Does Tmobile Use At&t Towers

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When I talked to AT&T's support to get my slow information connection fixed, the customer service rep told me that T-Mobile uses their towers for their services.

I was seriously considering switching to T-Mobile from AT&T because I was pretty unsatisfied with their service and cell coverage in my area, and I made an offhand annotate about T-Mobile.

When I got this answer from their representative, I had to follow up with some of my ain research.

I wanted to know if this were a fact because I idea nothing would modify if both carriers used the same tower equipment.

As office of my research, I went through a few articles that talked most how carriers shared their towers and forum posts from knowledgeable people in the network tower space.

I also understood how the performance would be if two carriers used the aforementioned tower and how carriers needed to utilise the same tower.

Armed with the information that I gathered, I decided to make this guide so that if you are e'er told that T-Mobile uses AT&T'southward towers, you have a fix source of data.

T-Mobile uses AT&T's towers, depending on the location. Virtually telecom carriers charter towers from other companies, including their competition, because sometimes information technology's more cost-constructive to lease than buy.

Read on to discover how towers are shared between operators and how competing carriers agree to use the same towers.

The Logistics Of Mobile Towers

In most cases, mobile towers aren't endemic by the carriers that use them only by ability companies, private individuals, or even other carriers.

This is because carriers like to cut costs as much as possible since leasing the belfry is easier than buying information technology and regularly maintaining it.

And since in that location are a limited number of locations in an area that satisfy both the coverage and building requirements, leasing comes out to exist the cheaper option than outbidding your rival.

The owners of those towers lease it out to carriers who mount their network and cellular equipment on information technology.

Carriers will upgrade their capacities at these leased towers as they please.

Considering leasing a tower lets a carrier have flexibility, the coverage, and quality of the betoken that 2 carriers can requite using the same tower tin can be different.

Shared Belfry Agreements

This is where Shared Tower Agreements come in.

They provide a solid framework to help ii competing carriers utilise the same tower to deploy their networking equipment.

These agreements are besides structured to be mutually beneficial for both parties involved.

T-Mobile and AT&T have several such agreements throughout the US where they apply each other's towers.

Some companies purely operate on leasing out cellular network equipment, and T-Mobile and AT&T lease these towers in areas where demand is not worth the two ready their own towers.

Carriers also contract with power companies, as is the case with the jail cell tower near where I alive.

The local utility company owns the belfry, which they charter out to the carriers that I have available in my expanse.

Does T-Mobile Employ AT&T's Towers?

Equally we've seen in the sections above, the blanket argument that T-Mobile uses AT&T'southward towers is somewhat disingenuous.

Although this tin exist the case in some areas, it may not necessarily exist valid for the towers yous might exist using.

In that location's isn't a way to find out who owns the tower near you, but there are utilities like Network Cell Info for Android that give you a pretty comprehensive thought about the prison cell network in your surface area.

iPhones have information technology more difficult, and one of the simply apps those phones tin utilise is RootMetrics.

This app would only show you a heatmap and nothing else about the towers in your surface area.

Sometimes, T-Mobile uses AT&T cell belfry equipment for their roaming services where they don't accept the right equipment.

But this is only in the example of roaming, and T-Mobile uses its own equipment when yous're connected to your abode network.

Roaming vs. Regular

Since roaming means y'all are going outside your home network, the chances of finding a T-Mobile belfry are pretty unlikely, depending on where you visit.

T-Mobile leases towers from other companies to provide their roaming services in areas where they don't own towers.

Like I've mentioned before, these could be another power company'southward belfry, or they tin can be an AT&T belfry.

Sometimes, T-Mobile too leases the networking equipment and base station from other carriers to expand their own network.

But this can merely happen if you're roaming, and y'all won't feel the divergence betwixt using a T-Mobile tower versus another belfry.

Overall, you won't feel the difference between using T-Mobile'south own towers or one of their leased towers 99% of the fourth dimension.

If you exercise notice information technology, their networking systems will automatically put yous on a better belfry as network traffic allows it to.

All-time Cellular Settings For T-Mobile

To optimize your connection to T-Mobile's network, there are a few settings that you can tweak to do so.

These settings are only applicable for Android phones, merely I will be talking about iPhones later in this department.

To modify your network settings on Android:

Open the Settings app.
Get to Wireless Networks (or Connections/Network & Cyberspace) > More.
Select Cellular networks > Admission Betoken Names.
If you come across T-Mobile United states of america APN, select information technology, only I'd recommend making a new APN with the following details. Tap the + or Add push button on the pinnacle of the screen.
Enter these settings
1. Name: T-Mobile U.s. LTE
2. APN: fast.t-mobile.com
3. Proxy: (left blank)
4. Port: (left blank)
5. Username: (left blank)
6. Password: (left blank)
7. Server: (left blank)
8. MMSC:http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
9. MMS proxy: (left bare)
10. MMS port: (left blank)
11. MMS protocol: WAP 2.0
12. MCC: 310
13. MNC: 260
14. Hallmark type:(left blank)
15. APN blazon: default,supl,mms
16. APN protocol:IPv4/IPv6
17. APN roaming protocol: IPv4
18. Enable/disable APN: Enable
19. Bearer:Unspecified
Relieve the settings.
Select the new APN you lot've but made.

For iPhones, the only pick is to reset the network settings on your telephone.

To do this:

Open the Settings app.
Go toFull general >Reset.
Tap Reset Network Settings.

Apple doesn't allow you modify the APN settings, but you lot tin reconfigure the settings by performing a reset as we did above.

Final Thoughts

T-Mobile prioritizes getting you a signal more than the internet speeds that you should get from the mobile data connection.

This is why y'all may see phones that are on T-Mobile become downwards to Border or 2G when 4G coverage is not bachelor.

The feature is pretty good if you desire reliable coverage, but if y'all want better coverage and speeds, I'd suggest switching to Verizon, which has the best coverage amid the Large Five in the US.

You tin can also bring your T-Mobile phone over to Verizon to bring your own device plan.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do AT&T and T-Mobile use the same towers?

In some cases, both carriers use the same towers; sometimes, they won't.

It entirely depends on the area in question, the number of T-Mobile and AT&T customers in that area, and the feasibility of installing a tower and other communication equipment in that location.

Is AT&T faster than T-Mobile?

AT&T has a faster and more reliable 4G network, while T-Mobile beats AT&T on 5G speeds and coverage.

The gap is expected to close when AT&T completes its 5G rollout, but until then, AT&T has the best 4G network, and T-Mobile has the all-time 5G network.

Which wireless network has the best coverage?

Verizon has the best coverage among the Big Four, with AT&T and T-Mobile sharing second place and Sprint coming in last.

Is T-Mobile CDMA or GSM?

Afterwards introducing 4G LTE, all carriers use GSM, including T-Mobile, which was already on GSM before.

Verizon moved abroad from CDMA to GSM considering CDMA doesn't support 4G.