T-Mobile Cell Service in the Parks

[mnmhouston]

Any issues? I have issues with my service in lots of areas (even in my home town). Wondering how it is in and around the parks for use of MDX (less concerned about phone calls...lol)!

 

[wilkeliza]

No need to worry about service in WDW. They have free wifi through out the park so even if your service isn't great you should have no issue using MDX on the wifi.

 

[mnmhouston]

No need to worry about service in WDW. They have free wifi through out the park so even if your service isn't great you should have no issue using MDX on the wifi.

Excellent! Thank you for the quick reply!

 

[fla4fun]

I live local and use T-Mobile. The only issue I've ever had is losing a signal when deep inside some of the attraction buildings, which I attribute to how the buildings are constructed. Usually if I have lost my phone signal I'm deep enough in that I can't get the Disney wifi either. I get a strong signal all over Orlando, which is the reason I went with them in the first place.

 

[Jennasis]

I have never had any issue with my T Mobile service in any of the parks or resort areas or in Orlando in general.

 

[cmoliver5]

This is all great! We just switched to T-Mobile recently so I'm glad to hear there aren't issues!

 

[wdw4rfam]

We've had t-mobile for 12 years and never had a problem. There was a few times traveling in the bus I hit spots with low signal. But quickly picked back up. Plus like others said, wifi everywhere so you really don't need it.

 

[jprieur]

I live local and use T-Mobile. The only issue I've ever had is losing a signal when deep inside some of the attraction buildings, which I attribute to how the buildings are constructed. Usually if I have lost my phone signal I'm deep enough in that I can't get the Disney wifi either. I get a strong signal all over Orlando, which is the reason I went with them in the first place.

Building penetration has more to do with the frequency band T-mobile uses. ATT and Verizon use lower frequencies (around 700 MHz if I recall) than T-Mobile (1700 MHz). Lower frequncies are better at penetrating through building materials. Basically att and Verizon paid more and were earlier to the party to register the lower frequencies with the FCC.

Toy story midway building is a total dead zone for T-Mobile. There are a few others as well I can't recall at the moment.

Bottom line, overall coverage is ok in the parks, the shortfall is T-Mobiles carrier frequency when within a structure.

 

[robl45]

Tmobile has been going lower on frequencies, not an issue like it once was where you couldn't get signal in a bulding. The one problem I have is my phone is always fine elsewhere and as soon as I get to Disney on Tmobile, the battery just drains and drains.

 

[Malestrom Troll]

T-Mobile used to be horrible at WDW, I think they didn't have enough capacity to serve all their customers. Since they gained ATT's bandwidth when the merger fell through, it has been much better.

 

[krysenchips]

There is a bit of a dead spot near building 7 at Pop Century, but otherwise I had no problems in WDW otherwise.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

T-mobile here. While T-mobile really stinks in Massachusetts where I used to live, I have never had any issue with it outside of MA. In MA, no matter where we lived, never had a signal at our house. (3 different houses in 10 years). Any other house in town, full signal..house we live in? NADA.

Disney trips, full signal in any of the parks all day, everyday.

 

[dreiwhit]

I live local and use T-Mobile. The only issue I've ever had is losing a signal when deep inside some of the attraction buildings, which I attribute to how the buildings are constructed. Usually if I have lost my phone signal I'm deep enough in that I can't get the Disney wifi either. I get a strong signal all over Orlando, which is the reason I went with them in the first place.

We had a problem getting a signal inside of some attractions on our first WDW trip. This also caused the batteries to drain much faster, as the phone kept trying to reconnect.

On our last trip, reception seemed to be better. I had also bought my wife a new T-Mobile phone with access to all the bands, so that helped as well.

 

[lampshadehead]

The reception for calls outside and data seemed fine at the parks, inside thick buildings is where I have the issues with T-Mobile. Where I found high speed data to be bad was in Universal resorts and parks in 2013. It would go from showing "4g" to the stupid little "e" and nothing would load and I couldn't send picture messages. Going back this year and hoping it has improved.

 

[mnmhouston]

Thanks for all of the replies all great info! Especially about Pop Century which is where we are staying!!!

 

[ucfknight]

Building penetration has more to do with the frequency band T-mobile uses. ATT and Verizon use lower frequencies (around 700 MHz if I recall) than T-Mobile (1700 MHz). Lower frequncies are better at penetrating through building materials. Basically att and Verizon paid more and were earlier to the party to register the lower frequencies with the FCC.

Toy story midway building is a total dead zone for T-Mobile. There are a few others as well I can't recall at the moment.

Bottom line, overall coverage is ok in the parks, the shortfall is T-Mobiles carrier frequency when within a structure.

Sounds like you might need a new phone that supports T-Mobile Band 12. That's their 700 Mhz LTE band and it has had full coverage of the WDW resort (and the rest of the Orlando area) for about a year and a half. Before I had a phone that supported that I used to lose signal in some larger buildings since it was using the 1700 Mhz or 2100 Mhz frequency. Now that I have a newer phone that supports band 12, I've experienced spotless LTE signal every place I've gone in WDW.

Here's T-Mobile's list of devices that officially support their 700 Mhz spectrum:
https://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/coverage-phones-700.html

They only list phone they sell/sold there. Here's another list that also has the status of unlocked phones that support band 12:

http://www.spectrumgateway.com/compatible-phones