Cell Phone Wars

[wolf4537]

So, I'm sure a bunch of you guys have been seeing a lot of stuff either on TV where the 4 major cell phone companies (T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T) have been picking away at each other in terms of getting you over to their company. Most companies have usually offered the same types of promotions over the last several years, where "YOU CAN GET A PHONE FOR FREE WITH A 2 YEAR CONTRACT!!" or "BUY 1 PHONE, GET A 2ND FREE!"

 

Well, over the last several months, a lot of that has changed, with T-Mobile now doing no contracts, and on top of that, both they and AT&T are willing to give you extra money to come over to their service. Also, all 4 companies changed their upgrades and such, so no more 2 year waiting times in terms of getting a new phone.

 

So I know there is a cell phone topic, but I'm gonna go one step further. What cell phone provider do you guys have, and are you happy with it? I have T-Mobile and have been a customer for 6 years now, and even though I wanted to leave them in 2011 when the possible AT&T merger was going to happen, I'm glad I stayed now that it's over with. 

 

 

[Pelly <3's U]

I'm verizon and I'm fucking overpaying out the ass but it has good service where I live and I'm still on the unlimited everything contract they don't offer anymore

[Sami]

Verizon with an iPhone 5s. Expensive as shit but good lord I can't go back to T-Mobile. Service everywhere and LTE is blazingly fast. Can't go back.

[Kevin]

I'm on Verizon, but the only reason I'm still with them is because I'm on a grandfathered plan with them. Right now I'm paying $60/month for 450 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data. The moment they kick me off my plan is the moment I'll go to T-Mobile. The only thing good about them is that them have very reliable coverage.

[Chibinuva]

I'm currently on an AT&T family plan. However, since I'm still stuck with a dumbphone, and want to upgrade in the near future, I'll probably break off. I still haven't decided which service to go with yet (especially since I'll probably be getting something prepaid,) but I'm looking at the T-Mobile $30 monthly plan, since that's not too expensive. It also comes with unlimited texting, and unlimited data which is still a pretty good deal, even though I believe it gets throttled to 2G speeds after the first 5GB or so.

[Scar]

It blows my mind sometimes how terrible mobile phone carriers are in the US. I mean, ya'll get destroyed over there....

[Kevin]

 "YOU CAN GET A PHONE FOR FREE WITH A 2 YEAR CONTRACT!!" or "BUY 1 PHONE, GET A 2ND FREE!"

 

Hopefully this isn't off-topic, but allow me to explain why the whole 2 year contract thing is bullshit.

 

Let's take a 16 GB iPhone 5S for example which runs $199 on a 2 year contract and put it on Verizon Wireless unlimited talk/unlimited text/2 GB data share everything plan which is considered an average smartphone user plan. That plan is $100/month ($40 smartphone access fee + $60 for the data).

 

Total cost over 2 years: $199 + ($100 * 24): $2599

 

What's even worse is that even after you pay off the phone, you still pay the exact same monthly price instead of deducting that from your monthly bill. This is why T-Mobile is doing a great thing by separating the device payment from the plan cost because once it's paid off, your bill truly does get lowered.

 

Now let's see what happens when we buy a 16 GB iPhone 5S outright and go on a prepaid plan. I'll use T-Mobile's $30 100 minutes/unlimited text/5 GB of data before you're throttled prepaid plan as an example. They're kind of hush-hush about it, but it exists.

 

Total cost over 2 years: $649 + ($30 * 24): $1369

 

Already we just saved $1230 over two years! That $199 is just masking the true cost of an iPhone. It's a low hanging fruit to entice people into being locked in and screwed over for the next 2 years.

 

It blows my mind sometimes how terrible mobile phone carriers are in the US. I mean, ya'll get destroyed over there....

It's even worse in Canada. Try having only 3 national carriers (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) all of whom offer pretty much the exact same plans and don't really compete against each other. Their prices are insane!

[Unknownlight]

It blows my mind sometimes how terrible mobile phone carriers are in the US. I mean, ya'll get destroyed over there....

You think the U.S. is bad? Try Canada!

Edit: Man, ninja'd by seconds.

[Milo]

I don't know much about cell phone wars, but judging comments on engadget articles concerning cellphone carriers, they share a lot with console wars.

 

Meaning that they can get very stupid. Fast.

[allicali]

I have had Verizon for my Iphone 4 and 5c, 2011 to now. Upside is that they have been helpful- when my phone was missing for two months I was able to reactivate service quickly. I was scared that my phone was dead since it was reported stolen. Also I still have unlimited data, since I got my 5C the week frame where it was accidently being carried over from previous contracts

On the downside the roaming charges are NUTS. $2 a minute when I was in the bahamas?? Otherwise i barely text anyone so I have the thousand a month and i have 400 minutes because conveniently the people I call most have verizon too so yay, mobile to mobile is free

[wolf4537]

I have had Verizon for my Iphone 4 and 5c, 2011 to now. Upside is that they have been helpful- when my phone was missing for two months I was able to reactivate service quickly. I was scared that my phone was dead since it was reported stolen. Also I still have unlimited data, since I got my 5C the week frame where it was accidently being carried over from previous contracts

On the downside the roaming charges are NUTS. $2 a minute when I was in the bahamas?? Otherwise i barely text anyone so I have the thousand a month and i have 400 minutes because conveniently the people I call most have verizon too so yay, mobile to mobile is free

 

 

One thing I like with T-Mobile is the fact that you don't have to worry about roaming anymore. Texting and internet is now free, and calling is a flat 20 cents a minute. Sure, T-Mobile's coverage isn't as good compared to Verizon. but for the value I'm MUCH happier with T-mobile.

[Patticus]

I'm on Straight Talk Wireless, because I'm a poor bastard, so I haven't the faintest idea what networks I'm on. All of them? I don't know. I have a Samsung... something. It looks a bit like the old Blackberries, it's no smartphone because those are all too expensive or shit. God I'm out of touch with whatever my phone is. I just use it for communicating though, so I guess it doesn't matter. I would love a new Galaxy Swhatever, mind, but they're way beyond my price range...

 

I don't go in for that phone wars stuff, I've had my fill of tech warring with the games console wars, but I always enjoy watching Apple suffer defeats to Samsung. Not sure why.

[PC the Hedgehog]

You people and your fancy schmancy expensive phones.

Me, I gots a Tracphone. Pay for more minutes as soon as my current ones are depleted. Yeah, it's nothing fancy, but I only use my phone for emergencies and potential job offer contacts.

[Autosaver]

T-Mobile just announced their Uncarrier 5.0 and 6.0.

 

For a recap

 

Uncarrier 1.0 - No contracts.

Uncarrier 2.0 - Jump program (Upgrade after paying half the device).

Uncarrier 3.0 - Free International Roaming + 4G Tablets get 200mb LTE data for life AND same price as wifi + lower prices.

Uncarrier 4.0 - Early Termination Fee Pay-Off.

NEW Uncarrier 5.0 - Free iPhone 5s trial on TMobile's network.

NEW Uncarrier 6.0 - Free Unlimited Music Streaming on 4G LTE with no usage on your data plan + UnMusic

 

...That's pretty awesome. Verizon and AT&T charge out the ass for data. You can barely do anything on their networks as you will use up your data very quickly. Streaming music? Bad idea.. you'll use all of your data up! Now with this, you can safely stream music without using your data limit. Rhapsody Unradio is also a new app for TMobile customers that allows ad-free/unlimited music streaming.

 

Verizon has a problem with their LTE in a lot of markets. They make millions of dollars but don't try hard enough to upgrade their network. For years, their LTE network has been constrained by so many customers so people (such as myself) would get worse than 3G speeds. That is why they launched the XLTE network, to get faster speeds. TMobile has had the same technology as XLTE for a couple years now. They even have HD Audio for their phone calls. They're currently rolling out VoLTE too. Less people are on their network which means more data/speed for YOU.

 

We're supposed to switch to T-Mobile soon. Not only do they have low prices and a fair data system (4G LTE toward a certain amount, unlimited 2G after) which doesn't nickel and dime you.

 

T-Mobile is really changing the industry. Verizon is pretty shitty with their anti-competitive schemes.

[MamboCat]

The Czech Republic has a couple of Europe-wide networks: Vodafone, Telefonica/O2, Tmobile and I think there is another one but can't recall... Orange/EE don't exist here for some reason.

 

Contracts are limited to Czech citizens or people with special business licences so I'm stuck with PAYG and the same brick of a phone I arrived with 4 years ago! It's a Samsung something or other, it had a silly name when it was released but I forget. However I have a nice shiny Galaxy tab to let me check my emails and stuff. :B I've seen a lot of deals here bundling phones and tablets together; I'm assuming that some people shove their SIM card in their tablets and use that as a phone! XD

 

Oh god I'm so old; I don't understand this one single piece of technology!

[Autosaver]

If you put a phone sim in a tablet, it disables the phone function. You could probably still use wifi apps to make calls and texts thought.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wolf4537]

I just really hope that a T-Mobile and Sprint merger doesn't happen, but that's all I've been hearing lately when it comes to the company as a whole. 

 

On the upside though, if a merger did happen, they said they would probably keep the T-Mobile brand and dump Sprint altogether. I say good riddance, cause Sprint is HORRIBLE.

[Kevin]

I just really hope that a T-Mobile and Sprint merger doesn't happen, but that's all I've been hearing lately when it comes to the company as a whole. 

Same here! T-Mobile is doing a great job as it is, and I fear the moment we go down to 3 national carriers, the consumer-friendly moves will stop and we'll be back to the status quo.

[wolf4537]

Same here! T-Mobile is doing a great job as it is, and I fear the moment we go down to 3 national carriers, the consumer-friendly moves will stop and we'll be back to the status quo.

 

It's funny, because T-Mobile is really shaking up everything and yet Verizon and AT&T haven't done squat to make ANYTHING sound appealing for their own companies. But the thing is, they probably think that since they have so many customers, they have nothing to worry about. I've also heard that AT&T & Verizon are even throttling people that are on the grandfathered unlimited data plan, so nothing is truly unlimited with either carrier. 

 

Sprint should seriously just die though, they have crappy service, it's more expensive than T-Mobile, and on top of that, they are HEAVILY losing customers. I'm SHOCKED they can even afford to talk about a potential merger.