Thanks Verizon!

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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
24,397
136
Take a look @ Ting... I switched a few months ago and it cut my average bill to under $15 per month from $30-$35 with Fi.

Mobile data is SLIGHTLY slower sometimes usually inside stores and the coverage is also a bit less extensive (it's essentially T-Mobile) but can't beat the price @ $10 for calls/text + $5 per gb 5g data. Really the only negative I've run into involves needing to leave mobile-data switched on to send SMS when on wifi for some reason which hit's battery life a bit.

*(if interested be sure to use an "affiliate" link to sign up for $25 account-credit)






No question Verizon still has the best coverage in the US overall although AT&T is losing/has lost it's grip on #2.

In fact if you live in a weak-signal area you might be better off going with Google Fi (which uses mainly T-Mobile) since they support multiple phone service switching in software plus supplemented with wifi.

In your situation I don't think Ting would be a good choice.

Google FI is mostly just T-Mobile now. It used to switch between T-Mo and Sprint networks, US Cellular. So now it's just T-Mo and US Cellular.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
24,397
136
Just sell one of your wife's Hérmes scarf and you can afford it too.

I am still on my 25 dollar 3G unlimited plan. I am not switching lol.

Super overpriced look what I'm wearing wanna be fashionista useless cloth? Or knowing you will have a signal when you get out into lesser populated areas. Hmmmm. I know what I'd pick.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,388
14,786
146
same here

You might want to check again. I finally logged into my account. The 999 gb for $10/month is there. The only time we've ever gone over our allotted 10 gb of data is when we were in the process of moving and lived in our RV for almost a month. Had to buy extra data...$10 or $15/gb.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,388
14,786
146
So true, I have Verizon because it was the only carrier that worked for me for a while, but now I have myself, my wife, my mom and MIL on my plan and it's up to over 300/month. Might be time to find something else.

Check their plans. You can get unlimited starting at $35/line for 4 lines.
 

BudAshes

Lifer
Jul 20, 2003
13,992
3,348
146
Shameless plug for anyone looking to bail on their cell plans, check out visible.


$25/mo (if you hop on a party plan, let me know if you want on mine), Verizon towers, unlimited everything (including tethering).

Looks good, but part of the reason I use Verizon is that you get .5Gb a day in Canada and Mexico. Do you know if it includes anything like that?
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,411
16,709
146
Looks good, but part of the reason I use Verizon is that you get .5Gb a day in Canada and Mexico. Do you know if it includes anything like that?
I know you can call to mexico/canada for free, doesn't look like they have roaming at all though.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,811
126
Shameless plug for anyone looking to bail on their cell plans, check out visible.


$25/mo (if you hop on a party plan, let me know if you want on mine), Verizon towers, unlimited everything (including tethering).
Looks good. Is Visible $25/month all inclusive including junk fees and taxes? If so, that's pretty good. I'm paying $20/month per line all inclusive including taxes on Cricket, or $100/month for 5 lines. Unlimited talk, text, and 10 gb data per line.
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,411
16,709
146
Looks good. Is it $25/month all inclusive including junk fees and taxes? If so, that's pretty good. I'm paying $20/month per line all inclusive including taxes on Cricket, or $100/month for 5 lines. Unlimited talk, text, and 10 gb data per line.
Yeah, no extra fees or anything. Signing on alone is $40/mo, if you have a party plan (irrelevant what relationship is between each other, each person pays their own way) it reduces it by $5/mo per person to $25. I'm at $30 atm due to family.

They tend to have some pretty good sign-on bonuses too.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
24,397
136
That visible looks good. I just want to be on Verizon towers. I wonder how much they throttle you? Their website is not chock full of info on that, it just says you will be throttled

I was on a 12gb a month at&t plan and I started going over regularly this year. Rollover data I had collected previously covered it but still.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,354
10,879
136
That visible looks good. I just want to be on Verizon towers. I wonder how much they throttle you? Their website is not chock full of info on that, it just says you will be throttled

I was on a 12gb a month at&t plan and I started going over regularly this year. Rollover data I had collected previously covered it but still.


Just being on the same towers doesn't always mean you get the same level of service.... Google Fi and Ting essentially use T-Mobile in my area but there is a small performance/coverage difference with the advantage to Fi. (I bet full-price T-Mobile is better still!)

Of course there's also a price difference and I'm a cheap bastard! :p


And Visible is great if you have 4 people .... I have one line so not so great @ $40 considering I'm on wifi 99% of the time for data making "unlimited" pointless. (when I was on the road all day I would have killed for this though!)
 
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[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
17,411
16,709
146
That visible looks good. I just want to be on Verizon towers. I wonder how much they throttle you? Their website is not chock full of info on that, it just says you will be throttled

I was on a 12gb a month at&t plan and I started going over regularly this year. Rollover data I had collected previously covered it but still.
It's technically 'de-prioritized' traffic, but I've never noticed anything. Caveat: I don't do anything particularly important on the network, I'm usually on wifi, but i've never had issues with phone calls, maps, using the internet while out and about, etc. I switched from Verizon and didn't really notice any difference.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,354
10,879
136
It's technically 'de-prioritized' traffic, but I've never noticed anything. Caveat: I don't do anything particularly important on the network, I'm usually on wifi, but i've never had issues with phone calls, maps, using the internet while out and about, etc. I switched from Verizon and didn't really notice any difference.


For a heavy mobile-data user or gamer you might run into a problem when the network gets busy. Also when signal is weak say for example inside a building data can get deathly-slow with some MVNO's.

The last time I had "full-price" phone service was from crappy pre-merger Sprint and even they offered a more "solid" connection at peak times then Fi/Ting.
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
26,067
24,397
136
Thanks for the info. I'm on the go a lot. All three of my gigs require me to be on the road a decent amount. For one gig I do use the hotspot for a couple hours - if it's slow I use it to entertain myself, if I have clients, I use it for work. Maybe I'll stick with Verizon for now.

Funnily enough, Verizon service in my neighborhood and my home is not nearly as strong as AT&T. And there is 5G UW a couple blocks from me. This is a town very close to NYC, so it is far from the sticks and should be excellent coverage, I'm not deep in a building, nor am I in some weird terrain area where dead signals happen. I called them and I was quickly transferred to tech support, who said my experience is not right for this area - it might be due to work on converting to 5G. So they opened a ticket for me with the group that is handling the upgrades around here. Let's see what they say. I thought they were only upgrading 3G to 5G, so 4G should still be untouched, but how they do these upgrades is beyond my pay grade, so I'll see what they say.