[rcranz]

My friend is on the Walmart Family Mobile plan (powered by T-Mobile). For $29.88 per month he gets unlimited talk, text, and data, which include 1 GB of "4G LTE" data.

The above plan seemed okay, but....sometimes the data for Internet seems to turn off or be unavailable, especially during the daytime hours. He is able to make phone calls and send text messages no problem. But why would the data stop working? He is well below his 1 GB quota too. Does he need to turn off roaming or other features? It's really weird how the cell service works fine, but for some reason the Internet browser and GMail stops working. (It says "No connection" or similar words.)

Has anyone experienced similar problems with the Walmart Family Mobile plan???

[DaFoxGrey]

There are a lot of variables involved.
What device is your friend using?
Is it a model that fully supports T-Mobile network in frequencies and bands for data?
What area is your friend in and what is T-Mobile's coverage in that area?
Are there any issues with the area your friend is in, like mountains, high-rises, airports, military bases, or ports-of-call that can effect signal quality due to interference?
Is your friend in a very high population area, so that cell towers can become "overloaded" with users at times, and that can effect data quality?

[rcranz]

There are a lot of variables involved.
What device is your friend using?
Is it a model that fully supports T-Mobile network in frequencies and bands for data?
What area is your friend in and what is T-Mobile's coverage in that area?
Are there any issues with the area your friend is in, like mountains, high-rises, airports, military bases, or ports-of-call that can effect signal quality due to interference?
Is your friend in a very high population area, so that cell towers can become "overloaded" with users at times, and that can effect data quality?

His phone is the Concord ZTE, Model Z730, by TMobile, running Android 4.3. The baseband version is Z730B01.

He mostly uses his phone in the city limits. There are no mountains here. The population is approximately 520,000.

The weirdest thing here is that his phone and text messaging works fine. He was sending me text messages to tell me that his browser said "No connection". The GMail app gave a similar message too. So, if his talk and text features work fine, I don't understand why the unlimited data would stop working simultaneously.

[DaFoxGrey]

As for the device, looking over the specs, I do not see this being a 4G/LTE device:
T-Mobile Concord II features, specs - Phone More
"4G Network Not supported"
Which is odd as they appear to sell this as part of their 4G plan.... I'm guessing HSDPA+ ??
Check coverage here:
T-Mobile Coverage Maps - 2G,3G and 4G LTE Coverage Map | OpenSignalmaps - OpenSignal


As for the talk/text but no data, if the device drops down below 2G, data becomes extremely hard to get but you can talk/text fine. Two different streams involved between talk/text and data.

[rcranz]

As for the device, looking over the specs, I do not see this being a 4G/LTE device:
"4G Network Not supported"

As for the talk/text but no data, if the device drops down below 2G, data becomes extremely hard to get but your can talk/text fine. Two different streams involved between talk/text and data.

Okay. You're probably right. Now it makes sense. His phone does not support 4G/LTE, hence the Internet difficulties.

As a side note, he does live right next to an AT&T cell phone tower. Do you think this tower is helping his cell phone use data for Internet late at night? (He said he is usually only able to get Internet at home at night. Is it possible the AT&T tower gives him a usable 2G signal?)

[DaFoxGrey]

Unfortunately, determining extract what cell tower a device is connected to, and in turn what exact frequency/band, is extremely difficult to find out on the users end. If the device has the capacity to show the above info, it is usually deep within the system info menu and normally something only accessible via "engineering setting" or such.
Poking around in those types of settings can perma-brick a device.

As for being close to an AT&T tower, unless that tower also piggy-backs T-Mobile, I do not think it would help in getting a signal. If it is "restricting" T-Mobile access, due to the AT&T tower "over powering" or interfering with the closest T-Mobile tower, that would be an issue for the FCC. However, being federally regulated, it is unlikely there is purposeful or even accidental "jamming" going on.

My suggestion is have your friend find out what his friends and neighbors use for cell service, find out what works in your friends area, then decide if a change in providers is needed.