We currently use Verizon, it’s been terrible since day one. Some people have suggested TM, in the past I wouldn’t have considered them but I’m starting to. Any horders use TM? Good or bad experiences?
We just switched from att yesterday. 3 lines and our wi-fi too. So far it's fine. They (TM) paid off our "old" phones, which we only had for about 2 years. I owed 660, wife 800 and daughter 30. We didn't have to give them those phones, so we can potentially resell them. They gave use 3 new ones (iphone16promax if it matters). Att had just raised our bill by $20 a month for each line, which motivated this switch. Now we're about $40 per month cheaper on phones. After cutting comcast cable and reducing that bill to just internet, we agreed to $60 a month for the first year, then it goes up (not sure how much), so we picked up TM for that too @55 per month and I believe that's locked in for 5 years. TM uses satellite for some coverage so the guy said we will rarely loose service. The switch was extremely easy so I give TM props for that (kept our phone numbers).
My t-mobil phone has been around the world. (no extra charge international plan) Just 3g service in a few places but most places has been just like at home. The local 'store' has been able to hire some decent people compared to , say, AT&T which it's pretty obvious the only requirement to work there is cup size. I also have t-mobil cellular internet and it is so-so. I live right on the edge of 5g service and it can also be a little slow 6-9 PM sometimes. It's never "fast".
I have tmobile since they bought out Sprint which I never had any problems with. I'm sortof indifferent on this kinda thing. It works. They apparently aren't yet charging me enough to consider other options (though the price has increased since Sprint takeover). My plan is higher dollar because it is over 15 years old. Every once in a while a call to CS is in order to maintain that contract when they try to weasel out of it. I'm known as a 'legacy customer' whatever that means. Back in the day, Sprint (technically I've been contracted since Nextel, but switched up the plan when opportunity arose) was desperate for customers, so they decided to give out *unlimited data plans. (no throttling or other nonsense, free roam, free LD to any other mobile, free nights & weekends) I do notice throttling when I get off network but whatever.
It's going to be region dependent, I'm guessing. Around here, Verizon has the best coverage. We recently went on a little vacation to the LP of MI over the 4th. We stayed at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. The owner told me if you don't have Verizon you won't get any service and even with Verizon it's hit and miss. They had no TV service and I told him we do have Verizon and we brought our Roku with and I planned on enabling the hotspot on my phone and connecting my Roku to that so we can watch TV just like we are sitting at home. His response was, "good luck with that". It ended up working GREAT though. In fact, it's how we ended up watching TV the majority of the time while away. We do Verizon pre-pay and buy our unlocked phones outright on eBay. I like the ability to change plans whenever I want to and can even change carriers if I ever feel the need to w/o having to change phones. Cricket uses AT&T towers. There are numerous MVNO's that use the "big guys" towers. I used to use one that used Verizon's towers.
Mint mobil uses TM towers I had to buy my sister a phone a while back. At the time, Mint had cheaper individual plans than TM but TM had cheaper multiple line plans. So I set her up with MINT. They have half price for 3 months deals all the time to lure you in. She hasn't had any complaints.
I thought about trying out Mint, but talking to others who have T-Mobile in our area I decided against it.
I should have added...service coverage. Seems ok to me but I'm the kind to celebrate a little if I manage to evade the towers in my travels. Best service coverage I've ever had was the analog Nextels. I think they would have chirped out of Mordor? Really do miss that system.
Thanks for the replies. When I had AT&T years ago I had great service at my house but in the areas I travel daily not so good. Verizon has a dead zone over my house but we use WI-FI without problems. Part of this switch is going to involve the new carrier paying off a large sum for the phones that were “free” when we switched. At this point it’s looking like we will be switching back to Xfinity. We had them when we switched to Verizon the problem was when our phones were outdated they offered no deals to existing customers.
Xfinity is an MVNO that uses Verizon's towers, FYI. Their coverage areas will be identical. Also be aware that MVNO's are deprioritized. Here a list of the carrier's MVNO's: MVNOs: A Complete List Of Carriers With Subscriber Counts
