Any suggestions for a decent carrier for cell phone?

My wife and I recently switched from Verizon and US Cellular to T-Mobile, after being assured that T-Mobile would soon have the same coverage as US Cellular, who they were acquiring. Well, that never happened, and T-Mobile's rural coverage STINKS, with absolutely no service in many areas that my wife and I had service with our previous carriers. I don't have a positive recommendation for you, unfortunately, just a warning to avoid T-Mobile if rural coverage is important to you.

 

I use pure talk wireless and I'm very happy with them. I have a laptop, so I don't need a smartphone, but I can text and makes calls just fine from my flip phone for $20 a month. Even if you need the unlimited/ unlimited it is still about half of verizon.

 

We went from Verizon to Cricket 3- 4 years ago...same coverage, half the money.

 

Unlike Woodtroll , I have had a good experience with T-Mobile after they bought out US Cellular. I've been with US Cellular since the 1990's as it was literally the only provider that covered my area at that time. Even with the advent of tower sharing, many people complained about the other providers being spotty. I used to have AT&T (2013-2014) and Verizon (until I retired this year) for work cell phones and can attest that those were worse. I didn't have to worry about work getting ahold of me at home with AT&T - LOL.

Interestingly my home coverage got consistently 1 bar better with the changed to T-Mobile - even in the local grocery store that was notorious for either not having coverage, or having 1 bar (it is 2 miles from me).

I drove across country to Nevada a couple of months ago helping someone move. There was only one place, out on a Res, that had no cell reception - and the lady said that spot had absolutely no coverage from any provider. Knowing the trip was coming up, and we were likely to be in n-service areas, I had signed up for their Satellite service that takes over if you are not in a cell service area (I think it is like $5/month). After a minute it automatically took over. It is not for getting on social media, and you have to be ouside, but for phone and text - especially emergency, it worked fine.

 

Consumer Cellular may be worth a try for you to look into.

According to their commercials, you always get to speak with a person.

Plans begin as low as $20 per month. for unlimited data it's $35 per month....but there is a catch for this plan. You have to be over 50 years old.

 

I use visible, it is on the verizon network so I'm not sure how that would work considering circumstances. But your phone should work just fine.
But it's been decent here. I think they have a promo for 20 a mth for 2 years or something.
They also have a recommendation promo. https://www.visible.com/get/?698TJ7V
I get 20 off and so do you.
prior to visible I used us mobile and they were ok, they have either tmobile or verizon network you can join. you'll probably need a new phone if you go with tmobile.
I don't think their networks frequencies overlap.

 

US Mobile will likely be your best bet, they can pull off multiple carriers including Starlink satellites.
$24 a month for unlimited talk, text & data.

I had US Cellular for over 20 years, their coverage got progressively worse, T-Mobile bought them & coverage went to almost unusable levels.

 

Thats what I have. There is no minimum age. They use T mobile or at&t towers, which ever is stronger on your area.

 

I was going off the info on their website.

Unlimited* Data

 

I have not switched cellular providers since I went from Cellular One to Nextel. The name of the company has changed a few times and now it's known as 't-mobile'. Having been a customer for more than two decades should say that I have never had any issues (or any of the issues were not bothersome enough) making me want to change to another. It's not cheap or anything, but there are never any *surprise charges either. I'm still riding on an updated contract I signed in about 2012. 'Unlimited'. Fairly sure it meant something different back then.