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Carrier What's your preferred service for your iPhone (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc)
- Thread starter trevpimp
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We’ve been with AT&T since they were first AT&T then Cingular.
AT&T from Cingular days as well, but since last year have been AT&T Prepaid. No difference in coverage or service, just paying way less.
I do that too about taking a peek, but because neither of those other carriers can quote an exact monthly total due to taxes and fees (which apparently fluctuate month to month), I stay away. T-Mobile's taxes and fees inclusive total is so reliable.
Signed up for ATT Prepaid for the promotion they had. Unlimited talk, text and 22GB data for $40. Pretty good deal
No matter what the commercials say, in the vast majority of areas, Verizon is far superior.
I would say that Verizon might be #1 in most areas but they aren’t significantly better like they blow AT&T away. AT&T is a VERY close 2nd and with First Net and band 14 could even overtake Verizon.
Location, location, location.
At work, Verizon delivers 20-50 Mbps down/10+ Mbps up while AT&T is around 8-15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up.
Not referring to speeds but coverage. Seems like AT&T has coverage at your work.
There's coverage but it's pretty slow. Latency's much higher compared to Verizon.
I've been to the emergency room a couple times and at our local hospital, AT&T has absolutely no signal while Verizon still does.
That said, at my grandparents' place, AT&T has pretty good signal while Verizon's is almost non-existent.
Let me go back to what I said. I made a blanket statement that Verizon has better coverage that AT&T but I also said not significantly better. I don’t even know what area you’re in. I know in my area that in emergency rooms and indoors Verizon coverage you can’t get a signal and AT&T you can. But that doesn’t mean Verizon coverage isn’t the best overall.
Los Angeles.
Frankly, to me it doesn't matter which carrier has better overall coverage. What matters is which carrier has better service (coverage and speeds) in the locations one uses their smartphone.
Recently tried T-Mobile and AT&T for a bit over a month, longtime Verizon user for my primary line since 2006. T-Mobile does not have good carrier interoperability when it comes to HD voice. Sometimes calls to AT&T folks were HD, sometimes not. Calls with Verizon folks were not at all close to HD voice. This is why I can't (yet) take T-Mobile seriously. Speed was great where I live, but I still use my phone as a phone and can't accept lack of HD voice when I've been accustomed to it for many years on other carriers.
Tried AT&T again for a couple weeks and dropped a call a block away from my parents' house. The billing and overall system for AT&T business accounts is just not good. You need a computer science degree to simply add an Apple Watch and make caller ID work properly. I had to call customer service to get the watch to activate and caller ID, no matter what we did, reflected my business name and not my name on any landline that I called. Further, upgrading your phone anywhere else other than through AT&T is not possible with business accounts. The whole thing was a royal pain for me.
Switched back to Verizon yesterday and got my old Play More plan back with free Apple Music (today the plan changed and only offers 6 months free plus ESPN and Hulu which I couldn't care less about). For me Verizon has by far been the best and most reliable. I'm in the northern Illinois / SE Wisconsin / NW Indiana area.
My wife will soon need to start making international business calls, I tried to look at international options with AT&T and again, due to business website / account, it was impossible. T-Mobile, no idea about their international plans. With Verizon, it is straightforward, for $5 more a month I add the plan and can see the calling rates right in front of me on my screen.
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We’ve been on Sprint since 2013. I know that everyone loves to hate on Sprint, but our personal experience has been excellent—we’re hoping things don’t change since we’re technically now under T-Mobile. We’ve never had any problems whatsoever, with coverage, customer service, nothing. We pay $220/mo for 4 lines with unlimited data/talk/text, no throttling ever (and we use a LOT of data), 50GB mobile hotspot per line/mo, and this also includes my husband’s Apple Watch unlimited plan and free Hulu.
That all said, I’ve looked over the T-Mobile plans and I have to say, they are very tempting because I crunched the numbers and we could switch over to one of their plans and have much of the same features, but for far less $$/mo. But I’m hesitant to do so because I don’t want to rock the boat, so to speak, since what we have so far is working well for us. I’m not sure I fully understand how the Sprint/T-Mobile merger works concerning coverage and such, and I don’t want to switch and all of a sudden we have poor coverage. So far from what I’ve read from communications from Sprint/T-Mobile, Sprint is still separate at this point, just under the umbrella of the T-Mobile company. If we wanted to go to a T-Mobile plan, it would be considered a full switch, exactly the same as if we were switching to Verizon or AT&T.
That all said, I’ve looked over the T-Mobile plans and I have to say, they are very tempting because I crunched the numbers and we could switch over to one of their plans and have much of the same features, but for far less $$/mo. But I’m hesitant to do so because I don’t want to rock the boat, so to speak, since what we have so far is working well for us. I’m not sure I fully understand how the Sprint/T-Mobile merger works concerning coverage and such, and I don’t want to switch and all of a sudden we have poor coverage. So far from what I’ve read from communications from Sprint/T-Mobile, Sprint is still separate at this point, just under the umbrella of the T-Mobile company. If we wanted to go to a T-Mobile plan, it would be considered a full switch, exactly the same as if we were switching to Verizon or AT&T.
+1 couldn't agree more with HD Voice interoperability when it comes to T-Mobile-- if you don't talk on the phone much, it may not be an issue; however if you make a lot of calls-- it is very important. After using HD Voice for many years, I too tested T-Mobile and it was much more difficult talking to family members, etc not on HD Voice (the quality is awful).
I had AT&T for ~9 years and I tried them again several months ago and I noticed the same thing, dropped calls were more frequent (I forgot what a dropped call was with Verizon as it very rarely ever happens). Another issue is when I'm at work, I had 5Ge in the building but when I left the building it dropped to No Service for 2-3 minutes until it found LTE again. Maybe there was an outage at that time?
Been using Verizon for several months now and the key differentiator for me is it seems to hang on to the call very well there is less cutting out than AT&T. Additionally, with AT&T it used to drop from LTE to 4G often especially during the call and you would hear the renegotiation noises during the call (this was years ago). When I tried AT&T recently the call actually dropped when it went from 5Ge to No Service, surprised it didn't downgrade to 4G/HSPA during the call.
AT&T does offer faster performance/speeds when it is not congested (faster than Verizon) but Verizon's experience seems to be more consistent. There is a guy on YouTube - techxtremist - he has 4 top of the line phones (Galaxy S20s) as it pertains to network characteristics on all 4 networks, he tests ALL 4 carriers (soon to be 3) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PO5cycD3wcHLLsdfcikdg
As others have noted, location location location is also important.
In 2016, T-Mobile said they are working on HD Voice interoperability below [1]
It has been 4 years..
"Update: T-Mobile has confirmed with me that it's working to upgrade the technology that will offer VoLTE interoperability with other carriers, and we can expect it "soon." It also said interoperable VoLTE service is partially dependent on other carriers updating their technology, as well."
www.businessinsider.com
It has been 4 years..
"Update: T-Mobile has confirmed with me that it's working to upgrade the technology that will offer VoLTE interoperability with other carriers, and we can expect it "soon." It also said interoperable VoLTE service is partially dependent on other carriers updating their technology, as well."
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are teaming up for better quality phone calls
AT&T and Verizon customers can make high quality VoLTE phone calls with each other, and T-Mobile will work with them soon.
www.businessinsider.com
My experience as well. When the call dropped with AT&T I had 1 bar of LTE. I've found that when I have 1 bar (doesn't mean much, more useful value is signal strength, I know) on AT&T I am doomed. With Verizon calls and data still work with 1 bar of LTE.
I'll have to check out that YouTube link, looks like it'll be an interesting view for a cell phone / service geek like myself.
I travel quite a distance on a daily basis. I talk to numerous other drivers with different service providers. They all drop calls. I swear my Verizon has maybe dropped one call in the five years since I switched from sprint. I have noticed a few rather dead data areas on Verizon but for phone calls you just can’t beat it.
Sprint is definitely great price wise and depending on your area and how far you move from that area it may be as good as anything for you. I switched to Verizon five years ago from sprint. I had been with them since they bought Nextel. Being a truck driver I travel a lot and Sprint was atrocious under those circumstances.
I am using a Sprint SWAC plan, now riding T-Mobiles network. I pay $40 for unlimited talk, text, data, 100GIG hotspot + Hulu, Prime and Tidal.
Additionally I have a apple watch and a free line.
Network works everywhere I go, plus I have free international roaming.
Additionally I have a apple watch and a free line.
Network works everywhere I go, plus I have free international roaming.
Thanks for the thorough response. I appreciate it. I'm in Texas, and here AT&T has the best coverage(IMHO). T-Mobile is tempting as their pricing is very attractive. However, like you, HD Voice is a requirement and my experience in calling others on T-Mobile from AT&T, I'm never able to get an HD Voice connection. AT&T and Verizon play well with each other, and most people I call are on either AT&T or Verizon.
Thanks again for responding!
Interesting, I just saw that Verizon throttles Netflix, tried that fast.com speed test and I pull about 6Mbps. That's a load of BS when we are paying for "premium data." Not that I watch Netflix that often when not on WiFi, but it's principle and really makes me mad. Maybe cheap prepaid plans are really the way to go.
*Edit, tried the tests again, now I pull under 4 Mbps. Load of BS.
*Edit, tried the tests again, now I pull under 4 Mbps. Load of BS.
It’s better than AT&T shared plans which limit to 1.5mbps.
SD Streaming (480p DVD quality, max of 1.5Mbps)
That's true. 5 Mbps is still fine for 720p Netflix streaming.
I also just saw that the new Verizon Get More plan offers half off of connected devices, so the Watch is $5 a month rather than $10. It is tempting to switch to that plan. My grandma has an iPad Mini that I'm paying $10 a month for, for a 2gb T-Mobile data only plan. So a Watch will be $5 a month and iPad will be $10 a month I think. Very good deal it seems.