[Turkish Pickle]

Figured I'd ask - which carrier do you use, are you happy with it?

I'm currently on T-Mobile and both where I am now and in Chicago it's horrible, so I'm looking to switch. Am thinking Sprint because of their iPhone 11 deal now, or maybe Verizon because everyone says it's just the best of the best.

[SchillerM]

Everywhere I have been Verizon has been the best choice.
At work we had cellular devices that ran 4-8 SIM cards and spread load across them. We usually ran half Verizon and half AT&T (sometimes Sprint.) Every time I looked at the analytics Verizon used atleast twice as much of the data. In more remote areas it was usually the only one with any sort of reception.

[chowser51]

My kids and I were on Tmobile. I switched to FirstNet and switched them to AT&T. I’m moving them back to Tmobile. Tmobile never throttled us. AT&T does. FirstNet doesn’t throttle me and I have unlimited hotspot so I’m staying on FirstNet. My kids use anywhere from 30gb to 95gb a month. Each. So Tmobile was better for them and I get free Netflix with Tmobile.

Verizon and Sprint are cdma and Tmobile and ATT are gsm.

[M_Six]

I'm in Illinois as well and Verizon is solid everywhere. We have several phone lines as well as a Mifi. The Mifi comes in handy when our cable internet has a hiccup. We just fire up the Mifi and grab the new wireless network. The Mifi also comes in handy when we stay at a hotel that charges for wifi. If Verizon doesn't cover an area in the U.S., no one does.

[c1pher]

The only one I haven’t tried is AT&T. Verizon just seems to always work for me. My brother swears by AT&T but I have no personal experience.

[zx10guy]

I'm in the DC Metro area. I have personally dealt with 3 of those carriers all at once. Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. Verizon was for data hot spot connectivity. So I didn't use it for voice. Sprint is my carrier for personal use. And AT&T for work. Verizon had the best coverage per my experience. Sprint was actually better than AT&T. I was thinking about switching to AT&T because Sprint's service coverage in some case left a lot to be desired. But I've been staying with Sprint because of the per monthly cost and the unlimited data/50GB of monthly hot spot.

AT&T had coverage and weird service problems which if I had been paying AT&T prices for my personal use, I would be extremely pissed. An example was when a coworker and I were sitting at a Panera. I got a corporate wide email but my coworker sitting right next to me didn't and we were both on AT&T. Another example was driving through I270 which is a major highway here. At this particular spot near Rockville/Bethesda, I will always have dropped calls despite having full bars.

T-Mobile....well, they're a hot mess. At my former company where they gave us a choice of T-Mobile or AT&T, those who went to T-Mobile were constantly complaining about coverage issues and service quality.

[vreihen16]

I have been with Verizon longer than their company has existed, starting out as a NYNEX Mobile customer in the 1980's (with a customer ID# under 25,000!) before they merged with Bell Atlantic to create Verizon.

I live in the lower Catskill mountains of NY State, and there are places nearby that even the Verizon "Can you hear me now?" guy has never seen. My wife was doing power grid inventory field work several years ago for a company that used Nextel, and wound up using her personal Verizon phone several times per day when their Nextels had no coverage. I bought her a satellite phone for emergencies, because she was sometimes working in remote wooded places with no coverage from anybody.

About 10 years ago, my employer got a "bargain" deal to change all of our emergency work phones onto Sprint. Sprint's local coverage was only a few towers, and a lot of riding on Verizon's towers to fill in the gaps. We had a regional snow disaster knock out 75% of the power in 2010, and Verizon's network was so jammed with their own customers that the Sprint/MVNO calls were refused. It took 2-3 tries to originate a call on my personal Verizon phone, but my work Sprint phone was a paperweight for two days. Needless to say, my employer switched to Verizon with priority commercial calling soon after this.

My wife's cheap co-workers all buy pre-paid MVNO phones at retail stores, and are frequently borrowing her phone to make calls because their phones don't have coverage in even more populated areas around the region. One of my co-workers has an AT&T phone that gets no signal in our office (in a small city), where my Verizon phone has 3 bars. I have a friend who swears by T-Mobile pre-paid and preaches it to everyone, but seems to always have coverage problems when we go out to dinner when even my cellular Apple Watch has a Verizon signal.

If you are a Spectrum Cable customer, they have some awesome deals for unlimited cellular service as an MVNO on I believe Verizon's network. After the second-fiddle treatment experience with Sprint in a regional emergency, I'll gladly pay 3 times more on my personal phone to know that I'm first in line in the next SHTF disaster. No "Wal-Mart MVNO bandwidth" in my household, and even my usually-frugal wife does not question the monthly expense to Verizon.....

[infinitekidM2C]

i had verizon which is probably the best carrier, but it's a bit pricey. even on my lower end phone plan i was paying around 130 for two lines.

i have a "pre-paid" phone plan with tmobile which they don't really advertise and it's $80 per month for 2 lines with unlimited (but throttled) data and everything. That's $80 out the door period. It's not as reliable but works and is cheap. i can stream without any real issues, i stream audio, soccer games, and hockey games along with netflix on occasion.

[iminhell1]

Last year I went to watch the Pikes Peak race for the first time. I was on TMobile (walmart mobile). I had virtually no service through Kansas and Iowa. I'm on E85 and make frequent fuel stops, never pass a station when you find one away from home.
Once I got out to Colorado I was so pissed off that my phone was working for shit I looked for a Verizon store and bought a new phone.
It's expensive vs what I was paying. But I had service at 11,300 feet up the mountain. I had service all the way home. I have service everywhere I have been since.
I was TMobile customer for about 16 years.

There is a reason it costs more and once you have them you'll see why.
The one thing I noticed right away though is how much I actually liked my old iphone vs this android one (pixel 3). There where no ads with the iphone. Android, that's all there is.

Also, Verizon owns one of the ad companies. So you really can't use a blocker without doing some extra legwork.

[MKSixer]

I was on T-Mobile for 6 months when the company I worked for made it the only choice. about a thousand years ago and it was misery compounded with a large order of F-You. They didn't care about any service issues.

I've been with AT and T the vast majority of my cell time (not jail cell UncleWede and shoei ) beginning with Cellular One. My current AT and T contract goes back almost 18 years. I have 3 Biz phones on it and 5 personal phones. I wouldn't go to anyone else.

[E92 M Sport]

Verizon, end thread! Yes it’s pricey compared to the others but the others don’t work anywhere near as good as Verizon. T mobile and Sprint are a joke, and AT&T is second best for a reason. I have coworkers that have all the others and they all have lousy service. But they say well it’s cheap! Whatever.

[NorthCountryGuy]

Verizon here.
I am curious to see if Spectrum develops their cell service. They already have extensive hardware in place for their bandwidth. Let’s see if they can make the jump over to cells. I would like to see a better price through a quality competitor to Verizon.

[shoei]

Originally Posted by MKSixer

I was on T-Mobile for 6 months when the company I worked for made it the only choice. about a thousand years ago and it was misery compounded with a large order of F-You. They didn't care about any service issues.

I've been with AT and T the vast majority of my cell time (not jail cell UncleWede and shoei ) beginning with Cellular One. My current AT and T contract goes back almost 18 years. I have 3 Biz phones on it and 5 personal phones. I wouldn't go to anyone else.

Verizon... She's that one dependable girlfriend you always had and should've stayed with... Reliable, dependable, especially when you need it...

Also use it for all the business cell phones...

I dunno why you're going on about cell phones - that's new tech to you... Tell us about the Pony Express and how long it took to get a message again?

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by NorthCountryGuy

Verizon here.
I am curious to see if Spectrum develops their cell service. They already have extensive hardware in place for their bandwidth. Let’s see if they can make the jump over to cells.

They are missing one key component, AFAIK...and ironically the thing they lack is called spectrum! Have they (Charter or Time Warner) ever bought anything at the FCC frequency auctions? I haven't been paying attention recently. Without the radio licenses, they can go no further than being an MVNO selling "sloppy seconds" on someone else's excess bandwidth.....

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by MKSixer

I was on T-Mobile for 6 months when the company I worked for made it the only choice. about a thousand years ago and it was misery compounded with a large order of F-You. They didn't care about any service issues.

I've been with AT and T the vast majority of my cell time (not jail cell UncleWede and shoei ) beginning with Cellular One. My current AT and T contract goes back almost 18 years. I have 3 Biz phones on it and 5 personal phones. I wouldn't go to anyone else.

AT&T here as well for personal and all of our business phones. Never had any issues, but I try to not use my phone whenever possible.

They also gave us hot spots with our business account that work surprisingly well.

We actually use it for internet service at home.

[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by shoei

Verizon... She's that one dependable girlfriend you always had and should've stayed with... Reliable, dependable, especially when you need it...

Also use it for all the business cell phones...

I dunno why you're going on about cell phones - that's new tech to you... Tell us about the Pony Express and how long it took to get a message again?

You don't know what you're talking about. Pony Express is smoking fast. At least 3x faster than running messenger. Get with the times sonny!!

[chowser51]

My only issue with TMO was no service in WV. My oldest is in Fort Bragg, NC so on drives back and forth in WV and parts of VA we used to roam. But in the city TMO was fine in both. It’s $100/mo for their three lines, unlimited. Mine is $52/mo for FirstNet.

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by MKSixer

I was on T-Mobile for 6 months when the company I worked for made it the only choice. about a thousand years ago and it was misery compounded with a large order of F-You. They didn't care about any service issues.

I've been with AT and T the vast majority of my cell time (not jail cell UncleWede and shoei ) beginning with Cellular One. My current AT and T contract goes back almost 18 years. I have 3 Biz phones on it and 5 personal phones. I wouldn't go to anyone else.

Sorry. I could see you guys mentioned me on the screen, but I just couldn't quite reach thru the bars to get my cell

Shortly after I bought my first pony I got a phone, because the first ride home it left me stranded above Santa Barbara and I had to depend of the kindness of strangers to even get in contact with AAA. Started as V but quickly took my # to S. Been happy with them for almost 20 years

[The Libertine]

Originally Posted by c1pher

The only one I haven’t tried is AT&T. Verizon just seems to always work for me. My brother swears by AT&T but I have no personal experience.

Been with AT&T for well over ten years; no complaints from me.

[Conissah]

None, I use GoogleFi. With certain phones it seamlessly switches between carriers and the data charge isn't absurd. I live in a large city (Charlotte NC) and not once have I NOT had service. Plus, Fi can be used internationally, so if you travel often it might be even more useful.

[detroitm2]

Originally Posted by Conissah

None, I use GoogleFi. With certain phones it seamlessly switches between carriers and the data charge isn't absurd. I live in a large city (Charlotte NC) and not once have I NOT had service. Plus, Fi can be used internationally, so if you travel often it might be even more useful.

+1 for this. I've been using Google Fi (formerly Project Fi) since beta. Never had any issues with it. The network switching is amazing and I find that I almost always have service even when others do not. With the new "unlimited" plans, its kind of a no-brainer, particularly if you travel a lot.

[Conissah]

Originally Posted by detroitm2

+1 for this. I've been using Google Fi (formerly Project Fi) since beta. Never had any issues with it. The network switching is amazing and I find that I almost always have service even when others do not. With the new "unlimited" plans, its kind of a no-brainer, particularly if you travel a lot.

For those looking at pricing, Fi has 2 options.

Flexible:
1 person: $20 a line + $10 a gig (up to 6 gigs), then its free.
2 people: $18 a line per person, data charge is the same.
3 people: $17 each, same data charge.

Unlimited:
1 person: $70, unlimited data.
2 people: $60 each.
3 people: $50 each.

You can see the rest of the pricing at the link below. I love the plan, even watching YouTube videos and browsing internet / Facebook quite often, I rarely spend more than $50 a month with the Flexible plan. Pair that with my cheapo Pixel 3a, I have no complaints.

https://fi.google.com/about/plans/