T-Mobile in Des Moines area

**ruxCYtable** · 04-27-2011, 10:32 AM

How is their coverage? Trying to help my mom pick out a new cell phone and plan and she's interested in T-Mobile.

**KCClone1** · 04-27-2011, 11:40 AM

I have T-Mobile, and it is great in Des Moines. I never have any problems with coverage, but it is bad in the rural areas of Iowa where it's hard to get service.

**TheAdmiral** · 04-27-2011, 12:22 PM

Its pretty spotty in Ames. But it's fairly cheap which is why I put up with it.

**Psyclone Brian** · 04-27-2011, 12:33 PM

(They have been bought out by AT&T) ...as far as coverage, ok in the city, rural areas spotty at best.

**akellar** · 04-27-2011, 12:55 PM

Not sure if this matters, but when I was looking for new service I was told their data service wasn't very good around here.

**hawkeyeh8r** · 04-27-2011, 01:34 PM

verizon...end of story

**akellar** · 04-27-2011, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by hawkeyeh8r

verizon...end of story

Get equal service from US Cellular and pay a lot less. Plus no contract after the first one. End of story.

**Agkistrodon** · 04-27-2011, 01:53 PM

As others have said, T-mobile is great if you never stray from a large metropolitan area, or decently sized cities. If your mother does a lot of traveling (especially out west), she may want to consider a different carrier (like Verizon). I would assume that T-mobile's coverage would improve at least a little after their merger with AT&T completes.

I made the mistake of getting a T-mobile phone as my first cell phone when I used to split time working at various locations in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana about 7 years ago. Reception in Nebraska wasn't bad if I didn't stray too far from the Interstate. In Wyoming I could only get a signal in Gillette and Sheridan. In Montana I could only get a signal in parts of Billings. Interstates were spotty at best in these states. I got so fed up that I actually paid the $200 early termination fee to get a Verizon phone.

**hawkeyeh8r** · 04-27-2011, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by akellar

Get equal service from US Cellular and pay a lot less. Plus no contract after the first one. End of story.

ive had really bad luck with their customer service. the one is ames sucks and ive been to a few in dsm and had the same result. had a few issues when we switched our phones over to verizon that took about 3 or 4 days to get straightened out but they were more than willing to do what it took to fix the problem. ill spend a little more money to get decent customer service

**agrabes** · 04-27-2011, 02:26 PM

I had T-Mobile for 4 years and I always felt like I had good service from them. In Ames it was sometimes a little sketchy for reception, but otherwise I got reception from them pretty much everywhere in Iowa. I took a trip out to Colorado and also had reception on the whole trip out there as well. The thing that T-Mobile did well was having the "affiliates" like I-Wireless where you could use their networks and not be roaming.

I ended up switching to Verizon because my company offers a great discount and reimbursement plan if you use them, but if that hadn't happened I would have stayed with T-Mobile.

**herbicide** · 04-27-2011, 09:42 PM

I would recommend T-Mobile. The ATT deal hasn't gone thru yet, and even if it does make it, it will likely be years before they actually can 'merge' into one company.