After years as a Verizon customer I'm giving one of those small prepaid services a try. The company I went with uses the Verizon network so coverage should be the same but my monthly bill will be less than half the price I'm paying now. The monthly charge is the monthly charge, no hidden taxes and fees. Verizon charges the plan price plus I was getting hit with a $40/mo line access fee for my smartphone. The access fee was more than my plan cost! It's great that all these small companies are popping up and using the big guy's infrastructure. Prices are dropping like a stone with the competition entering the marketplace. My new plan is $24.99 with unlimited talk and text and 1GB of data. I don't use my phone much for internet and if I do I'm usually connected to wifi. I used 0.66GB of data this past month lol. If I end up needing more data the next plan up is like $5 more. Is anyone using one of these small cell companies? My SD card should be here in about 3-7 days. I'm intentionally leaving out the company's info here until I see how I like their service. If anyone is interested in a follow up I can update this thread with a review in a few weeks but I'd like to hear about your experiences before I activate the new plan. I'm not interested in hearing about your experience with AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint. I'm talking about the small prepaid companies out there.
I'm interested in how you know which companies network they use and whether your coverage actually ends up the same.
The prepaid companies don't name the big companies by name in their advertising but a lot of them will use colors. Red is Verizon, Blue AT&T, Yellow Sprint. IIRC blue and yellow use different signals than red so your device has to be compatible with the network they're using. You verify your phone will work on their network before buying a plan. They also have a coverage map. I'm bringing my IPhone over with me rather than buying a new device.
I use Tracfone. They also use Verizon where I am, but it depends upon where you are located. They piggy back off of Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. Saves me a ton of money as well, but the only drawback with them, as well as other prepaid phones, is if you use a Smartphone, they do not roam--so, if you travel a bit, expect dead zones. There are some companies who let you buy roaming minutes, but what is the point, as far as I am concerned, as the reason I got a prepaid was to avoid being nickle and dimed to death. I got really tired of Verizon's land line when I had a limited phone (65 calls per month), no long distance (used to use cards for that), and every single month the charges would go up a few cents. My last bill was 5 years ago, and it it was about 40 dollars; the Tracfone cost me 16 dollars a month(by purchasing a years worth at a time), I could call anyone I want, and got text and some Data to boot.
Good to know. I don't travel much outside the eastern seaboard which appears to have great coverage according to their map. I haven't had a landline in 10 years. The only calls we got on it were telemarketers. I cut the cable cord last October so Verizon lost me as a fios tv customer. Too much junk on tv that doesn't interest me for what they charge. I still buy my internet connection from them. I'm happy w their service as a company, just not their pricing. Much better than Comcast IMO.
There are some major dead areas in West Virginia, which is where my cousin lives. Conversely, If I were to pick a GSM phone that runs off AT&T, I would not be able to have service when I travel to my friend's house in central PA (Scotty Overkill 's country). I have to use Comcast internet if I want internet, as Verizon will no extend their service out where I live. They are so big, they could not care less about competition.
Trac phone here also. Calls only-no messaging or internet or pics or e-mails or nothing else that it's capable of-just phone calls received and dialed. I did kinda set up the voicemail though.....you have reached...."DAVE"..... Thats all! You should already know who you're calling and that this is the point to leave a message!!! Works great for my 6-8 callls per week.
I refuse to set up my voicemail, because they charge you minutes just to call your own voicemail! And if you don't call it, at least on the non smart phones, it will annoy you to no end reminding you. I can see who called me, and I will call them back if I know them, which is few and far between. Mostly just get junk calls, they can go fish.
My sim card arrived in the mail today. Activated the card and everything is working fine. I've made a few calls from home but haven't taken it out on the road yet.
I don't have voicemail set up on my home phone, became confused on the VOIP set up, then quickly realized the odd numbers calling were debt collectors from the previous owner (nope, no Todd here, I don't even know who Todd is) and telemarketers for him. I never looked back, still no voicemail on my home phone
