Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly(ish) carriers in the US?

[finalrelief]

I have a Lumia Icon. My contract is up and I don't want to assume that AT&T is the only carrier I can go to. Is there a list somewhere ( I searched the forums) of carriers (region/nation wide) that supports current and future windows phones?

Phones i'm worried about are the 950/950xl, hp elite x3, surface phone.

I want to switch to a different carrier but do not want to be in a situation where I have to switch AGAIN to get my next windows phone. I know AT&T but is there anyone else? I don't mind paying cash for the phone upright if it works on their network if I have to.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

How good is AT&T coverage where you live, work and travel?

Before considering a particular device, you should pick the carrier first. The greatest device won't be useful if it's a paperweight due to lousy coverage.

 

[PGrey]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

Originally posted by finalrelief
I have a Lumia Icon. My contract is up and I don't want to assume that AT&T is the only carrier I can go to.

Phones i'm worried about are the 950/950xl, hp elite x3, surface phone.

I want to switch to a different carrier but do not want to be in a situation where I have to switch AGAIN to get my next windows phone. I know AT&T but is there anyone else? I don't mind paying cash for the phone upright if it works on their network if I have to.

Right now, there is no "friendly" Windows Phone carrier, in terms of BYOD. They all limit feature functionality, and seem to be dead-set on doing this until the (bitter) end. If you want to do things like use VoLTE, WiFi calling, and other "features" that are part of your device, but not provisioned by carriers, I'd stick with your current carrier for now (assuming you have these and/or they're important).
Also, there's the recent change in the Win Phone landscape, which is probably worth letting the dust settle, before you choose a carrier. Unfortunately, it seems as if MS becoming a carrier is VERY unlikely, which could have been a solution to the feature-limiting BYOD decisions by the US carriers.
If you're overseas (non-US), this is a simpler decision, obviously...

 

[Scienceguy Labs]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

I have had zero issues with AT&T using all of my Windows Phone/Mobile devices. Having said that, the last time I set foot in an AT&T store to actually purchase a phone was back when the HTC Titan was released. All of my other phones have been added to my plan as byodevices, and have worked as intended. Even now, with my 950 XL, AT&T serves me well.

 

[Zulfigar]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

The two main carriers that are BYOD friendly (though, as stated, no WiFi calling, VoLTE, or other premium features, though can easily activate mobile hotspot) are AT&T and T-Mobile. I have a 950 XL on T-Mobile currently and a 920 before it, with no issues in either case.

Though, honesty, if you forget Sprint, Verizon, or any other carrier on their network, you're in good hands.

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

Last time I could find the stat... Last September...




...between ATT and Cricket (which ATT owns) they provided service to 51% of the Windows Phones in use in the US.

T-Mo has a pretty bad track record for short and uncaring support, but even then when you add in Metro PCS (which T-MoUS owns) they come up with 22% and Verizon is well back at 12.4%.


Since last September, what happened?

AT&T got the Lumia 950 as a US carrier exclusive, pumped a ton of cheap Lumia 640 GoPhones into the US market and now seems to be the only source for 640 in the US (on Cricket), put Lumia 650 on Cricket at a highly subsidized price as a US carrier exclusive, became the last place in the world to get One (M8) Windows BNIB and somehow managed to bring back the Lumia 1520.

T-MoUS mysteriously ends carrying the 640 after about 4 months, fails to get the 950 or 950 XL, Lagere goes on a Twit rampage blaming Microsoft's momma and T-Mo gets the budget Alcatel Fierce XL...

Verizon? Who can tell what goes on behind that megalithic corporate facade... They continue on with the Lumia 735 (which came after Icon was finished) and the LG Lancet

Sprint who? Sprint owns Boost and Virgin Mobile US. Between all 3, only the aging Lumia 635 is on offer at Virgin (for $50 "on sale").


I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

 

[finalrelief]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

Thank you guys. I live in the Milwaukee area these days... coverage shouldn't really be a huge issue because it's a major area. I'm going to research cricket and T mobile.

My work phone will have to be an iPhone but I want to keep my personal device a windows phone. I may go with that HP elite x3. I just hope it comes with the ability to function on plenty of carriers (even if I have to purchase the device outright from HP). At the end of the day I just dont want to keep jumping from carrier to carrier.

The issue I have with verizon is that I have two lumia icons. My contract on my first icon has been fulfilled but I transferred the phone number for that device to the newer Icon. Verizon will not let me terminate the first contract/line unless I give up my phone number, of which I've grown accustomed to. In the past i've moved around the world so I was constantly using a different phone number almost every year. I'd like to be done with that. But verizon is saying "want to keep your number?? we'll have to charge you a $150.00 early termination fee "

I reached out to microsoft sales/tech chats and they stated they don't have/won't give me a list of carriers. They also stated that they cannot talk about a surface phone and if it exists in development but went on for a paragraph telling me how cool a surface phone would be.

For anyone who keeps up with Southpark, the tv show, it feels like that Verizon is doing to me what Time Warner employees did with their customers in that episode

It's not the money either, its just that verizon is outright telling me to screw myself (that's how it feels anyway).

 

[Indistinguishable]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

It's not the money either, its just that verizon is outright telling me to screw myself (that's how it feels anyway).

Fellow Icon user here. I know your pain. I'll be hopping over to AT&T whenever the next Microsoft Flagship pops up.

 

[finalrelief]

Re: Is there a list of Windows 10 Mobile friendly carriers (ish)?

So... i'm going to try cricket wireless. They are going to transfer my phone # from verizon to a new nano sim card. in addition to this, they are going to let me bring an unlocked phone in which I am caving due to all the stackable discounts and going to go buy a 950xl. If it's more of a positive experience i'll come back and share. Cricket's chat rep claimed that if you go with the unlimited plan, the data will not slow down even if you use 250GB/month. We test this.

My experience with verizon has been

Cons:

If there is a change of plans, they never let me know, for example, I was paying for 2 GB of data and they had a plan for 3GB of data come out that was chepaer than my 2GB of data somehow, but unless I looked it up, I would have never switched plans.

If I EVER said the words, Lumia, Windows, Microsoft when speaking to their customer service, I was immediately brushed off and the tone of voice of each representative I talked to went more negative.

Before the easier version of the windows insider program was out, I was waiting for windows 8.1, we all know the icon was very late to receive it compared to everyone else.

If I ever tell them why I may leave in the future, they always blame microsoft, microsoft blames other carriers. I don't like the lack of ownership but that's business.

When I requested to switch the phone # back to my previous device to drop a line, they're telling me they cannot/will not do it unless I pay an early termination fee, even though i've completed a contract successfully with them...they will not let me drop that line unless I drop the phone #, in which they know how much a pain in the butt it is to switch phone #'s. This is after they tried to sell me tablets to re-purpose the phone #

Positives:

Coverage was great
Easy to pay my bills
Social media support actually responds.

 

[mhc48]

My 930 went into battery dying life support mode last weekend and in desperate need of a phone I popped into Cricket to pick up a Lumia 650 for $119. While there I discovered that I could get two Cricket lines for less than what I was paying for one line on AT&T, so I ported my AT&T 930 number over to the Cricket 650 and popped the SIM from the new 650 into my 930. Although I miss a few features, I'm surprisingly pleased with the 650. Enough to use it as my daily phone while I continue to trouble shoot the 930. If I can revive it I'll have a back up (and can forward calls to either) for a bit less than I was paying before.

 

[RumoredNow]

My 930 went into battery dying life support mode last weekend and in desperate need of a phone I popped into Cricket to pick up a Lumia 650 for $119. While there I discovered that I could get two Cricket lines for less than what I was paying for one line on AT&T, so I ported my AT&T 930 number over to the Cricket 650 and popped the SIM from the new 650 into my 930. Although I miss a few features, I'm surprisingly pleased with the 650. Enough to use it as my daily phone while I continue to trouble shoot the 930. If I can revive it I'll have a back up (and can forward calls to either) for a bit less than I was paying before.

You missed a trick. With the ported number you could have gotten a Lumia 640 for $9.99 and still gotten the 650 for $119.99 with the second activation!!!

 

[anon(50597)]

You'll love Cricket....and the extra cash in your pocket.

 

[finalrelief]

Now I need to find the time to actually go get the lumia 950xl/cricket

 

[Sedp23]

I have a Lumia Icon. My contract is up and I don't want to assume that AT&T is the only carrier I can go to. Is there a list somewhere ( I searched the forums) of carriers (region/nation wide) that supports current and future windows phones?

Phones i'm worried about are the 950/950xl, hp elite x3, surface phone.

I want to switch to a different carrier but do not want to be in a situation where I have to switch AGAIN to get my next windows phone. I know AT&T but is there anyone else? I don't mind paying cash for the phone upright if it works on their network if I have to.

Right now it's att and tmobile. Tmobile can run most of the same phones as att and they currently have the new Alcatel one touch fierce xl and they are getting a flagship Alcatel sometime this summer

Sent from mTalk

 

[mhc48]

You missed a trick. With the ported number you could have gotten a Lumia 640 for $9.99 and still gotten the 650 for $119.99 with the second activation!!!

Thanks but I didn't really miss that option. I didn't want or need a 640, I just wanted my 930 to be working again. The 650 was so that I'd have something to use while I tried to figure out a solution. And I just saw this morning that MS issued an update to the latest Fast Ring Build addressed specifically to heat problems on the 930, which I'm downloading right now. So I'm optimistic that I'll soon have a working 930 and a 650 for the same monthly price as I was paying before.

 

[finalrelief]

I've used the latest fast build on my lumia icon/929 and it did solve the battery drain issue.

 

[PGrey]

Originally posted by finalrelief
I've used the latest fast build on my lumia icon/929 and it did solve the battery drain issue.

Yep, the 318 (and 338) builds both *dramatically* increase battery life, to the point that a full day of moderate-heavy use is given, and 2-ish days are possible with light use.

 

[finalrelief]

Yep, the 318 (and 338) builds both *dramatically* increase battery life, to the point that a full day of moderate-heavy use is given, and 2-ish days are possible with light use.

Yeah I reached out to Microsoft Support Forums and such to ask if i should wait for the next release to fix it or send it back to 8.1. They couldn't answer me so I set it back to 8.1 and then to a production windows 10 build. When I heard those issues were addressed in the newer releases I turned FAST RING back on.

 

[PGrey]

Yeah I reached out to Microsoft Support Forums and such to ask if i should wait for the next release to fix it or send it back to 8.1. They couldn't answer me so I set it back to 8.1 and then to a production windows 10 build. When I heard those issues were addressed in the newer releases I turned FAST RING back on.

FYI, you can get these on Release Preview too, both 318 and 338 are there, if you don't want to end up with Redstone necessarily...