AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile?

[Raduque]

I voted T-Mobile, but if I have to leave them, I'll be going to Verizon. I had VZW for 3 years prior to switching to T-Mobile in 2009, and their network was rock-solid.

I had AT&T, briefly, when the iPhone3G came out, but their voice network sucked, and I tried Sprint a month or so ago, but their data network sucked so both of those carriers are out.

 

[postmortemIA]

neither.
verizon, sprint: smartphone is brick when outside of US
at&t: insane data policies (can't download large apps)
tmobile: no coverage

 

[Geekbabe]

Verizon, LTE is blazing fast,I've never experienced reception issues and their customer service has been good. Yeah, it would be great if it were cheaper or the data caps more generous but the service is rock solid here,better than other carriers.

 

[Fire&Blood]

T-Mobile. Good coverage at both home and work and I spend 75% of my time either at or commuting from one to the other. Good customer service, data speeds are fine and very low monthly bill.

Will try to stay with them as long as possible. If I had to go elsewhere now, no idea who to pick, was leaning toward Sprint in the past but don't know anymore.

 

[TalonStrike]

whoa, there is a tie in the poll now. Is Sprint really as good as Verizon?

 

[Red Storm]

whoa, there is a tie in the poll now. Is Sprint really as good as Verizon?

I think less expensive (and still unlimited) plans is what gets them votes, but there's no question Verizon is the better network in terms of coverage and speed.

 

[Skott]

Yeah, I went Sprint due to their unlimited data plan. Sprint service is pretty good, better than ATT, but Verizon has a broader coverage. If Sprint didn't have the unlimited data plan I probably would have switched to Verizon instead.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Sprint has the most permissive caps - I think it's 5 GB for 3G and unlimited* over 4G. Of course, there's no way you'll hit 5 GB over Sprint's ass-slow 3G. I sometimes get 600-800 kbps with it, but more than half the time I run a speed test it's under 200 kbps. I've even had under 100 kbps. This is not an isolated issue; people all over the country have slow 3G with Sprint and they're complaining about it on the SprintUsers forum. Of course Sprint's representatives just tell them to update their PRL and to wait X amount of weeks for their network to improve.

Their 4G doesn't hit that many places and it's not as fast as Verizon's LTE, but it's still respectable. I get coverage throughout the Twin Cities and the nearer suburbs. It's pretty necessary since their 3G is so bad.

Sprint also used to be the cheapest but they've been slowly increasing prices. Still cheaper than Verizon but not by a whole lot. Sprint's coverage hasn't been awful for me but it's not as good as Verizon's either.




*they'll probably still cut you off if you use too much

 

[Rottie]

AT&T has some issues but they love deaf people. Sprint wants deaf people because they are not very intelligent in regards to 4G network never exist in their city…Why pay $10 premium? That is a joke!

 

[AstroManLuca]

AT&T has some issues but they love deaf people. Sprint wants deaf people because they are not very intelligent in regards to 4G network never exist in their city…Why pay $10 premium? That is a joke!

Yeah, the $10 premium data charge is pretty ridiculous. They wanted a way to increase their monthly fees without making them look higher - advertise a plan for $X, but it actually costs $X + $10 if you're using any smartphone (and honestly, who the F uses a data plan with a non-smartphone these days?).

Of course they can't say that it's a "4G fee" because then people in non-4G areas would complain. So they call it "premium data" and it applies even to phones that don't have 4G, which is also ridiculous because Sprint's 3G is godawful.