I have had a truly aggravating afternoon with Comcast/Xfinity customer "service" both in a chat session and on the phone. To say that I am really tired of "English is my 2nd language" telephone support is putting it mildly. ANYWAY, I was considering the Xfinity cell phone plans but now I'm too annoyed to give them any more business. Coincidentally I was walking through the den when a Consumer Cellular advertisement came on TV, offering unlimited talk, text, and data for $55/month for TWO lines with an AARP discount. I went online to their website and see that our iPhones are compatible with the CC service so now I'm seriously considering the move from Verizon. This would be a savings of about half what we currently pay, and our current service is not unlimited. In fact, it's a measly 3 GB or something, which we never come close to using... so "unlimited" would be a non-issue for our household. If anyone here is familiar with Consumer Cellular or use it yourself, can you please comment? I'd like to know if you are satisfied with the service. I see that they use the T-Mobile and AT&T networks. From their coverage maps they appear to have pretty good availability.
We have T-Mobile, because they have discounts for veterans, and Robin said it was also a lot cheaper than verizon, which is what she had before. We definitely have at least as good of coverage with the T-Mobile as we did with verizon. They also have benefits, like free Netflix, and other stuff i do not remember. I do not know what it costs for ours, but Robin said we have unlimited phone and text.
We had T-Mobile about 10 years ago. When we started RVing, we found that Verizon had much more coverage, particularly in the western states, so we switched. Recently our Verizon bill jumped $32 a month for no apparent reason so I'm kickin' them down the road.
I really had no idea there were so many "bargain" phone companies that are using the Big 3's infrastructure. Consumer Cellular is the tip of the iceberg; a bunch of youtube videos have me considering Visible (owned by Verizon and uses their network) and Mint Mobile (uses T-Mobile).
I know they exist, but while we were on the train through Glacier National Park, my wife and I were the only ones on the train who had cell service. That sold my wife on AT&T and she won't consider anything else. If she dies first, I will probably change to something cheaper, but I doubt that will happen.
Yes, it does matter when considering location. Of course here in the Houston metro area, all the reception is good. I believe Consumer Cellular uses AT&T's network in some areas.
I am tempted to look into Mint, Ryan Reynolds started it to fight expensive phone companies, I think. He is so cute But presently I have tracphone and a line phone. I have had tracphone for years. From the time I had to walk up to the top of a hill here to make a long distance phone call till it was recently bought by Verizon. I buy the one year plan. minutes are rolled over. About $110 a year. I don't use data on my phone and I don't spend large blocks of time on phone calls often. Texts are free. But I think verizon has plans to change fees after this year.
Mint was recently purchased by T-Mobile; not sure how that's going to affect anything since they already used T-Mobile's network. They have a cool deal where you can order a "trial kit" and use Mint for a week for free. I ordered a SIM card for the trial last night. I want to see how good the signal is here at my house before I change carriers and this is a great way to test it. You just swap the trial SIM card for your regular one in the phone. Of course the trial gives a temporary phone number but I'll still be able to see how good the signal is, which is all I want to know. I had a Tracfone years ago and it worked fine as long as I didn't need customer service. What a nightmare.
It seems that the ratings for "best" cellular plans seldom (if ever) include Tracfone or Consumer Cellular. This guy does a lot of cell plan reviews and seems to know what he's talking about. After I try the Mint trial, if it provides a good signal I'll stay with them. If not I'll look into Visible, since it's on Verizon's network and we currently have a Verizon plan. Some of these plans provide "perks" like a streaming channel or whatever, but their pricing reflects that people are actually paying for that so-called perk. So there are a lot of things to consider. I just want a cell phone to use as a phone and to get text messages from kids, credit card alerts, etc. I occasionally use my phone as a hot spot so that is one feature I'm not willing to give up. The plans boasting 5G are of no interest to me since we have iPhone 11's, which can't use 5G.
Here's an interesting website to look for real-time cell phone carrier coverage data. Anyone who has looked at a carrier coverage map knows that they aren't worth the bother because according to them, EVERYONE has coverage! In actuality we all know that an area has better coverage from some carriers but not others. https://coveragemap.com/ CoverageMap.com is a community-contributed map comparing coverage, data speeds, latency, and signal strength of all major cellular networks in the U.S. It allows you to "zoom in" on an address or general area and compare carriers. Here's a short video by the guy who developed the website... (11 minutes)
i just got a coupon for an introductory price on cell service. I love the price but hate it when the offer expires. It annoys me so I don't bother any more.
Fedex is bringing my SIM card for Mint Mobile today. I'll get to test the signal and see how I like it for a week, for free. I'm really happy that they provide this; I didn't want to be porting my phone number from one carrier to the next, simply to test signal strength. I recently noticed that though Verizon shows excellent coverage in my neighborhood on their coverage map, in reality I only get 2 bars signal strength on my iPhone. It works fine for everything I need, but it is a bit disingenuous to say that there's "excellent" coverage.
We had Verizon when we first moved to Maine but there were too many places, particularly in Northern Maine, where we didn't get a signal. US Cellular gets better connections in this part of Maine. It has been a while since we've tried Verizon though, so it's always possible that they've upgraded their service in Maine. As I remember it, Verizon gave us reasonably good service in Millinocket, but it deteriorated as we drove north. The coverage map referred to above shows Verizon with good service, so either the map is wrong or Verizon's service in this area has improved.
When my mother was alive, Verizon had better coverage where she lived than AT&T. I bought her a pay as you go phone through Verizon. The problem with it was at the end of each call it told you how much you paid for that call. My mother would never use it. LOL