Cell phone coverage varies quite a bit by location. What works well for some posters on the forum may not work well in your area. I’ve tried all the major carriers and settled on the Verizon network under US Mobile at $10/month. US Mobile gives a choice of either using Verizon’s network or T-Mobile’s network. I found this plan and others on https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones .
In my local neighborhood, I’ve found that Verizon and T-Mobile both generally work well, with the exception of the interior of a few specific structures, such as one of the supermarkets, and my theater, which has extra thick walls and unique acoustic materials. In my neighborhood Verizon is slightly better in these few structures, followed by T-Mobile, with AT&T being worst; but the differences are fairly minor. The larger differences occur when traveling to less populated areas. For example, on Palomar Mountain, I’ve found I get near zero coverage from Verizon and T-Mobile is not much better. Instead AT&T is best on Palomar Mountain. However, Verizon is best among these 3 on Mount Laguna.
You can review coverage maps for your location and locations you regularly travel or even better read reviews about coverage from persons in your neighborhood, such as on on Nextdoor, since the coverage maps all overestimate. There are also likely differences in terms of plan details and customer support. Some people want to have support from a local store, some are big on data speed, etc.
We just changed also. I went from $180 to $140 for 4 lines under magenta that includes my 22 and 24 year old. We got Netflix with 4 screens for $9.00/month vs $17.99 we were paying. Best customer service in the business. I have been with them for 15 years.
Forgot to add: Agree w/ @Knowsstuff that we’ve had terrific customer service w/ TMobile as well. I try to stop in the local store(s) when I have questions. Questions have not been service issues or billing, but rather assistance when changing phones, or better understanding existing services. Always polite & helpful, and never any sales pitches!
I have T-mobile and it’s fine. But the service is not great in my area with WiFi it doesn’t matter. Once out my neighborhood and on the main stretch the service is mostly good with some weak spots. Not worth paying significantly extra to me though. And we love that int’l service is included.
My home neighborhood is notoriously tough to get good service, I use wifi calling at home mostly, for consistency as the various towers seem to fight each other.
That said, I had AT&T for years and the customer service was lousy, I’ve had Tmobile for quite a while, 6 lines, $33/mo out the door. Do the autopay and get a significant per line discount.
The only negative experience was a drive through middle America, Yellowstone, etc., about 5 years ago. T-Mobile shared towers with AT&T so phone service was fine, but data was seriously limited on AT&T towers. Funny thing is that if I’d gone north and driven through Canada I would not have been considered roaming. I am not sure if they have fixed it, I have not subsequently run into issues with data roaming.
Those of you with such low monthly payments - do you have unlimited everything? There are 6 of us on our Verizon plan - H and I, 3 kids, one spouse (all but one of them pays their own portion except grad student we still support) and our monthly bill is SOOO much higher.
None of us would go back to limited texting or internet at this point.
@abasket we have Verizon b/c TMobile is terrible in my neighborhood. We have six phones with unlimited data. We pay $34/line. My husband gets a military discount (he is a veteran, not active duty) which is $20 off our bill. We also have some other $5 discount but I have no idea what it is. Anyway, my bill is around $180 for six phones, unlimited data. However, the type of data plan we are on does not include the ability to use our phones as a hot spot. We don’t really need that capability so not a big deal for us.
My $10/month Verizon network plan includes unlimited talk/text, but limited data. Increasing to unlimited data would increase cost to $25/month. However, other users have reported speed gets limited after using something on the order of 100GB in a month, so it’s more “unlimited” unless you use too much.
I don’t need large amounts of data on my cell phone plan. I need large amounts of data on my home Internet, which is on a different system. When out of the house and using my cell phone, my data needs are far less.
Our $60/month for 2 lines includes taxes, fees, etc. it’s on autopay. It has unlimited data and we can use our phone as hotspot, which S really wanted to play with tech toys like GoogleGlass and similar.
We don’t get Netflix included but we rarely watch anything anyway, so don’t miss it.
@abasket with TMobile we have unlimited everything, except that roaming data I mentioned earlier, it rarely comes up as an issue except with remote travel.
I’ve got T-Mobile, 5 lines unlimited everything, $130/month including taxes etc. No problem with coverage unless I’m visiting my brother in rural Virginia. My kids’ lines are $10/month each. I don’t bother collecting it from them.
T-Mobile is offering really good deals on phones to switch right now. Basically if you have a XR or above, you get $800 for a phone. We have no phone to trade for my husband so our best is BOGO. And T-Mobile plan includes taxes.
This is what they said at the store. I also know someone who worked getting cell towers installed. They have a tower, they are not just one companies tower but other companies will put their receivers (whatever they are called) on the same tower. They all rent space on the towers. So more than one provider on the tower. It may be that Verizon has more towers but T-Mobile is catching up putting their receivers on the same towers. As does ATT.
When I asked at the store, if Verizon did not get cell coverage, neither did T-Mobile.
I really wish I could use a phone for a week or so to see how the coverage is. My husband says he won’t care as much as soon as he retires, because he will be happy to not be always available
That’s the assumption that I was living under for a long time, as a nearly permanent Verizon user. I no longer feel that way.
A few weeks ago we spent a week at a family cabin. My uncle warned us…no wifi, no cell coverage. Upon arrival, I was able to use my T-mobile hotspot with shocking speed. There were moments when it wasn’t great, but all-in-all it was almost like having wifi. When my uncle came for dinner, his AT&T phone had no reception. His kids have Verizon, and they don’t get anything either.
Full disclosure, I’m on a 5G iPhone 12. His equipment was a few years old. I don’t know about the kids.
My coverage at home (in a suburb 10 miles outside of Philly) is better, and I’ve never lost a call while driving (a smaller sample than usual). I didn’t really want to leave Verizon, but they finally gave me no choice…the numbers just stopped adding up.
Our plan is the Magenta…$140 for 4 of us (including taxes). The Essentials plan is $8/month less…but the taxes eat up almost all of that (Magenta includes taxes/Essential does not).
The FCC map at ArcGIS Web Application allows you to overlap the coverage maps for Verizon and T-Mobile, so you can see areas where one clams to have overage and not the other.
For example, last winter I spent passed through Borrego Springs. The map suggests Verizon has little data coverage in Borrego Springs and only has voice coverage for about 1/2 the town. T-Mobile does better and has data coverage for about 1/2 the town, and voice coverage for the vast majority of area. AT&T does best with both voice and data for the vast majority.
There are also much larger areas where one has coverage and not the other. For example, it looks like there is an area of several hundred squares miles near Black Rock desert where only T-Mobile claims to have coverage – not Verizon or AT&T. It’s not a simple rule such as Verizon coverage is always >= T-Mobile.
I’m very happy with the T-Mobile 55+ plan. In addition to the price (2 lines for $70, with unlimited use) – I like that it is very rare to see any sort of additional fees. I share with my daughter, who lives on the opposite coast. Because of the consistency of the rate, we don’t need to do any reconciliation of the bill – I just pay T-Mobile on my credit card, and my daughter has an automated transfer $35/monthly transfer schedule from her bank account to mine. My son is on the same plan, but partnered with my ex-husband.