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Speaking scientifically?? Interesting. You don't question my good experience with an iPhone, but continue to post negative things about it. Let me guess.. you love Android. "i suggest never holding it with your left hand'?? why in the world would I not hold it with my left hand?
iPhones have worked flawlessly for me for many years now, so thanks for your concern, but I'm not intending to switch
I don't doubt your experience. It is, however, anecdotal. In terms of reception - actual -dBm measured - iPhones perform poorly. Regardless of how good your reception is with your iPhone, other phones will likely outperform it. If you like your phone, keep it. I am simply stating that if you have spotty coverage, which is what this thread is about, you will want to steer clear of iPhones because they perform poorly in the reception department.
I have carried two iPhones for years and have no problems either. You're just an Android fanboy and I'm not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand.
When we all had flip phones I bought Motorolas, but Motorola is not Motorola anymore, its cheap Chinese junk. Mother M sold the phone division off years ago.
In North Carolina, Verizon is king, unless you're in the northwest mountains and then Carolina West (a local company) does a pretty good job as well, however, they have an agreement with Verizon so you can still use their towers. If you're in the Triangle/Charlotte areas almost anyone will work, but T-Mobile and Sprint will always lag behind because of the frequencies they use, and as soon as you leave the urban areas you will experience problems. AT&T does too but has tended to put up more towers to make up for that, though that isn't always the case.
OP I used to have AT&T. Switched to Verizon a long time ago and never went back, save for a brief 10 day stint with AT&T when they got their iPhone. Neat phone but I was quickly reminded why I was with Verizon. After many years I finally started to get tired of all the fees, taxes, and flat out high cost of Verizon and searched for a different carrier.
What I found is that of the four major carriers in the US (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile) each resell their networks to various companies called "MVNOs". These piggy back off the main network. In most cases they only use the native networks of those companies (no roaming, although there is some exceptions) which for Verizon and AT&T isn't really that big of a deal. VZ does have some holes in some areas of the country but I travel 100% for my job across the country and have never hit any. It's important to note under the FCC 4G rules those holes have closed up, which is a good thing.
I switched to Net10 around 2011 or so. It was the first MVNO I tried after a ton of research. They are owned by America Movil which is run by Carlos Slim (Mexican billionaire). They own different brands, Net10, StraightTalk, Tracfone, and yes Total Wireless.
Total Wireless is NOT the best carrier for those looking for turnkey service from startup. You do have to do some legwork. I transferred my lines from Net10 (Verizon side) to Total Wireless and it took not even 5 minutes. I did have data issues on one phone that ended up stemming from how they added my phones to my account (it's important to have all 3 under the same main phone when renewing multiple lines with their special pricing). That was figured out with a quick post on Howard Forums (great site for this stuff). A month later with auto-renew my wife's phone stopped working but was quickly fixed via a chat with CS. That was last July and all I've done is put my credit card on auto-pay and it just bills and works.
There were some headaches to get going, I fully admit that. Being slightly experienced in how MVNOs work and also how the Tracfone carriers work gave me a leg up. Data speed is limited to around 6-7 mbps IIRC. That sounds slow but in practice I notice zero difference in using the phones.
I suggest you purchase a cheap phone and use it one month with a one month service charge. Just any cheap LTE phone they have will do, I think you can get an el cheapo smartphone for $20-$30 (currently showing a ZTE Citrine LTE for $30 that is 4G capable). Buy a month of service for $35 and use a new number. Carry it around with you. That is what I did when switching for the first time. If you happen to have a Verizon compatible phone you can activate that and not have to purchase a new one.
It's come way down now but when we first switched from Verizon to Net10 I went from $140/month to $88 for the same service. That is around $600/yr savings. This second time around we went from $88 from Net10 to $62 on Total Wireless for $312 savings a year. We actually did need new phones and Wal-Mart had a deal on new iPhone 5S for $150 for Total which essentially made them free with switching. After the one year mark we are money ahead each month.
For me it's not about being able to afford the monthly cost. We can. It's kinda a game for me to get our monthly costs lower and lower and cell phones were a perfect target for that cost cutting. Is it the EXACT same service as Verizon? No of course not. Is it SIMILAR? I would say almost the same outside of the CS issues, which you deal with once when signing up and then (hopefully) never again.
Even on a Verizon MVNO you do not get all the features of the network and you get speed limited. I have a friend with one of the TracFone owned MVNOs (its not TF itself but I can't remember the name) and she's using a Verizon iPhone 6S, but can't use simultaneous voice and data. I believe she does not have access to VoLTE.
You also cannot roam. In ENC there are places in extremely rural areas (I experience this in Hyde County) where Verizon does not have coverage but US Cellular does, and my Verizon phone will roam to them.
I have carried two iPhones for years and have no problems either. You're just an Android fanboy and I'm not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand.
When we all had flip phones I bought Motorolas, but Motorola is not Motorola anymore, its cheap Chinese junk. Mother M sold the phone division off years ago.
Let go of the ad hominem. This is a fact. They perform poorly. Read the measured -dBm. Every 3dBm increase is a 100% increase in signal.
Quote:
Main conclusion is that the variation in communication performance among the tested mobile phones is very large which will result in very large variation in perceived coverage. Earlier it has been demonstrated that a 7 dB difference in phone performance can result in a largely reduced coverage [Erst12]. It is recommended that a standard is set for the minimum accepted communication performance. Such a standard could be set by e.g. ETSI. Alternatively the test results for each phone should be public available to guide the consumers when buying mobile phones.
Your phone preference can drastically reduce your coverage footprint, particularly as a voice user.
I have had US Cellular for many, many years. I am very happy with their service, coverage and customer service. I do not have any plans to ever change.
I don't doubt your experience. It is, however, anecdotal. In terms of reception - actual -dBm measured - iPhones perform poorly. Regardless of how good your reception is with your iPhone, other phones will likely outperform it. If you like your phone, keep it. I am simply stating that if you have spotty coverage, which is what this thread is about, you will want to steer clear of iPhones because they perform poorly in the reception department.
Again, incorrect. My husband has had a wide range of high end Android phones and my coverage and reception has always been better throughout the years and completely different parts of the country. so thanks again for your opinion, but i'm not interested in debating iPhone.
I have carried two iPhones for years and have no problems either. You're just an Android fanboy and I'm not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand.
When we all had flip phones I bought Motorolas, but Motorola is not Motorola anymore, its cheap Chinese junk. Mother M sold the phone division off years ago.
In North Carolina, Verizon is king, unless you're in the northwest mountains and then Carolina West (a local company) does a pretty good job as well, however, they have an agreement with Verizon so you can still use their towers. If you're in the Triangle/Charlotte areas almost anyone will work, but T-Mobile and Sprint will always lag behind because of the frequencies they use, and as soon as you leave the urban areas you will experience problems. AT&T does too but has tended to put up more towers to make up for that, though that isn't always the case.
In Wilmington I would not use anyone but Verizon.
thank you for sharing your experience. My husband and I have phones that work on either network, so now i'm just trying to figure out how to make sure the phones piggy back off of Verizon and not AT&T (which is what it's tethered to now).
I have had US Cellular for many, many years. I am very happy with their service, coverage and customer service. I do not have any plans to ever change.
thanks! chatting with their rep now to figure out end cost.
OP I used to have AT&T. Switched to Verizon a long time ago and never went back, save for a brief 10 day stint with AT&T when they got their iPhone. Neat phone but I was quickly reminded why I was with Verizon. After many years I finally started to get tired of all the fees, taxes, and flat out high cost of Verizon and searched for a different carrier.
What I found is that of the four major carriers in the US (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile) each resell their networks to various companies called "MVNOs". These piggy back off the main network. In most cases they only use the native networks of those companies (no roaming, although there is some exceptions) which for Verizon and AT&T isn't really that big of a deal. VZ does have some holes in some areas of the country but I travel 100% for my job across the country and have never hit any. It's important to note under the FCC 4G rules those holes have closed up, which is a good thing.
I switched to Net10 around 2011 or so. It was the first MVNO I tried after a ton of research. They are owned by America Movil which is run by Carlos Slim (Mexican billionaire). They own different brands, Net10, StraightTalk, Tracfone, and yes Total Wireless.
Total Wireless is NOT the best carrier for those looking for turnkey service from startup. You do have to do some legwork. I transferred my lines from Net10 (Verizon side) to Total Wireless and it took not even 5 minutes. I did have data issues on one phone that ended up stemming from how they added my phones to my account (it's important to have all 3 under the same main phone when renewing multiple lines with their special pricing). That was figured out with a quick post on Howard Forums (great site for this stuff). A month later with auto-renew my wife's phone stopped working but was quickly fixed via a chat with CS. That was last July and all I've done is put my credit card on auto-pay and it just bills and works.
There were some headaches to get going, I fully admit that. Being slightly experienced in how MVNOs work and also how the Tracfone carriers work gave me a leg up. Data speed is limited to around 6-7 mbps IIRC. That sounds slow but in practice I notice zero difference in using the phones.
I suggest you purchase a cheap phone and use it one month with a one month service charge. Just any cheap LTE phone they have will do, I think you can get an el cheapo smartphone for $20-$30 (currently showing a ZTE Citrine LTE for $30 that is 4G capable). Buy a month of service for $35 and use a new number. Carry it around with you. That is what I did when switching for the first time. If you happen to have a Verizon compatible phone you can activate that and not have to purchase a new one.
It's come way down now but when we first switched from Verizon to Net10 I went from $140/month to $88 for the same service. That is around $600/yr savings. This second time around we went from $88 from Net10 to $62 on Total Wireless for $312 savings a year. We actually did need new phones and Wal-Mart had a deal on new iPhone 5S for $150 for Total which essentially made them free with switching. After the one year mark we are money ahead each month.
For me it's not about being able to afford the monthly cost. We can. It's kinda a game for me to get our monthly costs lower and lower and cell phones were a perfect target for that cost cutting. Is it the EXACT same service as Verizon? No of course not. Is it SIMILAR? I would say almost the same outside of the CS issues, which you deal with once when signing up and then (hopefully) never again.
VERY informative-THANK YOU!!!! And good to talk to someone who has used the service for a fairly respectable amount of time. Both my husband's and mine phones will work on either network, but our 11 yo's cheaper android is ATT only. we are off to look for a phone for him and will be back to report.
I'm a little confused as to how TW works. the lady at Walmart told us that it would piggy back either off to ATT OR Verizon... this seems to be not true, because my husband says they are CDMA and will only work on Verizon's network. (not too surprised about a Walmart employee being under-informed, if that is the case). Can you comment at all?
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