Best cell phone provider?

[MarkieBob]

I have Verizon now. Am thinking of switching to T Mobile. Cheaper. New internet WiFi unit $30 if a t mobile customer $50 otherwise. I’ve always heard Verizon is best for RVing, But is that still true in your experience?

[wa8yxm]

ktmrfs wrote:

T mobile is a GSM network as is ATT. so if T mobile allows roaming normally it will use an ATT tower if a t mobile tower is not nearby.

With the advent of 4/5 G I'm not sure if that is still the case.. However I'm also not sure it is not still the case.

I do know at one time (long ago) I had a VoIP program that could use any of the cell phone protocols. GSM was the only one that worked with my computer and connection.. Omnipoint was the only 100% GSM provider of cell service (AT&T was not using GSM then) So I went with Omnipoint which became Voicestreams and is now T-mobile.. *I'm still with 'em*

For me. the areas I travel. they work though not that well at the nearby campground.. but they do still work

[Thermoguy]

I carry 2 phones, my work phone is Verizon and personal is ATT. I have found that ATT has better service and more bars when service is limited. There are exceptions, but Verizon might work for a call, but not data in the same place that ATT works fine. I looked at T-Mobile, but I have friends with T-Mobile and when it works its great, but often does not work once you get off the beaten path. I think T-Mobile does have a faster 5G but where I live, there is no 5G and T-Mobile has about 1 bar. Verizon is OK, but ATT has the best service, even with only 2 bars, I can get data and phone on ATT. Verizon often won't load data unless I'm on my home WiFi.

[1492]

I also have a Motorola smartphone with AT&T as a backup, but have not had to use it so far with Visible.

[FlatBroke]

ktmrfs wrote:

IDman wrote:
Wife and I have different carriers. She has ATT and I have Verizon, so one of us will have a signal at 99% of time.

If one travels a great deal, this is a good strategy. I know of many people who have done this. when GM had ATT phone coverage as part of onstar that is what we did. Truck had ATT our phones are Verizon. We still have ATT wifi in the truck along with Verizon wifi for the phones and it does fill in lots of areas.

Exactly like we have!

[ktmrfs]

IDman wrote:
Wife and I have different carriers. She has ATT and I have Verizon, so one of us will have a signal at 99% of time.

If one travels a great deal, this is a good strategy. I know of many people who have done this. when GM had ATT phone coverage as part of onstar that is what we did. Truck had ATT our phones are Verizon. We still have ATT wifi in the truck along with Verizon wifi for the phones and it does fill in lots of areas.

[wa8yxm]

Re Verizon/ATT/T-mobile (the big 3)

At one time Verizon did indeed have a better coverage map and in places you will find one or the other or the 3rd is the ONLY provider

You might see who T-Mobile has agreements with (used to be AT&T last time I was in the land of no Verizon) But I think it might be Verizon now. or perhaps both These are mutual "Your customers can use our network if no your tower near" agreements. (And ours yours).

But today all the coverage maps are getting to about the same amount of coverage.. Just not allways in the same spot.

T-Mobile is real good on most freeways... But may fail as you move away from them.. But I know places where Verizon is not as well (But T-mobile worked)

[garmp]

IDMan, I agree. We are the same. My only comment is that our ATT hotspot allows us to buy time/data when we want it, with no connection fee. Verizon charged us a connection fee plus data/time costs. While on the road Verizon was in and out if at all. ATT pretty consistent. But always looking for a better deal.

[Tom_M1]

Tyler0215 wrote:
I was thinking of changing to Visible but was told coverage was not available in my area, Eastern Iowa. My wife uses Verizon, I use Consumer Cellular, phone only. Very happy with both

Visible is owned by Verizon and uses Verizon towers so you should have no problem.

[IDman]

Wife and I have different carriers. She has ATT and I have Verizon, so one of us will have a signal at 99% of time.

[Tyler0215]

I was thinking of changing to Visible but was told coverage was not available in my area, Eastern Iowa. My wife uses Verizon, I use Consumer Cellular, phone only. Very happy with both

[Dutch_12078]

bob_nestor wrote:

jcpainter wrote:

Tom_M wrote:
About the cheapest service out there is Visible. It is owned by Verizon thus it uses Verizon towers. If you join their Party Pay plan the total cost is $25/month for unlimited everything including hotspot use. Their cheapest phone is $50. You may be able to use your present phone.

https://www.visible.com/

But is Visible's service, like all 3rd party resellers, deprioritized?

The other problem with most MVNOs is that they don't do roaming off the host network. If you sign up for AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile you do pay a bit more, but they'll roam onto competitor services.

My cell phone supports multiple SIMs, so what I did was sign up with AT&T which mainly works most places I go. Then because I have Comcast internet at home I was eligible to get Comcast phone service for about $15/mo which runs on Verizon and put that in my phone as a second SIM service. Now I \have both AT&T and Verizon service on the same phone and it uses whichever service provides the best connection.

Verizon actually has very few roaming agreements still in use since they've been building out towers and coverage for their 5G expansion. The Visible service is deprioritized on heavily congested towers, but I haven't seen any more effect from that than the slow downs we've always seen on heavy use towers. Even streaming has been pretty much unaffected.

I have my Visible SIM installed in a Novatel 7730L hotspot that eliminates the single connection restriction. I also have a grandfathered $23.49/mo AT&T unlimited 4G/LTE data plan installed on another hotspot, and I've yet to land anywhere that one or the other hasen't worked, and usually both with one better than the other.

[bob_nestor]

jcpainter wrote:

Tom_M wrote:
About the cheapest service out there is Visible. It is owned by Verizon thus it uses Verizon towers. If you join their Party Pay plan the total cost is $25/month for unlimited everything including hotspot use. Their cheapest phone is $50. You may be able to use your present phone.

https://www.visible.com/

But is Visible's service, like all 3rd party resellers, deprioritized?

The other problem with most MVNOs is that they don't do roaming off the host network. If you sign up for AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile you do pay a bit more, but they'll roam onto competitor services.

My cell phone supports multiple SIMs, so what I did was sign up with AT&T which mainly works most places I go. Then because I have Comcast internet at home I was eligible to get Comcast phone service for about $15/mo which runs on Verizon and put that in my phone as a second SIM service. Now I \have both AT&T and Verizon service on the same phone and it uses whichever service provides the best connection.

[ktmrfs]

From traveling around the country I've found that there is no one provider that provides the "best" or "most coverage" everywhere. While verizon generally gives us the widest coverage range in our common travels, there are places where verizon is zip, ATT great and vice versa. My advice is to talk to others in your travel areas and see what they say about coverage.

T mobile is a GSM network as is ATT. so if T mobile allows roaming normally it will use an ATT tower if a t mobile tower is not nearby.

[1492]

jcpainter wrote:


But is Visible's service, like all 3rd party resellers, deprioritized?

Have personally not experienced any access or slower data service with Visible yet. It's been very consistent. Service includes both 5G/4G unlimited mobile data.

Here's a mobile data speed test from my iPhone Plus 4G phone just now:





Note that the hotspot is limited to one device connected at a time, with speed generally set at 5Mbps down/up. Though I've had hotspot download speeds as high as 30Mbps on the National Mall in DC.