At&t or Verizon?

[psudotechzealot]

If all the WP8 phones were available for both At&t and Verizon, which carrier would you choose and why?

 

[Daniel Brott]

I would choose Verizon (and did as I have a Lumia 928) simply because AT&T's reception where I live is awful compared to Verizon.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

I think AT&T gets a lot more crap than they deserve sometimes. In my area, the reception is the same, so I understand if you live in an area where you only get reception with verizon, then of course you would choose verizon, for example. I'll stick with at&t for 1 major reason, and thats because its GSM. If I have an at&t phone and I break it, which has happened to me multiple times, I can just go to a radioshack or some place and buy a prepaid phone like a nokia 520, which I bought recently because I broke my 8x. I can just pop in my sim card and it works. With verizon, I'd have to go to their store and shell out the money for an unlocked phone and then have them transfer my number over or I'd have to go and buy a phone off of ebay and hope that its not stolen or else they won't activate it. Basically, At&t gives you control over your phone (for the most part) where verizon does not because of the CDMA technology.

 

[berty6294]

I wish AT&T had better service here. So stuck on Verizon for me!

 

[psudotechzealot]

Man this a hard one.........

 

[Dave Blake]

AT&T one word SIM.... I can switch devices any time I like without having to do anything other than swap a sim.

 

[rangerdogy]

AT&T one word SIM.... I can switch devices any time I like without having to do anything other than swap a sim.

AT&T for the same reason.

 

[rc521]

I would choose Verizon (and did as I have a Lumia 928) simply because AT&T's reception where I live is awful compared to Verizon.

I would choose at&t (as I have for most of my phones) simply because Verizon's reception where I live is awful compared to at&t, and because at&t is a GSM carrier and I can easily swap my SIM between all my gsm phones depending on which one I want to use on any given day.

 

[jmshub]

I had Verizon in the flip phone era. In my area, AT&T just has better towers and better reception. The SIM is nice, but mostly irrelevant because T-Mobile isn't even a possibility...

 

[Kevin Rush]

I can't believe all the AT&T and T-Mobile have better coverage than Verizon comments? Are they paid to convince people with miss-information? Please, everyone, don't simply believe it. Do your research, in depth, spend time checking out the facts of the coverage in your travel area. For me, I have, and Verizon has the best coverage in the areas I travel to. Not hype, or fake marketing.

 

[etad putta]

I can't believe all the AT&T and T-Mobile have better coverage than Verizon comments? Are they paid to convince people with miss-information? Please, everyone, don't simply believe it. Do your research, in depth, spend time checking out the facts of the coverage in your travel area. For me, I have, and Verizon has the best coverage in the areas I travel to. Not hype, or fake marketing.

I don't travel much and att is great in my area so it's att for me. No miss information here.

 

[Laura Knotek]

AT&T one word SIM.... I can switch devices any time I like without having to do anything other than swap a sim.

What he says.

 

[despertador]

Better coverage with Verizon here, so I'd stick with them. Problem is, they're pricey...

 

[psudotechzealot]

"Widest" 4g LTE coverage or "fastest" 4g LTE speeds.........

 

[hopmedic]

For me it's purely a decision of coverage. If ATT covered the area I live in better, I'd switch from Verizon. But at the same time, if the MVNOs would cover me better, I'd switch to one of them with a BYOD plan. But where I live, Verizon is the ONLY reliable carrier. It cracks me up when I'm at church and see several people out in the parking lot talking on their phones because they can't get a signal from ATT inside the building.

 

[rc521]

I can't believe all the AT&T and T-Mobile have better coverage than Verizon comments? Are they paid to convince people with miss-information? Please, everyone, don't simply believe it. Do your research, in depth, spend time checking out the facts of the coverage in your travel area. For me, I have, and Verizon has the best coverage in the areas I travel to. Not hype, or fake marketing.

The key word in your post is "me". It sounds like it is you who is drinking the Verizon kool-aid and engaging in hype and fake marketing. Where I live it's not even close; great reception and no dropped calls with at&t and spotty coverage and numerous dropped or missed calls and messages with Verizon. This is based not on some marketing talking points but on real life experience involving myself, my family, and my friends. As a matter of fact, I travel extensively all over the US and I've yet to be in an area where I didn't get good to great reception on any of my at&t phones. Don't assume that because Verizon works for YOU it therefore is the best choice for everyone else. I always advise those that ask for my opinion to choose a cell phone carrier that has great coverage and call clarity where THEY live, not based on my personal preference or my geographical base.

 

[hopmedic]

The key word in your post is "me". It sounds like it is you who is drinking the Verizon kool-aid and engaging in hype and fake marketing. Where I live it's not even close; great reception and no dropped calls with at&t and spotty coverage and numerous dropped or missed calls and messages with Verizon. This is based not on some marketing talking points but on real life experience involving myself, my family, and my friends. As a matter of fact, I travel extensively all over the US and I've yet to be in an area where I didn't get good to great reception on any of my at&t phones. Don't assume that because Verizon works for YOU it therefore is the best choice for everyone else. I always advise those that ask for my opinion to choose a cell phone carrier that has great coverage and call clarity where THEY live, not based on my personal preference or my geographical base.

This is how it really is. What carrier covers best depends completely on location. Here's an example. While Verizon is best where I live, where I used to live, I had mixed experience. I had to have a Verizon hotspot in my apartment, because Verizon's coverage in the city I lived in was pretty bad, and work had to be able to contact me. ATT had good coverage in the city. But I had to use Verizon. Why? Where our plant was, there was NO coverage, from ANY carrier. Somehow, being the only IT guy in the plant, this became MY problem. Our VP was very unreasonable about this, and put it squarely on my shoulders instead of on the shoulders of whomever decided this was a good place to build a plant for a Fortune 100 company.

I was able to contract a communications contractor who set up a repeater on the roof, and six antennae throughout the plant, to repeat Verizon signals. It only cost me $30,000 to do so. That was great for most of us, because Verizon now worked. We (the communications contractor) tried a similar approach for repeating ATT signals, because our VP was fixated on her need to stay on ATT, since all of the other execs that she communicated with were on ATT (WHO CARES?????). The major problem was that where repeating Verizon's signals were a piece of cake for the communications contractor, ATT isn't so easy. I don't remember the details, as this was five years ago, but it was something along the lines of needing to know what frequencies and channels or something that ATT was using for nearby towers, but ATT would not work with them to get this information. In the end, we ended up installing an ATT hotspot in her office. But a little hotspot that sends the signals over the internet will not cover a 150,000 square foot factory, so it only worked within about 15' of her office. Yeah, that didn't make her happy.

Long story, but it goes to show how not only does Verizon not have the best coverage everywhere, but that sometimes your only option is to use second best.

 

[psudotechzealot]

This is how it really is. What carrier covers best depends completely on location. Here's an example. While Verizon is best where I live, where I used to live, I had mixed experience. I had to have a Verizon hotspot in my apartment, because Verizon's coverage in the city I lived in was pretty bad, and work had to be able to contact me. ATT had good coverage in the city. But I had to use Verizon. Why? Where our plant was, there was NO coverage, from ANY carrier. Somehow, being the only IT guy in the plant, this became MY problem. Our VP was very unreasonable about this, and put it squarely on my shoulders instead of on the shoulders of whomever decided this was a good place to build a plant for a Fortune 100 company.

Great post, hopmedic.

I was able to contract a communications contractor who set up a repeater on the roof, and six antennae throughout the plant, to repeat Verizon signals. It only cost me $30,000 to do so. That was great for most of us, because Verizon now worked. We (the communications contractor) tried a similar approach for repeating ATT signals, because our VP was fixated on her need to stay on ATT, since all of the other execs that she communicated with were on ATT (WHO CARES?????). The major problem was that where repeating Verizon's signals were a piece of cake for the communications contractor, ATT isn't so easy. I don't remember the details, as this was five years ago, but it was something along the lines of needing to know what frequencies and channels or something that ATT was using for nearby towers, but ATT would not work with them to get this information. In the end, we ended up installing an ATT hotspot in her office. But a little hotspot that sends the signals over the internet will not cover a 150,000 square foot factory, so it only worked within about 15' of her office. Yeah, that didn't make her happy.

Long story, but it goes to show how not only does Verizon not have the best coverage everywhere, but that sometimes your only option is to use second best.

 

[TMavC5]

ATT...
Sent from L920 using Board Express

 

[jmshub]

I can't believe all the AT&T and T-Mobile have better coverage than Verizon comments? Are they paid to convince people with miss-information? Please, everyone, don't simply believe it. Do your research, in depth, spend time checking out the facts of the coverage in your travel area. For me, I have, and Verizon has the best coverage in the areas I travel to. Not hype, or fake marketing.

That may vary greatly from market to market. When i lived with my parents, my vzw phone wouldn't ring unless I drove up the street, but I could see the local att tower blinking on the horizon. That is obviously not the case everywhere, but in western pa, att is the better carrier.