Switching cell phone carriers any advice

Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

I had Alltel until they were bought out by Verizon and that works well for me.

AT&T are master cramming experts. I had problems with the billing for U-verse and my land-line for almost a year. Finally, after reporting them to the FCC my problems were resolved. All I wanted was to open my bill have it be the same amount each month. Beware of AT&T.

It's too bad that Bob is in California, enjoying himself. He is so tight he squeaks! I think he uses Sprint, but I dunno.

Anybody heard from him since that first day he was there?

Yomama wrote:It's too bad that Bob is in California, enjoying himself. He is so tight he squeaks! I think he uses Sprint, but I dunno.

Anybody heard from him since that first day he was there?

he posted this morning saying my take on the moon landing may be turning his brain to mush....

Consumer Cellular. It's a company that caters mostly to older people, but what the heck--they have good service at a good rate. You don't have to sign a contract. I have been with them for over a year and I am very happy. It may not be the company you want if you're sending 10,000 texts a month or you're always on the phone, but they work well for me.

They have several different plans, depending on what you need. And the good thing is that you can change plans if you find you need more or less minutes, etc. And they don't charge you an extra service charge for changing it.

I have always had good reception as well. You might not be happy with Virgin Mobile's reception. I did have them for awhile (because I refuse to sign a contract) but I did not always have great reception when traveling through the backroads of North Alabama and Mississippi.

http://www.consumercellular.com/

he posted this morning saying my take on the moon landing may be turning his brain to mush....


Bob is doing mushrooms in SF? Damn.....who would have thought.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57556144-94/at-t-yet-again-the-worst-rated-carrier-in-u.s/

I've used Verizon ever since Ivan, never had a complaint with them.

alecto wrote:Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

olddaze?

PACEDOG#1 wrote:I had Alltel until they were bought out by Verizon and that works well for me.

Same with me. I'd like to upgrade to an I-Phone. I don't mind the up front cost, I've been due an up grade or new phont for 2 years. I just hate the extra $30.00 a month. Which, with taxes, excise taxes, taxes on the taxes end up being another $50.00 a month. It is sort of like a color printer. They almost give you a printer that does everything but make coffee. Then you pay a fortune for ink.

I bought a TIVO about 2 or 3 years after they came out (2001 or 2002). They were offering "Lifetime" subscription for $199.00 which I bought too. Unknowingly one of the best buys I ever made.

Yes, it's an older model and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of newer models. About 3 years ago the cooling fan and the hard drive started to make sounds. Not a good sign. I found a place on line, Monkey something, that had parts. TIVO doesn't sell them. I bought a much larger hard drive and the fan for what I thought was a good price. They came in short order and the instructions were incredible. EVEN I opened the old one, replaced the parts and had it running again in less than an hour. I did a happy dance, which now will difficult for you to get out of your mind and it has run great ever since. Going on 11 years of paid subscription service. Pretty cool.

alecto wrote:Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

I had Sprint most of the time I was in the Pensacola area and had a terrible time with dropped calls. Service was spotty all over Escambia and SR Counties (well, EVERYWHERE for that matter!). I changed to Verizon and have never had an issue with dropped calls or service unless I was way up in the boonies or down in a hole where no one could expect to get service from anyone. I have the... shoot, I forget what it's called, the Simply Everything plan or something like that. I've found it to be the least expensive way to go.

Oh, I should mention that I have a smartphone... it's a DROID 4, which has a physical keyboard and not one of those weirdo digital thingamajigs (well, it does have that, I just don't use it), and is a great phone. So data, texts and minutes are part of my Share Everything plan. I have 900 minutes, 200 texts, and 2GB of data and that costs me $89/mo. I'm about to lower my data because I have never even used 1/4 of all of it within one billing period.

I had ATT for years. Mostly because my daughter worked there for years. My nill had gotten to over $500 a month for all my phones. I put my foot down last year after I had paid off all the Iphones. They have free wifi because its a iphone. I went and Got H2o Wireless for myself and I pay a flat $60 a month. I cant tell the difference in my service. I have unlimited everything, includes internet all of it.

https://www.h2owirelessnow.com/pageControl.php?page=index

I dont know how it is there, but when i travel my phone is just as great as it always has been.

Alecto, go prepaid by all means. It's saved us so much money over the past five years. If Verizon has a prepaid, that may be best, based on what I've heard from my friends as well as what's been posted here.

Two years ago I would have recommended by current carrier, T-Mobile, without any doubt. That has changed. They now have the worst customer service I've ever seen (even worse than Nextel was), and they also tend to ship out phones with faulty authorization codes. That is a MAJOR problem with T-Mobile right now. They have offered no explanation.

My husband and I have been through two faulty authorization codes in the last year. One on one of my new phones; one on the next new phone. It is soooo frustrating to hear you can't use your brand new phone because the "authorization code is already in use." And yes, they will try to charge you to get another code, after they tell you it will be over a week before you receive it. They won't ship authorization codes overnight, even if you ordered the phone overnight mail (as I did.)

I settled the last problem by connecting with T-Mobile business services. I told them I was a disgruntled business owner with a new phone, and the kind lady had another authorization code for me within five minutes at no charge.

That said, I love my phone (a 4G Samsung S II Android Blaze), so I'm not changing companies yet. I get everything I want and more for $70.00 a month, unlimited across the board, with no addons in taxes and services fees. I use my phone a lot to access the 'net, so it works for me. I could probably get by with the $50.00 a month service, but I err on the side of caution because I don't want to lose my 'net/email/music/movie service, which does, in truth, blaze right along.

Edit: Oh....and Wifi is included in all of the smart phone plans. It is a bit extra for a Wifi Hotspot, which I haven't needed so far.

Ghandi wrote:

alecto wrote:Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

olddaze?

Nope. He won't come here because some dude named Ghandi offered a bounty on his address.

riceme wrote:Oh, I should mention that I have a smartphone... it's a DROID 4, which has a physical keyboard and not one of those weirdo digital thingamajigs (well, it does have that, I just don't use it), and is a great phone.

I had a Droid, then a Droid3 and liked the keyboard tray that slipped out the bottom. We had a 3G mobile hotspot, but it is a pain in the patootie to carry a phone and a phone-looking hotspot... hence, I got a Droid Razr Maxx HD (a mouthful) with a 4-G hotspot and Jelly Bean (Android operating system). The hotspots eat batteries like crazy and the new phone has a long battery life. The new phone has a bigger screen, no keyboard tray, but my fat fingers seem to do much better with the larger screen.

To get back on topic, we have had Verizon for many years and are happy with their coverage... but they certainly aren't cheap! The salesmen have told me stuff that didn't turn out to be true, but that's probably apropos for other companies too.

Some of the prettiest smartphones I've seen recently are the HT1's, or something like that. I don't know if you can get one without a contract.

Thank you Riceme and PBulldog2. I found out Virgin Mobile has NO ROAMING so that is out since it is on sprints network and their native network sucks for coverage. Tmobile was the other option due to coverage and phones.

PBulldog2, I want a Samsung Galaxy S2, just love androids and absolutely sick of Iphones and AT&T. Does your Galaxy work with Kies (used for backups and managing phone)? Are you happy with the coverage? Is yours a model SGH-T989?

alecto wrote:Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

I have AT&T Uverse and it works fine. My Television, Internet and cell phone are all together on one bill. $215 per month

Yella wrote:

alecto wrote:Currently have ATT, dumping them and going with prepaid. Really looking at virgin mobile since they have the cheapest prepaid plan. Has anyone here used virgin mobile, boost mobile, or sprint? They all use sprints network and I was wondering what kind of coverage you get with them. any help would be appreciated.

I have AT&T Uverse and it works fine. My Television, Internet and cell phone are all together on one bill. $215 per month

I'm keeping mu Uverse, that service is awesome. Just AT&T for 4 smartphones runs like $250 a month so I'm ditching 3 smartphones and going prepaid on just one, even just one smartphone on AT&T still runs $85 a month and that is just ridiculous.

alecto wrote:Thank you Riceme and PBulldog2. I found out Virgin Mobile has NO ROAMING so that is out since it is on sprints network and their native network sucks for coverage. Tmobile was the other option due to coverage and phones.

PBulldog2, I want a Samsung Galaxy S2, just love androids and absolutely sick of Iphones and AT&T. Does your Galaxy work with Kies (used for backups and managing phone)? Are you happy with the coverage? Is yours a model SGH-T989?

I've not used it, but the phone came with an icon preloaded for "Kies Air."It says it "enables Wi-Fi device-to-device connection and browser management." This may be what you are talking about. I'll load it later tonight and see.

The coverage is good, but not perfect. There are some drop spots over in Baldwin County near the towers and in the rural areas in the northwest part of the county. When I first got the phone, I had trouble with coverage in my living room, but that trouble has ceased. Oddly enough, I had exactly the same problem with an older Samsung phone. I hadn't been on a long road trip with this phone, so I can't speak to coverage heading north or east.

My model is a SGH-T769. Close, but not quite the same. It's a Galaxy S Blaze, based on the S2, which is not quite the same as a straight Galaxy S2, although the features appear to be the same. I couldn't get a a plain S2 prepaid phone through T-Mobile. You may be able to get it through other companies.

I love the camera - it's a 5 megapixel with a flash and other features, including photo editing, although the front-facing camera is a 1.something I think. I don't use that one. I had a Samsung Exhibit 2 first, but there was no flash and the camera was clunky. One of my dogs crunched that phone, but I'm happier with the Blaze anyway.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my phone, although I don't do that much talking on it. I do more browsing, 'net and camera use, and I'm very happy with it in that respect. It uses the 4G network, even though it's pre-paid. It has as good or better a display than my friend's older Iphone. Her new IPad beats my phone, but I told she got it just to outdo me.

PBulldog2 wrote:

alecto wrote:Thank you Riceme and PBulldog2. I found out Virgin Mobile has NO ROAMING so that is out since it is on sprints network and their native network sucks for coverage. Tmobile was the other option due to coverage and phones.

PBulldog2, I want a Samsung Galaxy S2, just love androids and absolutely sick of Iphones and AT&T. Does your Galaxy work with Kies (used for backups and managing phone)? Are you happy with the coverage? Is yours a model SGH-T989?

I've not used it, but the phone came with an icon preloaded for "Kies Air."It says it "enables Wi-Fi device-to-device connection and browser management." This may be what you are talking about. I'll load it later tonight and see.

The coverage is good, but not perfect. There are some drop spots over in Baldwin County near the towers and in the rural areas in the northwest part of the county. When I first got the phone, I had trouble with coverage in my living room, but that trouble has ceased. Oddly enough, I had exactly the same problem with an older Samsung phone. I hadn't been on a long road trip with this phone, so I can't speak to coverage heading north or east.

My model is a SGH-T769. Close, but not quite the same. It's a Galaxy S Blaze, based on the S2, which is not quite the same as a straight Galaxy S2, although the features appear to be the same. I couldn't get a a plain S2 prepaid phone through T-Mobile. You may be able to get it through other companies.

I love the camera - it's a 5 megapixel with a flash and other features, including photo editing, although the front-facing camera is a 1.something I think. I don't use that one. I had a Samsung Exhibit 2 first, but there was no flash and the camera was clunky. One of my dogs crunched that phone, but I'm happier with the Blaze anyway.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my phone, although I don't do that much talking on it. I do more browsing, 'net and camera use, and I'm very happy with it in that respect. It uses the 4G network, even though it's pre-paid. It has as good or better a display than my friend's older Iphone. Her new IPad beats my phone, but I told she got it just to outdo me.

Thanks again PBulldog2 you've been a big help. The kies air is the same thing it works through your houses wifi and allows you to backup the phones settings and sync contacts. T-Mobile does have the Samsung galaxy S2 model SGH-T989 now that works with the prepaid.

Ive done every prepaid except metropcs and that includes boost. Virgin. And straight talk. Mostof them use the sprint network and it Sucks big hairy ones. On tmobile prepaid now and its its pretty tolerable. Will give more info when I get back to pcola and can type on a keyboard

PBulldog2 wrote:Alecto, go prepaid by all means. It's saved us so much money over the past five years. If Verizon has a prepaid, that may be best, based on what I've heard from my friends as well as what's been posted here.

Two years ago I would have recommended by current carrier, T-Mobile, without any doubt. That has changed. They now have the worst customer service I've ever seen (even worse than Nextel was), and they also tend to ship out phones with faulty authorization codes. That is a MAJOR problem with T-Mobile right now. They have offered no explanation.

My husband and I have been through two faulty authorization codes in the last year. One on one of my new phones; one on the next new phone. It is soooo frustrating to hear you can't use your brand new phone because the "authorization code is already in use." And yes, they will try to charge you to get another code, after they tell you it will be over a week before you receive it. They won't ship authorization codes overnight, even if you ordered the phone overnight mail (as I did.)

I settled the last problem by connecting with T-Mobile business services. I told them I was a disgruntled business owner with a new phone, and the kind lady had another authorization code for me within five minutes at no charge.

That said, I love my phone (a 4G Samsung S II Android Blaze), so I'm not changing companies yet. I get everything I want and more for $70.00 a month, unlimited across the board, with no addons in taxes and services fees. I use my phone a lot to access the 'net, so it works for me. I could probably get by with the $50.00 a month service, but I err on the side of caution because I don't want to lose my 'net/email/music/movie service, which does, in truth, blaze right along.

Edit: Oh....and Wifi is included in all of the smart phone plans. It is a bit extra for a Wifi Hotspot, which I haven't needed so far.

A friend of mine used that for her home laptop instead of another internet connection at home. She did get a lesson that the WiFi Hotspot for regular use cost her a fortune. I don't know what she does now