US Roaming

[tehowennathe]

Have a quick question. I know PM uses both At&t and T-Mobile for US roaming but I have a question. What do you do when roaming? Do you keep your phone to automatic or search for one of the two? Reason I ask is because having family in the US I know that T-Mobile can be unreliable in some areas for data connections or service in general. I will manually search for At&t for better service. Am I the only one who will manually search for one of the specific carriers?

[srlawren]

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

---

---

That's probably why we get TMobile first. Though I always get it in areas that get 1 bar and data is unusable. I always have to force it over to AT&T just to be able to do anything.

---

@tehowennathe does your phone maybe lack LTE Band 66?  T-Mo uses it pretty extensively if I remember correctly.  AT&T has more thorough coverage on the more "traditional" bands like band 4, which most phones have these days.  66 is a "newer" band that not all devices (though most/all new devices in the past couple of years) have.

---

My phone is made for the North American market as it's by American company Blu. 

My Vivo XI+ uses the following bands 

• GSM:850/900/1900/2100
• 3G:850/900/1700/1900/2100
• 4G LTE: 1/2/3/4/7/12/13/17/28/66

It has all proper North American bands.

---

@tehowennathe my apologies:  I think it's actually band 71 that t-mo uses for extended coverage, not 66:  https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4988.  They use 66, but I think it's pretty much only them using 71.  Also, your phone lacks band 5 which they also use, but you should still get decent coverage.  

[tehowennathe]

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

---

---

That's probably why we get TMobile first. Though I always get it in areas that get 1 bar and data is unusable. I always have to force it over to AT&T just to be able to do anything.

---

@tehowennathe does your phone maybe lack LTE Band 66?  T-Mo uses it pretty extensively if I remember correctly.  AT&T has more thorough coverage on the more "traditional" bands like band 4, which most phones have these days.  66 is a "newer" band that not all devices (though most/all new devices in the past couple of years) have.

---

My phone is made for the North American market as it's by American company Blu. 

My Vivo XI+ uses the following bands 

• GSM:850/900/1900/2100
• 3G:850/900/1700/1900/2100
• 4G LTE: 1/2/3/4/7/12/13/17/28/66

It has all proper North American bands.

[dabr]

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@GinYVR wrote:

@StirfiroIt doesn't work that way, just because it automatically connect doesn't mean it offers the best quality or uncongested traffic. Especially for places that is remote like National Parks, you often get TMobile but you never get through when you dial.

---

@GinYVR T-Mo seems to be the default or preferred roaming partner, as I almost always get T-mo when on automatic, though I can force over to AT&T.  T-Mo must give Telus lower roaming rates or a better reciprical deal or something.

---

I've noticed the same thing, my phone will show T-Mobile as soon I'm across the border.  I had assumed they had more towers closer to the border and I haven't travelled further south yet with PM service to know if that is still the case.  But I think you make a good point about a better discount agreement between the two carriers, it would make sense I guess.

[srlawren]

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

---

---

That's probably why we get TMobile first. Though I always get it in areas that get 1 bar and data is unusable. I always have to force it over to AT&T just to be able to do anything.

---

@tehowennathe does your phone maybe lack LTE Band 66?  T-Mo uses it pretty extensively if I remember correctly.  AT&T has more thorough coverage on the more "traditional" bands like band 4, which most phones have these days.  66 is a "newer" band that not all devices (though most/all new devices in the past couple of years) have.

[tehowennathe]

---

@srlawren wrote:

---

@GinYVR wrote:

@StirfiroIt doesn't work that way, just because it automatically connect doesn't mean it offers the best quality or uncongested traffic. Especially for places that is remote like National Parks, you often get TMobile but you never get through when you dial.

---

@GinYVR T-Mo seems to be the default or preferred roaming partner, as I almost always get T-mo when on automatic, though I can force over to AT&T.  T-Mo must give Telus lower roaming rates or a better reciprical deal or something.

---

That's probably why we get TMobile first. Though I always get it in areas that get 1 bar and data is unusable. I always have to force it over to AT&T just to be able to do anything.

[srlawren]

---

@GinYVR wrote:

@StirfiroIt doesn't work that way, just because it automatically connect doesn't mean it offers the best quality or uncongested traffic. Especially for places that is remote like National Parks, you often get TMobile but you never get through when you dial.

---

@GinYVR T-Mo seems to be the default or preferred roaming partner, as I almost always get T-mo when on automatic, though I can force over to AT&T.  T-Mo must give Telus lower roaming rates or a better reciprical deal or something.

[SomeFriend]

I use a SIM from a EU country while doing my day trips in the US (I get free data and free roaming!  :D) and what I tend to do is manually select a network.  Once it joins and gets a signal, I switch it back to automatic.  It won't switch networks unless the current carrier is unavailable any longer, as it has to register itself again on the new network.

AT&T and T-Mobile are basically the only carriers available for international roaming anyway.  I travel down to Washington state and T-Mobile typically has poor coverage, as when I tried forcing it to join T-Mobile with my IPhone 7, it connected to 4G and then instantly dropped to Edge (2G) coverage and then went to No Service a minute after.  

AT&T gave me 4G (It's really probably LTE/LTE-A but that's how it works from the SIM's home country) coverage most of the time with occasional drops to 3G.  For my case, I would prefer AT&T over T-Mobile.

It's all dependent on your location and your phone.  Rural locations, congestion, and supported frequencies/bands all will impact the service you can obtain.

[Stirfiro]

@GinYVR  Ah okay. Well that's good to know. Thanks! I'm sure I would have found out, but probably at the worst possible time, like always. 

[GinYVR]

@StirfiroIt doesn't work that way, just because it automatically connect doesn't mean it offers the best quality or uncongested traffic. Especially for places that is remote like National Parks, you often get TMobile but you never get through when you dial.

[Stirfiro]

I usually just keep mine on automatic. I always just assume that my phone will just connect to whichever network has the best signal. 

[tehowennathe]

---

@chukdefatey wrote:

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

Have a quick question. I know PM uses both At&t and T-Mobile for US roaming but I have a question. What do you do when roaming? Do you keep your phone to automatic or search for one of the two? Reason I ask is because having family in the US I know that T-Mobile can be unreliable in some areas for data connections or service in general. I will manually search for At&t for better service. Am I the only one who will manually search for one of the specific carriers?

---

The Beauty of Roaming is you can Pick which ever network provides the best experience. 

---

My phone always will chose TMobile over At&t and even in Albany NY the capital of NY State it get poor TMobile so I just switch to At&t. I never realized how slow TMobile is compared to PM

[chukdefatey]

---

@tehowennathe wrote:

Have a quick question. I know PM uses both At&t and T-Mobile for US roaming but I have a question. What do you do when roaming? Do you keep your phone to automatic or search for one of the two? Reason I ask is because having family in the US I know that T-Mobile can be unreliable in some areas for data connections or service in general. I will manually search for At&t for better service. Am I the only one who will manually search for one of the specific carriers?

---

The Beauty of Roaming is you can Pick which ever network provides the best experience. 

[tehowennathe]

Could be my phone but it's a Blu Vivo XI+ which is by an American company with all major bands for North America. Though it could just be T-MOBILE being bad as I see many compliments in Facebook Android groups. No matter what I manually select At&t.

[GinYVR]

@tehowennatheMost phones do not have the option of pre selecting networks while roaming. I suggest turn Roaming to ON and manually pick a network eg AT&T in more rural enviroments or TMobile if your phone has band 66 and is in dense urban environments where AT&T network might be overloaded. Change it depending on your circumstances.

[tehowennathe]

Just asking because on last trip to New Hampshire coast T-Mobile has stronger signal and about the worst data connection. It rarely worked for me. I switched to At&t and for not so good signal but data connection that was constant. 

Just wonder which network people will prefer using?

[iliketotalk]

@tehowennathe hi keep roaming on ,sometimes you need to manualy connect to a network depending on location good luck safe trip