Cell phone companies
 

Hey yall,
Just wanted to get some insight on what cell phone companies you think are better for airline pilots. Currently with Verizon, unlimited data/hotspot/mexico/canada paying about $110-120 month with just myself. Service isn't terrible unless i'm in a massive city where everyone is using the towers.
What do you guys prefer?

In my experience, T-mobile had a lot of no-service areas. This included areas where they were supposed to have coverage. That was a problem in my regional days because we went to some small towns.

ATT had good coverage but the data was essentially useless at a busy public area like a hub airport.

Verizon has great coverage and pretty good data. Data can get a little slow at a big airport on a busy day, but there's probably no avoiding that until the infrastructure gets upgraded a couple more generations. Voice calls always work, never had one bounce to VM that I can recall.

My t-mobile and ATT experiences were years ago, YMMV.

Verizon isn’t cheap, but best coverage. I own my iPhone and $40 a month and have had great service

GF

I disable the LTE on my phone in busy spots. It switches to the older 4G but usually way less people on it. Doesn’t always work but a lot times it does.

My experience:

Verizon has by far the best coverage and quality, but is very expensive. International data is an extra charge, either by the horrendously expensive minute or the marginally expensive add-on plan. If money is not an issue, Verizon would be the choice.

T-Mobile is least expensive. It works pretty well in Europe and has (slowed down, but useable) unlimited international data included. Coverage in the US is spotty and unreliable, though.

Don't know about ATT. I got in a whizzing contest with them years back and have not voluntarily given them a dime since.

Sprint has the same deal as T-Mobile with international data -free and slowed down - but has better coverage in the states. Its cost falls between Verizon and T-Mobile.

We switched to Sprint a few months ago from Verizon. While the quality of Verizon is noticeably better, Sprint is certainly adequate both at home and abroad and about $50/month less.

The slowed down data overseas is noticeable, but is still fast enough for voip calls and light surfing.

As always, YMMV

OK, why am I only laying $40 per month with VZ? Yes, I do own the phone, coverage is miles better than Virgin (Sprint). In Massachusetts, my Virgin plan was basically unusable.

gf

Had Verizon last 3 years. Good coverage but customer service can be horrible. (Or very good, depends on the stars and moons being aligned or not)
Been paying $90 for 2 lines and limited data, but upgraded yesterday to unlimited data for the same 2 lines @ $98 per month, taxes included she said.
T-mobile has the same “senior plan” ( we are retired, over and above 55 :rolleyes:) for $70 inclduing taxes.
For $28 more per month Verizon may be worth it, will try the Personal HOTSPOT option to check speed. If useless we may ditch the whole thing and talk to T-mobile.
Had Sprint before Verizon , not happy, cheapo with slow service, did not need to save $40-50 per month that bad, not on a budget anymore.
(Been furloughed 5-6 times, then $40 was a big deal, I drank Schlitz beer and scrubbed teak decks on yachts to pay property taxes and buy groceries.)
Also had ATT, somewhere in the middle but they charged me roaming when flying to the Virgin Islands and or Alaska.
Verizon best, but expensive.

I moved 5 lines to Cricket, $125 a month mostly unlimited everything. It works for us.

I was a long time Verizon customer. I hate them, but had them for a long time; nearly 20 years. I dumped them for Tmobile, and continued getting billed by Verizon each month.

When I had a family plan with Verizon, I dropped a phone, expected the bill to go down, but it stayed exactly the same. They just raised the rates on the other phones. I dropped another phone; they raised the rates on the others and kept billing me the same.

I'm not a Verizon fan.

I'm not a t-mobile fan, either.

I had Sprint for a long time and their coverage is atrocious. Especially, out west and not near an interstate.

Finally switched to ATT. Two lines , 36gb of data, and $135 after tax.