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We will be visiting in the near future before we move and need to find some new local cell providers and get local numbers.
I am currently using T Mobile Friends and Family purchased at Wal Mart with their cheap flat rate unlimited usage. I think it is around 50.00/month.
This T Mobile coverage is very mediocre where I currently live up north, and I am wondering if it will be adequate around Greenville? One option is to add my spouse with a new T Mobile phone to my current plan once we get down there.
Or, do we need to go with a whole new service such as Verizon? Verizon seems to be the best in the North Eastern US where we are from; most people use it, but it is very expensive.
Virgin Mobile isn't bad for $37 a month. Decent coverage in upcountry SC. Nice smartphones but not the best. VM uses the sprint network which is good but probably not as good as Verizon. Bought mine at Best Buy and activated it online. Easy peasy, bills come right to the debit card. 300 minutes, unlimited text and data. I think its slightly better than the Wal-Mart deal but not much.
Sprint/Nextel.. Back when it was JUST Nextel(pre merger), no Hendersonville/Asheville coverage at all.. No real coverage in rural areas if you got more than a mile or two from the interstate.
Sprint itself.. Poor coverage in some areas.. Mainly those that were outside of Greenville and off the interstate.. Gray Court/Clinton areas for example. Very spotty.
AT&T.. Good coverage most everywhere. However, I couldn't get a signal inside my office (Beside Mackey Mortuary off Century Dr).. That's why I dropped them.
Verizon.. I'm with now.. On a pay-as-you-go plan.. No contract.. Cost me $99 for a ruggedized phone.. $50/mo for unlimited talk/text and.. 'unlimited' data.. Is NOT a smartphone. Coverage seems to be the best.. Slightly better than AT&T, but that could just be where I go and use it.
T-Mobile's map looks fine for Greenville, but god help you if you get outside the city. Personally, looking at it.. Looks like the Sprint network with no 'off-network' sharing.. So T-Mobile and/or Virgin would likely have the same coverage.
From looking at those maps.. AT&T and Verizon seem to be the best for total coverage, if you're going to be outside the city much. Sprint would be OK as well, because you wind up with the 'signal sharing' off Sprint's network. You can see from the T-Mobile and Virgin maps.. You get off the interstate in some areas.. No signal... Of course, as I mentioned before, your mileage may vary, because I can't get AT&T signal in what is almost downtown Greenville. Of course.. I couldn't get Sprint signal well in Gray Court, and I can count 3 towers from my front yard (Of course, one of them is the WSSL transmitter, so.. not much cell coverage flowing from it).. I'm sure that all carriers have these 'dead spots' and of course, there are some buildings that cell signals just can't penetrate.
The only real place that i've noticed NO signal with my Verizon phone was, oddly, the first floor of Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC.. Again, likely just a dead spot due to where I was in the building and AT&T's signal probably works great there..
Thanks for all the info. I have never swapped out phones and services much over the years, so this is all new to me.
Is it possible to walk into a Verizon store and have my Samsung phone with T Mobile service switched over to Verizon with a new local number, or do you have to buy a whole new phone, etc?
Thanks for all the info. I have never swapped out phones and services much over the years, so this is all new to me.
Is it possible to walk into a Verizon store and have my Samsung phone with T Mobile service switched over to Verizon with a new local number, or do you have to buy a whole new phone, etc?
Why would you keep an old phone when you can buy iphone4 for free +$30 from Verizon? Unless you don't want a smartphone?
Thanks for all the info. I have never swapped out phones and services much over the years, so this is all new to me.
Is it possible to walk into a Verizon store and have my Samsung phone with T Mobile service switched over to Verizon with a new local number, or do you have to buy a whole new phone, etc?
They will give you a free phone as long as you sign their agreement which will cost you $80/month for 24 months which is $1920. So, its free. Well, its nearly $2000 but the phone is free. I mean the phone is free and you only pay $2000 to get it. I mean. Nevermind. Free is $1920. And its a free Iphone for $1920. So enjoy.
Go into a store to confirm this.. But.. As I understand, T-Mobile's phones are locked to their network via the SIM card, and the phone is locked to their SIM cards.. BUT.. After 2 months with them, you can get the phone unlocked.
That being said.. Their 3G/4G is 'proprietary', which in this case, means totally effed up.
Their 3G/4G operates in the 1700/2100Mhz range, whereas everyone else's 3G is in the 850/1900Mhz areas, and 4G is LTE.
So.. My understanding is that while you could move the phone over to another GSM provider (AT&T and basically everyone BUT Sprint and Verizon) you would only get phone/text/2G(possibly 3G) data.
I am no expert on this, however.. So, your best bet would probably be to walk into an AT&T store, show them your phone and say "What can you do for me?" That would probably get you a better answer than walking into a T-Mobile store and asking "Where can I go with this?"
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