Cell Phone Providers

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
My contract with AT&T expires in October for two of my three phones. AT&T is a huge ripoff, in mho. They could get away with that in the past because they and Verizon were the only providers with decent coverage areas.

Both MetroPCS and TMobile are advertising $40/month plans that include everything (unlimited calls, text and data). My last AT&T bill was $170 for three phones.
I've looked at their coverage areas online, and they seem good. It is extremely important that they work at home as we have no landline.
Also with MetroPCS, you can bring your existing phone. Not sure about TMobile. Our phones are great, we don't need new ones.

Anyone have any experience with MetroPCS or TMobile?
Anyone know of a better idea?
 

BSWALKS

Fugitive From Reality
I'm very interested in metropcs too!
I'm up to $220/month which is totally nuts!
i have to get cable/Internet/home phone bundle under control too.
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
My contract with AT&T expires in October for two of my three phones. AT&T is a huge ripoff, in mho. They could get away with that in the past because they and Verizon were the only providers with decent coverage areas.

Both MetroPCS and TMobile are advertising $40/month plans that include everything (unlimited calls, text and data). My last AT&T bill was $170 for three phones.
I've looked at their coverage areas online, and they seem good. It is extremely important that they work at home as we have no landline.
Also with MetroPCS, you can bring your existing phone. Not sure about TMobile. Our phones are great, we don't need new ones.

Anyone have any experience with MetroPCS or TMobile?
Anyone know of a better idea?
Hubby is with T-Mobile......but I think he was watching Catherine Zeta Jones at the time and that influenced his decision. We only do the pre-paid way.....he doesn't use it that much.

AT&T announced that they won't 'touch' AlJazeera Network for any ads.........they'd be my choice. We have AT&T as our land phone co. and have since 1966. If nothing else, I'm loyal.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Hubby is with T-Mobile......but I think he was watching Catherine Zeta Jones at the time and that influenced his decision. We only do the pre-paid way.....he doesn't use it that much.

AT&T announced that they won't 'touch' AlJazeera Network for any ads.........they'd be my choice. We have AT&T as our land phone co. and have since 1966. If nothing else, I'm loyal.

AT&T does have great area coverage. That's the only thing I have to be careful of losing. Other than that, they are definitely pricing themselves out of the market.

Another thing I forgot to mention is AT&T has two year contracts. MetroPCS and TMobile have NO contracts.
 

BSWALKS

Fugitive From Reality
We've had Verizon from the since '90. Have great coverage. AT&T has come a long way. Tmobile sucks. In laws have it
 

BSWALKS

Fugitive From Reality
That's the info I need. Sucks how?
And why do they keep it?
They seem to always have service issues. The smart phones they bought, stink & were more expensive than an iphone. It's very hard to set up apps with them.
My mother in laws brother managed the Tmobile store for a long time, before he passed away. The company was very helpful to her family after his death & for that reason, they keep them.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
I have T-mobile and have had no issues with them. Some people complain about spotty coverage but never been an issue in my area. I don't use one of newer more expensive plans though. I had another company which was bought by another company which was bought by T-mobile and I was grandfathered in with an older plan that is cheaper.
 

gingerkat

Well-Known Member
I have T-Mobile and I'm stuck in an old contract. Most of my problems with them have been with phones and their refusal to give me anything but refurbs. I get quite colorful with my language when my money is being taken and I'm not getting the proper service. I do have coverage issues, but it's because my walls are cement and cell phones don't work well in that environment.

If you outright own your phone then you can take it anywhere for service, but it says AT & T, Verizon, etc., have it unlocked (provided you don't owe any money to existing company) and then new provider will get you set up with new sim card.
 
W

westsideworma

Guest
over you might want to check out straight talk. if you can get past that its walmarts offering, they use ATT & T-Mobile towers to provide their coverage and they're pretty cheap if you bring your old phone. I know when my contract is up I'm going to check them out as I plan on hanging onto this phone for a another round (they're just getting to be too expensive).
 

jumpman23

Oh Yeah
Go with Verizon. Best coverage of all of them. We switched plans when they changed plans and our bill went down to like 160 a month with the ups discount also. That's with 2 smart phones. I don't think that's too bad. Metro pcs has horrible ratings. Just google it. Smart talk isn't bad from what I hear but it all depends on which phone you buy. Different phones use different towers. They don't tell you that when you buy the phone. You have to do a little research on that to find out which phone uses the Verizon towers. Hope that helps.
 

Dizzee

ɹǝqɯǝɯ ɹoıuǝs
I have T-mobile and have no problems. Six months left on a $55 a month for unlimited everything plan. It was a discount that was offered on UPSer's at the time, along with a Samsung Galaxy SII for $100. If you are concerned about coverage at home why don't you use WiFi?

Just had a second cable company come to town looking to steal customers from TWC. Woohoooo! Finally. $64 for digital basic with one HD DVR and one HD receiver with 15Mb internet and no contract. Yes please.
 
We're with Verizon now off the UPS discount. Paying low $200s for 3 smartphones and 1 non-smartphone with 700 min/unlimited talk-text/2gb data per phone. No service problems to talk about. Think about changing but to who?

Comcast for our Internet with a cable package that is cheaper than Internet alone.

Still have my Directtv but this past weekend I called them and worked out a new 1 year contract for $92 month for our existing service, down from $130, along with Nfl Sunday ticket for free and all the movie channels for 3 months.
 

gingerkat

Well-Known Member
Go with Verizon. Best coverage of all of them. We switched plans when they changed plans and our bill went down to like 160 a month with the ups discount also. That's with 2 smart phones. I don't think that's too bad. Metro pcs has horrible ratings. Just google it. Smart talk isn't bad from what I hear but it all depends on which phone you buy. Different phones use different towers. They don't tell you that when you buy the phone. You have to do a little research on that to find out which phone uses the Verizon towers. Hope that helps.
This is actually incorrect. All carriers have the capability to use another's towers, they just have to pay for it. A good example is when you're roaming and your company has no towers in the area, they just "borrow" the tower. The major difference between companies is if they are GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). There is another one, but it isn't used much. Verizon, Sprint & Virgin are the major companies using CDMA technology. This means, when you leave and want to go to AT & T, you won't be able to bring your phone over. CDMA and GSM networks/phones are not compatible. If you want to keep your existing phones, stay in a network that is GSM.

If you want to go to TMobile here is the number (800) 937-8997 and just ask a lot of questions.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
This is actually incorrect. All carriers have the capability to use another's towers, they just have to pay for it. A good example is when you're roaming and your company has no towers in the area, they just "borrow" the tower. The major difference between companies is if they are GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). There is another one, but it isn't used much. Verizon, Sprint & Virgin are the major companies using CDMA technology. This means, when you leave and want to go to AT & T, you won't be able to bring your phone over. CDMA and GSM networks/phones are not compatible. If you want to keep your existing phones, stay in a network that is GSM.

If you want to go to TMobile here is the number (800) 937-8997 and just ask a lot of questions.
​Good info. I just read that if your phone does not have a sim card, it is a CDMA phone. Is that true??
 

gingerkat

Well-Known Member
Sorry this is so long...

​My answer is yes, but maybe someone out there will dispute it. If you have a sim card, then the is GSM and should be compatible with any carrier using GMS technology. Metro PCS uses CDMA which won't be compatible since you're using AT & T right now. The companies using CDMA are Verizon, Sprint, Metro and a few smaller ones out there. There is a debate about which technology is better, so who knows. All I know is that GSM is widely used throughout Europe as well as the US and is easier to upgrade, etc. because of the SIM card.

I've spoken with some friends that used Metro and they're unhappy, but it might be different in your area.
I've definitely had my issues with T Mobile, but I do believe it had to do with my first generation phone (which I think was a refurb) and my concrete walls. The only thing I will say is that the customer service is pretty good. I've called screaming and cursing about that crappy phone and they've always taken care of me. At one point when I complained about my bill and wanted to break my contract, they ever lowered my bill to keep me. I just looked at my plan on line and I see that they've lowered my rates to the new $50 unlimited plans - yay! Everyone has their good and bad stories with them, so it's hard to say what you should do.

I'm not endorsing them, but I just want to give you some info, because I had to call for something else. Because I like you Ovah,:happy-very: I got some info for you. If you can get AT & T to unlock your phones after your contract expires (if you don't owe them any money for the phones) or get someone else to do it, T Mobile doesn't charge any activation fee's for the simple $50 plan. Here's what it would cost you for unlimited talk, text & web.

First two lines $80 (40 each), any additional line is $10. Everyone gets unlimited everything, no sharing involved. The only thing is, if you want faster web connection (you get 500mb) you will have to pay addition money for an add on. If you have kids, they also have a great monitoring system to see if they are in school or whatever. So for you three it would be $90 mo. and if you decided you don't like T Mobile, you can walk away free and clear.

I also checked if this plan was available everywhere, since I'm located in California, and it is. They also own Metro PCS, funny eh? They basically bought them, so they could have more towers so there was better coverage. So I hope this helps and you have some time to think about what you want to do.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
T-mobile does have excellent customer service. A long time ago I had a dumb phone with them and dropped it into a birdbath and they sent me a free new better phone to keep me as a customer ( 2 new phones actually - I called twice and they sent me 2 free phones).
 
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