[Rich87]

You might have seen in the Ann Arbor thread my wife and I are moving to Michigan at the end of this month from the UK. Having only visited the US before I have no idea about which cell phone provider to go with. We will need to be contactable as soon as possible after we arrive as I will be viewing apartments and will need to liaise with realtors, so the plan is to try to find a provider the evening we arrive (if possible, not sure if it takes longer than UK)

So, any suggestions on best company for coverage and best deals in terms of value for money?

We both have working phones so a Sim only deal will be fine. I currently have an 20GB data plan in UK which I usually use up each month with music streaming, etc so ideally would like the same or more, but if it's too expensive I can go down a little.

I doubt plans vary city to city so thought I'd post in the MI section rather than A2.

Thanks in advance.

[craig11152]

There are 4 major players in the USA .......
AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM system which I think might be what the UK uses
Verizon and Sprint use the CDMA system.

In Ann Arbor I would say Verizon has the best coverage. But its also the most expensive, although not by much over AT&T which probably has the second best coverage. T-Mobile is the cheapest but it has the spottiest coverage AND I have heard several people complain that T-Mobile coverage inside many UM buildings is particularly bad.

All the other options will use the infrastructure from one or more of the Big 4. Often they may be treated as "second class citizens" if the mother network is over crowded at any given time.

If you want to use your own phones you might be confined to AT&T or T-Mobile if they are running on GSM which Google suggests is the UK standard. If by some chance your phones are compatible with both GSM and CDMA then you can consider any of the Big 4 or the second tier companies. Otherwise you might need a new phone.
If you want to stream a bunch of music NOT using WiFi then a second tier company might be a problem at times.

[craig11152]

To add to my thoughts above, I used to have T-Mobile because of the price but coverage in my house was spoty. Sometimes I had to go outside to make calls and send texts. (only had a flip phone at the time). I switched to Verizon because all my kids and their friends had it and never had problems. My only complaint is the prices.
I bought my own Moto G4 phone a year ago for $200. It supports both GSM and CDMA with a sim card so in theory I can take it to any other carrier.
If you need to have maximum connection you should go with either Verizon that runs on CDMA or AT&T that runs on GSM. I you can put up with occasional buffering, slow Internet then you can look at second tier providers as well. Just be sure with them that they will take you phone system.

[Rich87]

Originally Posted by craig11152

There are 4 major players in the USA .......
AT&T and T-Mobile use the GSM system which I think might be what the UK uses
Verizon and Sprint use the CDMA system.

In Ann Arbor I would say Verizon has the best coverage. But its also the most expensive, although not by much over AT&T which probably has the second best coverage. T-Mobile is the cheapest but it has the spottiest coverage AND I have heard several people complain that T-Mobile coverage inside many UM buildings is particularly bad.

All the other options will use the infrastructure from one or more of the Big 4. Often they may be treated as "second class citizens" if the mother network is over crowded at any given time.

If you want to use your own phones you might be confined to AT&T or T-Mobile if they are running on GSM which Google suggests is the UK standard. If by some chance your phones are compatible with both GSM and CDMA then you can consider any of the Big 4 or the second tier companies. Otherwise you might need a new phone.
If you want to stream a bunch of music NOT using WiFi then a second tier company might be a problem at times.

Originally Posted by craig11152

To add to my thoughts above, I used to have T-Mobile because of the price but coverage in my house was spoty. Sometimes I had to go outside to make calls and send texts. (only had a flip phone at the time). I switched to Verizon because all my kids and their friends had it and never had problems. My only complaint is the prices.
I bought my own Moto G4 phone a year ago for $200. It supports both GSM and CDMA with a sim card so in theory I can take it to any other carrier.
If you need to have maximum connection you should go with either Verizon that runs on CDMA or AT&T that runs on GSM. I you can put up with occasional buffering, slow Internet then you can look at second tier providers as well. Just be sure with them that they will take you phone system.

Great, thanks for all the info!

Would I need to visit each supplier separately or do somewhere like Best Buy deal with them all? I don't recall ever seeing a Verizon or AT&T store before, Sprint and T-Mobile I have.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by Rich87

Great, thanks for all the info!

Would I need to visit each supplier separately or do somewhere like Best Buy deal with them all? I don't recall ever seeing a Verizon or AT&T store before, Sprint and T-Mobile I have.

A Best Buy should handle them all. As far as pricing try doing research in advance. I haven't changed providers in years but you should be able to walk in and walk out with a working phone. A credit check would happen if you want to walk out with a $700 phone you only paid $150 up front for but if you can use your existing phone or pay up front in full for a phone then I don't know if a credit check matters. But having a local address and some proof of that may come in to play. I honestly don't know.

[Coldjensens]

If you cannot have dropped calls, interference, dead areas etc, then you pretty much need to go with Verizon. AT&T is nearly as good in most major areas and has better international travel options (like if you go to Canada.), but A T&T tends to drop calls occasionally at least for some people and does nto have as good of coverage.

Sprint is barely tolerable and the rest are for those who use the cellular as more of a novelty/toy than as a business tool. You-never know when/if they are going to work. Then you get to Metro PCS and T-Mobile. Those are the people you see standing in the street in front of their house saying "Can you hear me now?" or simply throwing their phone out the window.

Realistically you are going to go with Verizon or AT&T, and given the small difference in price, most people end up with Verizon.

[magellan]

AT&T is awful on the West Side of the State, they have terrible coverage (I don't think they have enough towers or something) and I get calls dropped in heavily populated areas around GR all the time. It's not unusual to only have 1 bar for internet as well. Or I'll be on a call and the person on the other end will say my voice goes in and out.

I rue the day I switched from Verizon, which had excellent service. But we were wooed away by AT&T with $1000's in incentives for our family. Grrrrrr.

I don't know how they are on the East Side of the State though.

[MS313]

At&t works fine for me in West MI and Metro Detroit area. I used to work in Albion and even in that small town I never had problems.

[highlanderfil]

Verizon all the way. If you look at coverage maps, none of the other providers even come close. The only dead zone I've ever experienced is on I-94 between Belleville and Ypsilanti, but it lasts maybe half a mile. Ironically, I only get one or two bars at home (southeast Ann Arbor), but I've never had a dropped call or poor reception.

If you end up paying for your own Internet, though, you might want to look into Xfinity (Comcast) for both your cable/Internet and mobile phone. Xfinity mobile is a Verizon MVNO, so they use the same towers. The only thing they don't have that Verizon does is wi-fi calling, but their unlimited data plan is a LOT cheaper. We will likely be switching to them from Verizon shortly. The only catch is that, unless you have an iPhone, you won't be able to bring your own device to them (not yet, anyways).

[Rich87]

Thanks all for the info.

Originally Posted by craig11152

A Best Buy should handle them all. As far as pricing try doing research in advance. I haven't changed providers in years but you should be able to walk in and walk out with a working phone. A credit check would happen if you want to walk out with a $700 phone you only paid $150 up front for but if you can use your existing phone or pay up front in full for a phone then I don't know if a credit check matters. But having a local address and some proof of that may come in to play. I honestly don't know.

I didn't think about the fact of giving a home address, I guess we might have to go pay and go (not sure if you call it that in US) for the first few days/weeks until we find a place. Doubt they'll accept a work address.

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

If you cannot have dropped calls, interference, dead areas etc, then you pretty much need to go with Verizon. AT&T is nearly as good in most major areas and has better international travel options (like if you go to Canada.), but A T&T tends to drop calls occasionally at least for some people and does nto have as good of coverage.

Sprint is barely tolerable and the rest are for those who use the cellular as more of a novelty/toy than as a business tool. You-never know when/if they are going to work. Then you get to Metro PCS and T-Mobile. Those are the people you see standing in the street in front of their house saying "Can you hear me now?" or simply throwing their phone out the window.

Realistically you are going to go with Verizon or AT&T, and given the small difference in price, most people end up with Verizon.

We don't need perfect service really, we don't use the phone for work but it can get annoying if we get dropped calls (although we barely make phone calls). A good Internet connection will be valuable to us for contacting friends and family back home while we're out.

I'm quite use to bad cell service living in London, I'm with one of the better providers but it is terrible in crowded places, it just can't keep up with the population and demand of London.

Originally Posted by magellan

AT&T is awful on the West Side of the State, they have terrible coverage (I don't think they have enough towers or something) and I get calls dropped in heavily populated areas around GR all the time. It's not unusual to only have 1 bar for internet as well. Or I'll be on a call and the person on the other end will say my voice goes in and out.

I rue the day I switched from Verizon, which had excellent service. But we were wooed away by AT&T with $1000's in incentives for our family. Grrrrrr.

I don't know how they are on the East Side of the State though.

Seems like a lot of thumbs up for Verizon then

Originally Posted by MS313

At&t works fine for me in West MI and Metro Detroit area. I used to work in Albion and even in that small town I never had problems.

Originally Posted by highlanderfil

Verizon all the way. If you look at coverage maps, none of the other providers even come close. The only dead zone I've ever experienced is on I-94 between Belleville and Ypsilanti, but it lasts maybe half a mile. Ironically, I only get one or two bars at home (southeast Ann Arbor), but I've never had a dropped call or poor reception.

If you end up paying for your own Internet, though, you might want to look into Xfinity (Comcast) for both your cable/Internet and mobile phone. Xfinity mobile is a Verizon MVNO, so they use the same towers. The only thing they don't have that Verizon does is wi-fi calling, but their unlimited data plan is a LOT cheaper. We will likely be switching to them from Verizon shortly. The only catch is that, unless you have an iPhone, you won't be able to bring your own device to them (not yet, anyways).

Great thanks, I'll have a look at that. Problem is until we know where we are living we don't know if we have to find our own ISP. Also I use a Samsung mobile so won't work for me, my Wife has an iPhone but they annoy me too much to make the switch back.