Should I put a new SIM card in my iPhone 7 Plus?

[Thomas Veil]

I'm one of the many souls who's getting messages from T Mobile telling me I need to upgrade my phone for their 5G network.

However, in the past week they started sending my daughter (whose account we're on) new SIM cards for our phones. Mine's a 7 Plus. Mrs. Veil's is a 6S.

I did ask at the T Mobile store whether this was a reasonable way to keep going with the same phones, and the gentleman told me yes, but he couldn't guarantee how long they would work.

I didn't follow up because he had two other customers ahead of me and was only asking what I was there for. I was thinking of new phones, but now that T Mobile is sending us this stuff, I don't know.

So I'm asking. What do you think?

 

[SuperMatt]

I’m not sure why you need a new SIM card. The 5G towers are compatible with 4G phones. Those with 3G phones are out of luck, as are people with cars that relied on 3G tech for various remote features.

 

[Nycturne]

Reading T-Mobile's FAQ on it, it looks like it has to do with the stand-alone 5G towers that don't require an LTE bootstrap. I think T-Mobile is really just trying to make sure everyone is on the latest SIM cards so there isn't weird issues with phones refusing to connect to newer towers. It shouldn't impact older LTE devices, honestly, but I've also been out of the loop on cellular networking for a while.

 

[Herdfan]

I'm one of the many souls who's getting messages from T Mobile telling me I need to upgrade my phone for their 5G network.

How is T-Mobile's service?

Been thinking about making the switch based on their 5G coverage.

I know every provider has good and bad areas, but just wondering in general if their service is consistent or has holes.

 

[Thomas Veil]

I’m actually grandfathered over to T Mobile from my previous carrier, Sprint. So far so good. I’ve had zero problems from that quarter.

 

[jbailey]

How is T-Mobile's service?

Been thinking about making the switch based on their 5G coverage.

I know every provider has good and bad areas, but just wondering in general if their service is consistent or has holes.

If you are in an area that they cover well, their service is second to none. Their 5G network dwarfs all the other US carriers at the moment though it looks like Verizon is trying to catch up with mid-band 5G. The Sprint acquisition happened at just about the perfect time for T-Mobile.

 

[Herdfan]

at the moment though it looks like Verizon is trying to catch up with mid-band 5G.

I am with Verizon now. Their 5G is more about marketing than coverage. Back when LTE was rolling out, they lit up 1 tower in Charleston so they could say they had LTE in the market.

 

[Thomas Veil]

It's funny, it seems like the situations have reversed. Verizon used to (from what I hear) have the best coverage, and T Mobile was the little sibling following eight steps back. Times have changed. As @jbailey pointed out, the Sprint merger has done wonders for T Mobile.

Now if they could just get rid of that godawful hot pink color scheme in their stores...

 

[Nycturne]

In my experience, if I want to say, stream a home town radio station or Spotify while on a road trip or have Apple Maps work (Google lets you pre-download data for trips which helps), Verizon wins. If you are mostly in well developed urban/suburban areas and don't care about coverage along smaller highways between destinations, T-Mobile is generally cheaper.

I only really stick with Verizon because of a B2B style deal with my employer which makes Verizon's pricing competitive with T-Mobile, and I don't care as much about 5G.

EDIT: That said it looks like Verizon is sometimes cheaper if you are not a heavy data user these days. Didn't realize T-Mobile's cheapest non-prepaid plan is like 60$/month now. Yeesh.

 

[Thomas Veil]

So I swapped out the SIM. Much easier than I thought. I'll hold onto my phone just a bit longer, though as the sales rep pointed out both of our phones will no longer be supported by Apple. I think my wife's is already in that category.