Best deal in wireless? (Page 1/4)
ls3mach NOV 22, 11:55 AM
I know this isn't the best demographic for a discussion of this nature, but I am tired of all the political, PC, and other poopy threads here.

Cricket has ended their 5 lines for $100 deal, and I was going to get a 5th line, but I didn't realize it was changing and missed it. I didn't realize it was promotional as I have had it off and on. They have been advertising it as their big draw for years. My bad. I like Cricket well enough. They are owned by and use AT&T. Data speeds capped at 8Mb, really this is a sufficient speed for a single user, but it just seems gay. I can no longer alter my plan or I will lose my discounts and can never recover them. They are also ending their Cricket Rewards program. With this I haven't paid a cell bill in a long while. With these 2 changes I am considering options.

MetroPCS is T-Mobile. They are offering a J7 Prime and a year of Amazon Prime. It has been at least 4 years since I've used T-Mobile and I wasn't a fan. My buddy has had it for 10+, but his parents still pay his cell bill so he doesn't care. The phone is something I am just going to sell anyway. They don't throttle their data speeds accept on video it seems. Still will be more expensive than my current $100/month, though each line only has 5GB of data and this would be unlimited. Can't easily swap SIM. Gotta call in each time.

Sprint has a 1 year free bring your own device promo. You have to supply a phone. You only pay taxes and fees. I had Sprint for 10+ years. I have seen it and it's ugliness in so many ways. Coverage was never great. WiMax, never happened though I got the privilege of paying for and buying phones that supported it. Kind of a pain in the ass as far as cell phones go given their primarily CDMA. They allowed someone to open a line and rack up $2800 in charges on Jenny's SSN earlier this year. I assume they bought a bunch of iPhones and sold them.

Few things. We have flagship phones. S8, S8+, Note 8. These have all radios in them for US CDMA and GSM. Currently $100 a month for 4 lines. Would like a 5th for my tablet again. Kid is the only one who goes over 5GB of data and her grades have me a little salty so upping her data cap really isn't something I care about. AT&T and Verizon have de facto the best carrier foot print and I am not here to argue that. Like always YMMV in your area.

So what is everyone else doing for their cell needs?
hnthomps NOV 23, 05:01 PM

quote
Originally posted by ls3mach:

I know this isn't the best demographic for a discussion of this nature, but I am tired of all the political, PC, and other poopy threads here.

Cricket has ended their 5 lines for $100 deal, and I was going to get a 5th line, but I didn't realize it was changing and missed it. I didn't realize it was promotional as I have had it off and on. They have been advertising it as their big draw for years. My bad. I like Cricket well enough. They are owned by and use AT&T. Data speeds capped at 8Mb, really this is a sufficient speed for a single user, but it just seems gay. I can no longer alter my plan or I will lose my discounts and can never recover them. They are also ending their Cricket Rewards program. With this I haven't paid a cell bill in a long while. With these 2 changes I am considering options.

MetroPCS is T-Mobile. They are offering a J7 Prime and a year of Amazon Prime. It has been at least 4 years since I've used T-Mobile and I wasn't a fan. My buddy has had it for 10+, but his parents still pay his cell bill so he doesn't care. The phone is something I am just going to sell anyway. They don't throttle their data speeds accept on video it seems. Still will be more expensive than my current $100/month, though each line only has 5GB of data and this would be unlimited. Can't easily swap SIM. Gotta call in each time.

Sprint has a 1 year free bring your own device promo. You have to supply a phone. You only pay taxes and fees. I had Sprint for 10+ years. I have seen it and it's ugliness in so many ways. Coverage was never great. WiMax, never happened though I got the privilege of paying for and buying phones that supported it. Kind of a pain in the ass as far as cell phones go given their primarily CDMA. They allowed someone to open a line and rack up $2800 in charges on Jenny's SSN earlier this year. I assume they bought a bunch of iPhones and sold them.

Few things. We have flagship phones. S8, S8+, Note 8. These have all radios in them for US CDMA and GSM. Currently $100 a month for 4 lines. Would like a 5th for my tablet again. Kid is the only one who goes over 5GB of data and her grades have me a little salty so upping her data cap really isn't something I care about. AT&T and Verizon have de facto the best carrier foot print and I am not here to argue that. Like always YMMV in your area.

So what is everyone else doing for their cell needs?



T Mobile is working fairly well for me with four lines and unlimited data and text. The price is around $110 IIRC. T Mobile service is a bit limited when you are off major roads and in rural areas but I have managed to lock on to other services and use them the few times that this has been an issue.

Nelson
IMSA GT NOV 23, 05:29 PM
If you look at their other offer, Metro offers 4 lines for $100. I believe that is their standard deal and has been for a while.
ls3mach NOV 23, 07:22 PM

quote
Originally posted by IMSA GT:

If you look at their other offer, Metro offers 4 lines for $100. I believe that is their standard deal and has been for a while.



Im aware. I'm looking to test drive it though with the J7 Prime deal. Don't care for having to call in to swap SIM on phones. No corporate store in my state and thus far authorized retailers have been complete dicks.
Monkeyman NOV 23, 09:17 PM
I'm on my 2nd go 'round with Sprint. When I had them a few years ago, I liked them but moved to an area with crappy coverage. (To be perfectly honest, NO carrier had good coverage where I was at.) Got hooked up with US Cellular who refused to fix a lemon phone from day 1 so I decided to swap carriers again. My folks were willing to go thirds with me on a phone bill (and didn't care what kind of phone they had...they'd still have flip phones if they could find them) so I looked into just about everything out there. I ended up with Sprint again and so far the service has been good. I travel 50 miles (each way) to my new job (which pays almost enough to cover gas) with most of the travel in the middle of nowhere (really...Google Map Winston-Salem, NC to Wilkesboro, NC...not much between the 2). I only have 1 spot of about 5 miles where my cell reception is spotty. The rest is good. I also get wifi calling which helps the "oldsters" at their mountain home (where cell reception is close to nil). Had Sprint NOT offered the 5 lines/$100 deal, I probably wouldn't have gone with them since some of my choice depended on a group deal with the folks. (I'm not in a position to pay for anything on my own right now. )

Being perfectly honest, part of the reason I went with Sprint is because I got a good deal on a Samsung Galaxy S8+. No issues so far with either the service or phone.
rogergarrison NOV 25, 11:35 AM
My prob is most carriers I see ONLY have deals for 4-5 phones. I need one. Verizon for example wants $75 + fees for one line for less benefits than I have with Virgin Mobile for $38. Id like to change to a major carrier, but not willing to pay double since I barely use it anyway. I prob dont use 20 mins a month talk time. I do like my true unlimited data though.
Monkeyman NOV 25, 04:56 PM

quote
Originally posted by rogergarrison:

My prob is most carriers I see ONLY have deals for 4-5 phones.



From a business standpoint, it's absolutely brilliant! You get a good deal on a "family" plan of 4 or 5 and everyone has to buy a new phone for each line. Superb IF you need more than 1 line (as my family does). As you know, it's not such a good deal if you only need 1.
Raydar NOV 25, 05:37 PM
Tammy and I each have a phone and a tablet. (She's a pod person. I'm Android. )
All of our stuff is on AT&T. Their coverage is sort of okay for me, but Verizon is much better for places where she goes.
Trouble is, unless you hold your mouth just right, Verizon is way more expensive.
To add to our dilemma, she is badly in need of a new tablet. She's skillfully worn out the old one.

Neither of my devices is compatible with Verizon. (Call me a Luddite. My old Galaxy S3 still does everything I need it to do. I only use my tablet - a Galaxy Tab 4 - maybe once a month. My phone is still much faster.)
Data usage? We never max it out. Not even close. She uses wi-fi at home, and we've both got desktops connected to Comcast internet. We've got a crapload of unused "carryover" data.

Of course, the usage may change as the technology does. I have absolutely no problem with tethering my desktop to my phone, if the technology ever advances enough to support that. In fact, I have done that when the Comcastards were having service issues. The speed difference was noticeable, but not too terrible.
So... No clue, at this point.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 11-25-2017).]

ls3mach NOV 25, 05:54 PM
Old now, but I dig my Note 12.2 Pro 4G works great. You can get a Verizon MVNO MUCH cheaper than Verizon proper.
Raydar NOV 25, 06:06 PM

quote
Originally posted by ls3mach:

Old now, but I dig my Note 12.2 Pro 4G works great. You can get a Verizon MVNO MUCH cheaper than Verizon proper.



MVNO?

Edit - Nevermind. I got it.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 11-25-2017).]