Better Cell Phone Carrier?

[sdean]

Not very phone savvy but do they all have some form of a Hotspot feature?

You just need data time for hotspot.

 

[BlueWater]

Think hard about where you'll need good reception (to the nearest towers) and what "dents" in your speed requirements you're willing to tolerate. Not all tower locations are equal.

I've a friend who switched to T-Mobile, and because the nearest towers are fairly lightly loaded she gets screamin' fast performance on her 5G equipment. But, by comparison, numerous people on their supposedly-fast new 5G phones through Verizon don't. The major difference is apparently that the nearby towers for Verizon are heavily loaded and many compete for the connection and throughout, whereas the nearby T-Mobile towers are fairly lightly loaded in this part of town.

Don't know if the various providers will divulge where their towers are (in the area) and what their guaranteed performance specs are, but it'd be nice to know.

All I can say is: ask around, amongst folks who are in the immediate area where you'll be wanting prime reception and speeds ... and try to do your homework.

 

[freebird22/250]

Consumer Cellular saved us a lot of money from our previous carrier AT&T and great coverage to boot!

 

[Full Chisel]

Since I've been on Xfinity internet for over 20 years (no other real choices), I dropped Verizon and went with Xfinity mobile service. I had to hang my head to do it, because I despise Comcast for all the BS over the years. But I have to have their internet, so...

First bill just came in and it was $21 after taxes and fees for 1GB data plan shared between me and my wife. We used .8 GB of it which is more than our norm. I'm sure there will be a month or two that we'll go into the second GB and they'll hit me for another $18. But Verizon couldn't even come close to this price. Verizon couldn't seem to grasp the fact that I'm old and don't use network data very much.

EDIT: Xfinity uses the Verizon network, and the service has been exactly the same as it was with Verizon.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Think hard about where you'll need good reception (to the nearest towers) and what "dents" in your speed requirements you're willing to tolerate. Not all tower locations are equal.

I've a friend who switched to T-Mobile, and because the nearest towers are fairly lightly loaded she gets screamin' fast performance on her 5G equipment. But, by comparison, numerous people on their supposedly-fast new 5G phones through Verizon don't. The major difference is apparently that the nearby towers for Verizon are heavily loaded and many compete for the connection and throughout, whereas the nearby T-Mobile towers are fairly lightly loaded in this part of town.

Don't know if the various providers will divulge where their towers are (in the area) and what their guaranteed performance specs are, but it'd be nice to know.

All I can say is: ask around, amongst folks who are in the immediate area where you'll be wanting prime reception and speeds ... and try to do your homework.

Verizon has had to pull a bunch of their 5g radios out of the towers to send to the most populated areas due to the chip shortage.

 

[CharlieNC]

Mint $15 a month with good coverage in my area. Have to install their sim card yourself to activate, may give it a try.

 

[wedgy]

Think hard about where you'll need good reception (to the nearest towers) and what "dents" in your speed requirements you're willing to tolerate. Not all tower locations are equal.

I've a friend who switched to T-Mobile, and because the nearest towers are fairly lightly loaded she gets screamin' fast performance on her 5G equipment. But, by comparison, numerous people on their supposedly-fast new 5G phones through Verizon don't. The major difference is apparently that the nearby towers for Verizon are heavily loaded and many compete for the connection and throughout, whereas the nearby T-Mobile towers are fairly lightly loaded in this part of town.

That is the first thing that I notice when I leave California.... that the internet on my phone is lightening fast

 

[SSL]

I went with Visible. Owned by Verizon and only $25/month. No contract. No complaints. Haven’t noticed any difference in service

Same here. Have used Visible for about 5 years. Unlimited data, hot spot and etc. Works perfectly by running off Verizon towers as well as others co-leased by Verizon.

 

[Litespeed]

AT&T has gone downhill in my area so I started looking around. 3 months with Mint cost 60 bucks so it was worth it to test. They use T-Mobile towers and I have great coverage in my home area. I just renewed for 188 for a year including all fees. The only downside is they use T-Mobile towers only so you don't get the same coverage as TMobile as they use other towers in remote areas. That is pretty much it, I will be cancelling AT&T soon and saving a ton.

 

[USMCDOC]

for those that have T-Mobile, if you are getting poor reception with 5G.. you should be able to switch your phone to 4G Lte..
I have found that since the switch to 5G, if you live a more rural area, the ability for good reception has been diminished, but if you are in a big city, it has for the most part, gotten much better. I have one phone with two numbers on the phone.. my total monthly bill is 52.00 a month with unlimited on both lines.

 

[ckaberna]

Straight talk at wal mart… lots cheaper than Verizon

 

[jimcasey01]

Spectrum in use here. Unlimited talk and text, my plan only has 1 gig of data. I don't do movies so no problem and I set my phone to always use wifi if available.. $14 / month I believe.

 

[SecretCode]

Verizon just put up a tower 400 yards outside my little town and since we were already using them for the phones we switched to them for internet as well. 25 bucks a month for 10 years locked. T-mobile and others don't have good service outside of town if any at all around here. Friends that have them regret trying them. Verizon might be the most expensive but ya definitely get what you pay for around here.

 

[DiffEQ]

Wife used StraightTalk for years. Meh.
I had ATT personal and through work for years.
Got a different job that provided T-Mobile..
I don't mix work and personal on my phones.
I tried Tracfone, prepaid for a year. Never again.
If you have straighttalk or tracfone prepaid and need technical support, both are terrible and tracfone is by far the worst.
I took my unlocked 4G phone and bought a year of Mint at $29/month w ~12GB of data. It rides on the TMobile network. Overall reception and service is better than my ATT corporate phone, but not as good as my current T-Mobile 5G.
Mint was super easy to set up.
Io think what will make any cellular phone ownership more enjoyable is the quality of the phone. I'm a fan of Samsung.
Two family members have Google phones and both *hate* them with a passion.
Having grown up with the Ma Bell System, I am constantly astounded at how we have come to tolerate such mediocrity in our phone service.

 

[BlueWater]

Verizon has had to pull a bunch of their 5g radios out of the towers to send to the most populated areas due to the chip shortage.

Wouldn't surprise me that that'd be one of the impacts of the ship "shortage" (supply chain) problem. Combine a dense load of people on that specific service (tower) with a lack of chips that cause phones to back down to 4G ... voila.

 

[Forum Boss]

5G has very short wavelength. This means it does NOT penetrate buildings and concrete walls as well as the older type wavelengths. So some people will get WORSE service with 5G. It also "fades" faster at distances. This is all acknowledged by Verizon, AT&T.

If you have a good strong, 5G signal that can penetrate your buildings, it offers significantly faster speeds for videos, and video conferencing, and uploading/downloading large files. Otherwise, 5G has downsides.

 

[divingin]

ATT used to be the only service at my house (in the hills east of Oakland - I think T-Mobile coverage has improved, but Verizon hasn't); my old plan was something like $130/mo for unlimited calls, but limited text and data. Got a new phone, which required a new contract; upped the limits by one step and now have unlimited calls, text, and data for $52/mo.

If you haven't bounced your agreed-upon plan against what's available, I'd suggest doing so.

 

[jdh47]

Cell service is pretty much controlled by where you are in their network, if they have one. Verizon is about the only thing in East Texas. ( Around Palestine), Deep east Texas is ATT. The Metroplex is pretty much any of them, but ATT is the big dog. It is expensive but this last cold spell we had I lost the land based broadband service from the fone company and the Cell phone is all I had. I have a good friend that lives in technological purgatory. Turn down his driveway and kiss your signal goodby. He can't even get land-based POTS service. (Plain Old Telephone Service) They don't sell Dialtone out there; they sell static, and he doesn't live that far from the metroplex. It's a conspiracy.

 

[butchlambert]

Cell service is pretty much controlled by where you are in their network, if they have one. Verizon is about the only thing in East Texas. ( Around Palestine), Deep east Texas is ATT. The Metroplex is pretty much any of them, but ATT is the big dog. It is expensive but this last cold spell we had I lost the land based broadband service from the fone company and the Cell phone is all I had. I have a good friend that lives in technological purgatory. Turn down his driveway and kiss your signal goodby. He can't even get land-based POTS service. (Plain Old Telephone Service) They don't sell Dialtone out there; they sell static, and he doesn't live that far from the metroplex. It's a conspiracy.

You talking about me Joe?

 

[MikeT124]

My wife and I both have Tracfone service. We both have a two month plan at just a little more than $26 (including tax) for two months of service. We get service time, text messages and data download. the 60 day plan allows 500minutes talk, 1000 text messages, and 500 MB data. All unused gets rolled over. My wife has 9453 minutes, 12,986 texts, and 4.20gb data, I have 4175minutes, 13,675 texts, and 6.38gb data available. for $13 dollars per month each I think it's a pretty good deal.

Mike