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Carrier Cell Phone Carrier

iJJ19

iJJ19

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 26, 2011
14
6
Texas
To those that own an iPhone I am curious to know who is your cell phone carrier.

I currently have Sprint but I am looking into switching. I had a terrible customer service experience last week.

Yes, I know I can look on websites but I'm looking for y'all's opinion.

With Sprint... I now have Unlimited talk, text, data & such. I only pay about $75.00 for me & me only.

Thank you in advance!
 
T-Mobile. Unlimited data, text, talk is $80 for one person. Speeds are usually faster than Sprint in most metros, you can talk and surf at the same time, Wi-Fi calling is available, and their iPhones have higher resale value for whenever you upgrade.
 
I have AT&T with 6 lines sharing 20GB and I pay $165 a month.

Coverage us a pretty important factor when looking at wireless plans. I could save money with T-Mobile, but I'd be stuck with EDGE data where I live and work.
 
Depends.

Was that your only negative customer support experience?
Do you have good service where you need it?
Are you within a 14 day 'get out of jail free' period on your contract?

I saw your only other post saying you leased this phone. Obviously you'll need to purchase a new phone somewhere. You could buy an unlocked phone and get on Straight Talk. They advertise unlimited everything for $45 per month, but note data is throttled after 3GB per month.
 
Last edited:
T5BRICK said:
I have AT&T with 6 lines sharing 20GB and I pay $165 a month.

Coverage us a pretty important factor when looking at wireless plans. I could save money with T-Mobile, but I'd be stuck with EDGE data where I live and work.
Click to expand...

Is EDGE data not good? I have no clue about any other carrier other than Sprint. Lol.

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Ken Kaniff said:
Depends.

Was that your only negative customer support experience?
Do you have good service where you need it?
Are you within a 14 day 'get out of jail free' period on your contract?

I saw your only other post saying you leased this phone. Obviously you'll need to purchase a new phone somewhere. You could buy an unlocked phone and get on Straight Talk. They advertise unlimited everything for $45 per month, but note data is throttled after 3GB per month.
Click to expand...

Ken,
Yes that is my only negative CS experience.
Ok service where I live. I don't talk on the phone much & when I do, I feel that it's terrible service. I am with in the 14 day period.

In regards to my leasing the 6 is because that was the only way I could get the iPhone 6 without having to pay anything. Prior to this, I owned my iPhone 5s with a 2 year contract. It's fine if I have to pay for another phone. I use A LOT of data. More than 3GB a month.
 
T5BRICK said:
Like I said, coverage is an important factor. You don't want to just get the cheapest carrier.
Click to expand...

That's true. I was leaning towards T-Mobile for the simple fact that they would buy out my contract. Buuuuuttt I'll do more research.
 
iJJ19 said:
Is EDGE data not good? I have no clue about any other carrier other than Sprint. Lol.

----------



Ken,
Yes that is my only negative CS experience.
Ok service where I live. I don't talk on the phone much & when I do, I feel that it's terrible service. I am with in the 14 day period.

In regards to my leasing the 6 is because that was the only way I could get the iPhone 6 without having to pay anything. Prior to this, I owned my iPhone 5s with a 2 year contract. It's fine if I have to pay for another phone. I use A LOT of data. More than 3GB a month.
Click to expand...

In my opinion, given the rest of the information you have provided- I would say stick with Sprint. You're not going to get unlimited un-throttled* data anywhere else for the price. On top of that, you have unlimited everything else. I'm on the same plan you are. Been with Sprint for 8 years and had unlimited data for 7 of them. I love not having to worry about going over a cap. I've had bad service/no service in some areas but I realize this can happen with any carrier so it's never been a deal breaker. I'm a data whore and value unlimited over max speeds myself.

*Note that Sprint may throttle if you are a high usage customer AND connected to a tower under high demand then if the demand goes down, you should be returned to normal speeds. I've never been throttled though.
 
AT&T 4 lines sharing 30GB. I am paying $200 per month. I have been with them for the past 4 years. Best service! Comparing with T-mobile before.
 
Ken Kaniff said:
In my opinion, given the rest of the information you have provided- I would say stick with Sprint. You're not going to get unlimited un-throttled* data anywhere else for the price. On top of that, you have unlimited everything else. I'm on the same plan you are. Been with Sprint for 8 years and had unlimited data for 7 of them. I love not having to worry about going over a cap. I've had bad service/no service in some areas but I realize this can happen with any carrier so it's never been a deal breaker. I'm a data whore and value unlimited over max speeds myself.

*Note that Sprint may throttle if you are a high usage customer AND connected to a tower under high demand then if the demand goes down, you should be returned to normal speeds. I've never been throttled though.
Click to expand...

Thanks. You make a very good point! I love having unlimited data, I just hate that I don't own this phone(yes, I know I'm weird) But I'll just deal with this for 2 years.
I did realize that I have never ever turned off my cellular data when using WIFI. Probably why I have used over 3gb of data.
 
Tried both Sprint and T-Mobile for my area and both suffered low data and some bad sounds as well. Sticking with Verizon. At&t is good as well, but boy, Sprint/T-Mobile suck
 
CEmajr said:
T-Mobile. Unlimited data, text, talk is $80 for one person. Speeds are usually faster than Sprint in most metros, you can talk and surf at the same time, Wi-Fi calling is available, and their iPhones have higher resale value for whenever you upgrade.
Click to expand...

This. Switched from Sprint to T-Mobile and would definitely do it again.
 
iJJ19 said:
Thanks. You make a very good point! I love having unlimited data, I just hate that I don't own this phone(yes, I know I'm weird) But I'll just deal with this for 2 years.
I did realize that I have never ever turned off my cellular data when using WIFI. Probably why I have used over 3gb of data.
Click to expand...

You can purchase the phone at the end of the two years, which basically would be the exact same thing as previous deals where you paid the ~$200 up front and the rest was subsidized into the plan for two years. That's how I look at it anyways. The only reason I was even able to upgrade was because of this iPhone for life deal, plus I sold my iPhone 5 back to Sprint for $233 so that was nice.

As far as your data- If you're connected to wifi, you aren't using cellular data. Your over 3GB of usage is when you aren't actually on wifi, so you still are using that amount on cell.. PLUS whatever on wifi. Sprint Zone app shows usage in case you didn't know... comes in handy for paying your bill plus seeing what they say you use for data..even though it's unlimited and doesn't matter anyways. :)

ABC5S said:
Tried both Sprint and T-Mobile for my area and both suffered low data and some bad sounds as well. Sticking with Verizon. At&t is good as well, but boy, Sprint/T-Mobile suck
Click to expand...

For your area, sure. Blanket statements like this are of no use. If Sprint/T-Mobile didn't work anywhere...they wouldn't be in business. It kind of pisses me off when people jump on the 'Sprint sucks PERIOD' bandwagon, honestly. It's just not true. They've made bad decisions just like other companies, but they're still a completely valid and great choice for millions of people. :)
 
We have Sprint, but will be leaving for T-Mobile in the new year. Going to get their Unlimited data plan, which believe it or not is about half the price of my $211/mth Everything Data 1500 family plan. Apparently, they pretty much dominate in Phoenix, unlike Sprint which has spent two years rolling out LTE here and has only achieved 59% completion.

I'm on WiFi most of the time because LTE at home and work is bad. We've been on Sprint since 1999.

If that tells you anything.
 
If you want true unlimited data, you are really limited in your options. T-Mobile and Sprint are the only ones that offer unthrottled, unlimited data as far as national carriers go. You can look at pre-paid, Cricket, AT&T GoPhone, and a few others have unlimited data but after X number of GBs you get throttled to EGDE speeds, although you are still on 4G/LTE so your latency is much better.

Do you need unlimited data? If not, Cricket has 10GB for $55/mo with auto-pay, T-Mobile has a $30 5GB plan, and a couple others have similar plans, although you need to pay full price for your phone.
 
If you want coverage and LTE almost wherever you go along with top notch customer service, then go to Verizon.

If you don't mind seeing "E", "1x", and "No Service" on your phone regularly, then choose one of the other 3 guys.
 
Apple Trees said:
If you want coverage and LTE almost wherever you go along with top notch customer service, then go to Verizon.

If you don't mind seeing "E", "1x", and "No Service" on your phone regularly, then choose one of the other 3 guys.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Both Verizon and AT&T are very strong nationwide carriers, in some markets AT&T is better and others Verizon is better. You can expect to get 4G/LTE in most areas with either of those two.

Now T-Mobile and Sprint, I agree with you.
 
Apple Trees said:
If you want coverage and LTE almost wherever you go along with top notch customer service, then go to Verizon.

If you don't mind seeing "E", "1x", and "No Service" on your phone regularly, then choose one of the other 3 guys.
Click to expand...

LOL. While Verizon does have good coverage, yours is a very myopic view.

If I followed your advice my cell service at home would be awful, as would my service at work.

Instead I actually looked at which carriers work best in the places I go rather than which is best in West Podunk, Idaho.
 
Apple Trees said:
If you want coverage and LTE almost wherever you go along with top notch customer service, then go to Verizon.

If you don't mind seeing "E", "1x", and "No Service" on your phone regularly, then choose one of the other 3 guys.
Click to expand...
I just switched from Verizon to AT&T after testing side by side for a week and found that where I am, AT&T offers faster and more reliable data, for less money than Verizon. The best part is that I'm not under contract so if I have problems, I can move elsewhere.
 
If you own the phone and it works on the gsm network I would consider Cricket Wireless. I believe it's $55 for unlimited talk and text with 10GB of data. Uses AT&T's network.
 
iJJ19 said:
Thanks. You make a very good point! I love having unlimited data, I just hate that I don't own this phone(yes, I know I'm weird) But I'll just deal with this for 2 years.
I did realize that I have never ever turned off my cellular data when using WIFI. Probably why I have used over 3gb of data.
Click to expand...

FWIW: It makes a lot of sense to check the T-Mobile coverage maps in your area and see if the coverage meets or exceeds what Sprint if giving you. If so, you can use T-Mobile's referral program to get unlimited, unthrottled data on your phone plus 5GB of tethering for the $50 a month price for a year. If you don't know someone who can refer you, I and many others on here will be happy to help you out with that if you send a PM. And this is on top of them buying out your ETF and trading in your phone.

So if T-Mobile coverage turns out to be good, they are definitely going to beat Sprint on price, at least for a year. And at the end of that year, they might offer a better plan, or you might switch back if Sprint has improved.
 
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