Cell Phone Carriers

[Econ]

The Verizon network is the best in this state. You can pick up their signal in more remote areas than T and T-Mobile. I have heard Verizon has better reception out West where we plan to visit in a year and a half.

I want to leave Verizon but keep their network. There are micro carriers that "rent" time on the Verizon network. The plan is for DW to retain her Verizon phone and I change to the microcarrier on the same network and compare notes after 6 months. I am assuming that if a campground review says that you get 2 bars of Verizon service that the micro carrier would also. I am assuming the only difference is someone else is running the front office.

Does anyone have experience with a micro carrier? Comments?

Thanks

 

[Toedtoes]

I don't know much about microcarriers, but where out west are you going? I'm in California and none of the coverage maps are accurate. There are a lot of holes in coverage as soon as you move away from the freeways due to the mountains. It also depends on your actual phone. I have ATT and find it does better outside of major areas than the others. It may be a weak or intermittant signal, but it is a signal.

 

[tenttrailer]

We went to spectrum wireless which uses Verizon backbone.

 

[kcsa75]

Are you wanting to leave Verizon because of the cost?

I've had Verizon continuously for the last 20 years. On more than one occasion, I've threatened to leave if they didn't lower my bill and they've always capitulated. This past summer after the Sprint-Ti-Mobil merger became final, they lowered my bill by more than $50.

 

[Lug_Nut]

I've been on Cell One, Cingular, AT&T and never changed once. I've stuck with that provider, through all their name and ownership changes, because they have the strongest signal of the few that have any signal at my home.
I tired of the $60/month charge for the little I actually use, but felt tied because none of the other big 3 (now 2 with Sprint and T-mobil merger) had coverage where I want it.
Then I found a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) that uses AT&T towers, and allows me to purchase only slightly more than what I use rather than the unnecessarily high minimum that AT&T had as their lowest tier. I have cut my monthly bill to $10/mo.

Search using your current carrier's name and "MVNO" to see what options are available to you.

 

[Sjm9911]

I left verizon for att because i had 0 covrage in my home. Seems like the covrage is simmiler. At some camp sites, verizon is better, at some att. Just comparing service i had with places i went.

 

[jmkay1]

I’m kind of curious what you find out. Verizon is ridiculous expensive but they are the only service that I got somewhat of a signal at home and my work and between. I’ve also had reasonable luck at most of my camping locations though I have considered installing a booster. I’ve jumped between all services carriers at least some point in my lifetime, but I seem to be stuck with Verizon for the time being because of coverage alone.

 

[lc69hunter]

In Arizona, all carriers are fairly good in the metro areas and along the major routes. However, in the boonies, nobody compares to Verizon.

 

[Anthony Hitchings]

FYI - we have Consumer Cellular. Wife is primary account holder. Her sub-carrier is AT&T. My sub-carrier seems to be flavor of the month, with lousy or no data/web access outside of cities - but its a bit random so I never know if the service will be any good on my phone or not. Very frustrating, despite them trying to fix the issue. At one point a couple of years back CC had me on T-Mobil , lousy coverage.

 

[rjniles]

Look at Red Pocket mobile on eBay. They gave plans on the 3 major carriers. Verizon is Red Pockets CDMAV plan. With them you get better deals with 3 or 12 month commitments.

 

[Sws763]

We had Verizon years ago. We left them due to the high cost. We switched to Sprint with the promise we would save money. That didn’t happen, and to top it off, we had no service at our house. With the contract now up we had heard of a fairly new company called Visible. They are a part of Verizon so they use the same towers. They only offer 1 plan and that is with everything for $40. If you get up to 4 friends or family members to join and do a party plan your monthly fee can go down to $25 per line. We just signed on last month and are very happy with the service. Contacted customer service a couple times for something I wasn’t sure about and they were very helpful. We’ll see how it works out in the long run, but so far we like them.

 

[Anthony Hitchings]

The other side of the coin - is - what options do you have with your mobile phone when you travel overseas - Consumer Cellular was difficult in practice as the limit is tiny and the they disable the service until you call up during USA business hours and beg to have the limit raised - and then do it all over again! Esecially annoying when your AB&B does not have WiFi.

 

[MOSCDENC]

I've been on Cell One, Cingular, AT&T and never changed once

Wife and I were in the same Cingular/AT&T boat until we switched to Cricket. Same company, same network, but getting more for less money. Sure we get second tier internet speed after a certain data cap, but I don't care about streaming video speeds. I care about the bill at the end of the month and that my phone works as a phone where I want it to. We have 4 lines for about what we were paying for two under AT&T when we left a couple years ago.

 

[Sws763]

My sister-in-law left AT&T for Visible for the same reason. She has 6 phones and the prices were just too much.

 

[Econ]

though I have considered installing a booster.

You work on boosters and I'll work on MVNO's <<GG>>

 

[Econ]

Red Pocket mobile

How long have you been on them and do you think you have had time to fully evaluate their service?? How is their customer service.

What type phone did you convert and how difficult was it to install the SIM card?

Thanks

 

[Sws763]

I’ve had them just over a month, and I haven’t had any issues. I did have to get ahold of customer service when I was activating my new phone. The entire process took about 10 minutes once the person talked me through it. ( I made a mistake when setting up my phone) They were able to fix my error rather quickly. Didn’t have to talk to anyone. All done through texts on my computer and through the Visible app.

 

[Arruba]

I’ve got Verizon and stay with them only because they have coverage where I need it and seem to have the best coverage here in the PNW. I DO feel like I’m getting looted every month by their bill. I will say that between their apparent expanding coverage and a booster, coverage seems to improve every year.

I’ll be following this because if it appears there is a good micro carrier that uses their system and is cheaper, I’ll dump them in front heartbeat.

 

[Sneezer]

We have Cricket, which uses ATT towers. They have been OK, much cheaper than ATT. We don’t use a tremendous amount of data either. However, my work phone is ATT, and I have found places where Cricket was either slower, less bars or did not have the top tier signal compared to my work phone.

 

[davido]

95% of all cell coverage overlaps identically from one carrier to the next. The remaining 5% you will find one carrier with better coverage in one area, and another carrier with better coverage in another area. Sure, one of the carriers may even be able to boast the largest coverage map in the country, but to achieve that, they only need to cover one square mile more than the next best company.

I just don't think it's worth splitting hairs. I've been with AT&T since 1994 (throughout its various name changes). It works well enough in enough places. If I'm camping somewhere that doesn't have cell coverage, that's OK too. Sometimes there will be WiFi nearby or even at the campground. And if not, I think I deserve a break from devices.

I remember going backpacking for a week at a time when I was a kid, with no radio, no electronic devices. How did we manage to disconnect for a week at a time? I can hardly imagine it now.