Switching carriers??

[lparsons21]

I'm currently with Verizon and have a single line plan but would like a hotspot capability. Bottom line is that Verizon makes you pay $30 for that by switching to you More whatever plan.

That's just BS IMO! ATT doesn't do that, nor do others from what I'm reading. So...

I see in another thread in this part of the forum that the HTC One is capable of being on practically any carrier unless I'm missing something. If I am, please tell me.

I'm looking at either ATT for their 3Gb single line plan that does do hotspots @$65+fees.

Also looking at StraighTalk @$45 which does the same. Downside with ST is that there doesn't seem to be a way to get more fast internet service past the 3Gb of fast with their re-definition of the word 'unlimited'.

Supposedly the phone is unlocked which means the switch should be just a 'do it' kind of thing. And there isn't any cost penalty because I'm using the Edge program with VZW which just means I'll have to pay the phone off. Not a big deal, nor a real consideration.

Comments/suggestions, especially from someone that might have done this.

Thanks.

 

[Br1t]

Well plans are what you see from each carrier, so if you are happy with what AT&T are offering go for it. They will add a $150 line credit for porting in a new line right now so call customer service and see if they will also match the full price Verizon or T-Mobile is offering on Next for the AT&T version to save a little more.

 

[Bob Brown2]

Your Verizon phone won't do 4G on ATT.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the feedback. I had forgotten about that ATT $150 deal, thanks for the reminder.

The plan is to pay Verizon off on the phone completely and then port the number over. Doesn't seem to me that I should even consider getting a phone from ATT since the one I have now is perfectly capable.

The other thought that's been bouncing around in my head is that I don't really need the mobile hotspot capability around where I live. And my use of the internet on the phone itself is pretty minimal. All this leads me to think that since T-Mobile voice/text works fine here, and for the little data use I need here at home the 2G service would be good enough.

Where I would need the faster speed for internet access via the mobile hotspot software in the phone T-MO has their LTE service.

 

[lparsons21]

Your Verizon phone won't do 4G on ATT.

Thanks for that info. Do you know why it won't?
If it requires getting a new phone to do, then there is no savings to be had switching to ATT.

I just found out that Straight Talk wouldn't work either as they don't allow tethering.

 

[Br1t]

You actually don't have much choice here, I assumed you would get a new device. The Verizon version would need unlocking then not have working LTE on other carriers. You also wouldn't get Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile. You might want to look at a separate hotspot device instead to supplement what you have.

 

[lparsons21]

You actually don't have much choice here, I assumed you would get a new device. The Verizon version would need unlocking then not have working LTE on other carriers. You also wouldn't get Wi-Fi calling on T-Mobile. You might want to look at a separate hotspot device instead to supplement what you have.

Thanks for the suggestion, but that wouldn't result in a savings either. I would need to buy the device, pay the monthly access fee AND be on a shared data plan.
Cheaper to just switch to a shared data plan and stick with Verizon. I can change the plan around easily so that isn't too onerous. Just go to a shared plan when I'm on a trip and back to single line plan when I'm not.
Thanks to those that responded, it helped a lot

 

[Nicholas Maguire]

I just found out that Straight Talk wouldn't work either as they don't allow tethering.

I'm on Straight Talk, and I hate that I can't do hotspots.

 

[Br1t]

Careful with the plan switching, I think Verizon only offers the more plans now so if you switch off what you have you may not be able to get it back.

As for hotspot devices, shop around you might be surprised what you can get these days. Carriers are always the most expensive, you wouldn't be tied to anyone and you can pay as you go.

 

[Br1t]

http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com/best-mifi-plans.html

 

[lparsons21]

Careful with the plan switching, I think Verizon only offers the more plans now so if you switch off what you have you may not be able to get it back.

As for hotspot devices, shop around you might be surprised what you can get these days. Carriers are always the most expensive, you wouldn't be tied to anyone and you can pay as you go.

Thanks for the link.
Verizon has more than the More plans though some of them can't be done on the web. Single line plans like mine, the Nationwide 65 plan and possibly others. The Single Line plans are now on the web but once you have it you can't change it on the web. Bit of a PITA.

 

[Mallguvner]

I found out about the nonsense that Verizon is doing on the hotspot thing too. They're selling you data and then taking an additional $30 to use it for some email checking on my Surface clone.. Utter nonsense. I gave them some grief about it but until someone offers me a better deal I'm not moving. I got the phone for $100 cheaper then AT&T. Their deductible is only $99 versus AT&T's $175.00 for the protection plan so you almost have to weigh it. You might pick up a good used phone or tablet with a different carrier. Around here I have Tmobile also and in St. Louis/St. Charles area it works great. Traveling you need the big boys. Tmobile is ultra cheap if you're just adding a line to an existing contract and you own the phone. So if you have a relative you might do some horse trading. Sprint will also buy them out but I went through some real nonsense with them and their coverage.

Good luck... and let us know if Verizon backs down as they really should. I haven't really gotten nasty with them about it as I have other things much more important to worry about. They all have problems trust me.

 

[lparsons21]

The real irritating part is that it has been pointed out in some forums that the single line plans contracts says that tethering is allowed. But so far no one has gotten VZW to honor that part.
ATT does allow tethering in their individual plans and I think those are fairly new plans, so maybe there is some hope that VZW will allow it sometime in the near future.
I could get the software that is in the Windows Phone store that gets around all this crap, but it seems very awkward to use and would make you have to change the way software goes to the internet since the software sets up an ad-hoc wifi and uses a proxy server.
I had come from an iPhone and if I'm understanding correctly, the later iPhones could be moved between carriers and keep the 4G/LTE. I know the latest iPads can.

 

[lparsons21]

Since I have more time than anything else, I've been doing a bit of searching around here and there.

(rant on)
After reading in way more places that I would have thought I would, I can't believe how hosed up the various offers from the cell providers are! And to say that the websites are a mass of utter confusion would be a big understatement! Given that the devil is in the details, the one thing that is the hardest to find on all of them is the details.
(rant off)

Digging around the VZW website, it appears that there MIGHT be a program that would do what I want to do. And that is the ALLSET prepaid stuff.
$45/month for unlimited talk/text, 500Mb data
$20 for 3Gb data that lasts up to 90 days.

I would have to pay off the phone I got with the Edge program, which isn't a big deal.

But the one thing that I cannot find out so far is how blasted fast the data is on the ALLSET program!

There are stories that claim it is 4G/LTE and that it started being that fast on 7/17/2014. But there are many more stories that say it is only 3G. And as usual, Verizon's website is of no value in finding out just exactly how fast it is.

I think I'll start a conversation with them to see...

 

[lparsons21]

Well it appears that the ALLSET plan is most likely going to be a go for me.

Currently my bill (excluding EDGE payment) is:
$60 - Single line plan w/2Gb (grandfathered)
-$10 - Edge discount
$10 - approx. extra 'because we want to fees'

Total = $60/month
No hotspot is the biggie in this mess.

If I pay off the EDGE phone plan and switch to ALLSET the bill is :
$45 - unlimited talk/text w/500mb data (?? 1Gb data w/autopay ??)
No Edge discount
No extra fees.

Bridge data is :
$10 - 1Gb which expires in 90 days
$20 - 3Gb which expires in 90 days

Given the useage patterns for me, the bulk of the time the base program would give me all the talk/text/data that I would use. When I'm around the home area, I seldom need data at all.

Bridge data is there for when I need more like on a trip.

Assuming I bought the base package and kept an additional bridge amount the breakdown would be:

Base + 1Gb for 3 Months = 3x45+10 for an average monthly total of less than $50/month.

 

[lparsons21]

Well this isn't going well at all!

Turns out I have a contract since I took a 'customer loyalty' discount. I hadn't remembered that since I actually don't have it, or I don't have the Edge discount. Very confusing.

Took a customer loyalty deal in August, no problem. That's what kicked in the 1 year commit. I'm OK with that.

But then later in the month I switched phones and went to an Edge deal, which was supposed to kick in a $10 (at the time) discount.

But I'm only getting one of them. So I called and questioned that and was told couldn't have both. I told them no one ever said that, nor was it part of the advertising. Long story short, I'm getting $10 off a month and not the $20 which should be there.

So now, being retired and it is winter after all, I've emailed the CEO. Laid it all out as compactly as I could, told him what I expect. Frankly I expect I'll either get no response or some 'feel good' response. But as I said I'm retired, it is winter so no much golf and have plenty of time and bandwidth to be persistent.

I've set a temporary calendar event for the day the 'contract' expires so that I'll know when to switch to something that is in my best interest. Unless mobile hotspot comes to the single line plan or I get the 2nd $10 discount, on that day me and Verizon will part company forever.

While Verizon's coverage is better than anyone's overall, I only care that the carrier have good coverage where I will be. And lots of them already are there.

 

[Br1t]

Sprint or T-Mobile will pay your ETF to switch if contracted, just one last option to consider.

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the suggestion, it is on the table.
But I got an offer from Verizon that I will try to use to leverage a different approach. If that doesn't work I'll take a look at Page Plus Cellular as they use Verizon.

 

[lparsons21]

I just switched to th $75/month single line plan to get the feature and my $10 loyalty is still there. I would have done that all along if I could have gotten a straight answer about mobile share and the new single line plan.

 

[waazzupppp]

**** Nevermind... You already figured this out... ****

Or you can pay the phone off and move to VZW prepaid - $45 a month for unlimited talk and text + 500MB data...

Sign up for Auto-Pay and they double you to 1GB of data per month - free...

Then you can buy bridge data in packs - 500MB extra (30 days) $5 - 1GB extra (90 days) $10 - 3GB extra (90 days) $20

Worse case, you end up on VZW, paying the same $65 (no taxes though) and getting 4GB of data and tethering is included... If you don't use it all though, your excess data carries forward for 90 days so you may not need the extra every month - which means a lower bill.

No football though... That's $5 extra per month...


PS - Don't do the Page Plus route... They were recently acquired by American Movil, which owns Straight Talk, Net10, Simple Mobile and quite a few other MVNO's. They do not natively activate LTE phones and will not refund you if you purchase time with them and the device does not work.