Need opinions on the 55+ Plan and reception in Mid-Missouri

Our ATT bill is getting too high. So I've been looking at T-Mobile. I'm impressed with rate and offerings on the Unlimited 55+ plan. My wife and I both have BlackBerry phones, she has the Motion and I have the KEYᵒⁿᵉ ( soon the KEYᵗʷᵒ). Most of our data usage is through our home wifi, so the unlimited part will only be useful on trips. It's better than our 3gig plan with ATT.
What I'm most curious about is cell coverage. It looks decent around the Columbia, Missouri area but spotty outside of that area.
So I would appreciate anyone's opinion on their cell experience in the Show-Me state, and with T-Mobile in general.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by Smokeaire

Our ATT bill is getting too high. So I've been looking at T-Mobile. I'm impressed with rate and offerings on the Unlimited 55+ plan. My wife and I both have BlackBerry phones, she has the Motion and I have the KEYᵒⁿᵉ ( soon the KEYᵗʷᵒ). Most of our data usage is through our home wifi, so the unlimited part will only be useful on trips. It's better than our 3gig plan with ATT.
What I'm most curious about is cell coverage. It looks decent around the Columbia, Missouri area but spotty outside of that area.
So I would appreciate anyone's opinion on their cell experience in the Show-Me state, and with T-Mobile in general.
Thanks.

Used to be able to check out t-mobile with a $3/prepaid sim plan. Check out their website and see if plan exists for BYOD. The coverage maps and friends coverage opinion with T-Mobile is worthless. Best money I ever spent for 3 months so it was $10 for testing. I didn't switch because I found coverage holes and I live in 3-4 million population metro in Tampa Bay area of Florida.

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by Chuck Finley69

Used to be able to check out t-mobile with a $3/prepaid sim plan. Check out their website and see if plan exists for BYOD. The coverage maps and friends coverage opinion with T-Mobile is worthless. Best money I ever spent for 3 months so it was $10 for testing. I didn't switch because I found coverage holes and I live in 3-4 million population metro in Tampa Bay area of Florida.

Posted via CB10

That seems like a good idea. I'll have to look to see if that is an option. Thanks very much.

Update: I checked out the T-Mobile coverage , spotty in our state just a little bit south of me.
I went to the ATT store, between my wife and I we use less than a gig of data a month. So we went with the 1gig plan, $65 a month minus her University discount. Cheaper than the 55+ TM plan.

I bought a T-Mobile "go-phone" for a trip to Canada. I have tried it from south of Sikeston up to St Louis with horrible coverage once you get even 1/4 mile off of I-55. It's so poor that every WalMart in that 150 miles stretch no longer sells ANY T-Mobile devices because the return rate was huge! I can buy the prepaid fill up cards but nothing else. I liked the great rates they've been advertising for military & veterans so I reloaded the cell just last month, hoping that SOME improvements might have happened. Nope! Still as awful as before. The only way T-Mobile currently makes sense is IF you live in a large city that has good coverage AND you don't ever travel beyond the city limits. I've found many areas where the phone can't even provide 911 service during drives between MO, IL & KY. Really stinks, as I pay more to AT&T while getting dismal customer service.

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

Originally Posted by scubafan

I bought a T-Mobile "go-phone" for a trip to Canada. I have tried it from south of Sikeston up to St Louis with horrible coverage once you get even 1/4 mile off of I-55. It's so poor that every WalMart in that 150 miles stretch no longer sells ANY T-Mobile devices because the return rate was huge! I can buy the prepaid fill up cards but nothing else. I liked the great rates they've been advertising for military & veterans so I reloaded the cell just last month, hoping that SOME improvements might have happened. Nope! Still as awful as before. The only way T-Mobile currently makes sense is IF you live in a large city that has good coverage AND you don't ever travel beyond the city limits. I've found many areas where the phone can't even provide 911 service during drives between MO, IL & KY. Really stinks, as I pay more to AT&T while getting dismal customer service.

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

For some reason I thought you were in California scubafan. If you can borrow a newer T-Mobile device, you might find better coverage, unless that prepaid T-Mobile is newer. I still don’t get as good coverage with T-Mobile as with AT&T but it’s gotter much better here in the greater TPA, Florida in the last year or so. One thing I forgot to mention in another thread is that WiFi calling is more friendly with factory unlocked devices on T-Mobile...

Not a cutting edge device for certain, it's a ZTE Zinger running (I think) 4.3 as I recall. The WiFi calling does work, about the only saving grace. Without it T-Mobile wouldn't be able to even send a text from my house since the Microcell will only accept AT&T phones.

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

Originally Posted by scubafan

Not a cutting edge device for certain, it's a ZTE Zinger running (I think) 4.3 as I recall. The WiFi calling does work, about the only saving grace. Without it T-Mobile wouldn't be able to even send a text from my house since the Microcell will only accept AT&T phones.

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

If your BB10 hardware is AT&T version, it might have WiFi calling enabled on AT&T network. The AT&T KEYone is a no go for me as fas WiFi calling, even though AT&T sold it to me, so I won’t buy anymore devices unless AT&T supports WiFi calling on the actual carrier version.

Originally Posted by Chuck Finley69

For some reason I thought you were in California scubafan. If you can borrow a newer T-Mobile device, you might find better coverage, unless that prepaid T-Mobile is newer. I still don’t get as good coverage with T-Mobile as with AT&T but it’s gotter much better here in the greater TPA, Florida in the last year or so. One thing I forgot to mention in another thread is that WiFi calling is more friendly with factory unlocked devices on T-Mobile...

Forgot to add 2 things. 1st, how much newer of a device would be needed to see if the dismal coverage T-Mobile has in my area was due to using the ZTE Zinger, especially since I plan to use an AT&T SQW100-3 version Passport? Other thing was that you weren't totally wrong about location. In the Midwest now, but I did try living in San Diego for a couple of years. Other than access to the nice campground on the beach up at Camp Pendleton we don't miss living there! Not bad for a visit but not a place to live in if you want friendly neighbors. Was kind of like NYC, where people would be looking down so they wouldn't have to notice you & say "hello". Much friendlier here in "flyover country"!

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

Originally Posted by scubafan

Forgot to add 2 things. 1st, how much newer of a device would be needed to see if the dismal coverage T-Mobile has in my area was due to using the ZTE Zinger, especially since I plan to use an AT&T SQW100-3 version Passport? Other thing was that you weren't totally wrong about location. In the Midwest now, but I did try living in San Diego for a couple of years. Other than access to the nice campground on the beach up at Camp Pendleton we don't miss living there! Not bad for a visit but not a place to live in if you want friendly neighbors. Was kind of like NYC, where people would be looking down so they wouldn't have to notice you & say "hello". Much friendlier here in "flyover country"!

Just my $.02, YMMV ! ;-) sent via my Q10

If you’re going to keep using the Passport, just keep using the Femto minitower until AT&T kills the service or it dies.

If you want to be near the water, this side of FL is definitely more of the midwestern flavor. The gulf coast is slower but we like it that way.