has 1-2 bars, mostly 2. This also has UMA so I set that up after checking cellular coverage and switches pretty seamless. I went outside and down the street and (8900 would always go to SOS before connect to cellular was established) and switched quickly to 2 then 3 bars never seen on 8900. I am going to keep checking back and see how things go with new OS to see if radio in 8900 somehow gets stronger for folks. I am sure will be back using Blackberry but am going to be more critical of radio function when I check them out again.
Thanks guys,
Doc

[taetae1669]

i have the 8900 live in nor colorado and i have perfect signal in my home. i dont know why everyone is dissin on the t mobile i think its your location but good luck to you and hope it all works out

[jamdown2]

Doc,

What OS are you currently using on your 8900?