Charlotte Cell Phone Service

[TheEmissary]

Originally Posted by USCRugbyNo1

What about the service Walmart uses? I don't even know the name of it. I'm on Verizon now and it's too expensive.

It's called Walmart Family Mobile and it's basically a T-Mobile MVNO. They have unlimited voice and text for $24.88 a month with a $5 add-on for 500 MB of data. I'm retired and home most of the time, so I don't need much data. An unlimited voice, text and data costs $39.88 a month, but they throttle back the data to 2G after 2.5 GB. The taxes add $3 to $5 to your bill. I had Virgin Mobile, but could not use it here in Monroe, because I was in a dead spot with zero coverage ...in my own house! In Charlotte, you probably can use any service provider and have very good-to-excellent coverage with a low incidence of dropped calls. As you get farther out into the sticks, you have to check those coverage maps of the major carriers with a fine-toothed comb. Check your coverage areas from home to work carefully, then shop by price.

I'm extremely pleased with the Walmart Family Mobile. Surprisingly, it's about $5 a month cheaper than T-Mobile's own similarly-optioned plans. The service is excellent. The days of the big carriers charging you an arm and a leg for those 2-year contracts with a pricey iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy 6 are coming to an end!

I got an Amazon Fire phone and a year of Amazon Prime for $199 for the Walmart plan. I also bought a cheapie Nokia 635 Walmart Family plan Windows Phone as a backup and trade the sim card back and forth between them, so I don't get bored. If you don't need the latest and the greatest phone and shop carefully for a coverage plan, you can save a boatload of money!

[mooksmom]

I'm a long time T-mobile user and mostly because I haven NO issues with their coverage, my phone NEVER drops calls, and they are as affordable as the other major players. I love my smart phone and cannot leave/live without it.

[EricNC]

I have Verizon. It's probably worth it if you travel outside of Charlotte (between Asheville and Hickory) and want at least e-mail, voice and text. I have heard from a co-worker that Tmobile is good in major cities but may hit some deadspots while traveling north on 77 or 95. Heard it works well all over Mecklenburg County.

Tracphone is good if you just need some basic features with their minutes and text packages. They lease towers all over Charlotte and the nation so they actually have good coverage.