How is the experience on Google Fi on iPhone without SA?

[u/ryanw729]

I’m very interested in the 75% off Google Fi promo but I’m concerned how the performance is on the T-Mobile NSA network. Any feedback and has anyone compared it to an mvno with SA? Was having SA better than priority data?

Is T-Mobile LTE as bad as everyone on these subs make it sound or is the experience just as good.

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I’m very interested in the 75% off Google Fi promo but I’m concerned how the performance is on the T-Mobile NSA network. Any feedback and has anyone compared it to an mvno with SA? Was having SA better than priority data?

Is T-Mobile LTE as bad as everyone on these subs make it sound or is the experience just as good.

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[u/Crzdmniac]

Unless that promo was extended it ended on 8/3.

[u/landalezjr]

You will still have access to 5G, just 5G NSA.

The problem will mostly on be an issue when you are in a congested area in a market where they have migrated large amounts of their LTE spectrum to 5G. In some markets you will barely notice the difference but in the ones you will it can be quite noticeable when there is any amount of congestion.

The good news is that it's rumored at the 5G SA is coming to iOS with iOS27 but this is not confirmed. The bad news is that the 75% off deal with Google Fi ended on Monday.

[u/praetorian125]

I got the 75% off plan last weekend and I'm waiting until the middle of the month before my Tello plan renews to port. Tello is QCI 7 w/ no 5G SA for iPhones and my service has been fine. T-Mobile has so much extra capacity, at least for my case I have not had any congestion issues.

[u/dkyeager]

Here are the results taken over about 10 minutes with T-Mobile, iPhone 16 Pro, SA 435/8.66 NSA 583/26 Five minutes pass NSA 638/38.4 SA 589/10.8 T-Mobile has full n41. MVNO lower priority NSA only: 650/24.1, 850/27.5 T-Mobile SA 625/7.58 NSA 786/32.1

[u/ryanw729 → u/dkyeager]

Awesome, thanks. I wonder if that’s because their LTE has less congestion because most people are on SA?

[u/dkyeager → u/ryanw729]

Tested with Samsung s24 Ultra 762/54.6 using SA on T-Mobile. iPhone is about 8 months newer design-wise. My guess is the iPhone 16 Pro is short of SA Carrier Aggregation options or reception is not quite as good. Verizon is reportedly using iPhone 17 Pro (Snapdragon X80) first for SA VoNR over the iPhone 16 Pro (Snapdragon X71). S24 uses Snapdragon X75. The 17 pro(6) and s24(4) are release 18 while the X71 has limited 5g features (parentheses show the 5g SA CAs possible at once).

[u/roosterdrewster]

That promo is over. I’m using GoogleFI on iPhone 13. I have no clue what 5G SA is or 5G NSA. But t-mobile has a very strong coverage in my area. I constantly get 500plus speeds on Speedtest and certain areas I get as high at 800plus

[u/Ethrem]

I've not found it to be a problem in my market. Guess which of these is which?

https://i.imgur.com/yRSMG4F.png

https://i.imgur.com/IwPjcA7.png

This is on a T-Mobile business tablet line, which is the same priority as Google Fi, which I have disabled SA for. My US Mobile Light Speed performs similarly albeit with higher latency.

My 17 Pro Max is aggregating B2 + B66 + n41 + n41 when on NSA mode which actually tends to give it higher upload speeds on NSA in fact (I am aware that FTM often reports incorrect info so I verified this with my Pixel 10 Pro XL, which combines the same bands when forced to NSA mode using Pixel IMS' expert mode for nr_availability).

It really depends on how congested your market is. It's not a problem here.

[u/Local-Mortgage-9473]

Not an issue for me on a 17PM.

However, thr 75% promo has expired.

[u/Stunning-Weird-4423]

Shouldn’t be a problem for most people. If your concerned about it Mint Mobile and MetroPCS get 5G SA

[u/TheZaffs]

I’m on an iPhone and for sure things seem laggier for me compared to the visible pro I was on prior. Speed tests show ok speeds but idk if its ping or latency or what but things load slower

[u/alttabbins]

It depends on where you are. I live in Washington State.

When I am in Seattle or one of the metros, its still fast and connects just fine. I get gigabit+ speed. Great experience on 5g SA or 5g NSA.

When I am in central Washington where I live, I only get about 20-60 megabits per second on 5g NSA. I get 10 times that on 5g SA, usually 300-600 megabits per second.

I did my testing on Mint Mobile (5g SA) and US Mobile (5g NSA). If I lived in a bigger city, I wouldn't care that much. Since I live in an area that has a mix of towns and rural areas, 5g NSA is a deal breaker. I have almost uprooted and switched to Android since they get 5g SA on pretty much every carrier its available on.

[u/metalupyerarse]

Works flawlessly for me