I became a customer of T-Mobile (formerly Voicestream, Aerial Communications) in October 2002.
I chose T-Mobile in particular because of my affinity with GSM technology, as I have lived in parts of the world where that technology is dominant mostly because of phone swapping and roaming capabilities, which I no longer have use for being anchored right now.

Activation and Customer Service
I ordered a Nokia 3390 Gold from Simplywireless.com as part of a free phone promotion with a one year contract carrying a $250 early termination fee. The next day after being approved for credit, the Fedex guy dropped the box at my doorstep. The phone was fully activated, my plan was a $39.99 plan carrying 600 whenever minutes and unlimited weekend minutes. I immediately called customer service to add 500 SMS. The 611 call was answered promptly, and without the hassle of getting through like some other providers, and the call was free, unlike Sprint PCS.

Trials
Armed with my new T-Mobile service, I decided to see what I was working with and took it from my neighborhood in the Northside along to my then place of work in the North Hills. 5 bars all the way. That's expected however, due to that being a very densely populated area. I have gone as far north as Cranberry Township along I-79 and onto US Rt. 19 with a full signal.
To the south, Washington, PA and I-70, and Belle Vernon. Beyond Bridgeville, the signal drops off away from the highways. I had two bars at most in Washington. May 2004, has been fixed
One night we went to Eighty Four, just southeast of Washington. My phone did not work for the most part. This proves that there is coverage strictly on the highways.
To the west you should be safe along the turnpike and US Rts. 22/30, and even west of the airport service is generally good due to the line of sight the Ohio River's valleys out there provide. Update, 15 May 2004, Good service down US 22 into West Virginia, and in Steubenville, OH.

Naturally, further northwest into Beaver county service drops off like a rock due the the sparse population. Up to Monaca, where CCBC is, service was 5 bars, thank you valley, Aliquippa was also 5 bars, along with Ambridge.
Going eastbound, coverage is good along the entire length of I-376 and in all eastern communities of Allegheny County up to about RIDC Park before Natrona Heights off of PA State Rt. 28. I went out to New Kensington one night to buy a car and had to buy insurance on the way to the notary when I found that out. So what follows is service in Westmoreland county is almost nonexistant, most roads are lined with trees, you may get a faint signal with a break in the trees. I haven't been to Greensburg in a while, but T-Mobile's coverage map says it is covered. Update, visited Greensburg in early April, signal was strong all throughout Rt. US 30.

Since Western Pennsylvania is a region full of hills and UHF operates on line of sight, it is very unpredictable and impractical to find all the dead spots that may exist, and the only way to get around it is to install signal repeaters everywhere, which isn't going to happen anytime soon. A note here--most of these places where T-Mobile barely worked, friends with Sprint PCS, AT&T and Verizon had service.
Also in Donora, PA, which is in the middle of a valley, my phone could not catch service, however both my friends using Sprint PCS had full service. I got picked on a little as we drove around and found the antennas on the tallest building on town.
All in all coverage-wise, T-Mobile means well, they are now trying to build their network up. Stay around the city and you will love them. Or fly away to bigger cities. But if you like to swear and holler when you go to some obscure corner of a suburban area and get no service, or you travel to a lot of little states, then I recommend the old players, Verizon and maybe AT&T

Customer Service
Easy to understand automated system, waits were not too long for customer service. They didn't play department tag, and generally know what they are talking about. I ordered an upgrade, a Samsung S-105 and it came intact.
I also had lost quite a few phones and they had no problems suspending service for up to two weeks. It was always easy to go to the kiosk in Ross Park Mall or Century III to buy a new SIM.

Data
T-zones uses GPRS, a lot of bugs in it but it is good for checking the news and looking up phone numbers without spending $0.99 on 411. It is not as fast as they claim it to be, but it also depends on the phone browser you use it on. It also does not work everywhere. Forget about it if you are turning your phone over like Rotisserie chicken just to talk.

Value
Hmm, call quality is comparable to the other services, also plans aren't too far off, however I have noticed that T-Mobile does have a little edge over what you pay for and what you get, for example their deal with 600 minutes and 500 text messages with 1 MB is the best, it does save you about $6 compared to AT&T.
Their phone selection is meagre to average, however being GSM is advantageous, as there is a wealth of unlocked phones on eBay not even available here in the US compatible for use.


Update
Okey dokey, a little update. Today is 15 May 2004. Two days ago, on 13 May I was involved in a little motorcycle wreck canyon carving in the rural West Virginia panhandle not far from the PA border. This happened on Rt. 88 south, not far from a golf course. Of course the first thing I reached for was my cell phone. NO SERVICE
Thankfully, one of my riding buddys had an AT&T TDMA handset. Of course that had 4 bars. Haha, this was a rural area. In the middle of tree nowhere. I couldn't even look around and find the antennas. But it was okay, I used his phone to call for help. Then again, what do I have MY phone for if I can't use it when I need it?

Called them and complained about it. I'm going to call and complain to someone higher tomorrow.

Also coverage on some lesser travelled interstates suck! I-79 around here for example. Man, on my way up, as soon as I went around a bend and lost the line of sight, the signal was a done deal most of the time. I noticed that most of the antenna towers along the highway were co-located with with the other providers. People next to me continued to yap while my signal cut off. What is up with that?

In a lot of rural communities, I could not use the T-Mobile service, but other services had a nice signal. Examples are Mercer, PA; Grove City, PA; Meadville, PA. In other words, once you go past Zelienople on I-79, there is no way you can carry a sustained conversation along the highway (not that you should hog up the network, but this is for informational purposes.)

Along major Interstates, like I-76 (PA Turnpike,) I-70, I-80, and I-90, coverage was kind of cool, but the signal wasn't in the air like say, Verizon Wireless.

I like T-Mobile, but my contract ended this month, and I may have to switch up in favour of somebody more established for a few years. We shall see.

Military Guys have good news

At least there is a good thing to come out of all this. For servicemen and women, T-Mobile will suspend your service for up to a year. No extra charge, however, you have to pay the government regulatory fee which is about 5 dollars a month, depending on your plan. I think that is cool, Sprint PCS for example would not. I have heard a lot of military members complaining about other carriers and how they will not work them around contracts durings deployments. Maybe I will keep the service a little longer and update this regularly with the latest observations and developments.

To further update the original review, service has improved greatly since I first wrote this, but there is much more room for improvement.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 39.99 month