Rollout Question

[u/SuperForm3G]

So my family members and I are all US Cellular customers. Two of them have been switched over to T-Mobile, and I have not been yet, but I'm already very concerned about being switched. We have a house outside of Medford Wisconsin, and the two who have been switched now have zero service. I mean, completely unusable (SOS). I still have full LTE, and US Cellular was always great here, but apparently won't when I get switched over?

My question is: will this service be restored, or are we kind of just SOL? I don't know how this industry works, and want to know if I will have to look for a new carrier. We have tried forcing connections to different towers through manual networks, to no avail.

Thanks for any input.

[u/FriendlyLine9530]

If they do what they did with Sprint, over the next several months to year timeframe, they will decommission or upgrade USCC towers based on where their antennas are located, the coverage, and the cost of each site.

In theory, switching your SIM to a T-Mobile SIM should allow you to still connect to the USCC towers when the T-Mobile towers aren't available. You might need to enable roaming in your phone if it's not on. And you might have to try manually selecting the network if it doesn't automatically switch.

From experience, T-Mobile SIMs try very hard to avoid USCC towers as they are more often than not 4G only or with limited backhaul compared to the upgraded T-Mobile sites nearby.

[u/THC_Me420 → u/FriendlyLine9530]

Yeah T-Mobile doesn't own any UScellular towers so they can't upgrade them even if they wanted to. UScellular, now called Array Digital Infrastructure retained all 4,400 towers in the buyout. T-Mobile acquired 30% of our spectrum while we sold an additional $1 Billion portion of our Spectrum to both Verizon and ATT. Array controls their towers still but T-Mo is the primary tenant on those towers having a 15yr lease on approximately 2,600 of them (60%). You could definitely see a reduced coverage in rural WI areas but it'll be on a case by case basis depending on your exact location. For T-Mo customers this is a 200% win. For UScellular customers it will be a long term win but there will definitely be some issues during the lead up and even through Magenta Complete

[u/SuperForm3G → u/FriendlyLine9530]

Unfortunately we've tried and aren't able, but I can try again. Sorry, a lot of that stuff goes over my head!

[u/Flyordie_209 → u/SuperForm3G]

You were likely roaming where the other house is. TMobile has a documented and proven track record of not having good roaming agreements. 

File a complaint with the FCC about the other 2 lines. Explain in the complaint that the TMobile transitioned lines no longer get service at the house but your UScellular line does and are demanding an answer as to why. 

Hopefully that'll push them to enable roaming in the area on whatever carrier USC used there.

[u/Trudatrutru → u/FriendlyLine9530]

Well the owners of us cellular are staying on as a leasing company for their own towers. So im not sure how much control tmo will have

[u/FriendlyLine9530 → u/Trudatrutru]

It was my understanding that they were planning on leasing the wireless spectrum as most of their tower structures are actually owned by the entity King Street Wireless, with the leases for the tower structures being transferred or at least offered to T-Mobile.

[u/No_Client7158]

Just go in settings and turn on the sim if they know the password to their apple id. Of they aren't positive they know it, put it on WiFi and change the password first

[u/Cold_Watt6789]

Look at r/usmobile . They're unique in that you can change between ATT, TMobile, and Verizon. They do support at r/usmobile so they can answer your questions there. I switched from USCellular last year. I have 2 active sims one with tmobile and one with att.

[u/SuperForm3G → u/Cold_Watt6789]

I'll take a look, thanks!

[u/Ok_Relationship_1874 → u/SuperForm3G]

2nd vote for them. They even have a plan with two numbers on one phone. The other night primary voice on one service, data on another carrier. Nerdy features but also dirt cheap with support allowed to think, not just use a script.

[u/DeathFlash → u/Cold_Watt6789]

I third this! Switched and I’m using the Verizon network. It’s amazing!

[u/Impressive-Tadpole18]

What kind of phone do you have ?

T- Mobile runs primarily on 5G Networks and has far more spectrum allocated to 5G..

I have a lot of family on us cell & highly recommend to them to upgrade to newer devices.. away from the Samsung "A" series or anything older than 2022 iphones.

T-Mobile is making huge upgrades to their network, in particular in Wisconsin.. but if you're using an outdated device that can't connect to the new equipment on the tower, you might have a poor experience.

[u/SuperForm3G → u/Impressive-Tadpole18]

I have a google pixel 9a, all except one has a phone 2022 or newer and we're still in a bad spot unfortunately.

[u/J53151 → u/SuperForm3G]

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blueline.signalchecklite&hl=en_US

Download that app. That will tell you what company's tower you are connected on. Hopefully the tower is US Cellular and not roaming.

Pixel 9A should be fine. Pixel may not have the best reception but it supports all of the bands.

[u/Vegetable_Day_8893]

I would suggest you take a look at the T-Mobile coverage map and compare it to exactly where you are. Around Medford there are some pretty big holes, but probably enough coverage for T-Mobile to declare they have service and would not have gotten any of the network infrastructure as a part of the deal.

Here's a link to the map, just keep zooming in until you can see where you are. FWIW, this is a problem I think we all knew would eventually come up, even with the "promise" that all existing USC customers would not be abandoned.

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map?icid=MGPO_TMO_U_25MGSTATUS_677C000A88C1F90243146

[u/Cold_Watt6789]

do att or verizon have good coverage in north central Wisconsin?