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Cell phone companies: the good, the bad, the deals

Smallville

Smallville

#ICanHitADraw
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I have been with T-Mobile since 1999 and have been happy with them most of the time.

Just heard of a deal Sprint is doing, and I am thinking I might just switch. Our rate for both of our phones would go to less than 50 bucks. Suppose I should increase my data plan before (if) we make a switch.

Time to do some research on Sprint. Tell me why Sprint would be a good switch!

http://www.sprint.com/landings/countdown/?INTCID=HP:PROS:BR:111815:50percent#!/



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My wife and I have free plans through work but I'd love to switch my kids to this 50% off deal. Unfortunately, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint don't have coverage at our house.
 
So I looked up providers on Consumer Reports, and Sprint is at the bottom. Going to have to talk to a lot of people with Sprint to see if this is a good thing. Maybe talking to T-Mobile might be a better option.



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I've learned the hard way that good pricing and good coverage don't always go hand in hand.

For my area, Verizon has been the absolute best. I've never lost signal or had an issue with them. The package we have may not be the cheapest, but I know I can make calls from anywhere. We live out in the sticks a little bit, and people with T Mobile & Sprint have had coverage issues at our house. Definitely chat with some folks you know and see what their experiences have been.
 
I was a long time customer that had little to no verizon coverage in the last 2 homes (7 years) I owned in decent sized cities. Oh and not to mention the fact that Verizon's customer service is awful.

Switched to sprint, couldnt be happier, coverage at home, no more calls right to voicemail, texts that wont go through etc.

Bill for the first 2 years is $42 less a month than verizon for the same plan ($116 total including data and my monthly phone installment, taxes and insurance on 1 phone)

After 2 years and the phones are paid off my bill will be $61+ tax

Just my 2 cents based on my experiences, but Im sure everyone's situations and experiences have been different.
 
I have had sprint for probably 10 years now. Inside Houston, where I live, I get pretty good coverage. I work about 40 miles north of Houston and it can be hit or miss out here. One thing of note, when I was in KC for the event this year, I did seem to get very good coverage the whole weekend. Honestly, if I wasn't on their unlimited data plan, I would probably switch, but it hasn't been a terrible experience by any means. For reference, my bill is about $72/month for 450 anytime minutes, including a corporate discount.
 
From my perspective, (friends & coworkers) Sprint has terrible coverage here. They can't hardly ever get constant signals. We're not a "big" city just 500,000. Verizon is the most expensive but has coverage you can count on. So that's why I stay with em
 
My wife and I are on sprint and have been for years our bill is under $100 a month with unlimited data (not even sure how many minutes) I have been more than pleased with Sprint. I also have a Verizon phone for work and one thing I will note is they both struggle in different areas so make sure whichever route you go your phones work where you need them to.

Also I am not sure if this particular deal is like this or not but keep in mind many of the deals require you to do the monthly lease on the phone and that is not factored into the price advertised so in the end it doesn't end up being as cheap.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
I've had sprint coverage ever since I've had a cell phone, and in my opinion, you get what you pay for as far as network goes. In Lincoln (decent size town), there are spots where they're still 3g, and 15 minutes outside of town, I have no data, while people I'm with who have verizon still have 4g. That's just 1 example of the many times the data coverage just isn't there. Granted, this is sparsely populated Nebraska, so YMMV in KC, but if you travel to smaller towns, you might be missing your network more than you're enjoying the discount.
 
John Legere Twitter handle went nuts on this "new" promotion (which they ran months ago). He makes some very valid points.
No tethering would be a deal breaker for me.
 
In the southeast, sprint and T-Mobile are both awful outside of cities. AT&T is much better and Verizon is at the top, especially in very rural areas. You pay for the coverage with both of those companies but I can't handle the poor coverage of sprint and t mobile.
 
Smallville said:
So I looked up providers on Consumer Reports, and Sprint is at the bottom. Going to have to talk to a lot of people with Sprint to see if this is a good thing. Maybe talking to T-Mobile might be a better option.



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I find it interesting that Ting is so near the top, with Sprint so far at the bottom, especially when you look at the voice/data scores - they use the same network.
 
mpeterson said:
I find it interesting that Ting is so near the top, with Sprint so far at the bottom, especially when you look at the voice/data scores - they use the same network.
Click to expand...

Its Consumer Reports.
 
I mean, I guess it makes a little bit of sense. The folks largely using Consumer Cellular/Jitterbug are probably using their phones as a "just in case" phone, so they're going to be pretty happy regardless. But when you look at voice/data scores, those should be by network - they are literally the same for Consumer Cellular/ATT and Ting/Sprint. Really just shows how poor the Consumer Reports methodology is for this.

I've used ATT and Verizon pretty much exclusively for the last 10 years, and haven't had an issue with either. On ATT now, and probably don't plan to switch anytime soon - coverage is good enough in rural New England, but faster in the city than Verizon. saa
 
Wake said:
In the southeast, sprint and T-Mobile are both awful outside of cities. AT&T is much better and Verizon is at the top, especially in very rural areas. You pay for the coverage with both of those companies but I can't handle the poor coverage of sprint and t mobile.
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True statement. We use Virgin...3gb of data and unlimited talk/text for 45/month? Yes please.
They use Sprint's towers. They suck butt down here. But up in Indy, when I visit, it's freaking GREAT!
When amsmith and evand23 and I played out in the boonies outside of Indy, I still had a LTE signal. Here, I lose it when I go in some buildings. It's ridiculous. I just love that price too much to switch.
 
It really depends on what you want. Where I live, Sprint talk coverage is good but data is horrible. Verizon is the best by far. But Verizon costs twice as much as sprint.
I don't use a lot of data so for me switching to sprint and cutting our bill in half and getting new phones was well worth it.
 
My cellphone is crucial to my line of work and the fact I no longer have a need for a landline. For this reason, I choose to go with Verizon. Never had a problem ANYWHERE!

Funny story, I was living in the Bay Area during the first WS the Giants had. The first WS game at AT&T Park people complained that they couldn't tweet, FB or text pictures, let alone get good cell reception, about the event on their AT&T cellphones.

If you want the best service, you'll have to pay for it...and for me it's worth it. Cheap plans, cheap service.
 
So this thread had me doing some research during lunch. I stumbled across Google Fi. Who has it? Does it work? Is it awesome? Or maybe I should just go search for it.....
 
I have sprint for my phone, a legacy SERO plan. Couldn't be happier. $45 a month and unlimited data. I typically use 35-50GB of mobile data a month so no unlimited data is a nonstarter for me. My unlocked iPad mini is my go to for critical work stuff and it's got plans on AT&T, T-mobile, Verizon and Sprint. Eight times out of ten it has the Verizon sim in it for best data speed, though in some states/cities the AT&T sim goes in, T-mobile has saved my butt in one or two instances as well but that's rare. There are places I'll find myself for work where NONE of the carriers have signal at all, while it sucks it's a fact of life if you go enough places you'll eventually end up somewhere where you don't have signal regardless of carrier.

Google's FI is a step in the right direction but it need to be available on more phones AND more carriers.
 
I've been with Cingular/AT&T since my first phone 12+ years ago. I've been all over the country and have had very few problems. Sure there are some spots here and there, but it's like that with everyone. I have a Verizon phone through work and they seem to work well also. There are spots where AT&T won't have much signal and Verizon will, and vice versa. Work switched from Sprint about two years ago and that was a blessing. Sprint was awful around here unless you were in town. Even then if you had a full signal, the data was extremely slow. Talk and text were usually great with no issues, but the data service was horrible.

We have four phones in the house and while AT&T might not have the best price, they have the best phones and service for where we live and what we want to do with them. Plus, we are all kind of device junkies and AT&T always has the top devices so it is easy to get what we want when it's time for a new one.
 
T0AD said:
So this thread had me doing some research during lunch. I stumbled across Google Fi. Who has it? Does it work? Is it awesome? Or maybe I should just go search for it.....
Click to expand...

It's basically an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) which is what smaller tiered providers like Cricket/Republic/etc are that lease bandwidth from a big provider like AT&T.

Google fi is an MVNO that has a partnership with T-Mobile and Sprint to lease bandwidth. They offer great pricing and rollover data pricing - which is a big thing as people stream more and more as well as seamless handoffs between networks. Reviews are getting better but obviously everyone's experience may be different depending on location. How long Google decides to stay in this line of business is unknown, they very well could be doing this just to show providers how they should be doing it and then back out after a few years. They also only support the Nexus 6, 6p, 5x and that's it.

fi.google.com

I've had all the big providers in NCAL (Sprint/ATT/Verizon) over the last 20 years and now T-Mobile since last year. They all dropped off in the same exact spots between SF and Sacramento but for sure ATT/VZN will get you better coverage in rural/mtn areas and if you live somewhere like Montana you better have AT&T. Sprint is exceptionally good along the coast for some reason. Whether or not that matters to you is another question.

My last monthly charge with VZN (not taking into account corp discount) was about $115/mo for unlimited talk with 4GB data and no carryover data. My T-mobile bill is $85 with 6GB of data and data carryover - so the savings is significant. I have had excellent customer service with T-Mobile and generally horrid experiences with AT&T and VZN cs. T-Mobile was almost dead back in 2012 or whenever that AT&T merger was being kicked around but since Deutsche-Telekom has provided more support to TM USA and If anything T-Mobile is getting better each year as they roll out more coverage. Of particular note is them finally being able to get in the auctions to buy lower (more penetrating) bandwidth like the 700 Mhz Band 12 is a huge win for TM, for years ATT/VZN have controlled those frequencies. For urban customers this means much better building penetration and for rural customers higher speeds.

I'll only be leaving T-Mobile for Google fi if anything.

Also: stadiums always have horrible cell phone reception.........prob they use jammers.
 
Verizon has the best coverage in my neck of the woods. Sprint is terrible.
 
ATT is sticking it to grandfathered unlimited plans. I am on a plan (3 lines) that has been active since 1998. My mom still uses a bellsouth.net email address (lol).
Started w/ Bellsouth, then ATT, then Cingular, and back to ATT. All the same cell plan.
I wonder if I could go upgrade my phone at the subsidized 2 yr price and then cancel come Feb. Article says they are waiving the early termination fee.


http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/30/att-unlimited-plan-price-increase/
AT&T will raise the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans from $30 to $35 in February of 2016, reports CNBC. The upcoming rate change is detailed on a page on AT&T's website and is the first price hike the unlimited plan has seen in seven years.

Though AT&T no longer offers unlimited data plans to customers, a small number of customers continue to hold unlimited data plans that were purchased before AT&T discontinued them in 2010. AT&T's current $30 unlimited data plan allows customers to use an unlimited amount of data, but AT&T does throttle with excessive data usage.


As of February 16, the $30 price tag, which is in addition to voice costs, will rise to $35. The price hike comes just a couple of months after AT&T announced changes to its throttling practices. AT&T previously throttled customers on congested networks after 5GB of LTE data usage, but that cap was increased to 22GB in September, making unlimited plans more valuable.

AT&T plans to notify customers who will be impacted by the price increase. Customers who wish to cancel their wireless service because of the pricing increase will have early termination fees waived for affected lines. Price changes will take effect during each customer's February billing period.
 
I live in a very hilly area where several dropped calls each day are a reality no matter which carrier you choose. I have Verizon on an iPad, AT&T on my company phone, and my kids also had AT&T until last week. I switched their phones to Sprint and coverage so far is comparable to AT&T in our area. I have 3 iPhones on the plan with 20GB of shared data for $107 per month. I can add my iPad pro to the plan for $5 a month so I will do that this week. Verizon and T-mobile have basically no coverage at my house.
 
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