Cell Coverage

[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}