Need input on phone companies

[bersaguy]

Well, all good things must come to an end as usual. I have been with Cricket Phone Service for almost 16 years with phone and 10 years with phone and broad band Service. Cricket had 4.5 million customers nation wide and AT&T absorbed them like they were flea on an elephants butt. So sometime with in the next year my cricket flip phone will be junk and I will be forced to buy a 500.00 I-phone of some kind and have no clue about what will happen to my computer broad band. I can tell them right now, I ain't buying no $500.00+ phone from any one and I will going back to dial up before I will pay for an outrageous computer on line server. So what kind of phone companies are ya'll using and are you happy with them cause I will be switching shortly if I can find one affordable.  Any replies will e greatly appreciated................................ :up: :up: :up:

[hammerdrop99]

Well, all good things must come to an end as usual. I have been with Cricket Phone Service for almost 16 years with phone and 10 years with phone and broad band Service. Cricket had 4.5 million customers nation wide and AT&T absorbed them like they were flea on an elephants butt. So sometime with in the next year my cricket flip phone will be junk and I will be forced to buy a 500.00 I-phone of some kind and have no clue about what will happen to my computer broad band. I can tell them right now, I ain't buying no $500.00+ phone from any one and I will going back to dial up before I will pay for an outrageous computer on line server. So what kind of phone companies are ya'll using and are you happy with them cause I will be switching shortly if I can find one affordable.  Any replies will e greatly appreciated................................ :up: :up: :up:

 

Check out Republic Wireless which works through the Sprint network. I have the Moto G phone $179.00 and $25 dollars per month plan with no contract. It's been working well for me and my wife for six months. I switched from AT&T and an iPhone 3. The Moto G is just as good in my opinion and the data plan is pretty darn good. The only downside is the Moto G from Republic Wireless will not work on another carrier if you decide to change, but hey, it's only $179 bucks.

[Omega]

I am afraid I can't help you since I have my cable and phone through AT&T.  But I honestly have had no serious problem with them or their service that I haven't had with other services.  I was "adopted" by AT&T through the purchase of Bellsouth which bought another company I started with (can't remember the name).  I find that most companies stay at around the same price, it then becomes a matter of preferences and word of mouth references as to which is better. 

[NextExit]

Like your phone? You may be able to keep it.  Check out Net 10 or Straight Talk.  They have a "bring your own phone" program.  Yes, it's a prepaid system.  I pay $50/month unlimited (They say they throttle your data speeds back after 2G but I've yet to experience that.)

[Metalhead]

I have Verizon and for the most part I've pretty pleased with it. Coverage is excellent. I have a iPhone, but really even the freebie phones with a contract nowadays would probably be just fine.

[MikeW]

I have Verizon and for the most part I've pretty pleased with it. Coverage is excellent. I have a iPhone, but really even the freebie phones with a contract nowadays would probably be just fine.

 

 

+1 on Verizon... SPRINT SUCCCKKED for me coverage wise. I travel all over the State and into the Boonies and I've never had any issues with Verizon, Sprint was usless.

[maroonandwhite]

I also have Verizon and am very pleased. You do pay more for Verizon but it really is a case of getting what you pay for. You can also get one of those Casio GZone flip phones that are darn near indestructible if you don't want a smart phone. Their are at least 1 or 2 models out there that advertise military specs and what not.

[TripleDigitRide]

+1 on Verizon... SPRINT SUCCCKKED for me coverage wise. I travel all over the State and into the Boonies and I've never had any issues with Verizon, Sprint was usless.

That's weird. I travel all over Tennessee and Kentucky on a daily basis, and I rarely find myself without at least decent coverage/signal strength. Plus, there's not another company who can compete with their truly unlimited everything plans. No data throttling, either.

[bersaguy]

I have had the Verizon episode before I went to Cricket and I won't ever make that mistake again. I was with a small phone company that i can't even remember the name of now but I loved the company and I could bank any unused minutes up to the next month and they kept adding u because I didn't ever use my 300 minutes.

 

 

Well Verizon bought out this little company but never bothered to notify the customers of the little company to let them know all of their banked minutes were not longer good. Well had some family emergencies that month and used my phone a lot. When Verizon converted every ones account every ones service went to 100 minutes which meant mine went from 300 plus my banked minutes.

 

First time I learned that Verizon had purchased the small company was when I got a bill from Verizon for $1096.35 for 1 month because they charged me a ridiculous price for all the minutes I used over 100. I told them to turn off my service and where they could put that damn bill. They sued me which I knew they would. Lets put it this way. Evidently the judge in court that day must have had the small phone company service also. Cause he told the Verizon rep and their attorney that when they could provide 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt proof that they contacted every person that was a customer of the small company of their intentions come back to court and until then my case was dismissed and I owed them zero. Screw me once your fault, Screw twice my fault. It is never going to be my fault cause no one gets a second shot a screwing me..........................jmho

[Ted S.]

Had AT&T for almost five years. Zero problems. Been prepaid for about three of those.

[maroonandwhite]

Most all of the phone companies give you 30 days to cancel. My advice would be to find a cheap plan you like, get the phone you like and drive around to all of your most frequented areas to see if you have service. As you can see so far ATT or sprint or whoever may be good for one guy and horrible for someone on the other side of the mountain.

[macville]

Well, all good things must come to an end as usual. I have been with Cricket Phone Service for almost 16 years with phone and 10 years with phone and broad band Service. Cricket had 4.5 million customers nation wide and AT&T absorbed them like they were flea on an elephants butt. So sometime with in the next year my cricket flip phone will be junk and I will be forced to buy a 500.00 I-phone of some kind and have no clue about what will happen to my computer broad band. I can tell them right now, I ain't buying no $500.00+ phone from any one and I will going back to dial up before I will pay for an outrageous computer on line server. So what kind of phone companies are ya'll using and are you happy with them cause I will be switching shortly if I can find one affordable.  Any replies will e greatly appreciated................................ :up: :up: :up:

 

You really don't have to buy an iphone or other phone that is super pricey. Right now I am actually getting ready to switch to cricket because Verizon is currently charging me $13 more a month that I will be paying with Cricket for smartphone plans...and I currently have dumb phones on Verizon!

 

My research in the past week show that Cricket is by far the cheapest with the best coverage. It's owned by ATT so you get all native ATT coverage for phone and data  (including 4G LTE for data.) If you look at their regular 4G service, it basically covers all their voice service area, so you might actually have better/faster service with ATT than verizon for data unless you are in cities. 

 

Verizon and ATT have the best networks by far. Verizon is advertising XLTE coming out, but you'll pay out the butt for Verizon. ATT's LTE is at least 10+ MBps, or over 1 MB a second.

 

T-Mobile would be next, and where you have service I've heard it's pretty good.

 

Sprint is by far the worst network. I have a hotspot that works off their network and half the places I go I have no service, and the 3G is butt slow.

 

As far as providers, this is how it breaks down for the prepaid type services

 

Cricket - ATT 4G

Net 10 - ATT 3G or Verizon 3G

Go Phone - ATT 4G

Republic - Sprint 4G ($40 plan, otherwise 3G.)

Boost - T-Mobile

Virgin Mobile - I think t-mobile

Straight talk - Either ATT, Verizon, or Sprint depending on your plan. Not LTE that I am aware of.

 

As for the price of the phone, you really don't need to buy an iphone unless you want to be super hip or need a crap load of features (which if you did, you need to just pay the price.) Right now cricket has for new lines the Moto G for $150. It's a very nice smart phone for the money. If you can't get an upgrade price from Cricket (if you've been with them that long you should be able to...) You can buy the same phone from Amazon for $199 (http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Moto-Universal-Unlocked-Black/dp/B00K0NRZSW/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1414616517&sr=1-1&keywords=moto+g+lte)

 

For your broadband, are you stuck with using wireless (cell/satellite) due to where you live? No cable or dsl available?

[macville]

BTW, if you just want want a super cheap flip phone, you can get a phone like this (http://www.amazon.com/AT-Z222-Go-Phone/dp/B00EKSS7SU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414616729&sr=8-1&keywords=go+phone+flip) from ATT's Go Phone and activate it on cricket for their $25 unlimited talk and text plan. And when cricket says $25, that's exactly what they mean. Taxes and fees are included.

[vontar]

If you don't use allot of minutes or data. you might want to check one I have been testing.

 

http://freedompop.com/

 

I get the following free every month.

 

• Talk - 200 Minutes
   
  171 Mins left

  Upgrade Talk/Text Limit | Usage Details

• Text - 500 Messages
   
  500 Msgs left

  Upgrade Talk/Text Limit | Usage Details

• Data Usage - 500 MBs
   
  485 MBs left

I can pay to add more.  I have only had it for 2 months and I only paid for the phone and .01 to activate it so far.

 

 

 

BTW, if you do want it, I ask you sign up under me so I can kick back.  PM me if you need my info.

Edited October 29, 2014 by vontar

[bersaguy]

Well right now I am paying $53.94 with cricket and have unlimited talk, unlimited nation wide long distance, Call waiting, 3 way calling, voice mail, text, and 3G of Broadband for computer and a few other options I don't even have turned on that I could have at no extra charge and all on my little flip phone I dearly love. Don't want anything the do with any phone that is flat with a screen that you moves things around with your finger period. In all honesty Technology to a point SUCKS!!!!!

 

 

I want you to know that I went to cell phone store with Grandson to buy a new cell phone he wanted. Yea one of them damn smart phones. He told the guy what he wanted and the guy goes back and says yep, greatest thing going right now. I want you to know that before he got done having the phone programmed the guy asked him if he was sure he didn't want the updated version of that phone because it came out a week ago and the new version came out last night at midnight. It's a crock when your buying was it suppose to be the newest and find out your brand new phone is already obsolete............ Technology just needs to slow down so the good guys can catch up with the bad guys (hackers)..............jmho

[TNMTBik3r]

I've been with Verizon for a decade and always been happy. Well, until a few months ago when I started working in Nashville and have garbage data. 

 

IF I can even get 4G signal, I pull max 5Mbps and usually around 1.2Mbps. If you are in Nashville after business hours that will jump up to 25+Mbps. Verizon's network is too saturated in the area - it is not a phone issue, it is network, Google it and there are hundreds of complaints.

Coworkers and friends with AT&T do not have these problems, in fact coworkers have no issues pulling in 4G and 20Mbps while in the "bunker" that we work in.

 

Down in Columbia I routinely pull 30+Mbps on Verizon, but since I spend half my day in Nashville I need better service so I am switching next month. Verizon does have faster speeds, but I need the coverage and signal where I work and can sacrifice a bit of speed at home. I had AT&T a few months ago (two phones, one personal and one for work) so I know that the speeds are about 5Mbps apart.

[Ski]

I have had the Verizon episode before I went to Cricket and I won't ever make that mistake again. I was with a small phone company that i can't even remember the name of now but I loved the company and I could bank any unused minutes up to the next month and they kept adding u because I didn't ever use my 300 minutes.

Well Verizon bought out this little company but never bothered to notify the customers of the little company to let them know all of their banked minutes were not longer good. Well had some family emergencies that month and used my phone a lot. When Verizon converted every ones account every ones service went to 100 minutes which meant mine went from 300 plus my banked minutes.

Might that little company have been Alltel?

I have used Net10 prepaid for about seven (7) years, and I've been happy with it. I buy a 300 minute/60 day card approximately every other month for about $33 after taxes and fees. I don't use it a lot and have accumulated over 8000 minutes. I've been using the same old fashioned Nokia phone for the entire time. It is registered with AT&T (uses AT&T voicemail system and appears like an AT&T phone to AT&T customers). There is one spot I visit yearly in the southeast corner of Kansas where I have a hard time getting a signal indoors. Otherwise coverage has been good. I believe there's a chance your phone may register as a T-Mobile phone, too.

The downside is that you have to buy and use one of their proprietary phones unless you want to pay $50 monthly for their "bring your own phone" unlimited plan.

If I had to do it over, I might have gone with a T-Mobile prepaid plan. You can use their prepaid SIM in any T-Mobile or unlocked GSM phone. My parents use T-Mobile prepaid phones and haven't complained. If you use as few minutes as me, you can buy a 1 year/1000 minute card for $100. I don't think T-Mobile coverage is quite as good, though.

My research has focused entirely on voice and text. If you think you might want to use data, you may come to a totally different conclusion regarding bang for the buck.

[Sam1]

Well right now I am paying $53.94 with cricket and have unlimited talk, unlimited nation wide long distance, Call waiting, 3 way calling, voice mail, text, and 3G of Broadband for computer and a few other options I don't even have turned on that I could have at no extra charge and all on my little flip phone I dearly love. Don't want anything the do with any phone that is flat with a screen that you moves things around with your finger period. In all honesty Technology to a point SUCKS!!!!!

 

 

I want you to know that I went to cell phone store with Grandson to buy a new cell phone he wanted. Yea one of them damn smart phones. He told the guy what he wanted and the guy goes back and says yep, greatest thing going right now. I want you to know that before he got done having the phone programmed the guy asked him if he was sure he didn't want the updated version of that phone because it came out a week ago and the new version came out last night at midnight. It's a crock when your buying was it suppose to be the newest and find out your brand new phone is already obsolete............ Technology just needs to slow down so the good guys can catch up with the bad guys (hackers)..............jmho

 

 

Dang, unlimited talk, text and 3g with republic wireless is only $25/month and they have $99 decent smart phones - no contract & a 30 day refund policy.

 

Actually just checked and freedom pop has a new unlimited plan for $19/month, that's pretty darn good too.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Sam1

[macville]

Well right now I am paying $53.94 with cricket and have unlimited talk, unlimited nation wide long distance, Call waiting, 3 way calling, voice mail, text, and 3G of Broadband for computer and a few other options I don't even have turned on that I could have at no extra charge and all on my little flip phone I dearly love. Don't want anything the do with any phone that is flat with a screen that you moves things around with your finger period. In all honesty Technology to a point SUCKS!!!!!

 

 

I want you to know that I went to cell phone store with Grandson to buy a new cell phone he wanted. Yea one of them damn smart phones. He told the guy what he wanted and the guy goes back and says yep, greatest thing going right now. I want you to know that before he got done having the phone programmed the guy asked him if he was sure he didn't want the updated version of that phone because it came out a week ago and the new version came out last night at midnight. It's a crock when your buying was it suppose to be the newest and find out your brand new phone is already obsolete............ Technology just needs to slow down so the good guys can catch up with the bad guys (hackers)..............jmho

 

If you did go to a smartphone with cricket now you could have all of that (tether to the smartphone for broadband) for $45 flat if you did autopay after buying a phone. Otherwise, you could just find the same phone you've got now but that works on GSM (you are still probably on the old CDMA network that they are going to close soon) on ebay and keep going. Honestly, you are probably going to have to switch to a smart phone sooner or later. It might be wiser to switch sooner. Life is run by technology now, and you can no longer avoid not keeping up if you want to not be a hermit.

[bersaguy]

If you don't use allot of minutes or data. you might want to check one I have been testing.

 

http://freedompop.com/

 

I get the following free every month.

 

• Talk - 200 Minutes
   
  171 Mins left

  Upgrade Talk/Text Limit | Usage Details

• Text - 500 Messages
   
  500 Msgs left

  Upgrade Talk/Text Limit | Usage Details

• Data Usage - 500 MBs
   
  485 MBs left

I can pay to add more.  I have only had it for 2 months and I only paid for the phone and .01 to activate it so far.

 

 

 

BTW, if you do want it, I ask you sign up under me so I can kick back.  PM me if you need my info.

It said it does not have service in my area

[enfield]

I've been using Tracfone for years.  My wife recently dropped Verizon and went with Tracfone also.  No complaints about the coverage, and we travel a lot.

[bersaguy]

GOOD NEWS FOLKS  I think!!!!   My phone and internet broad band problems are solved and Cricket solved them. It does help when you go t one of the Company stores and just talk with someone. You can learn so very much more. Went Yesterday and spoke with a nice young mane named Brian. He explained to me that the purchase of cricket by AT&T was not a recent item as I had been told by folks. AT&T bought Cricket a year or more ago and have been very slowly and gently making subtle changes as to not shock folks. They wanted to offer a Prepaid plan like other companies with out contracts and decided it would be better to just buy a Prepaid company that to try and build one from scratch.

 

They already owned a company called AIO so they have began implementing and combining the two companies into one and it will be remaining Cricket and new company Is Cricket & AIO. They will be using AIO phone network so Cricket phones will not work so will have to buy a new phone which I did yesterday. I didn't want a flat screen smart phone at all and they are offering 1 flip phone and it was Get ready!!!  $29.95 and they took my old Cricket phone in on trade and gave me 25.00 trade in so new phone on new plan cost 4.95 plus tax. They also not only allowed me to stay on my original pricing which was 30.00 a month with all the options most phones have I wanted but after looking at my years of being a loyal Cricket customer y new month service is going to be $25.00 a month. 5 bucks cheaper.  So phone issue is solved

 

Than came the broad band issue. Brian said that the Cricket Broad band will be active till March 2015 and then will go off line and the new AIO Broadband will come on line. He told me to come in the store in February and bring my old Broad band unit with me. I can sign up on the new AIO 3 GBT program and pick up my new AIO BB unit which is $79.00 but they are giving a 45.00 trade in on the old cricket BB units so the unit will be $34.00 plus tax. He said the only down side to all of this is my month service will be going from $30.00 a month to $40.00 per month. With the $5.00 phone discount thats only a $5.00 increase but listen to this. I have been paying $30.00 a month for 2048 mbs per month and I will be going up to 4GB speed which have been on 3GB and my Broadband will be going from 2048 mbs to 2 GB. I have been running out of high speed about two weeks into each month and going to crawl speed for two weeks.  I won't be going to crawl speed ever again for 5 bucks more. I don't know about what half of this stuff means but it sounds good to me so I am thrilled...................... :cheers: :biglol: :biglol: :biglol: :drool: :drool: :drool:    Now will someone that is high tech enough explain this to me in laymen terms what the BB program is all about and is it a good deal of not????????

Edited November 2, 2014 by bersaguy

[Guest carter]

I actually JUST dumped Sprint cause of their failing network... for what it is and the $80+ a month i was paying for it, was not worth it at all... I would be out with friends and they all pretty much had AT&T and my Sprint was creeping along while they where zooming... I barely got 3G with Sprint (my phone said 3G but felt more like 2G) and forget about 4G LTE lol that never happened...

 

AHH what is this i see at Wal-Mart...Straight Talk you say?! I ask the clerk for a lil literature and head back to the house... I see 4 coverage maps... seems like they run off all 4 major carriers... with Sprint being the same ol crapy Sprint... mmmmm that AT&T network looks like amazing coverage! So what do I do instead of paying 500+ for a iPhone 5s from Walmart? I get on craigslist and buy a used good condition AT&T iphone 5 for less than half that :panic: then get online at the Straight Talk website and order a nano AT&T compatible SIM card...

 

The SIM card comes in the mail... I get on the Straight Talk website again, sign up with the BYOP (bring your own phone) and port my Sprint number over... BOOM!   AT&T service with 3GB of 4G LTE data unlimited talk and txt for around 50 bucks a month :bow:

thank youuuuuuuuuuu! :bowrofl: :no1: :crazy: :hyper:

Edited November 2, 2014 by carter

[bersaguy]

I am glad phone companies for the most part are finally realizing that without customers they don't have a phone company and like me most phones hate contracts. It blew me away when the guy told me my phone bill would be coming down 5 bucks for better service and still no contract............. :up: :up:

Edited November 2, 2014 by bersaguy

[Sam1]

I am glad phone companies for the most part are finally realizing that without customers they don't have a phone company and like me most phones hate contracts. It blew me away when the guy told me my phone bill would be coming down 5 bucks for better service and still no contract............. :up: :up:

 

I don't actually mind a contract, the problem I have is that these cell phone bills have exploded is cost over the past few years.  Hopefully people will start participating in a mass exodus to the smaller companies piggy-backing on the same network and the big 3 will have to start dropping their price to get people on board.

 

Sprint has pretty much topped the chart on ways to pin people down now.  Have a great plan you can get 4 lines for $100; but you have to sign a contract and lease a phone from them for an extra $15 or $20/month on each line.  If you buy the phone outright or want to use your own phone, then they charge you a monthly connection fee of $15 per device JUST because you didn't lease a phone.  Want to tether the data that you already paid for?  that's an extra cost too.  So now you're looking at $160 for that service + the $20/month you contribute so the welfare crowd can have their free cell phones.

 

Can't wait until next month when our $150/month contract is up.  Will be switching to that freedompop $20 plan asap.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Sam1