Cell phone service providers, are they all equally bad?

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

Current cell provider has become a tiresome PITA. Are they all equally bad, or is one better than the others?

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

Pull the string tighter?

stevej37 · 06-30-2022, 04:39 PM

TracFone is the best and cheapest.
Any unlocked smartphone works with their service.

masraum · 04:59 PM

nearly 20 years with T-mobile. Their service has been pretty good. They show us as having had service for 18 years, but it's actually been longer, but 18 years ago, we transferred my service from me to my wife when I got a company phone. Because we are super rural, I have 3 options for Internet, satellite (sucks), dial up (super sucks), and cell service. I've been using T-mobile 4G for out Internet here for over a year including working from home for that entire time. I don't think I've ever had more than a blip in service. I've actually been having some issues with the service in the last week and will continue to have issues for another week because they are upgrading our tower for 5G service. I don't understand why the 4G>5G upgrade process causes sheiße service, but it seems to.

What's the issue that you have that's gotten tiresome?

rusnak · 06-30-2022, 04:46 PM

I'm going to say "Yes". I pay through the ass for Verifone. I get ripped off every month but what can I say, change is scary.

LWJ · 06-30-2022, 04:51 PM

I got a stupid good deal at Costco for T-Mobile. Very pleased

Flat Six · Flat Six's Garage

Was with AT&T for a long time, until they made it so expensive and unpleasant to be their customer. Been with Verizon for ~20 years; decent coverage but gotten expensive too -- $120 a month for 2 lines. Just switched this week to Mint; they have enough options for global roaming to meet our needs and we're getting 3x the data and paying $40/month. Mint uses the T-Mobile network; at my house I'm getting 3.5x faster 4G speeds (~80 mbps) than I'd been getting w/Verizon. Slam dunk, no-brainer.

KFC911 · 06-30-2022, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tobra

Current cell provider has become a tiresome PITA. Are they all equally bad, or is one better than the others?

Are you talking about the cell phone service or the provider. The service all depends upon your location(s) and there is no "one correct answer" .... it just depends. I've found Consumer Cellular good for my needs, and their service usually defaults to AT&T (not good for me here at my house during peak times), but when I switched the Simm to use T-Mobile, my issues at home disappeared. But the T-Mobile caused me not to even have service south of the Outer Banks one weekend... it just depends. Verizon has also proven to be unsatisfactory during peak time.

I'd give Consumer high marks for customer service.... and over-all once I started using their T-Mobile Simm.

BTW.... I've had 'em all over the years.... mostly Verizon during my corporate gigs.

CC (using T-Mobile services) is fine... for me.

Evans, Marv · 06-30-2022, 05:13 PM

My wife has Verizon for us. We only have cell service through the wifi, because we're rural. The land line is AT&T. We keep the land line because it works during power outages. Last year the land liine quit working. I called AT&T repair, & they couldn't get anybody out for two weeks. When we eventually get a cell tower to service our area, I'm cancelling AT&T and never again getting anything from them ever again.

masraum · 06-30-2022, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC911

Are you talking about the cell phone service or the provider. The service all depends upon your location(s) and there is no "one correct answer" .... it just depends. I've found Consumer Cellular good for my needs, and their service usually defaults to AT&T (not good for me here at my house during peak times), but when I switched the Simm to use T-Mobile, my issues at home disappeared. But the T-Mobile caused me not to even have service south of the Outer Banks one weekend... it just depends. Verizon has also proven to be unsatisfactory during peak time.

I'd give Consumer high marks for customer service.... and over-all once I started using their T-Mobile Simm.

BTW.... I've had 'em all over the years.... mostly Verizon during my corporate gigs.

CC (using T-Mobile services) is fine... for me.

Great point. There's potentially a big difference between "cellular service" and "customer service." I've had good luck with T-Mo for both for the past 5 years at least. Back more like 8-10 years, we had some issues, we'd make a change, and the change would get screwed up. I'd then threaten to cancel and would be transferred to someone stateside who would then fix me right up. For the past 5 years, at least, I've had good customer service AND cellular service from T-Mo.

rfuerst911sc · 06-30-2022, 05:23 PM

My wife and I are happy with Visible which is a sister division of Verizon . Two phones with unlimited everything for $70.00 a month . For our rural location the Verizon network is the best.

A930Rocket · 06-30-2022, 05:29 PM

We were with AT&T for 15+ years, then switched to Verizon. It seems with either one our cell service is weak both at home and when I’m at work in Bluffon SC during the week. In fact, it’s worse at work with one bar sometimes.

We have two iPhones with unlimited data. I use mine for work, so my data per month is big.