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Comment by amyjess | Hacker News Reader

I'm American, and I took a road trip last month from Dallas to NYC and back (going through Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and tiny bits of a few other states).

Unless I was in a city, I only had 2G signal, and in a few places I didn't even have that (but those were rare).

Edit: for reference, my carrier at the time was Simple Mobile, an MVNO of T-Mobile (I'm no longer with them anymore: I just activated Project Fi today).

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Every time I've taken a train in the UK (between Aberdeen and Edinburgh or Glasgow, or from Edinburgh to Manchester) this has been my experience. When you're sat in the station in a city you get 4G, it rapidly deteriorates to 3G after you set off, then 2G, and then it just alternates between 2G and nothing.

And this is the exact reason I left T-Mobile. AT&T have 4G coverage on pretty much the entire interstate system. When I had T-Mobile I'd drive from NYC to Columbus, OH and have no signal for the 8+ hours between the two cities.

With Band 12 LTE, this is changing rapidly on TMO.

Upgrading to a Nexus 6 made vast improvements to my T-Mobile coverage as it supported the new bands.

Verizon and AT&T have vastly better coverage.

Project Fi rides on T-mobile and Sprint (T-mobile having the better network of the two).

In my experiences, T-Mobile is much better to have when you have both. If you're somewhere where you're just hoping for anything at all, Sprint wins. T-Mobile has fast data, but falls off quickly outside dense areas. I find the two complementary in a way that gives Fi a powerful synergy.

My reference areas are Maryland,DC,VA (through NOVA and down to farming areas around Charlottesville); a weeklong road trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles with Las Vegas and Grand Canyon stops; and a month-long road trip going through VA-MD-PA-NY-NY-OH-IN-IL-WI-MN-SD-WY-MT-ID-WA-OR-CA.

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