I had Verizon for a year with my iPhone 6 and I have to say, I really wasn't that impressed with their coverage or speeds considering how many people consider them the best that the US has to offer in those regards. My speeds with T-Mobile on my 6S Plus have been much faster. I had AT&T for a few years too, and I was also happier with them than Verizon.
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Carrier Verizon overrated?
- Thread starter Anthony T
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Verizon is only necessary if you spend a lot of time in very rural areas where the other three might be questionable. They do have the broadest coverage footprint but I find them to be a waste if you mostly travel along highways or live in medium to large towns and cities. A lot of people are finding other carriers to be "good enough" these days, hence why Verizon doesn't add very many postpaid phone customers like they used to.
It's like every other carrier... it depends on your area. They have the bigger footprint, by far, but it really depends on where you travel, where the towers are in that set of locations, and such. It's always dependent on your personal locations.
They offer the best, though, by far when traveling if you drive a lot. I have TMO now, switching back to VZN, and my wife has VZN and we drove up to to the Grand Canyon last week with the kids (about 4hrs) and she had signal the entire trip with only a few dips out into 1x data territory (mostly 3g or LTE) and I had no data at all or no service in a lot of that trip.
YET when at home we both have solid service.
It's just dependent on your travel habits, and area.
They offer the best, though, by far when traveling if you drive a lot. I have TMO now, switching back to VZN, and my wife has VZN and we drove up to to the Grand Canyon last week with the kids (about 4hrs) and she had signal the entire trip with only a few dips out into 1x data territory (mostly 3g or LTE) and I had no data at all or no service in a lot of that trip.
YET when at home we both have solid service.
It's just dependent on your travel habits, and area.
I am in WV and getting GSM service here is really hard. There are parts of WV where it is completely opposite and Verizon is terrible but it seems that, for the most part, Verizon is the safest bet in general. Another HUGE plus for me is that I know when I call Verizon it is always an American that answers. I have never had to deal with a language barrier or anything complicating the process (which I really appreciate) and they have always worked with me if I needed anything. The LTE speed is also pretty fast in general.
It really depends on your location, though. Verizon is the best for me but you may have better options. I don't think any carrier is overrated. Too many factors go into determining the worth of a carrier.
It really depends on your location, though. Verizon is the best for me but you may have better options. I don't think any carrier is overrated. Too many factors go into determining the worth of a carrier.
Totally depends on location as others have said. For me, I'm at wits end with AT&T. Sure they have the denser network it seems in most cities. But I get all sorts of shaky LTE and voice behavior that only happens to me with AT&T. I dual wield AT&T (personal) and Verizon (work) iPhones and congestion affects AT&T far more than Verizon here in Chicago and the burbs. I use Ring Central to manage my office phone system, which uses my phones' LTE connection for calls when I have calls routed to my phones when out of the office. Even with 5 bars of LTE the calls drop out on the AT&T phone (even with the new 6s), but remain solid on Verizon. Same thing with general use. When I see "dots" on my Verizon phone I know I can use it. With AT&T, dots mean nothing I've come to realize. (Yes, I do understand dBm is true measure of signal). I don't know if is a packet loss type of issue w/ AT&T or if the signal just fluctuates like crazy or a combination of this + other factors.
Where is Band 30 here in Chicago, AT&T? Dragging feet as usual, I thought it was live in this city.
I hate the 1X voice fallback on Verizon, that's why I have AT&T in the first place, but AT&T is becoming a chore to deal with.
T-Mo & Sprint's coverages are laughable in my area, which leaves VZW and ATT. I was with ATT but left a while back b/c of prices and poor customer service/policy. I've been with VZW for some time now and am quite happy.
Carriers are just like airlines: if we all vowed to never use them again every time we are wronged, we'd quickly have no options.
YMMV.
Carriers are just like airlines: if we all vowed to never use them again every time we are wronged, we'd quickly have no options.
YMMV.
I have Verizon and have had T-Mobile. I still drive along long stretches of the interstate where T-Mobile has either absolutely no service or extremely spotty service, whereas Verizon has a strong signal.
If my car were to break down along that stretch of highway and I didn't have service because I was on T-Mobile, do you think I would feel like Verizon was overrated?
If my car were to break down along that stretch of highway and I didn't have service because I was on T-Mobile, do you think I would feel like Verizon was overrated?
I had Verizon for years and was happy with their service. Moved to ATT when the first iPhone came out and it was ok. Nothing great, but i dealt with it. A couple years ago I moved and had no ATT service at my house. Was able to get a credit to add a microcell and it worked fine. Just switched back to VZW and its much better coverage is places where I use the phone most. As others have said, all depends on location.
I feel like they are overrated if you live in a city and fly to other cities and never find yourself in very rural areas or the midwest/west in general. In that situation most every carrier is going to perform well and you are spending extra money on Verizon (in most cases) so that they can provide towers to rural america. I know they get the highest speeds in a lot of cities too according to root metrics, etc. but what does that really matter. It's a mobile phone, anything over 5 mbps is capable of doing most anything on it, and with capped plans you can't use the hot-spot to download torrents or anything.
Now, if you happen to live in the heartland or out west (Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, etc.) I feel like Verizon would be a smart choice. I live in Illinois and do a lot of rural traveling. I carry Verizon, AT&T, and T-mobile sims for testing purposes and find that Verizon outperforms the others in rural areas period. In town the other two have more towers and offer a more consistent indoor experience. It's a trade-off, but I'll take a signal over no signal any day whether it's 2G,3G, or 4G. This is all based on general knowledge that I've read/experienced over the years. I know there are specific cases where in the middle of downtown Chicago Verizon may be the only carrier that can penetrate a building and offer service; however, in general they will all be fine in major to mid-sized cities.
Now, if you happen to live in the heartland or out west (Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, etc.) I feel like Verizon would be a smart choice. I live in Illinois and do a lot of rural traveling. I carry Verizon, AT&T, and T-mobile sims for testing purposes and find that Verizon outperforms the others in rural areas period. In town the other two have more towers and offer a more consistent indoor experience. It's a trade-off, but I'll take a signal over no signal any day whether it's 2G,3G, or 4G. This is all based on general knowledge that I've read/experienced over the years. I know there are specific cases where in the middle of downtown Chicago Verizon may be the only carrier that can penetrate a building and offer service; however, in general they will all be fine in major to mid-sized cities.
Not all true.
I again live in a city called Dunedin, Florida which is next door to Tampa, Clearwater and I cannot get more than Edge with Sprint and T-Mobil so I got Verizon. Just because one lives in a Larger/Med city does not mean you are wasting money using Verizon. It all depends on the COVERAGE you get with what carrier.
I've had them all. Currently with Verizon because of the coverage and my monthly bill. Att is a close second in my area but lots of times I fall back to 4G instead of LTE. I currently use voice over LTE and it works well. Of course not as strong of signal 1x but have no issues with calls. For the time being I'll stick with Verizon. But always open to change should something be better.
I used to have Verizon and now have AT&T. Here in the Northeast Verizon used to have much better coverage than AT&T, but as of now I find them to actually be pretty equal -- there are places where there is Verizon signal and no AT&T, but also places with AT&T and no Verizon. But for the most part they both cover most of the area. AT&T will drop down to 4G in some rural areas, but I don't find that much different than LTE anyway. When Verizon drops down to 3G or 1X, it's much more noticeable.
Recently switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and I'm very satisfied with the service in my area-unlike before, I get reception at work and at the gym and the fallback on some road stretches has been at least Edge instead of 1x. So again, it depends on location and your habits.
I switched from Verizon to Sprint. Sprint has been good enough. I'm able to do everything I did with Verizon. I haven't noticed any real world decreases in speed. My speed tests aren't even comparable to Verizon but I haven't seen that affect my day to day use. I also live in the Midwest and believe it or not, we have urban areas just like on the coasts.
I am currently sitting in a waiting room surrounded by people complaining about not having any signal as I type this
. This is why I remain with Verizon I would love to switch to another carrier and spend less but I find myself in situations such as today too frequently.
. This is why I remain with Verizon I would love to switch to another carrier and spend less but I find myself in situations such as today too frequently.I read the other day that Verizon was using a supercookie, to give what and where you browse to sites wanting to sell you stuff. So i will just keep my sprint carrier.
You have to really watch them carriers that pay to share towers,i found that Virgin Mobil who shared Sprints system.
I found my incoming call were going to voice mail,called Virgin Mobil and after two hours on phone and two people who could not find any way to help me. They told me they would be sending me a letter. Then they just hung up on me. A LETTER hey i need a working phone.
Went to a Sprint store and hooked up with them. Man at Sprint told me Virgin Mobil rents space on Sprints system,but Virgin Mobil does not pay for a strong signal. I was losing their signal and my incoming calls were going to voice mail.
I drive an 18 wheeler and I find that by far, their coverage is superior to the other carriers. But with 4G LTE, I now need 15 gigs to get me through the month. Their prices are in the stratosphere however.
Thank you. I just may look into cricket. My big question is weather they use Verizon towers in rural areas or just in the city. Usually the store associates cannot answer a simple question such as that.
2 ways to opt out of Verizon's supercookie tracking
1. Visit Vzw.com/myprivacy and log into your account. Then scroll down to "Relevant Mobile Advertising." Click the button below "No, I don't want to participate in Relevant Mobile Advertising" for each line on your account. Be sure you click the red "Save Changes" button below that.
2. You can also supposedly opt out over the phone. Call 866-211-0874 to opt out.
This past summer, I was at a YMCA camp not far from the BWCAW at the Minnesota/Manitoba border, an area that is noted for its remoteness (at least here in the Twin Cities). Late in the week, I hurt my back after a canoeing excursion, and my and my wife's phones were the only ones on the group of people we stayed with that was able to pull a signal strong enough to find and call a clinic in Ely, the nearest town 20 minutes southeast of us. The others in our cabin, with off-brand SIM chips and US Cellular phones, were not able to do the same.
This is why I've used Verizon since 2001.
This is why I've used Verizon since 2001.