Cellphone Plans

[char]

I've been with verizon for a few years now, but their rate appears to be ridiculous for 2 lines and 3 GB of data. I originally went with verizon because they had the best coverage in out of the way places in the west, but that isn't as pressing right now.

As far as I can tell I can cut $50 off my monthly bill by switching to t-mobile, virgin, sprint, mobile pcs, etc. In particular, is anyone not happy with t-mobile? 80 bucks a month for unlimited talk/text + 1 gb 4g LTE (no overage, just throttled) for 2 lines seems like a steal. They might even cover my early termination fee with Verizon.

I'm not sure where we are in the contract with verizon, but I'm thinking that it would work out to around 4 months with a new provider to make up the difference.

Any reason not to?

[RShea]

There are a number of similarly priced prepaid (no contracts) offerings unlimited talk and text and 1 or 2 GB of data out there for right around $45 or so. You could stay on Verizon with their prepaid offering (autopay bumps up the data from 500 mb to 1 gb of data) or Page Plus or similar Verizon based MVNO's out there.

[dcpnz]

In particular, is anyone not happy with t-mobile?

Any reason not to?

Well yeah but it all kind of depends where you live and what t-mobile coverage is like there.

I'm on the $30 100 min, 5gb data plan and that's about perfect for me except t-mo coverage sucks at my house. Coverage in town is great and I'm not exactly in the sticks but I only get t-mo signal in a very small portion of my house and it's not where I sit around or have a charger plugged in. Very frustrating to not get calls and texts at home so I'm about to switch to AT&T even though I'll have to pay a fair bit more.
As always YMMV. FWIW I've generally found urban areas pretty good with t-mo, rural, not so much.

[riser4]

Well yeah but it all kind of depends where you live and what t-mobile coverage is like there.

I'm on the $30 100 min, 5gb data plan and that's about perfect for me except t-mo coverage sucks at my house. Coverage in town is great and I'm not exactly in the sticks but I only get t-mo signal in a very small portion of my house and it's not where I sit around or have a charger plugged in. Very frustrating to not get calls and texts at home so I'm about to switch to AT&T even though I'll have to pay a fair bit more.
As always YMMV. FWIW I've generally found urban areas pretty good with t-mo, rural, not so much.

Don't know what it is like where you live but where I am, T-mobile and AT&T use the same towers, so the coverage is the same, except T-mo advertises 2G data speeds on AT&Ts network/towers. Grrr.

[dcpnz]

Don't know what it is like where you live but where I am, T-mobile and AT&T use the same towers, so the coverage is the same, except T-mo advertises 2G data speeds on AT&Ts network/towers. Grrr.

Don't know, maybe they do and theres something about frequencies used too??
But on my nexus I can search for available networks and AT&T routinely shows up and t-mo does not.

[Todds]

Well yeah but it all kind of depends where you live and what t-mobile coverage is like there.

I'm on the $30 100 min, 5gb data plan and that's about perfect for me except t-mo coverage sucks at my house. Coverage in town is great and I'm not exactly in the sticks but I only get t-mo signal in a very small portion of my house and it's not where I sit around or have a charger plugged in. Very frustrating to not get calls and texts at home so I'm about to switch to AT&T even though I'll have to pay a fair bit more.
As always YMMV. FWIW I've generally found urban areas pretty good with t-mo, rural, not so much.

If you get reception at some place in your house you can buy a cordless phone that links via blue tooth to your cell phone. Just leave the cell phone and the base station at that location. When someone calls the cell it rings on the cordless. You can use the cordless to make a call via the cell phone. You don't need a land line.

This should do it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-478-_-Product

[cat in january]

I have been with US Cellular for a while, but I am going to give straight talk a whirl. Fuck contracts.

[Tippster]

If you get reception at some place in your house you can buy a cordless phone that links via blue tooth to your cell phone. Just leave the cell phone and the base station at that location. When someone calls the cell it rings on the cordless. You can use the cordless to make a call via the cell phone. You don't need a land line.

This should do it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-478-_-Product

Our home phones do that. My problem is that I often forget to turn on the bluetooth when I get home.

[systemoverblow'd]

grandfathered into unlimited data and tons of rollover minutes on basic plan for sticking with the same provider for 15 years feels good mane. Not to mention my company has a deal with AT&T where I get an extra 15% off. Suck it.

[AdironRider]

They grandfather you in and let you use 4G? That was Verizon's scam I figured out. Sure you can keep the unlimited data on that old iphone4, at 3G speed. Maybe thats changed but a year ago no dice.

[systemoverblow'd]

Yuppers. Right now I only have 3 bars out of 5 and I'm faster than their advertised average 4g speeds.

[AdironRider]

I assume you went with an unlocked phone then? Thought about that but that actually shook out to be more expensive in the long run, but at the time (still do, looking forward to dumping my Samsung and going back to an Iphone)I needed the big ass screen and those were all 4g phones. Paying an extra 600 to save 240 bucks didnt seem worth it to me considering my other options.

If I didn't need the big screen I wouldn't have gotten a new one in the first place.

[systemoverblow'd]

Nope, Samsung S4 Active directly via AT&T. Don't know if I'm the exception or not, but it is what t is.

[huckbucket]

They grandfather you in and let you use 4G? That was Verizon's scam I figured out. Sure you can keep the unlimited data on that old iphone4, at 3G speed. Maybe thats changed but a year ago no dice.

I'm on verizon 4G with unlimited data on a moto X. Gotta know who to blow when you re-up.

[BmillsSkier]

Nope, Samsung S4 Active directly via AT&T. Don't know if I'm the exception or not, but it is what t is.

You're definitely not. I'm on my 3rd iPhone and too am grandfathered into unlimited data and unlimited minutes/text. Wife's business gets us the 15% off deal too. That's why I'm loyal to AT&T I guess. No one can touch it and the reception/speeds are great where I need it.