Message board topic:

I gotta tell ya, I'm not exactly dazzled by T-Mobile's internet service.  We just left Spectrum to get on T-Mobile last week.  I get the occasional lag on videos, which is irritating but it hasn't been too bad.  Then last night my internet went completely out at 1:00 AM for about 10 minutes.  Then it went out again at 2:00 AM and stayed out until after 3:00 AM when I went to bed.  All that is not to say that Spectrum was anything spectacular.  It sometimes went out in the early morning hours, but there was never any lag at all.  On the plus side, I did get a little extra reading done.  John

Assuming you get the internet from the phone (cell), I know out here, T-Mobile has worse coverage than Verizon and I think it is about the same as AT&T.

When I first moved to Montana I had Sprint, but since Sprint was not out here I was on constant roam, so switched to AT&T. After years with them I got annoyed with the prices and service and went to Verizon. I think I have said already my service is now Visible (a Verizon company).

 

I just asked AI to rate the top 5 carriers and this is what it said (name, 4GLTE/5G Coverage, starting price):

1. Verizon 70%/12% $65
2. AT&T 68%/29% $30 - multiline
3. T-Mobile 63%/53% $55
4. US Mobile varies/varies (they rid other service) $10-25
5. Visible (see Verizon) $15-45

Never heard of US Mobile.

Now I asked it for the top 3 in order for Helena area:
1. Verizon - 56.2Mbps DL speed
2. AT&T - 42.1Mbps DL speed
3. T-mobile - 22Mbps DL speed

 

I suppose for you, the big question is what network does Boost use there, what nestwork does Spectrum use there and how good is the coverage for the top 3 networks in Sedalia. I just asked the AI:

Detailed Comparison

AT&T is the clear winner for most people in Sedalia. It's the fastest and most dependable network based on over 10,000 real speed tests run by local users. AT&T excels across all use cases—from calls and texting to video streaming and gaming. Its combination of excellent coverage (96.9% 4G, 85.5% 5G) and fastest speeds (131.2 Mbps) makes it the safest choice.

 

T-Mobile ranks second as a solid middle-ground option. It offers excellent coverage at 92.1% 4G and 85.0% 5G, with respectable speeds at 107.9 Mbps. While not quite as fast or consistent as AT&T, T-Mobile still delivers very good performance across most tasks and is becoming increasingly competitive in Sedalia.

 

 

Verizon has the most 4G coverage at 100%, which is technically perfect, but this masks a significant weakness: its 5G coverage in Sedalia is only 46.2%—less than half of what AT&T and T-Mobile offer. When 5G isn't available, speeds drop to 71.6 Mbps, making it the slowest of the three. Verizon works well where it connects, but has the weakest overall reliability here.

 

 

 

Hey, thanks for looking all that up!  I admit, I didn't do a lot of research myself.  Cheri was the primary researcher there.  Cheri's decision was I think, mostly based on price.  Our phone was through Boost, while our internet and cable were through Spectrum.  The price of both were continually rising which is obviously irritating.  Our phone service was OK, (aside from the relentless price increases) but with the latest increase and poor face-to-face service, that was the straw that broke the cellphone's back.  Choosing T-Mobile's phone service, she found that their internet was also cheaper, so she made that switch too.  She chose to keep Spectrum's cable television.

I've yet to do a speed check on the internet, although not having done one through Spectrum, I'd have nothing to compare it to.  I do know I was fed up with Spectum's internet outages, usually in the early morning hours, so when we had an outage less than a week after switching to T-Mobile, my internet went down for 10 minutes, then again for at least an hour, I'm more than a little irritated.  The internet has become something of a necessity now and if this continues to be a problem, I'll have to rethink the whole thing.  John