So I finally got around to ordering a new smartphone after three years of hell with my Motorola Droid Bionic and a non-existent data connection from Verizon. I also decided to finally just get off of my family's phone plan at Verizon since it really wasn't saving me any money at all (it comes out to around $80 a piece for each of us when all is said and done). I don't care what Verizon brags about with their so-called "coverage" because their data access sucks with every phone I've ever had with them. I know part of these problems were due to the hardware itself, but if they are selling defective devices that don't work properly on their networks, they need to straighten that crap out already and compensate their customers who were paying for data plans they could barely use. T-Mobile's plans are much more straight forward, and actually do save you money. Their monthly rates are lower than Verizon right off the bat. Then they don't charge you anything for the phone, but rather simply work it into your monthly bill, interest free for 24 months. No contract at all. If you leave them, all you are liable for is the cost of the phone, not the cost of the phone plus two years of service like the other carriers require. Their data is unlimited, so there are no overage charges like with Verizon ($15 for every half gig you go over). You simply get 4G LTE up to your allotted amount with your plan, then it goes into a slower speed connection - works for me. Verizon tried to copy their new phone plan, by coming out with their own "Edge" plan where you also pay nothing up front, but the cost gets added to your monthly statement - however they never lowered their rates. So they are already subsidizing the phone through higher rates, then charging you *even more* on top of that to subsidize the phone a second time. It's straight up double dipping. Also, from what I have read on multiple sites, T-Mobile's average download speeds are consistently faster than Verizon's.
My nephew also just switched from Veriizon to T-Mobile. He's very happy with the move. He also switched from an Iphone to a Samsung. T-Mobile will reimburse him for the early termination fee of $200. Ouch! I have been telling him to make the switch for awhile. Even with the early termination fee, he still comes out ahead. He did get an expensive phone so his monthly bill is still high. He got the Samsung 5S...I think. He got the one that's water resistant. He loves the phone. It is a nice phone, but I'm too cheap to pay $600 for a phone.
I've heard of people buying unlocked phones online at various sites, and only paying a fraction of what they cost directly from the carriers. Some of them were finding $650 new phones, for like $400 unlocked. It just takes some looking around to find a reputable supplier (and make sure they are not counterfeit phones!). There are also some newer models that are just cheap from the get go. I think the Moto X is only like $200 if you buy it directly (not subsidized on a plan) and it has gotten really good reviews.
Sorry to hear about that. My wife was grandfathered into a truly unlimited plan with Verizon and she loves it. She has 4G, too, so that's become our home's primary internet connection. She's been able to stream from Netflix while I surfed on our laptop Not a single hiccup between the two of us. Her coverage is wonderful. I've only ever seen her lose service in one town- a rural community in Wisconsin.
Just a brief follow up since I've been using them for a few weeks now... I've been very pleased with their download speeds, and have not really had any issues with their coverage at all. One thing I was disappointed to discover though, is their "unlimited" data is a joke. They advertise that you get X amount of 4G, then it switches over to unlimited data at slower speeds. I was under the impression that by "slower" speeds, they meant something along the lines of 3G-ish speed. It's actually as slow as dial-up, making it essentially useless. Seriously, I've changed the settings on my phone to use this slower speed network, just to see what it was like, and you cannot do much of anything. It takes several *minutes* to partially load up a facebook page, and forget about streaming anything. The only thing it can really do is occasionally notify you of new emails, but even then it takes forever to open and load up a single email. The slow "unlimited" data is basically a teaser to lure you into upgrading your plan if you run out of data in a given month. Unlike other networks which will just start assigning overage fees, T-Mobile basically slows you to a halt until you give in and upgrade. The only good thing about this is that you can just purchase a single month upgrade, and not have to change your whole plan over to a more expensive package. So this month currently, our cable went out for a few days so I had to use my phone as my internet connection, causing me to go over my cap. I could purchase an extra 2 gigs of data for an additional $10, but that is just for this month, not going forward. Some really good news that they just announced though, is that they are no longer going to count streaming music from certain services against your monthly data limits. So I can listen to Spotify all day long without worrying about it affecting my data useage. Hopefully they will do something like this with Netflix and/or Hulu as well. That would be a big game changer, as I could see many people just streaming stuff from their phones to their TV sets and ditching their cable bills completely.
I have come full circle. We had AT@T and I could not stand the contract and got out of it expensively so. I didn't want my smartphone either. So I went back to a clamshell flip. We got on that TMobile family plan. Well, Tmobile is not really that good here. In fact, relatives say that it will work on one end of the house, and not on the other, it's THAT weird. There are whole parts of where we go that every other carrier will work except TMobile. Well father in law went to Consumer Cellular. That is actually AT@T. Seriously. They use at@t's towers. The reception is GREAT. So, I'm back to my smartphone, temporarily using one of his cards from one of his phones as it's compatible with my at@t smartphone. Until my own card comes in, I'm just using my smart phone with his card and having it forwarded to my phone. So in a very real way I'm back to at@t, and in a very real way, NOT, as there is no contract. Oh yeah, about that, I made a real stink with at@t about all that with my phone, and I see that I was not the only one to have done so apparently. They right after that, and now have a contract free thing. Progress I hope. It's still expensive, NOT like Consumer Cellular, so I'm glad. Actually I'm glad my father in law has had so many phones and keeps switching. It's a learning process for all of us. But no more contracts for any of us. EVER, no matter what we do.
