Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Who is your wireless carrier?

  • AT&T

    Votes: 114 32.7%
  • T-Mobile

    Votes: 91 26.1%
  • Verizon

    Votes: 104 29.8%
  • Sprint

    Votes: 14 4.0%
  • Other (post in comments)

    Votes: 26 7.4%

  • Total voters
    349

noekozz

macrumors 6502a
Jun 29, 2010
620
1,038
212/201
AT&T for as long as I can remember (I'm talking Cingular days). Still got my UDP and a FAN discount to boot.
 

James.K.Polk

macrumors 6502a
Aug 31, 2015
865
333
I use Tmobile with the $30/month prepaid plan (100 minutes/ 5Gb data). I don't talk much (less than 30 minutes/ month), so it's perfect for my needs. I'm also in the Atlanta metro area and have been happy with the data and phone coverage, especially after switching from my 5S to iphone 7. With the 5S, I used to lose signal in the center of my office building and there was also a dead zone at the building entrance. The iphone 7 keeps a strong LTE signal in the same areas. I have an ipad mini on Verizon which is good for alternative coverage when traveling.

Had this plan before I started law school. Now with working at a firm and doing phone interviews for the summer, I passed the 100 min mark routinely, and jumped to Verizon. Such a great deal, if you don't need the talk time.
 

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
I use Tmobile with the $30/month prepaid plan (100 minutes/ 5Gb data). I don't talk much (less than 30 minutes/ month), so it's perfect for my needs. I'm also in the Atlanta metro area and have been happy with the data and phone coverage, especially after switching from my 5S to iphone 7. With the 5S, I used to lose signal in the center of my office building and there was also a dead zone at the building entrance. The iphone 7 keeps a strong LTE signal in the same areas. I have an ipad mini on Verizon which is good for alternative coverage when traveling.
Your 5S didn't have Band 12 LTE, while the 7 does, hence the better indoor reception.
 

eclipse01

macrumors 68030
May 16, 2011
2,844
404
Eau Claire, WI
Recently switched from Sprint (15+ years) to Tmobile, although I don't have some form of data wherever I go I have way more stable service and much better LTE in the building I work.
 

TouchedByAl

macrumors regular
Sep 12, 2007
153
173
Salt Lake City
I've had Verizon,T-Mobile and AT&T and am currently satisfied within AT&T. Coverage where I need it with fast data speeds and I've had maybe one dropped call. Compare that to T-Mobile where I would regularly have dropped calls even with my own phone over my own wifi network. Verizon is probably the best network where I'm at but I refuse to use them for several reasons. I can't say I'm a fan of AT&T's tactics but in the few times I've had to deal with customer service they were really helpful and friendly to me.
 

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
You can physically see how T-Mobile has expanded dramatically over the last 2.5 years through refarming old 2g towers to 4g/LTE, through low freq 700mhz spectrum via auction and soon more low spectrum with the 600mhz auction. Coverage continues to get better and better.

And unlike the unrealistic big map data you get from the carriers, this is Sensorly (the app) input from actual users (hence the mapping out points along freeways.) If an area hasn't been mapped by someone the area is blank (but may actually get signal). Looking at the upper portion of the US!

sAPIZzx.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: Photography

macher

macrumors 68040
Oct 13, 2012
3,341
1,728
AT&T. Pretty satisfied with voice and data coverage. Been with them for probably 12+ years. Have a grandfathered family plan with 4 lines. Each line has UDP, unlimited family text and mobile to ANY mobile, 700 shared voice roll over minutes. Plus I get a great employer discount at 28%. Our bill with discount and taxes is $225 / month. If we get DirectTV then our bill can get down to around $200 and still have UDP.
 

biracialfamily91

macrumors 6502
Aug 24, 2015
309
344
Queens, NY
I had sprint for 5 years before I switched to T-Mobile 3 years ago. I don't know about now but back then Sprint's service was horrible. But I stayed with them because my husband is a cheapskate not that I blame him. We switched to T-Mobile when the jump program was introduced.
I have to say I am satisfied with T-Mobile they have improved over the 3 years that we had them and it's getting better every year plus the price is something you can't beat. There are some compromises that have to be made. But I can't justify switching to Verizon or AT&T it's way out of our budget.
We have 4 lines of unlimited data plus 3 phone installments for $205 a month. Not to shabby.
 

Russtopher

macrumors regular
Apr 17, 2016
104
40
Pacific Northwest
Who is your wireless carrier? How do you like them, and how is their coverage? Vote in the poll and discuss.

Note: This poll is geared toward US users.
[doublepost=1482900714][/doublepost]I've got Verizon and love them for their excellent coverage. I've also had AT&T which was great, and Sprint, which was terrible. I haven't had T-Mobile but am interested in their unlimited data, but have reservations about going with them as I've heard stories about dropped calls and seen maps like OpenSignal showing less strength in coverage vs Verizon or AT&T.


T-Mobile. Unlimited everything. Good coverage just about everywhere.

RB
 
  • Like
Reactions: Photography

PaladinGuy

macrumors 68000
Sep 22, 2014
1,698
1,098
I was on at&t for years, mostly pre-iPhone/smartphones. I left a couple years ago because I was losing a discount. Tried T-Mobile for a year. Long story short, I liked the price and perks, but I found basic things to be unreliable. Their servers would frequently mess up and not allow me to log in to my account, I'd lose service in many buildings, and I found the retail location staff to be fairly unprofessional. I recently switched to Verizon, as I get a company discount, and I just wanted to try something consistent and reliable. Speeds are faster for me now, and I have yet to not have LTE.

I'd love to have both worlds! Maybe someday.
 

Mack812

macrumors member
Dec 14, 2013
38
7
Honolulu, HI
I live in Waikiki and my carrier is T-Mobile with $70 per month unlimited data plan. Comes in handy when I'm at places that lack Wi-Fi. The fact that I can use my iPhone as a personal hotspot is also great to have around in case I want stream video from YouTube on my iPad Pro and I don't want to burn up the data on my Wi-Fi device.
 

High Desert

macrumors regular
Nov 26, 2015
180
68
Powell Butte, Or.
Another Verizon user here. I have had GTE, Cellular One, tried AT&T and was with GTE when it came under Verizon. Cellular One (not sure who they are today) was about as good as 2 cans and a string. AT&T, while admirable in costs, never gave service once out of a large city. As I traveled a lot for work, Verizon became the best bet as I had coverage anywhere I went. The others could not and still cannot ay that. The thing I like best about Verizon today, is I can take off in the woods for hunting trips, into fairly isolated area, and normally can get cell coverage for check in calls. Other carriers, in Central Oregon, cannot do that. I will gladly pay a few dollars extra for the insurance of having coverage / access rather than a paperweight in remote areas.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Photography

Rootus

macrumors 6502
Mar 22, 2008
376
24
Portland, OR
Verizon. Their coverage is noticeably slower and patchier in the city, but they have much better coverage in the boonies. I didn't expect the drop in city coverage (coming from AT&T) but it mostly works okay so I'm happy with my choice because I like to go camping a lot in the warmer months and coverage in the boonies is good.
 

Mrbobb

macrumors 603
Aug 27, 2012
5,009
209
I find these polls not very useful, everybody basically post, "this works for me," as it should. I learn near nothing from the replies, the only thing I know for sure if I try them myself, based on my locale, my usage, my budget etc.

The big discussion to me should be, stay with the Big-4 main carriers, or go with a MVNO. It may save you a bundle.
 

Debel

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2017
160
119
Had T-Mobile. For years.

After under 0.1 MBPS I left to Att.
After sh!!ty coverage I went Verizon.
Now I get coverage EVERYWHERE AND FAST
33238239d78128c819a8deed295b9599.jpg


And I've had probably every high end phone lol
 

Photography

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 10, 2007
1,063
36
Had T-Mobile. For years.

After under 0.1 MBPS I left to Att.
After sh!!ty coverage I went Verizon.
Now I get coverage EVERYWHERE AND FAST
33238239d78128c819a8deed295b9599.jpg


And I've had probably every high end phone lol

Verizon does have great coverage and I've been pleased with them over the years. Are you in a rural area or a major city? I've heard that T-Mobile isn't as great in rural areas.
 

Lloydbm41

Suspended
Oct 17, 2013
4,019
1,456
Central California
600mhz auction just ended and looks like T-Mobile will have received a significant chunk of it. With this, 10x10 or even 15x15 carrier agrigation should be achievable. Add in 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM with the X16 modem in the SD 835 chip (and all follow on chips) and within 2 years we are going to hear people complaining about how slow Verizon and ATT are. Because the standard speed downloads for T-Mobile will be 600mb per second on average (even in rural areas.) 1gbps will be standard soon there after.
 
  • Like
Reactions: imlynxy

imlynxy

macrumors 65816
Mar 8, 2012
1,430
626
600mhz auction just ended and looks like T-Mobile will have received a significant chunk of it. With this, 10x10 or even 15x15 carrier agrigation should be achievable. Add in 4x4 MIMO and 256QAM with the X16 modem in the SD 835 chip (and all follow on chips) and within 2 years we are going to hear people complaining about how slow Verizon and ATT are. Because the standard speed downloads for T-Mobile will be 600mb per second on average (even in rural areas.) 1gbps will be standard soon there after.

Too good to be true:

-It takes 39+ months to have 600 MHz work for us. I have more hope for small cells for now.
-It was just reported that att also has 4x4 MIMO and att has a lot more spectrum in their pocket compare to t-mobile.

BTW: I use t-mobile
 
  • Like
Reactions: eduschean

macher

macrumors 68040
Oct 13, 2012
3,341
1,728
AT&T customer since it was called AT&T>Cingular etc. Been a customer since mid 90's. Pretty happy with them. Have a 4 line grandfathered legacy family plan, each line has unlimited data mobile to ANY mobile etc. Excellent plan. Only thing I wish AT&T had for unlimited plans was mobile unlimited hotspot.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Photography

theshoehorn

macrumors 6502a
Jul 6, 2010
505
490
I've jumped around basically all of them in the Midwest. I started with US Cellular 17 years ago on my parents plan, moved to Cingular. Tested Sprint for a couple weeks. Went back to AT&T to get the original iPhone. Got sick of them not deploying 3G in my area, so went BACK to US Cellular for a couple months (using an HTC). Then Verizon got the iPhone so I went to Verizon. AT&T finally upgraded to 3G so I went back to them. Tried US Cellular again on their LTE network, ended back at AT&T and have been there ever since. Have Verizon on my work phone, and a free 200MB T-Mobile iPad plan using Apple SIM. (Barely usable where I am, T-Mobile needs to step it up in WI).

tl;dr: AT&T rocks in my area.
 

macmee

Suspended
Dec 13, 2008
835
1,110
Canada
AT&T

and coming from Canada I was shocked at how cheap their rates, especially data are!

The US has much better cellular companies than Canada.....

.... but I use comcast everywhere I've lived in the states for internet and they are the WORST!
 

Bart Kela

Suspended
Oct 12, 2016
865
593
Searching...
I find these polls not very useful, everybody basically post, "this works for me," as it should. I learn near nothing from the replies, the only thing I know for sure if I try them myself, based on my locale, my usage, my budget etc.

The big discussion to me should be, stay with the Big-4 main carriers, or go with a MVNO. It may save you a bundle.
I agree that this genre of poll is meaningless and provides zero insight.

The better cellular service discussions revolve around postpaid vs. prepaid (which may include MVNOs) and whether or not one can save money using non-postpaid plans. Posts in those threads are insightful when the commenter describes their usage pattern and how many lines they are paying for are particularly revealing. Basically, the main discussion point with cellular providers should revolve around what you are getting for what you are paying.

Posts like "Sprint has poor coverage where I live, AT&T is great" provides no insight. Every cellular provider on this planet has areas of poor coverage. MVNOs connect to the cellular towers of the Big 4 carriers, so again discussion about signal strength is pretty useless.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.