Any signs that rural coverage will be a priority?

[DRNewcomb]

So, T-Mobile is going to be AAA's "Official Wireless Provider". The way rural coverage is around here, this either won't last very long or T-Mobile will have to make marked improvements to their rural coverage. Anyone see signs of this happening? CellMapper shows few new low-band towers in the last three months.

[mwdewey]

From my experience, T-Mobile is the undisputed king of getting data performance out of a weak signal. The closest T-Mobile site to my town is 6 miles away, it is low-band 5G but no mid-band. No one lives within 3 miles of it, so the best signal strength goes unused and here in town all you can get is a measly 1 bar of signal in most places. But that 1 bar will still get you around 120 Mb of data which is just fine for whatever you want to do, indoors or out. AT&T and Verizon (through Pioneer) have never been able to provide anything close to that at distance. They both have sites IN town but neither offers anything close to T-Mobile's data rate here in town.

So I think T-Mobile might be OK with this for a while, but they do really to get busy with their plans to increase the number of rural sites that they announced a few years ago. There really has not been much progress made so far.

[rain9613]

Exactly data speeds are phenomenal. But there's been no tower densification in rural areas I have seen it's disappointing. My areas has lossed coverage after merger permanently and now find it unreliable. Also the rural sites they do have why is n41 being added when there's practically no one to use it. I mean its great but don't understand logic

Sent from my SM-S916U using HoFo mobile app

[formercanuck]

So, T-Mobile is going to be AAA's "Official Wireless Provider". The way rural coverage is around here, this either won't last very long or T-Mobile will have to make marked improvements to their rural coverage. Anyone see signs of this happening? CellMapper shows few new low-band towers in the last three months.

I pinged T-Mobile's Twitter channel on this myself. Much of Sierra Highway from before Sleepy Valley, CA to Acton has ~1/2 mile of service from site 9 1/2 miles away at ~4000' elevation. Ironically there's LA County Fire Department location in this middle of this ... with 'No Service'. Getting T-Mobile to cover this highway has been an act of Congress.
i find that AAA will probably have to carry some form of roaming.

[formercanuck]

From my experience, T-Mobile is the undisputed king of getting data performance out of a weak signal. The closest T-Mobile site to my town is 6 miles away, it is low-band 5G but no mid-band. No one lives within 3 miles of it, so the best signal strength goes unused and here in town all you can get is a measly 1 bar of signal in most places. But that 1 bar will still get you around 120 Mb of data which is just fine for whatever you want to do, indoors or out. AT&T and Verizon (through Pioneer) have never been able to provide anything close to that at distance. They both have sites IN town but neither offers anything close to T-Mobile's data rate here in town.

So I think T-Mobile might be OK with this for a while, but they do really to get busy with their plans to increase the number of rural sites that they announced a few years ago. There really has not been much progress made so far.

This is true. There is one issue that T-Mobile doesn't really deal with directly. 6 miles away does work (I have some that connect at +9 miles as the 'closest', and can be 10-30Mbps, 'but' ... that's outdoors or in a vehicle.
Indoors = instant 'No Service'. Somewhere between T-Mobile not reaching ... and your device's TX not reaching the tower. I suspect that much of the AAA Service will be in rural areas using cached maps locally, and in many areas won't be reachable unless they have a large roof mounted antenna and booster.

[PaulCrawhorne]

Being AAA's provider is just a financial arrangement for mutual profit between the companies

not to benefit users in any way

and will give zero incentive for TMO to change anything about their coverage or operations

[formercanuck]

Being AAA's provider is just a financial arrangement for mutual profit between the companies

not to benefit users in any way

and will give zero incentive for TMO to change anything about their coverage or operations

Much like T-Mobile and Alaska Airlines ... having only roaming service in Alaska.