Which is right for me? Verizon or T-mobile.

[stickybuns]

I've been considering switching over to T-mobile when I upgrade my phone (going from a 4S to a 5S), but I can't decide if it'll be worth the MUCH worse coverage for my area. Due to NIMBY laws, Verizon is the only carrier with any towers near by.

My husband and I have an old Verizon Family Plan with:

700 shared minutes of voice, 4GB data for husband's Droid Razr Maxx, 2GB data for my iPhone 4S, 1,000 text messages on my phone, and pay-per-text on my husband's phone: $139.98 per month.
Last month we used under 200 minutes of voice, husband made 50 text messages, and I made 200, I used approximately 1.5GB data and husband used approximately 2.5GB.

Husband has no desire whatsoever to upgrade his phone. Upgrading my phone will cost $149 for the phone plus $30 for a BS upgrade fee (I guess that's been around for a while, but as you can see, I haven't upgraded in quite some time).

Given my family's usage, does T-mobile have a plan that offers a better deal? Is that plan still better considering the iPhone 5S would cost me $24.99 per month for 24 months (plus my husband would need to upgrade his phone as well)?

If T-mobile is the better financial deal, will that ultimately make up for what I know will be very spotty service? (I know that's not something anyone can answer with 100% confidence, but if you live in a supposed dead zone for t-mobile and are still happy, I'd love to know).

 

[Velin]

GSM and T-Mobile generally have better voice/sound quality, which is very important to me. In fact T-Mobile has HD Voice for the 5s and 5c. Sounds great. Verizon and CDMA sounds much more robotic.

Also T-Mobile is much more price competitive, they have some great unlimited voice / SMS and data plans. Personally, I love T-Mobile.

Having said all that, crappy service is crappy service. If coverage is poor, you won't get to take advantage of these things, in which case, why pay for junky EDGE-like service?

Maybe test it out on a no-contract plan. If it sucks, cancel and go back to Verizon. If it works well, keep T-Mobile.

 

[stickybuns]

Testing on a no contract plan sounds like a better idea than harassing my neighbors about how satisfied they are with their current cell phone carrier!