Poor T-Mobile service outside of urban areas

[rkjnsn 14]

I live near Seattle. While my Pro1 works great when I'm in town, I've noticed that when I'm in less populated areas (e.g., when skiing), I'll have little to no service while my friend (also on T-Mobile) has a very usable signal. More subjectively, it seems like I experience a lack of signal a lot more often than I did with my Moto Z2. Is this a known issue? Does it likely have more to do with the supported bands or with the signal sensitivity of the phone, in general?

On the blog, F(x)tec stated, "We’ll consider releasing special regional versions in the future". If that were to ever happen and I could get the same phone with better reception in my area (especially when outside of the city), I would very gladly shell out for it.

[itsdevilslettuce 85]

I live on the complete opposite coast, and here in New England (mostly northern MA and southern NH) I haven't noticed any significant signal difference between my Blackberry Keyone, iPhone XR, and my now Pro1. Granted I have noticed some times in LineageOS that my signal drops, but a quick reboot fixes it.

[Polaris 423]

On 3/11/2020 at 5:42 PM, rkjnsn said:

I live near Seattle. While my Pro1 works great when I'm in town, I've noticed that when I'm in less populated areas (e.g., when skiing), I'll have little to no service while my friend (also on T-Mobile) has a very usable signal. More subjectively, it seems like I experience a lack of signal a lot more often than I did with my Moto Z2. Is this a known issue? Does it likely have more to do with the supported bands or with the signal sensitivity of the phone, in general?

It's a known issue.  The radio isn't very 'hot'.  There is a huge difference when compared to both my Droid 4 and my Samsung S8+.  There have been times (yesterday included) where the device will be trying to download a simple MMS message and it tries and tries for hours.  When I get frustrated enough, I'll move the SIM over to one of these other two phones (depending on the provider) and the message will immediately download.  Don't even get me started on lack of quality (dropped packets) during voice calls, it's just awful.  HOWEVER, I should note that this is all from my house where the signal from the cell site is very weak.  Once I head into the city the only way to tell there is a difference between the Pro1 and my other two phones is to have it display the signal strength and quality.  To the user there is no perceivable difference in signal quality because there is enough signal that the Pro1's weaker radio isn't affected.  Lastly, I have noticed the same thing on numerous bands with numerous providers.

 

5 hours ago, itsdevilslettuce said:

I live on the complete opposite coast, and here in New England (mostly northern MA and southern NH) I haven't noticed any significant signal difference between my Blackberry Keyone, iPhone XR, and my now Pro1. Granted I have noticed some times in LineageOS that my signal drops, but a quick reboot fixes it.

Wow, you must be in a high signal quality area!  I wish I could have the same experience.

[itsdevilslettuce 85]

3 hours ago, Polaris said:

Wow, you must be in a high signal quality area!  I wish I could have the same experience.

Well at home its crappy (as it is for all my phones), but I'm pretty sure WiFi calling works fine for me. I am lucky enough to have a T-Mobile tower right outside my work building because I've never seen my signal drop there 😁

[Polaris 423]

56 minutes ago, itsdevilslettuce said:

Well at home its crappy (as it is for all my phones), but I'm pretty sure WiFi calling works fine for me. I am lucky enough to have a T-Mobile tower right outside my work building because I've never seen my signal drop there 😁

Yep a tower right outside the building is a sure way to never see signal drop! 😁  I don't have that at my workplace, but, thankfully, there is a tower close enough such that the Pro1's weaker radio isn't even noticeable.