patseguin Global Moderator Posted July 13, 2015 Global Moderator Share Posted July 13, 2015 Anyone have experience with unlocking their iPhone and using with a different carrier? I have an AT&T iPhone 6 which I had unlocked a couple months ago. I bought a T-Mobile starter kit and set up a prepaid account through them. My reception is pitiful on T-Mobile. I get frequent dropped calls and 1 or no bars in many locations. Is my phone acting like this because of some carrier settings that I have to manually update? Or does the fact that it is an AT&T iPhone mean that I am somehow going to get poor reception from T-Mobile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted July 13, 2015 Veteran Share Posted July 13, 2015 ..... or in T-Mobile just sucks in you location? abecedarian paradoxious 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patseguin Global Moderator Posted July 13, 2015 Author Global Moderator Share Posted July 13, 2015 ..... or in T-Mobile just sucks in you location? Possibly. I just wasn't sure if maybe the phone had settings that needed to be changed for the new carrier. Over the years I've had AT&T and Verizon here and reception has been fine. T-Mobile is just pitiful. No reception in certain areas and constant dropped calls at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shockz Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 You probably don't have the proper antenna in your ATT phone to access all the tmobile bands. Check what bands are supported on tmobile vs att. a tmobile phone has the following bands for their anntenna: http://www.redmondpie.com/the-difference-between-unlocked-t-mobile-and-sim-free-iphone-6-6-plus-explained/ Then again, tmobile is just as bad as sprint where I live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abecedarian paradoxious Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 AT&T and T-Mobile use the same basic technologies- GSM850, GSM1900, UMTS850 and UMTS1900... with a smattering of LTE and AWS flittering around the 700, 800 and 2100 MHz bands. Your poor performance is simply because of poor coverage by the carrier. Shadrack 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 AT&T and T-Mobile use the same basic technologies- GSM850, GSM1900, UMTS850 and UMTS1900... with a smattering of LTE and AWS flittering around the 700, 800 and 2100 MHz bands. Your poor performance is simply because of poor coverage by the carrier. This. Apple has used the same model number on their AT&T iPhone and T-Mobile iPhone since the iPhone 5S (as all the bands from both providers are supported on the single device). The iPhone 5 had a different GSM model for T-Mobile and AT&T. Either could work on either network the difference being that only HSPA+ ("3G") was supported if you used it on a different carrier (the LTE bands were specific for the carrier). iPhone 4 and earlier GSM models were similar but when you used them on a different network you were limited to 2G or Edge speeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patseguin Global Moderator Posted July 14, 2015 Author Global Moderator Share Posted July 14, 2015 OK thanks guys. I'm just going to switch back to AT&T prepaid. T-mobile blows here in Buffalo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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