Best of Cell Phone Plans

[Handcruser 2805]

If you want on T-Mobile you really need a veteran on the account. If you do that it is 1/2 off. So I was paying $105 month for 5 lines unlimited everything.


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[BillyGoatHill 4312]

On ‎7‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 4:53 PM, Handcruser said:

If you want on T-Mobile you really need a veteran on the account. If you do that it is 1/2 off. So I was paying $105 month for 5 lines unlimited everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Or be over 55.  Got rid of AT&T because of what others have already said (service, fees, data limits) and switched about 4 months ago. 2 lines, unlimited data , calls, and texts for flat fee of $70 month. Netflix and Mexico plan included.

[cactusflinthead 27605]

Tmobile here. DFW area. If I am in the far north Prosper/Frisco the data sucks. If I am in Las Colinas it is awful. On 281 going south to Stephenville, again nothing. Verizon had none of those problems. Nothing like being in the deep East Texas piney woods and seeing the end of the Google maps. It's great. Oh yeah I've had a grand total of .11 mbps in got dam downtown Dallas.

Unlimited everything. Which doesn't mean shit if you can't get a signal. 

[Handcruser 2805]

Something doesn’t seem right


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[crash_davis 23115]

1 hour ago, cactusflinthead said:

Tmobile here. DFW area. If I am in the far north Prosper/Frisco the data sucks. If I am in Las Colinas it is awful. On 281 going south to Stephenville, again nothing. Verizon had none of those problems. Nothing like being in the deep East Texas piney woods and seeing the end of the Google maps. It's great. Oh yeah I've had a grand total of .11 mbps in got dam downtown Dallas.

Unlimited everything. Which doesn't mean shit if you can't get a signal. 

what phone do you have?

[cactusflinthead 27605]

1 minute ago, crash_davis said:

what phone do you have?

A beater Samsung. My daughters iPhone 8 has the same connectivity issues. I've worked with them a couple of times. They're responsive, I'll give'm that. First time I replied to one of their ad tweets with a less than glowing review they wanted me to try out Ookla speedtest. Whipped their ass with location and signal speed for a few days. I'll say it again, I have been well treated as a customer. They let on that there were things that were getting worked on, timeline unknown. 

There's something I've noticed about running a speedtest. Sometimes it shames them into getting you on a better server. Or at least in my half assed understanding. If I'm really annoyed with it, I might override the 'find one' feature and try one myself. Mostly to prove to myself that it is shitty all over and nothing you can do about it. 

I'm not thrilled with the merger. If Sprint's infrastructure is already shitty are they going to put everyone on Tmobile? Who the hell knows? 

I haven't quite reached critical mass yet to start the reaction, but I'm close. 

[elfenix 34334]

14 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

A beater Samsung. My daughters iPhone 8 has the same connectivity issues. I've worked with them a couple of times. They're responsive, I'll give'm that. First time I replied to one of their ad tweets with a less than glowing review they wanted me to try out Ookla speedtest. Whipped their ass with location and signal speed for a few days. I'll say it again, I have been well treated as a customer. They let on that there were things that were getting worked on, timeline unknown. 

There's something I've noticed about running a speedtest. Sometimes it shames them into getting you on a better server. Or at least in my half assed understanding. If I'm really annoyed with it, I might override the 'find one' feature and try one myself. Mostly to prove to myself that it is shitty all over and nothing you can do about it. 

I'm not thrilled with the merger. If Sprint's infrastructure is already shitty are they going to put everyone on Tmobile? Who the hell knows? 

I haven't quite reached critical mass yet to start the reaction, but I'm close. 

i think the answer to this might be in the last few pages of this thread:

Quote

The integration will virtually happen day 1 as Neville changed plans. He will do what 2 carriers are doing in Canada called (MOCN). Which basically uses a virtual single core network that routes services to the tmo core. it will move existing T-Mobile and Sprint customers to a common core network. That will require T-Mobile’s engineering team to bridge the two standalone core networks together.At the same time, T-Mobile engineers will increase the scale of T-Mobile’s core network to handle increased traffic created by the new Sprint customers.

https://s4gru.com/forums/topic/7845-sprint-tmobile-merger-disc/?do=findComment&comment=545697

Quote

Mike Sievert

Got it. I could start with the integration piece. We're really pleased with how it's going. I'll tell you that we've had a little more time to plan this than we would have expected when we launched our integration plans. And that's generally speaking been frustrating, but on the other hand, it's given us a fantastic chance to be very, very thoughtful and get out of the gates quickly.

As Braxton and John reinforced in their remarks, what we have today is a plan that is fully intact versus all of the goals and ambitions for long-term profitability, enterprise value and synergy attainment that we laid out for you in April of last year. And we're very, very pleased with that. What's different now versus April from last year is that, that's backed by detailed operational plans in every function of this company. And so, we're planning to get out of the gates very quickly and hit the ground running.

basically, they started talking about this merger a few years ago, they thought it was going to happen over a year ago, and now they've had an extra year of prep. 

[bernorange 8366]

We have Comcast/Xfinity for cable TV and internet.  They've been offering an Xfinity Mobile plan for a while, but moving existing phones to their plan was limited to iPhones and we have Android.  Recently, they got shit worked out and now you can bring over Android too.  So I've got 5 damn cell phones on our plan.  Had AT&T for a long time.  Checked our usage records and rarely went over 1.5 gigs total data in any month.  Switched over to Xfinity's by the gig plan and bill went from ~$220/month to ~$24/month.  Fuck yeah.

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

56 minutes ago, bernorange said:

We have Comcast/Xfinity for cable TV and internet.  They've been offering an Xfinity Mobile plan for a while, but moving existing phones to their plan was limited to iPhones and we have Android.  Recently, they got shit worked out and now you can bring over Android too.  So I've got 5 damn cell phones on our plan.  Had AT&T for a long time.  Checked our usage records and rarely went over 1.5 gigs total data in any month.  Switched over to Xfinity's by the gig plan and bill went from ~$220/month to ~$24/month.  Fuck yeah.

Which big boy cell network does Comcast utilize?   

Have you noticed any difference in service?   I'm curious because Spectrum has really been pushing their own plan which they utilize the Verizon network and Spectrum Wifi hotspots.  

[elfenix 34334]

comcast is a verizon mvno

[crash_davis 23115]

mvno's are great.  the only caveat being that their traffic is relegated to 2nd class traffic during times of congestion.  native carrier traffic has priority.  usually happens when there's a shitton of people in one place and everyone gets on their phone at once, like say right after a game at dkr.  ymmv.

[bernorange 8366]

33 minutes ago, Nueces River Rat said:

... Have you noticed any difference in service?   ...

Everything works the same.  I've got no complaints.  That said, I'm not married to my phone like a lot of people are.  I use it once a day or so.  My kids use their phones a lot, but they haven't had any issues either.

[elfenix 34334]

https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/new-t-mobile-spectrum-coverage/

 

Quote

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officially cleared the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, joining the FCC in support of the deal, and bringing the merger one step closer to closing. The DOJ’s settlement comes with stipulations, however, including divesting Sprint’s prepaid business and some spectrum holdings to DISH so that a viable fourth nationwide competitor can enter the market. Additionally, the settlement declares that both operators must deploy high-quality 5G networks for the benefit of American consumers. We’re taking a fresh look at what coverage and spectrum would look like in response to the DOJ’s proposed deal.

 

[TonyTexas 10531]

If there are any olds on here, check out the Version 55+ plan. If 55 years or older you get 2 lines of unlimited data for $80.

[Dbeasy 15094]

Or be over 55.  Got rid of AT&T because of what others have already said (service, fees, data limits) and switched about 4 months ago. 2 lines, unlimited data , calls, and texts for flat fee of $70 month. Netflix and Mexico plan included.

With who?

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

15 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

With who?

Sorry, T Mobile. They have a Veterans plan too if you happen to be one, but not yet over 55. I am, but the over 55 plan worked better for us.

[Dbeasy 15094]

Update. AT&T effed us over multiple ways in the last few days. I’m done with these bozos unless I have to use them due to oligopoly status.

Looked into Verizon. Just as insanely expensive. Trying TMO next.

[Fudge Nuggets 19227]

Don't know if it's still running, but recently T-Mobile had a special for 2 lines, unlimited everything for about $60 / month.

I still don't understand why this shit has to be so expensive here.  I lived in a shithole third world country up until this summer and had 4G, unlimited everything for less than $10 per month.

[gsoda3 3283]

we've been customers with TMo for 15 years.  Just this month we changed our plan (still at TMo) to unlimited everything for 5 lines, $150 after taxes.  

[Zepol87 9191]

4 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Update. AT&T effed us over multiple ways in the last few days. I’m done with these bozos unless I have to use them due to oligopoly status.

Looked into Verizon. Just as insanely expensive. Trying TMO next.

I have had ATT since high school. I will be making the switch to tmobile before the end of the year as well. 

[El Tri 412]

16 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

I have had ATT since high school. I will be making the switch to tmobile before the end of the year as well. 

wife and kids switched from AT&T to T Mobile because the price difference was just way too much. I still have AT&T through work.

AT&T service is definitely better service wise, but the cost savings make up for it.

[BillyBadAss 189]

I recently switched from AT&T to TMobile. Had been an ATT user for 15+ years probably. 

Everything about Tmobile is better - plans, billing, services, transparency, etc. - EXCEPT the reception. 

The two places I've traveled that are outside a metro area so far have had crap to non-existent reception (Fredericksburg and Dimebox). I never had problems with ATT, and specifically in Dimebox my buddy had 5g data where I didn't even have voice service. 

Is it possible to get a pre-paid "burner" sim that works on the ATT network I could pop in an old phone as a backup when I head to the sticks? I see they sell ATT pre-paid SIM cards, but it looks like they still require some monthly paid account and the minutes have a short expiration on them. There must be some options though. How do the criminals and poors do it? 

 

[Sam Lin 3561]

TracFone will sell you an annual SIM with a fixed pool of minutes, texts, data for really cheap, they are an MVNO for ATT, T-Mo, and Verizon. You can see which SIM you are being sold with this info:

https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1905728-how-to-tell-if-tracfone-is-AT-amp-T-or-verizon?s=53777e4cd8928487e605d77d333e9e14&p=16974368#post16974368

[elfenix 34334]

5g?  in dimebox?  i'm calling shens

[crash_davis 23115]

22 hours ago, BillyBadAss said:

I recently switched from AT&T to TMobile. Had been an ATT user for 15+ years probably. 

Everything about Tmobile is better - plans, billing, services, transparency, etc. - EXCEPT the reception. 

The two places I've traveled that are outside a metro area so far have had crap to non-existent reception (Fredericksburg and Dimebox). I never had problems with ATT, and specifically in Dimebox my buddy had 5g data where I didn't even have voice service. 

Is it possible to get a pre-paid "burner" sim that works on the ATT network I could pop in an old phone as a backup when I head to the sticks? I see they sell ATT pre-paid SIM cards, but it looks like they still require some monthly paid account and the minutes have a short expiration on them. There must be some options though. How do the criminals and poors do it? 

 

Did you purchase a new phone via TMobile or did you BYOD to TMobile? If you brought your own device, you can insert another carrier's sim card with no issues.  If you bought from TMobile, you'll need them to "unlock" your phone to allow other SIMs to work. You can do this buy telling TMobile you're traveling internationally for work and need to use local incountry carrier. They *should* unlock without issues.

You can purchase daily short term (day, two days, a week, etc) from AT&T. I do this when I go to the Texas hill country. It's pretty cheap depending on the data plan, I think as little as $2 per day.

AT&T will ALWAYS have the best coverage in Texas. They are old Southwestern Bell. They could leverage off existing infrastructure (buildings, towers, fibers, cables, etc) all across Texas to expand their network. Any carrier not already in those places have to spend uber amounts of capital to expand the network. Some/most rural places, it's simply not cost effective.

[BillyBadAss 189]

On 11/19/2019 at 12:28 AM, elfenix said:

5g?  in dimebox?  i'm calling shens

Possible I am misspeaking. He had data. 

[BillyBadAss 189]

On 11/19/2019 at 2:39 PM, crash_davis said:

Did you purchase a new phone via TMobile or did you BYOD to TMobile? If you brought your own device, you can insert another carrier's sim card with no issues.  If you bought from TMobile, you'll need them to "unlock" your phone to allow other SIMs to work. You can do this buy telling TMobile you're traveling internationally for work and need to use local incountry carrier. They *should* unlock without issues.

You can purchase daily short term (day, two days, a week, etc) from AT&T. I do this when I go to the Texas hill country. It's pretty cheap depending on the data plan, I think as little as $2 per day.

AT&T will ALWAYS have the best coverage in Texas. They are old Southwestern Bell. They could leverage off existing infrastructure (buildings, towers, fibers, cables, etc) all across Texas to expand their network. Any carrier not already in those places have to spend uber amounts of capital to expand the network. Some/most rural places, it's simply not cost effective.

I have unlocked phones, and also a couple of old ones - so that part is not a problem. 

You are correct through, ATT does have a daily plan - I missed it when I went searching for pre-paid options:

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/voice/sku4940399.html

So is it truly only $2 per day (+data) only on days you use it, or is there a monthly fee? It looks like maybe a 2$ monthly fee for the "plan"? 

[Deej 76941]

On 11/19/2019 at 12:28 AM, elfenix said:

5g?  in dimebox?  i'm calling shens

I need info on Old Dime Box.

[crash_davis 23115]

1 hour ago, BillyBadAss said:

I have unlocked phones, and also a couple of old ones - so that part is not a problem. 

You are correct through, ATT does have a daily plan - I missed it when I went searching for pre-paid options:

https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/voice/sku4940399.html

So is it truly only $2 per day (+data) only on days you use it, or is there a monthly fee? It looks like maybe a 2$ monthly fee for the "plan"? 

No monthly fee.  Pay as you go. You may have to pay $10 or whatever bullshit markup the decide to charge for the $0.02 SIM card, or they may not.

Pro-tip, download the offline Google Map of the area.  You can then get off-data navigation via Google Maps like you would a Garmin or TomTom. 

[Victor Lazlo 1777]

I recently switched to Cricket from Verizon because I was tired of not having service when traveling to the Menard area, which we do 1 or 2 weekends a month. I looked at T-Mobile, but their coverage was the deal breaker for me.

Cricket is owned by ATT and uses ATT towers. The service we get is the same as ATT subscribers get out there. 

You must sign up for the Cricket More plan to get the fastest internet speeds, and I can’t tell a difference in the quality of service and internet speeds from Verizon to Cricket. Except, of course, in the hill country. 

The cost is considerably cheaper than our old Verizon plan and the ATT plans I looked at. We brought our phones and pay $130 per month total for 4 phones - taxes and fees included. For unlimited everything. 

Very happy to have made the switch. 

[Dbeasy 15094]

Go on a T-Mobile unlimited plan for old people (>55). Has everything. Service has been ok. Coverage is noticeably worse than AT&T even around Leander. Poorer inside converage, etc. However, it's $90 per month for two people vs. $172 on AT&T, so we are going to stay with it unless something really problematic pops up.

[Dbeasy 15094]

Update. 3 weeks on TMobile. The service sucks ass. It is unbelievable how bad it is. Major portions of Cedar Park have little to no coverage. Data simply won’t work. Indoors? Forget it. Grocery stores, office, Dallas Office, restaurant, etc. does not work worth a shit. I’m stunned at the poor quality service and more so that people actually put up with this crap. On to Verizon.

[crash_davis 23115]

2 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Update. 3 weeks on TMobile. The service sucks ass. It is unbelievable how bad it is. Major portions of Cedar Park have little to no coverage. Data simply won’t work. Indoors? Forget it. Grocery stores, office, Dallas Office, restaurant, etc. does not work worth a shit. I’m stunned at the poor quality service and more so that people actually put up with this crap. On to Verizon.

What phone do you have. You need their new Band 71 phones. It's much better for penetrating buildings.

[Dbeasy 15094]

iPhone XR

[Your Mom 4852]

I started on T-Mobile years ago when I was a poor and had no choice but to put up with their shitty service. But I stuck with it and over the years they got a lot better. Still have them now and have no complaints. I live in Austin but I’m in several different cities a week and hardly ever have an issue.  

[DoobieWah 1463]

ATT Prepaid/AutoPaid, <$35 including taxes.

Unlimited calls and text, 1 GB mo. data. No add'l charges for overage but they may throttle speeds. I don't watch movies so it's not a problem and they rollover unused so I have a surplus if I need it.

No coverage issues.

[crash_davis 23115]

12 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

iPhone XR

I have a Oneplus 6T and the old lady has an Iphone XR. We are on TMO. I sometimes get service where she doesn't so I assume that it's the XR. Sometimes a reboot on her phone works. Other times I'll hotspot my 6T to her XR for her to get data.

But yea, ATT and Verizon have the best network coverage. TMO is behind, far behind in some areas. They don't have the national network (fiber, buildings, towers, etc) that ATT & Verizon have. I used to work for and had Verizon for 15 years. Moving over to TMO took a huge adjustment because their coverage sucked. But as someone stated above, it's getting "better." I know how capital intensive it is to lay fiber and build backbone networks. TMO is multiple years behind the big 2 in laying network footprint. At this point, it's not cost effective to chase ubiquitous network coverage that ATT and VZ have because those two have legacy network footprints that were installed 20 years ago. For TMO to equal those footprints, it would cost >$20B.

[Dbeasy 15094]

What’s weird is that the iphoneXR is supposed to support the new 600 MHz band, which would make it great for indoors. My wife has the 6S and she was getting better coverage than me. Weird.

[Dbeasy 15094]

Another comment. Did a lot of research online and there could be some nefarious stuff going on with the carriers.

Even though an iPhone XR and other new phones support all of the frequency bands for the four major carriers, there is some speculation that the carriers could be using carrier specific firmware to shit down bands that are off their network. Band 71 is only used by TMobile and I could easily see my original AT&T network device not working on that band, even though the device supports it. That way of you transfer to TMO it won’t work well and you’ll go back to AT&T.

There is no way to verify whether a band is available for use unless you happen to be on that band. If so, you can punch in some codes to see which LTE band you are currently on.

[crash_davis 23115]

39 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Another comment. Did a lot of research online and there could be some nefarious stuff going on with the carriers.

Even though an iPhone XR and other new phones support all of the frequency bands for the four major carriers, there is some speculation that the carriers could be using carrier specific firmware to shit down bands that are off their network. Band 71 is only used by TMobile and I could easily see my original AT&T network device not working on that band, even though the device supports it. That way of you transfer to TMO it won’t work well and you’ll go back to AT&T.

There is no way to verify whether a band is available for use unless you happen to be on that band. If so, you can punch in some codes to see which LTE band you are currently on.
 

I can believe that. Carriers do not want customer's leaving their network. Locking phone antennas is a perfect way of implementing that.

I'm too lazy to look but I believe there are ways to "unlock" bands on phones. It usually involves dialing a string of numbers and special characters to access to core system files which also include radios and bands supported. Do some research in XDA for the XR.

[joe dirt 285]

spent the better part of yesterday moving our acct over from at&t prepaid to t-mobile. the acct is for our two 12 yr olds (blended fam) and FIL who is currently rocking a flip phone in some louisiana bayou. my wife and i have at&t service thru work so who cares if my kids’ reception sucks outside of austin. not me is who. 

anyway, the end result is 3 lines of magenta plus for $112/mo and premium netflix for $3. not bad considering prepaid on the kids’ lines was $77/mo total with 8GB data each plus adding in my FIL. they gave me a 20% f&f code which covers the entire acct forever. so i’ll be keeping this fucker for when i need to add my other chirrens when they’re old enough for phones. 

[dlatin 328]

The wife and 2 kids moved to Cricket, 3 lines unlimited talk, text and data is $90 no contract. I believe cricket uses ATT towers.

[Gourmand 7774]

If you are usually around wifi then you can look at Google Fi.    It's $20 a month plus $10 per gig of data.    They use TMO and Sprint towers.    If you are using data while not on wifi its going to get expensive.   And you will have to have a certain phone but there are probably 10-15 now.    Internationally its amazing.  Works in almost every country with a few exceptions. 

We have Fi in our household and bought two Pixel 3as recently and have no complaints yet. Pretty affordable if you use your phone most often in wifi connected areas. I also appreciate the data diet it encourages us to follow when opening the app and seeing how little/much our current usage is in dollars.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Irish Wrist Watch 1398]

Spectrum: Nothing down LG Stylo 4. $25 per mo for two years, then $10 per mo. Unlimited Long Distance and texting, I think. Nothing you download using your home network (and maybe Wi-fi networks) goes against the 1 gig cap on data.

[Updawg 2286]

Fi as well. It's good if you don't use a lot of data off WiFi. Probably will need to switch when my daughter gets a phone

[Nonbryan 173]

Bump.

 

Thinking about trying out Visible to lower our cost a little.  Anyone tried it?

 

[Dbeasy 15094]

Bump. Never did switch from T-Mobile because the $90 all in price was too good, and I thought the Sprint merger with 5G would improve the coverage. Unfortunately , nope. Just went on a Texas to Colorado trip with someone who has AT&T. They were almost always in range, and I would say 75% of the time tmobile had no coverage. TMO coverage really sucks,  but man I love their customer service and hate Att’s. 

[BurntOrange&White 40038]

I use Verizon because I go to rural places a lot and their coverage is just superior to other providers. Yes it's more money but reliability of data and etc in rural areas is worth it.

[dcbc 14511]

20 hours ago, Dbeasy said:

Bump. Never did switch from T-Mobile because the $90 all in price was too good, and I thought the Sprint merger with 5G would improve the coverage. Unfortunately , nope. Just went on a Texas to Colorado trip with someone who has AT&T. They were almost always in range, and I would say 75% of the time tmobile had no coverage. TMO coverage really sucks,  but man I love their customer service and hate Att’s. 

I'm a legacy Sprint customer.  Switched cards to TMO for about a week after they told us it would be better.  Back on Sprint with more reliability (had lots of call drops, once 7 times in one call, in populated areas).  Recently upgraded my phone to a Pixel 5.  TMO card wouldn't work (I think you have to download an e-sim).  Sprint legacy card worked.  Recent trip from Texas to DC and all points in between.  5G coverage was extremely strong.

Edited June 23, 2021 by dcbc

[Gil Bang 26035]

PSA for T-Mobile folks: I was a sprint customer and had purchased my iPhone from Sprint.

T-Mobile just the other day, sent me a new Sim card for my phone. I wasn’t having any problems, and I didn’t ask for it, but the service is noticeably better with a new Sim