Stay on Verizon or jump to AT&T or T-Mo, sooo undecided

[flyinion]

I was pretty sure I was going to go to T-Mo, their coverage map looks excellent for my home town area, and they just turned on LTE. I'd have to live with 16GB on the 925 I was planning to get from them though (and white, not sure about the white color). I'd sign up for Jump though so at least I might be able to upgrade if they get a 1020 variant or something.

One problem with their coverage is that often I go 4 wheeling off-road and I just happened to check an area where we're heading this weekend. Obviously I don't expect signal when I'm off-road necessarily (lose it all the time on VZW) but on the main highway area T-Mo's coverage map showed nothing. No data, no voice, nothing. VZW and AT&T both have voice and 3G/extended 3G network coverage.

So now I'm thinking about going AT&T and the 1020 (or maybe a 920). I'm just not sure if AT&T is worth it as far as customer service/support vs. the other two. I'm starting to think at this point I should just stick with Verizon but one thing I hate about them is......being currently on android........they are sloooooooooooooooooooow with updates to phone software vs. all other carriers. I'm worried it will be the same story with WP as well.

 

[Laura Knotek]

My suggestion is always to first consider coverage. The hottest new device won't be of any use if it doesn't get a signal.

If carriers have equally good coverage, then you can consider device selection and pricing. However, the best coverage should always be the first consideration.

 

[mrmdj31675]

As laura suggested. Check your options, which for the sounds of it Sprint is not a choice for not offering any Nokia devices for the time being.

 

[flyinion]

As laura suggested. Check your options, which for the sounds of it Sprint is not a choice for not offering any Nokia devices for the time being.

Yeah I'm not even considering Sprint. Never had them, but a friend who lives in the same area had them for a while and bailed. He was always getting dropped calls and signal problems. I think for my particular area either Verizon or AT&T will be the best coverage (although maybe not the fastest due to network congestion), and I'm going to try to find more examples of T-Mo signal in my new work building.

On of the other guys in IT where I work has a 928 that he's running on T-Mo right now and he's finally coming over from the old building on Monday so I'll check with him and see what he's getting. I won't be able to see their LTE speeds since the 928 doesn't work on T-Mo's LTE I believe, but I'm not worried about that as much about signal strength since I've heard that's the area where T-Mo has problems in general compared to other carriers.

I think I definitely have to keep that T-Mobile coverage in the remote areas in mind though. Like I said I don't expect coverage actually off the road, but on the main highway that's kinda sucky to have nothing, but maybe it will at least kick into voice roaming or something.

 

[mrmdj31675]

Where are you located, if you mind telling us. Perhaps we can help you a bit more .

 

[stmav]

You can check root metrics website. You can get information by city. Put in the city and it will give data, voice and composite information for all the carriers there. Just straight facts and numbers, see what's best.

 

[flyinion]

Where are you located, if you mind telling us. Perhaps we can help you a bit more .

I'm in Sacramento, CA. (sorry thought it was listed, most forums I'm on have a location and I fill it out)

 

[flyinion]

Well, my concern about T-Mo vs. VZW and AT&T coverage in remote areas while off-roading is now completely out of the picture. My VZW phone lost signal an entire hour before I got anywhere near the area of the highway that the trail was off of lol. Funny thing is their coverage map claims coverage including "extended network 3G" in that area. Yeah, right.

 

[Cyterio]

I recently made the jump from Verizon to T-Mobile. I couldn't stomach the cost of Verizon anymore, even with a 20% discount on my main line. I went from a 2 line unlimited data plan @$155.00 a month to T-Mobile @$78 per month. I live in the Pittsburgh area and my coverage is pretty good in 98% of my travels on a normal day.
Something to consider trying is to turn on roaming. You will get voice and 2g data off AT&T where T-Mo service is not available. I think you're limited on data when roaming, but for me that's not an issue. My main concern was having voice incase of an emergency.
When I had Verizon, I usually got really strong service inside of buildings. With T-Mo, not so much. Maybe someone can chime in as to whether this is due to the radio (GSM vs. CDMA) or something else.
Certain T-Mo phones also offer WiFi calling, just something to keep in mind.

I'm several months into my switch and I have no regrets.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 521 using Tapatalk

 

[flyinion]

Well, I might have to force myself to look at AT&T now. I know they have good coverage in my city, but what has me thinking about them now is that while the t-mobile and verizon phones on our trip last weekend had no service, the guy leading the trip was on AT&T and posting forum updates at the campground! He said signal would go out once in a while, but at least he had it.

 

[HeyCori]

My AT&T bill isn't insane, only $138 per month (essentially $69 a piece for my two phones). Still, I would love to jump ship to T-Mobile. I could easily save nearly $40 a month with T-Mobile's 2GB Family plan. It has all the same features as AT&T plus an additional 1.5 gigs of data. However, it's just so hard to overlook the negatives. For starters, TMo has terrible coverage in my area (which probably explains why there's only 1 TMo store). Hopefully their MetroPCS merger helps to fix that, but in the interim I'm screwed on coverage. Then there's the fact that I'd have to get brand new phones to work on TMo's 4G/LTE network. I have a 920 now, a 1020 coming either next month or November and neither is compatible with TMo's 4G network. Right now I'm rocking AT&T LTE, and while I could get by with 4G speeds, dropping down to 2G is not an option. And finally there's the issue of TMo's overall coverage. It's the same story from everyone I see, unless you're in a sizable city then TMo's coverage is terrible. I've checked their coverage maps against where I usually go and it looks like I'd be dealing with bad service a lot. That doesn't leave me with me a lot of options. Verizon isn't much cheaper. Sprint has a sparse selection of Windows Phones. And smaller carriers have even less.

 

[inteller]

Neither. Get a Straight Talk SIM and pop it in a GSM phone.

 

[palandri]

Neither. Get a Straight Talk SIM and pop it in a GSM phone.

Are AT&T network SIM cards available again through Straight Talk?

 

[inteller]

no, the guy was saying he was going to go T-Mo so ST would be the best option for him. He will roam on ATT when necessary.

 

[jlangner]

I am getting pretty fast lte speeds on my 925, Birmingham.

 

[gsquared]

As Laura stated, coverage.

If you are out riding by yourself and something happens you could be in a real pickle with no cell phone coverage.

 

[TheJoester09]

I just switched from T-Mobile to Verizon, and coverage was my main reason. I do a good bit of traveling through north and central Florida, and if you're not near a city then you're completely out of luck. Also, T-Mobile gets absolutely NO service in my building where I work, whereas with Verizon I get near 30mbps sitting at my desk. T-Mobile is AMAZING if you live in a decent size city, but if you have venture outside of the city you're SOL.

 

[aseferian]

As a long time AT&T customer (dating back to Cellular One), I would advise against switching unless the coverage issues leave you no choice.

 

[theefman]

Funny, I was on att for a year and had no problems with CS, coverage or billing. Never saw why they got so much hate while I was with them and may actually switch back because of Tmo's poor coverage where I live.

 

[aseferian]

Well, they just increased their upgrade period from 18 months to 2 years. And when I tried to add a 5th family member to my family plan, they took out a shiv and tried to carve me up with it. I put that 5th family member on a Virgin Wireless (Sprint) plan for 1/3 what AT&T was going to charge me. Had to buy the phone but the payback was only about 9 months. And so far Sprint's coverage in my area (Boston suburbs) has been as good or better than AT&T's. As my other family members roll off their upgrades, they're going on Virgin as well.