How bad is Spectrum Wireless?

IdiotInCharge

IdiotInCharge

NVIDIA SHILL
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Jun 13, 2003
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Currently on Verizon with a paid-for phone, paying ~US$70/month for a sinlge line on the 5GB plan with an employer discount. Always have gobs of rollover data, but the lower data plans don't make sense. I'm also looking in the context of adding a second line, which looks like it would cost ~US$100/month.

I've looked around, MVNOs, and I've escaped AT&T already- so the alternatives I'm considering are Spectrum Wireless as I have Spectrum at home, or perhaps Google Fi.

I understand that Spectrum Wireless is a straight Verizon MVNO- I also understand that MVNO customers can become 'second class citizens'. That annoys me, as I'm on Verizon so that the damn thing works.


Spectrum Wireless looks good from a pricing standpoint, and aside from not being a Verizon customer directly, I would ideally like to move somewhere with 1Gbit symmetrical fiber- which Spectrum doesn't appear to offer.


What are your experiences- are there any 'gotchas' that I'm missing?
 
It's actually quite good. I work for a rival cable company, and Spectrum is about a half hour east of my state. LOTS of old coworkers worked for them. We won't go into the fact that Spectrum is a scumfuck company that makes Comcast look good by comparison.

That being said, let me give you a better rundown of what you already know:

Yes, Spectrum is an MVNO for Verizon, but their deal, along with XFinity mobile, actually gives users the same tower priority as a normal, post-paid Verizon customer. You actually get better priority than Verizon branded Pre-Paid, if you can believe it.
There are other Verizon MVNOs that are cheaper than Spectrum (or XFinity), but for a single line? They can't be beat. Total Wireless is offering 100gb for $95/month for 4 lines, but they get deprioritized like a standard MVNO. Same as Visible, which is $40/line.

I'm a happy T-Mobile customer, but I know they have areas of poor coverage. My wife and I have backup Xfinity lines in our iPhone XSs, in case we're ever standed in an area with bad T-Mobile service.

Google Fi works great if you're a single line and don't use a lot of data. If you use a ton of data, they quickly become more expensive than most other options, and you can find better elsewhere.

So... Gotchas. Uh. I pay about $2 in taxes per month on my Xfinity line. Expect about the same from Spectrum. That's about it.
 
you disconnect spectrum you basically have to pay full price on spectrum mobile from what im told.

I`d look if tmobile services your use primary use area AND your current device is compatible with any Tmobile MVNO (usually the cheapest all around).
 
Fremunaln said:
you disconnect spectrum you basically have to pay full price on spectrum mobile from what im told.

I`d look if tmobile services your use primary use area AND your current device is compatible with any Tmobile MVNO (usually the cheapest all around).
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T-Mobile is ass- I rank them last next to Sprint. I consider Google Fi on the occasion that two asses may be better than say AT&T...

I guess I need to look closer at Spectrum Wireless. Basic research shows the SO's iPhone 7 is a go, but my OG Pixel likely isn't- Best Buy sells Pixel 3a's for US$299, so that may be the way we go.
 
entropism said:
Hoooooo boy. Well, you have your opinion.
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I have the collective opinion of decades of exposure to frustrated T-Mobile customers, including my SO ;)

I'm quite aware that T-Mobile is good in some areas- that's true for all of the major carriers- however the line I get where I've lived and worked has been 'it's great when it works'.
 
Hey as long as you know what works and what doesnt work, power to ya. You also couldnt convince me if a carrier who has no service in my area had the cheapest rate.
 
I'm not familiar with Spectrum but I've been on a Verizon MVNO for several years(first page plus then selectel more recently) because verizon is the only carrier with decent reception in my hilly neighborhood but I got tired of paying their rates. Most of the people I know have verizon for the same reason and I've never noticed any difference in call prioritization between myself and others on verizon post-paid even when the towers have been swamped due to an emergency, I don't really use enough data to comment much on that aspect but I have done a couple of comparison speed tests that showed similar results(might not have been peak hours though).
 
Just an update:

We tried going to Spectrum, but apparently you couldn't move a Google phone to Spectrum. You'd have to buy theirs.

So I added my SO to my Verizon account for a bit.

And then, we got tired of the rates, so I just said eff it, and ordered some Fi SIMS. < 1 hour total setup from home, numbers ported right over, and we're likely going to be under US$60 / month per billing period for the two of us because we almost exclusively use Wifi.

But even if we used 10GB or more, we'd still be cheaper than Verizon.
 
Ebernanut said:
I'm not familiar with Spectrum but I've been on a Verizon MVNO for several years(first page plus then selectel more recently) because verizon is the only carrier with decent reception in my hilly neighborhood but I got tired of paying their rates. Most of the people I know have verizon for the same reason and I've never noticed any difference in call prioritization between myself and others on verizon post-paid even when the towers have been swamped due to an emergency, I don't really use enough data to comment much on that aspect but I have done a couple of comparison speed tests that showed similar results(might not have been peak hours though).
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Same here. Total Wireless 2 line/$60/30GB for me and my GF. I looked around a lot. I tried a Mint SIM, but T-mobile sucks in my area. Seemed a lot cheaper than Verizon post or prepaid for essentially the same service. I have never had an issue with deprioritization. Every once in a while I get the urge to move off Verizon based towers, but I end up back where I started.
 
kirbyrj said:
Same here. Total Wireless 2 line/$60/30GB for me and my GF. I looked around a lot. I tried a Mint SIM, but T-mobile sucks in my area. Seemed a lot cheaper than Verizon post or prepaid for essentially the same service. I have never had an issue with deprioritization. Every once in a while I get the urge to move off Verizon based towers, but I end up back where I started.
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Fairly sure this will be our backup if Fi doesn't work out. So far so good, though.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Fairly sure this will be our backup if Fi doesn't work out. So far so good, though.
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Something else I do is stock up on physical cards when ebay has a 10% ebay bucks deal. Then I use my ebay bucks to buy more cards. Basically yields a free month every year give or take.
 
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