Cell service - Should I stay or should I go?

[dave10a]

Call them and tell them you considering canceling. I got 6 gigs free and I upgraded to the 8 g plan with roll over data. My bill for two phones 145

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It is a shame that companies operate that way instead of offering the best cost in the first place. I think all of the TV, Internet, Phone and Satellite providers offer a better deal to keep a customer from leaving. Saying that the so called "unlimited" plans throttle back their speed from 4G to 3G after using so many bits. Verizon slows down to 600 Kbits after using 10Gbytes which is 3G speed. There is a new 6G network in the works and it will be interesting to see what the market folks do with that.

 

[boatto5er]

The unlimited data plan from Verizon is great if you only have one phone. Once you have more the fee per phone really starts to add up. Since we don't travel all year, I reduce my plan in the fall and pick it up again in the spring. Verizon does have the best coverage including Canada, Mexico and international. I've had mine for years even before retirement. I traveled a lot in my job and it served me well all over the world.


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Interesting. Out plan shares data across all three of our devices(2 iPhones, and MiFi). Single unlimited charge.


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[Hockster]

I have had Verizon now for about 8 years, switched from ATT because of coverage issues, if
you travel, Verizon is the way to go.
I change to unlimited for Winter months ( mobile hotspot ) because RV Park WiFi has not been that great, and change back when I return home.
One adage to remember, "You get what you pay for".
I see by several posts referencing Military discounts.
Verizon also offers a Veterans discount of 15%, which I have.
Veterans & Military discounts may not be the same in all venues.
I have been in places that offer a retired or active duty military discount, but not a veterans discount, why I don't know corporate policy I guess, so these terms are not interchangeable in all places.

Hockster

 

[carl.swoyer]

A side note. We leave our data off until we need to Google something. It works. If your leaving it on and although your not googling things are always running.

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[carl.swoyer]

If you want the best deal call Verizon corporate customer resolution's dept. Don't go to the "Authorized dealer" you won't get anything from them

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[TravelTiger]

To clarify, Our AT&T unlimited plus plan does not throttle. Throttle means they slow the speed until your next billing cycle. That is not the case for us. They may slow speeds if you are on a congested tower, if you are over the 22GB. My hotspot has slowed occasionally, but not to unusable speeds.


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Upon review, it looks like new plans have emerged, limiting hotspot to 10gb before throttling.

Boy I hope this doesn't happen to me, I'll be looking for another provider.

 

[JohnD]

When we got our new Verizon phones a couple of weeks ago we had an extremely horrible experience in the store.

So many things went bad that we should have just walked . . . but we didn't!

When I got the email survey asking about our experience . . . I told them all about it!

The store manager called me the next day while I was at work and left me a snarky voice mail, so I never called him back.

We've been using that store for years, but I think we have made our last visit to that particular store!

 

[TravelTiger]

Update to my comments yesterday about AT&T hotspots. The 10gb limitation is for using a cell phone or tablet as a hotspot. NOT for actual HOTSPOT devices.

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[MCTalley]

Update to my comments yesterday about AT&T hotspots. The 10gb limitation is for using a cell phone or tablet as a hotspot. NOT for actual HOTSPOT devices.

Last month, we were throttled twice at two different campgrounds since we were over the 22GB limit.

The first was on a 4G (not LTE) tower in Strasburg, Colorado. Mid-day, it was around 2-3 Mbps. Prime-time during the evening, it slowed (for me) to 0.3 Mbps. Note that speed was consistent between phone or hotspot.

The second was on an LTE tower in Hardin, Montana. It was within a mile of I-90, but otherwise in the middle of farmland. Mid-day, it was running 10-15 Mbps. At night, around 0.5 Mbps.

We were holding our breath as we got to our current location in downtown Puyallup, Washington as I needed to work all last week and this week and very slow internet would be a challenge. Daytime speeds, however, pegged the meter on my Speedtest app (on my iPhone 7, as much as 70-80 Mbits download speed). At night, if we are being throttled, I can live with it. Speeds still in the 20's or higher.

 

[TravelTiger]

Last month, we were throttled twice at two different campgrounds since we were over the 22GB limit.

The first was on a 4G (not LTE) tower in Strasburg, Colorado. Mid-day, it was around 2-3 Mbps. Prime-time during the evening, it slowed (for me) to 0.3 Mbps. Note that speed was consistent between phone or hotspot.

The second was on an LTE tower in Hardin, Montana. It was within a mile of I-90, but otherwise in the middle of farmland. Mid-day, it was running 10-15 Mbps. At night, around 0.5 Mbps.

We were holding our breath as we got to our current location in downtown Puyallup, Washington as I needed to work all last week and this week and very slow internet would be a challenge. Daytime speeds, however, pegged the meter on my Speedtest app (on my iPhone 7, as much as 70-80 Mbits download speed). At night, if we are being throttled, I can live with it. Speeds still in the 20's or higher.

Malcolm, if the speeds were the same on hotspot and phone in Colorado, were both devices over the 22GB? The 22GB threshold is per device. If one was over but not the other, I would say that may have been a network issue, not a specific slowdown for you.


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[MCTalley]

Malcolm, if the speeds were the same on hotspot and phone in Colorado, were both devices over the 22GB? The 22GB threshold is per device. If one was over but not the other, I would say that may have been a network issue, not a specific slowdown for you.

My understanding was that the 22 GB threshold was for the entire account, after which any and all devices could be deprioritized depending on tower and location.

At the time, our account usage looked like this:

Account total: 63 GB
My phone: 3.6 GB
Mifi unit: 21 GB
Our son's phone: 35 GB (he was away from home the first two weeks of the data period, so his phone was his only internet)
Other phones: 1.3 and 2.8 GB

I did notice that our MiFi unit still has a message on it from about two days before that indicating that data usage was at 16.5 GB and that if it reaches 22 then our data may slow down. I never get messages like that on any of the phones.

So maybe what I thought was deprioritization was simply a very crowded and slow tower. I know that my phone will tether my computer at a somewhat better rate than our more than two-year-old AT&T Unite Pro mifi unit (I know, the newest ones are faster, just haven't spent the money yet), but both were fairly slow at the same time.

 

[TravelTiger]

My understanding was that the 22 GB threshold was for the entire account, after which any and all devices could be deprioritized depending on tower and location.

At the time, our account usage looked like this:

Account total: 63 GB
My phone: 3.6 GB
Mifi unit: 21 GB
Our son's phone: 35 GB (he was away from home the first two weeks of the data period, so his phone was his only internet)
Other phones: 1.3 and 2.8 GB

I did notice that our MiFi unit still has a message on it from about two days before that indicating that data usage was at 16.5 GB and that if it reaches 22 then our data may slow down. I never get messages like that on any of the phones.

So maybe what I thought was deprioritization was simply a very crowded and slow tower. I know that my phone will tether my computer at a somewhat better rate than our more than two-year-old AT&T Unite Pro mifi unit (I know, the newest ones are faster, just haven't spent the money yet), but both were fairly slow at the same time.

Malcolm, I think you just had a congested tower. I did confirm with AT&T and with multiple sources that it is 22GB per device, not collectively. We're at 18gb collectively and 12 has been the hotspot, so far, 7 days into the billing cycle.

I have upgraded to to the Unite Explore back in June, but I actually have my Unite Pro on our plan as a backup if I ever need additional non-slowed data.


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