I have verizon and I pay a hefty bill. My contact is up in July and I'm thinking of jumping ship to another service but I am honestly afraid to. I have great coverage and service with verizon. It have never let me down. My mother lives in a pine forest , 30 minutes from anything and that thing is the only gas station for about an hour. They just, last year, upgraded from an old school party line phone system to one where everyone on their road has their own line and number. (Most places are vacation homes up there so it wasn't that big of a deal.) And I get great service at my moms.
I also go to Put-In-Bay once or twice a summer and I'm usually one of the only people who get service on the island. Unless you've bought your phone in that area. For some reason all of the locals there all have great service. I've done work on the island so I've talked with quite a few of the people that actually live there. So do I want to spend $20-$50 less for a cell plan just to be left with a paper weight in my hand when I really need a phone? I've been very interested in Virgin Mobile but I don't know 1 person with it. People have to be buying them, I just have yet to have met one.
So while I don't do alot of traveling I try to do some "major" traveling once or twice a year. And I do leave my "coverage area" pretty often. Detroit, Put-In-Bay and Cedar Point are all not part of my "area" but I've never been charge for roaming, not even for data. That may just be because verizon has "National Coverage" so unless I leave the US, I'm guessing I'll never get hit with roaming charges.
People will try to tell you that these guys just use this companies towers and signals and service. But I know from experience that, even if it is true, you do not get the same results. Page Plus piggybacks on Verizon and it is nowhere near the same quality of service. I'm paying twice as much for Verizon as I was for Page Plus and it's easily 10 times the service that Page Plus provided. So it's well worth it. It just never hurts to save where you can.
Is there anyone on the forum who lives in the US and travels frequently who could maybe recommend some options? I've met alot of people who've had Boost for years and were very happy with them up until lately. (Peoples text have been getting sent to the wrong people recently. Not sure if it's just my area but all of the people I know who have boos have been facing the same issue.) And my sister (RIP) had Boost and had great service at my moms. (Getting a signal at my mom's is sort of the ultimate cell phone test beyond going to someplace like the un-developed, super forested, areas of like British-Columbia or something) So, I was leaning that way but now I just don't know.
Anyway, my ezb didn't come today so I'm stuck pacing the floors till Monday. I've just gotten alot of good tech advise from these boards I figured I'd get some opinions. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you don't feel it's time wasted.
Verizon is still the best coverage and quality in every independent test and survey. AT&T seems to have resolved their chronic dropped calls issue and has overtaken Sprint in coverage. You won't save much if anything over Verizon but you will get the coolest phones and faster updates. Sprint still has good coverage, lower rates and cool phones. T Mobile has great rates and phones but coverage only in cities and along major roads.
I would not consider anyone else given your stated needs
Alan
Thanks Alan, that has been a subject that has been bugging me for a while. I've been unemployed since December so I'm trying to save where I can. I should be closing on a house in a few weeks so I'll be getting rid of my storage unit. I'm not destitute by any means I just love spending money. Some times, I think I am single handily stimulating the US economy. It's a rough job spoiling myself all of the time but just know I do it for the love of my country. ;-)
T-Mobile $50 for unless talk text and 500mb data , $10 more for 2gb data , $20 for truly unlimited data with no caps like sprint. Bring your own phone or buy one , either way we are no contract now.
Tmobile in the last couple years acquired sun com and also metro PCs , if there is an area we don't pick up in then it will free of charge switch to another gsm provider and roam which is usually Att. The network coverage we have has quadrupled since I have been there. Also free of charge Tmobile does WiFi calling so even if your in your underground fallout shelter you can make calls and text through WiFi. Anyways have fun shopping.
i live in michigan, and i go all over the us as far as california "grew up there". I use Sprint pay for two lines $175.00 a month,1500 anytime miuntes(i never get close to using all of them),unlimited mobile to mobile,unlimited text and data it's a family plan i never get charged for roaming....i would definately reccomend sprint,they have a product for free called "Airrave" as long as you have internet the airrave is like having a cell tower in your home. as far as coverage goes it's getting better every year there are a few no coverage zones, but you can go to the website and check out there coverage map. but i am very happy with there service, i use to go thru verison many years ago and got fed up with there customer service "just horrable". by the way t-mobile has very limited coverage. hope this helps
Thanks derrick. I'm only paying $104 now and that's 450 min, free evening and weekends, free verizon to verizon calls, unlimited txt/sms, and unlimited data. I'm not on a Fam plan. My woman, her son, and 2 nephew all have a Revol Fam plan. It's cheap but you get what you pay for. Their phones are worthless half the time. They say they're saving $50-75, I say they are wasting $25-$30 dollars.
Do you know anyone with a piggyback phone like Virgin or Boost? I'm really interested in Virgin but have no reliable info on them.
Virgin is on the sprint network. Every thing I have heard about them has been positive. Don't know much about Boost.
Boost is prepaid level of service from Sprint
Thank you all for your advice. I think I've got what I needed. We can close this one down.
sleep