1 year ago I would have never given T-Mobile a shot. I poked fun at their network and mocked my friends who used them. However, just over a year ago T-Mobile announced John Legere as the new CEO on September 19, 2012. At that time I had never heard of John, but over the last year I started seeing his name pop up more and more on all the tech blogs that I read. T-Mobile was shaking up the industry by offering new plans by splitting your service plan from the cost of your phone. Once your phone is paid off or if you bring your own device, then your monthly bill will be significantly cheaper.

However, what got me to look at T-Mobile in the last month was they are now offering free data and text in over 100 countries. Now for most people that’s not that big of a deal. However, I travel outside the country about once a year and I thought “that would be nice to be able to text friends and family for free while on vacation.” I then decided to look at the cost of T-Mobile and I found out that if I brought my 2 unlocked AT&T Samsung Galaxy smartphones over to T-Mobile our bill would only be $100/month, each receiving 2.5GB of LTE data. On top of that, I also receive a 15% discount for being a Progressive customer. Therefore, my bill will be $85/month + tax. Not bad for receiving LTE data in the twin cities!

I was so thrilled by everything I was discovering about T-Mobile that I took the plunge and I’m glad I did! Coverage has been what I’d expect in the twin cities. Speeds have been fast, averaging 12Mbps – 17Mbps down, and customer service has been excellent so far! I decided to check to see how much it’d be to add on 2 more phones to the family plan, and to my surprise I could add my parent’s unlocked smartphones onto our plan for only $20 a month! I called my parents and they were thrilled to save over $50 a month on their cell phone bill. We immediately ordered 2 T-Mobile sim cards with overnight shipping and ported their numbers over to my T-Mobile account.

My parents live in the Greenville/Spartanburg, SC area and when I looked at the coverage map I was absolutely shocked to find out my parents would get LTE coverage. What? My parents live in a small town of a few thousand (3,301 to be exact.) My parents used their phones this weekend and they claimed that coverage was great and they have yet to have any issues. With all 4 phones on the account our bill is still only $120/month.

Have you looked at T-Mobile recently? If not, I’d recommend giving them a second glance