Cell Coverage

[eddiememphis]

I am a Virgin. Virgin has been sold to Boost.

Virgin uses Sprint towers. Coverage stinks.

Boost is owned by T-Mobile. Supposed to be a much better network. However...

When T-Mobile and Sprint merge, which has been approved, it is rumored Boost will be sold to Dish.

So who knows what is going to happen to the cheap cell market.

My business uses several apps that make life easier but Virgin (Sprint) has poor coverage. I have an old Iphone (6S) that Apple no longer supports.

I need a new phone and new provider but am very frugal.

What network has the best coverage on the front range?

Also, do the "pre-paid" plans take a backseat to the featured plans? None of the teens in the stores can give me a cogent answer, nor can the online reps.

[TEAMRICO]

We switched from AT&T to Verizon and we are much happier now.

Remember the commercials from any carrier will tell you can be buried in a cave in the middle of nowhere and still have coverage.....

[Great-Kazoo]

I am a Virgin. Virgin has been sold to Boost.

Virgin uses Sprint towers. Coverage stinks.

Boost is owned by T-Mobile. Supposed to be a much better network. However...

When T-Mobile and Sprint merge, which has been approved, it is rumored Boost will be sold to Dish.

So who knows what is going to happen to the cheap cell market.

My business uses several apps that make life easier but Virgin (Sprint) has poor coverage. I have an old Iphone (6S) that Apple no longer supports.

I need a new phone and new provider but am very frugal.

What network has the best coverage on the front range?

Also, do the "pre-paid" plans take a backseat to the featured plans? None of the teens in the stores can give me a cogent answer, nor can the online reps.

Verizon.

While i enjoy the prepaid plan, the post paid for what you need is better. Some pre-p phones for some reason don't show an icon when there's a voicemail. Even though the phone is telling you there's one. Then there's the support, while both pre & post are good. trying to deal with someone regarding pre-p can be a hassle. Not that post-p csr is any better.

Here's why i suggest post pay, to avoid this shit down the road.

The only reason i haven't gone from pre to post pay is the fuckers @ verizon want to run a credit check on me. As they put it, to verify i have good credit. Which guarantees i can in fact pay my cell bill on time. You realize i have been pre paying for over 15 years, yes. We do but...........that's when i hung up.

[GilpinGuy]

We switched from AT&T to Verizon and we are much happier now.

Remember the commercials from any carrier will tell you can be buried in a cave in the middle of nowhere and still have coverage.....

I've been with AT&T for 25+ years and have no complaints. Up in the hills around here, it's your only option anyway, but I was with them before I moved up here. And they seem to take care of me pretty well when I have a problem. Just my experience. YMMV

[MrPrena]

Metro PCS is owned by Tmobile.
Boost became Sprint after 2006 nextel acquisition by sprint.

I use prepaid boost at this time. Coverage is subpar, but $30 incl tax and fees are good.

If boost gets sold to some other company and change rate on me, I would think of criket (att prepaid) or something else.

[Irving]

I had Verizon for a decade, and I've had Sprint for a decade. Sprint has less coverage for sure, but it has increased substantially over the last decade. To the point that I've taken calls while elk hunting. As someone who drives all over the front range out to Eastern Colorado, through Kansas and Nebraska, I haven't really had an issue with Sprint, but it could be better. I'm excited for the merger.

I've not been in the "cheap" cell market of Virgin or Boost, but can you complain that much about Sprint towers if you were already using them?

[ray1970]

With the number of cell phones in use along the front range these days you?re going to be hit or miss for good coverage due to the congestion.

Once you get away from the larger metro areas I?ve been much happier with Verizon.

I don?t have a cheap plan though.

[Irving]

Yeah, I switched to Spring just because no one could touch the price, so while it's not the best, the price at $38/mo for unlimited everything is hard to beat.

[Gman]

Boost is being sold to Dish and Dish has a contract with T-Mobile for access to their network for 7 years.

I had AT&T, moved to Sprint, and am currently on Verizon. My old office building had no signal for T-Mobile. I've been much happier with Verizon for service during interstate travel and I also I've had much better network performance than I ever had with Sprint "unlimited".

[WETWRKS]

Happy long term Verizon user here.

[copfish]

If you’re a veteran, T-Mobile has a good family plan (https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/military-discount-plans?ds_rl=1082060&ds_rl=1264208&cmpid=ADV_PB_P_MILITARY_43700042513762165_35289264 1911&gclid=Cj0KCQiAtOjyBRC0ARIsAIpJyGM-a86PRCHReZUjs3nh1Wr6Wjn2vwTVPWkZ4xO6wDm1vTOFyIvHkw caArohEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds), $25 a line. Coverage is pretty decent, the only crappy places I’ve found are in the casinos in Lost Wages and the Marunochi line in Tokyo. My kids are at colleges in the mid-west and haven’t complained about the service. Also a bonus is free ��etflix.

[BushMasterBoy]

I am using Tracfone. Super cheap pay as you go. Have to pay every 90 days. Other options on billing. Cost me 100 bucks a year. Has app to know when to renew service. Bad taste from using Boost. BOO Hoo

[Erni]

Verizon here after ATT jacked prices we went Tmobile, which sucked and neither me or the wife could get phone calls from the kids schools.

Google has a plan out there too. The advantage is that you can add SIMs to your plan for cheap, so a cheap way to connect your car for data.

[def90]

I work construction so I am all over the metro area and state. I have been on many job sites where I am the only one that can make a reliable call. I am on Verizon and use a Motorola phone. Motorola has phones that consistently rank at the top for having the best antennas.

[FoxtArt]

Total Wireless runs off verizon towers. But it's a fixed pre-paid $25 per line + discount if you autodraft, so e.g. 2 lines runs around $56 w/ taxes, 3 is $80 something, 4 is like $90 something. You can BYOD with any CDMA/Verizon compatible phone and a $6 sim card available at walmart. Plenty of data, something like 15 or 20gb per line (shared).

I've been through Sprint, Verizon, Tmobile over various years, but I've stuck with this for probably the last 4+ years with no complaint. Verizon phones, with verizon service, and essentially unlimited data, but not the $200/month phone bill.

[MrPrena]

I dont like tmobile, johnlegere , Deutschetelekom, person who is in charge of costcoandveteran account.
I dont like their building. I dont like their marketing. I dont like their shitty parking lot. I hate their stupid incompetent executives.

[Gman]

C'mon, stop holding back and tell us how you really feel.

[MrPrena]

LOL.
joke aside. I do have a boost as well. I love prepaid. I know what I need to pay prior. No surprises.
As op said, i will be looking for a new provider as well, if they mess around with the price.

[scratchy]

If you have Comcast internet service, you can get xFinity Mobile for $12/GB per month per phone with no line charge. It uses Verizon's network.

[Grant H.]

Verizon. Since I had a cellphone.

It's the best coverage of any for my roaming around, personal and business.

[eddiememphis]

If you have Comcast internet service, you can get xFinity Mobile for $12/GB per month per phone with no line charge. It uses Verizon's network.

I do and that's good to know. Had crappy reception again today, couldn't upload a report and I was in Centennial!

Tally so far,
Verizon 7
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile 1 each
Other 3

Thanks for the input.

Now if I could get someone at Verizon to explain the difference between plans I might get a new phone.

[eddiememphis]

I talked to Doug at Verizon, a good ole' boy from South Carolina.
He said the difference between the prepay and regular is no roaming and no financing a new phone. Coverage and priority is the same.
He did say that the cable companies that contract with Verizon receive lesser priority than Verizon customers.
I think the last time I saw roaming was on the way to Moab a few years ago. Does anyone encounter this from Fort Collins to Pueblo?
And where can I buy a phone if not from Verizon? (If I choose them which I think I will)

[Erni]

No roaming unless in Mehico, I think Canada was no roaming either.

If you dont care what phone, I got my kid a Moto from Amazon. About $80 plus, screen covers and cases are dirt cheap.

[Gman]

I had to pay $5 per phone per day for data when I was in Canada with Verizon. They also had monthly options, but the math didn't make sense for the time of our stay.

[Jer]

I sold cell phones in the late 90's and early 2000's. Co-workers called me the AT&T nazi even though other providers paid us more commissions to peddle their crap product. Evan as a young whipper snapper I knew that selling quality products meant for happier customers who would tell their friends & family which would earn you more money ultimately and allow you to sleep well at night treating people the way you would want to be treated.

Times change and so do wireless carriers and coverage.

I've had just about every wireless provider possible in Colorado and our personal lines have been on VZW for a number of years... until recently. We made the switch to Xfinity Mobile and I'm quite happy thus far. We've traveled all over Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Western US all the way to the ocean. I can't tell the difference. I know they say that reseller networks like this don't get priority but when I'm at an event with tons of people (Tour de Fat comes to mind) our phones with Verizon didn't work anyway so... who cares?

Just got another bill for Xfinity Mobile for $30 for an entire month for two mobile devices. If you can keep your mobile data use under 3GB this is your bill every month. If you exceed that you will automatically be billed for 4GB and your bill will go up $14 to $44/mo. I think there's another tier after that for maybe another $14 or so but I don't know because we've never been anywhere near that yet even while out traveling the states via car. They offer unlimited too but for us that's not necessary.

We normally are around the 4-5GB per month of mobile use for both lines area but with Xfinity Mobile they give you even more mobile hotspot access and, since your phone is set to use that first, our mobile data use has been cut nearly in half. We weren't sure if we would be able to stay under the 3GB/mo cap so I was already planning to spend $44/mo but so far we've been under that 3GB of mobile data no problem.

I'd say to check into it if you have Xfinity home internet (a requirement to have their Mobile) because I was skeptical but now I'm sold until something better comes along. We're paying less than prepaid rates for what amounts to the best coverage nationwide. Tough to beat that.

[scratchy]

I do and that's good to know. Had crappy reception again today, couldn't upload a report and I was in Centennial!

Tally so far,
Verizon 7
AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile 1 each
Other 3

Thanks for the input.

Now if I could get someone at Verizon to explain the difference between plans I might get a new phone.

I also got an LG K-30 phone for $8/month bump ($150 retail) It works just fine. Comcast provides me with current model iPhone for work and the LG is a quite suitable substitute.

Disclaimer: I work for Comcast. I'm not in sales but in SW Engineering.

[battlemidget]

I'm in Colo Spgs and I use Verizon (ala Xfinity Wireless) and I'm very happy. When you're talking to other Verizon phones the audio quality is much better, like the person is in the room with you. It's noticeable. If I had to pick something other than Verizon I'd go with ATT.

[Jer]

I'm in Colo Spgs and I use Verizon (ala Xfinity Wireless) and I'm very happy. When you're talking to other Verizon phones the audio quality is much better, like the person is in the room with you. It's noticeable. If I had to pick something other than Verizon I'd go with ATT.

HD Calling on VZW if you have the proper combination of towers and phones is nice for sure. It's crazy clear.

[SouthPaw]

..........I'd say to check into it if you have Xfinity home internet (a requirement to have their Mobile) because I was skeptical but now I'm sold until something better comes along. We're paying less than prepaid rates for what amounts to the best coverage nationwide. Tough to beat that.

Pretty much same boat. I had T Mobile back in 2008 and switched to Verizon around 2010. I?ve had it since then until last month when we switched to Xfinity. We were paying about $90 each with Verizon and now we pay $60 for both. We did the 10gb service because we weren?t sure how much we were going to be using but judging so far, we can probably scale it back next month. We have 13 days left on this month and we have only used 1.57GB between the two of us. As Jer mentioned you get hotspots all over so that helps a ton.

As far as coverage goes, no change what so ever. To be honest, it actually seems like I have had less dropped calls in the typical dead zones that I encounter. Not sure if it’s related or not but our house is a dead zone for any carrier. WiFi or not, it’s very difficult to make or receive calls. Since switching, I haven’t had a single dropped call.

Not sure if you have to have their internet service though. Our sales guy asking about it (which we do have) but I recall him saying if you don?t have it, their is a surcharge you have to pay. We just switched last month.

[Duman]

I have ATT, and not super happy with it. I get great reception in some locations, but in other locations, like Erie, I get virtually no reception.
There's only one spot in the house with adequate signal to make a call.

[Gman]

I have ATT, and not super happy with it. I get great reception in some locations, but in other locations, like Erie, I get virtually no reception.
There's only one spot in the house with adequate signal to make a call.
Do you have WiFi in your home and does your phone support WiFi Calling?

[Irving]

I remembered I've recently been having an issue with my phone. I actually thing it's a phone issue. It will go into 3G and then not switch back to LTE unless I restart the phone. I've been into the wire a few times about it, and I think they have me set straight again. However, since Sprint is joining with T-Mobile, it's not out of the question that there are some bumps during the transition. I've never had that issue with Sprint in the last decade though, so I think it's the Google phone that's causing the issue.

[Jer]

Pretty much same boat. I had T Mobile back in 2008 and switched to Verizon around 2010. I?ve had it since then until last month when we switched to Xfinity. We were paying about $90 each with Verizon and now we pay $60 for both. We did the 10gb service because we weren?t sure how much we were going to be using but judging so far, we can probably scale it back next month. We have 13 days left on this month and we have only used 1.57GB between the two of us. As Jer mentioned you get hotspots all over so that helps a ton.

As far as coverage goes, no change what so ever. To be honest, it actually seems like I have had less dropped calls in the typical dead zones that I encounter. Not sure if it’s related or not but our house is a dead zone for any carrier. WiFi or not, it’s very difficult to make or receive calls. Since switching, I haven’t had a single dropped call.

Not sure if you have to have their internet service though. Our sales guy asking about it (which we do have) but I recall him saying if you don?t have it, their is a surcharge you have to pay. We just switched last month.

You don't HAVE to have their internet service but the monthly fee if you don't is $20/mo.

The only difference I've noticed is a minor annoyance that may not bother most would be my guest. I use speech recognition to dictate text regularly. When I'm in a car around town I believe my phone temporarily grabs WiFi signals since it tries to connect to WiFi first & the transition back to mobile data can be delayed. This appears to cause issues with my text-to-speech that can be quite annoying. Same phone previously on VZW didn't do this.

This has been the only negative I can think of so far.

[eddiememphis]

I purchased a refurbished iPhone XR on Ebay. The Virgin chip fired right up in it.

It works great in my living room.

I figure I'll try the new phone on the cheap network. The instant I have a problem, I will call that hillbilly in South Carolina and give him my business since he seemed to be very honest about the plans he could have sold me.

[blacklabel]

Another note for Xfinity Mobile. It's the best combination of cost VS coverage that I've been able to find.

[Jer]

I just wanted to come back to post an update of our experience with Xfinity Mobile.

I was already excited to jump the VZW ship to get (basically) the same service for a lot less money. We opted for the $30/mo plan that was 3GB shared mobile data. Well, after our first full month at home (we had some traveling during the previous months so it was difficult to compare) our bill cycle just cut and we used less than 1GB of data total. Low and behold they have one shared plan lower than the 3GB plan we signed up for that is 1GB of shared data for $12/mo. Had I thought of this a few days ago it would have saved us $18 for the previous month's bill which was already WAY less than we would have paid w/VZW. Moral: don't be afraid to start on a lower plan if you switch to Xfinity because those mobile hot spots really do make a difference and I don't think there's much (any?) penalty should you exceed your data. I can't remember anyone mentioning anything and I recall that had we exceeded the 3GB it would have just cost us $12 more to go to the next step which was 4GB/mo. I seem to recall that it's a $12/mo charge per GB or they offer the 1GB/3GB/10GB packages for a slightly discounted amount. In the previously outlined case if we had gone to 1GB we would have saved $12/mo or if we exceed 1GB this month we'll pay $12 for the next 1GB which is still $24/mo or about $6 less than our previous $30/mo for 3GB. Hopefully all of these numbers make sense. If it looks like we're going to exceed the 2gb it may make sense to change the rate plan to the $30/mo for 3GB to save that next GB fee so maybe that's the only potentially negative to going down to the 1GB plan. Either way, I've set a reminder in my calendar to check our data use each month and, if need be, make that jump back to the 3GB. This will probably only become necessary in the summer months as we're out traveling and using more data.

Just thought I'd add that data point to this conversation but so far I'm still a fan of Xfinity Mobile. I would like to have someone at Xfinity port my Google Voice number to my Xfinity account and then port my Xfinity Number back to my Google Voice account. My guess is that this is where I will experience their money saving measures which is why I've been apprehensive to start this process with customer service because it's something that I don't want screwed up. To be fair, I also didn't initiate it with VZW customer service either for the same reason.

[eddiememphis]

I went to Boost. They want $600 for a phone they had advertised for $500. Strike one.

Guy reset my phone so it would get better coverage. It doesn't. Strike Two.

Bought a new phone on Ebay for $400. Swaped SIM card. Doesn't work. Guy at Boost says I need a new one for $10. Strike Three.

Going to Verizon this weekend. $35 for 6gb and a free SIM card.

[iego]

I bought my first (and only) smart phone from Verizon 6 years ago, a Samsung Galaxy S5, for $199 and a 2GB Plan for $60/month. I've been happy with the phone and service until recently, when I realized just how slow the S5 was compared to today's phones. I logged in to Verizon the other day and they offered me $300 off a Galaxy s10 and I took them up on the offer and got a Galaxy S10e for $299, no trade in required, and 24 months financing at 0% interest. Theoretically, my plan didn't change either ( I had some trouble completing the purchase and a Customer Service rep had to help me, so I am not quite sure that it is all good yet, but it should be.)

Anyway, that's a long way to say, I've been happy with Verizon. Good service, good plan, and if you luck out/wait for the deals, a good phone at a good price.

-John {rocking a brand new Galaxy S10e on Verizon}