Verizon vs. T-Mobile

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mastaBlasta

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Jan 27, 2011
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I'm switching to one of these carriers. The plan and phone options are the same for both, and coverage in my area (D.C. metro) is generally very good. So i can't decide just based on that.

The only options left to consider are existential "other factors" like company practices, views on net neutrality, privacy and so forth. Verizon is the big evil empire, whereas T-mobile is more of the underdog. But then again Verizon has provided some much needed competition to Comcast and other big internet providers.

So how do you guys feel about them from a holistic perspective?
 
Verizon is CDMA so you're going to be locked in with them. The upside is that CDMA is generally better in crowded areas and buildings. With T-Mobile, you're using a GSM carrier so you'll be able to unlock your phone and move it around more easily than with Verizon but will have the GSM signal disadvantages.

If GSM is fine in your area, T-Mobile is likely a better deal, quite honestly. Right now, Verizon's rather focused on the multi-device packages and selling you data in various packages. T-Mobile's plans seem a bit better if you aren't grandfathered into a Verizon unlimited plan.

I've got Verizon and a contract that's not up until July. I'll probably end up just re-upping the contract another 2 years as the coverage is great here but the down sides of CDMA annoy me at times.
 
I'd still rather be able to use my phone as a phone, rather than have a more fancy touchscreen device that can't hold a signal.


eg, we live in Chicago, and with sprint my wifes signal was absolute shit all the time.
Verizon is worlds better in our case.
 
niomosy said:
Verizon is CDMA so you're going to be locked in with them. The upside is that CDMA is generally better in crowded areas and buildings. With T-Mobile, you're using a GSM carrier so you'll be able to unlock your phone and move it around more easily than with Verizon but will have the GSM signal disadvantages.
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Not really interested in buying an unlocked phone. They're all the same to me and the things become outdated in less than a year.
 
mastaBlasta said:
Not really interested in buying an unlocked phone. They're all the same to me and the things become outdated in less than a year.
Click to expand...

The point of an unlocked phone is not about retained value, it's to have a phone that you can take to other (GSM - usually prepaid) carriers on a whim, just by swapping SIM cards. Some people carry multiple SIMs for multiple carriers just in case they go somewhere that one carrier doesn't have coverage and another does. You can still pay less than contract phones when you do this because you only pay for what you use.

You can't do that with CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) phones, though usually you don't need to because their networks are large enough that they encompass 95% of what the GSM carriers altogether cover, but you certainly pay for that convenience.
 
Post which phone(s) you are considering and which plan(s) you would go with on each carrier, and I will show you the cost advantages of going with an unlocked phone.
 
T4rd said:
The point of an unlocked phone is not about retained value, it's to have a phone that you can take to other (GSM - usually prepaid) carriers on a whim, just by swapping SIM cards. Some people carry multiple SIMs for multiple carriers just in case they go somewhere that one carrier doesn't have coverage and another does. You can still pay less than contract phones when you do this because you only pay for what you use.

You can't do that with CDMA (Verizon/Sprint) phones, though usually you don't need to because their networks are large enough that they encompass 95% of what the GSM carriers altogether cover, but you certainly pay for that convenience.
Click to expand...
How are you saving money with prepaid if you have to carry multiple SIMs with active service plans on them in order just to get signal?
 
ComputerBox34 said:
How are you saving money with prepaid if you have to carry multiple SIMs with active service plans on them in order just to get signal?
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Because the active service plans aren't "active". They're prepaid. You can load up a SIM with some mins/data and not use it for months until you need it. Just do that with multiple SIMs/carriers.
 
mastaBlasta said:
The only options left to consider are existential "other factors" like company practices, views on net neutrality, privacy and so forth. Verizon is the big evil empire, whereas T-mobile is more of the underdog. But then again Verizon has provided some much needed competition to Comcast and other big internet providers.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile is easily the "nicer" of the two. They don't get in the way of updates, they aren't control freaks like Verizon, they play well with other devices (as in, you can buy any GSM phone and use it on T-Mo, not just the phones they blessed), and they'll give you a discount if you bring your own phone instead of buying one on contract.
 
Medion said:
Post which phone(s) you are considering and which plan(s) you would go with on each carrier, and I will show you the cost advantages of going with an unlocked phone.
Click to expand...

I'm getting family plan for myself and my old folks. I'm getting the WP8 HTC 8x, which right now T-Mobile gives for FREE with 2 year contract.

For my folks i'll probably get some free smartphones (Galaxy S2 maybe). My parents are elderly so i need something that's really easy for them to use (and where the volume can go way up). I can't have them fidgeting around with SIM cards, complaining to me that they get bad signal and this or that, and how their old phones were better, and how I'm always letting them down....:eek:.
 
If you travel abroad, chances are you're better off with a GSM phone (T-mobile) If you're never travel abroad, and just stay where you are, then maybe verizon.

I like the "European" phone plan that T-mo offers with unlocked phones. You're not paying for phone upgrades that you're not using and you dont have to have a contract.
 
Megalomaniac said:
If you travel abroad, chances are you're better off with a GSM phone (T-mobile) If you're never travel abroad, and just stay where you are, then maybe verizon.
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All recent Verizon LTE phones have GSM radios built inside them as well. I believe up to HSPA+ 21mbps. Some phones even come unlocked out of the box like the iPhone 5 and Droid DNA and some may even be used on carriers here, not just unlocked for international use.
 
nerdydesi said:
All recent Verizon LTE phones have GSM radios built inside them as well. I believe up to HSPA+ 21mbps. Some phones even come unlocked out of the box like the iPhone 5 and Droid DNA and some may even be used on carriers here, not just unlocked for international use.
Click to expand...

I believe there's usually additional effort involved in unlocking those phones for domestic use. The GSM features are usually meant for international use.
 
T-Mobile is far more desperate to get and keep customers. I think they'll do things and bend rules for customers that Verizon and AT&T probably wouldn't. I was able to get an early upgrade less than 6 months into my contract because I hated the choice of phone I made. That really impressed me.
 
mastaBlasta said:
I'm getting family plan for myself and my old folks. I'm getting the WP8 HTC 8x, which right now T-Mobile gives for FREE with 2 year contract.

For my folks i'll probably get some free smartphones (Galaxy S2 maybe). My parents are elderly so i need something that's really easy for them to use (and where the volume can go way up). I can't have them fidgeting around with SIM cards, complaining to me that they get bad signal and this or that, and how their old phones were better, and how I'm always letting them down....:eek:.
Click to expand...

You didn't give me what I needed to go on, but you gave me enough to make some assumptions. First, you described a 3-line family plan w/smartphones. I'm going to assume that you want unlimited minutes and text for the sake of simplicity, but I will offer some other suggestions as well. Also, I'm going to assume a baseline of 2GB/data per line, but will also give other options there.

Verizon - You're pretty much limited to the Share Everything plan now. That's $40 per smartphone per month, plus a data surcharge. This $40/smartphone fee includes unlimited minutes/text. So I'll just break down your total monthly cost by data differences (since minutes/text are the same)
4GB - $190/mo
6GB - $200/mo
8GB - $210/mo
10GB - $220/mo

T-Mobile - TMO offers value plans, but unlike Verizon, won't subsidize phones on these plans. The benefit is a lower monthly bill. It's up to you to determine which way the tradeoff swings. You can go with either 1000 minutes or unlimited. All plans offer unlimited text. Plans that I'm quoting offer either unlimited data (throttled after 2GB) or unlimited (without throttling).

1000 Minutes;
Throttled after 2GB - $94.98/mo
No throttling - $124.98/mo

Unlimited Minutes;
Throttled after 2GB - $134.98/mo
No throttling - $164.98/mo

As you can see, TMO gives you more options. If you're a light minutes/data user, you can get a plan that is only $94.98/mo, as opposed to Verizon's $190/mo. Over the course of 2 years, that saves you $2,280.48. It saves you even more if you ever go over 4GB of data usage (Verizon is $15/GB overage). I'm sure that you could buy 3 nice smartphones with that much money :)

On the highest end, unlimited everything on TMO versus unlimited talk/text and 10GB data on Verizon, it's $164.98/mo vs. $220/mo. That's still a savings of $1,320.48 over 2 years and again, no fear of overages.

Lastly, I decided to target these plans as they are the closest to what I thought that you needed, which was a baseline of unlimited mins/text, and 6GB of data (2GB per phone).
TMO - Value unlimited talk/text w/2GB data per line (throttled unlimited thereafter, no overages) - $134.98/mo
VZW - Share Everything w/6GB data for $200/mo.
Difference - $65.02/mo, or $1,560.48 over 2 years.
 
Verizon is going to be more expensive, but they have outstanding coverage, fast LTE speeds, good customer service for the most part, I also think the consumer plays a part whether if a company has good customer service, if you're a reasonable person that understands how having a cell phone account works, customer service will be good. I've seen Verizon do some nice exceptions before to reasonable customers that don't freak out on the phone.

If you happen to be employed at a certain company you can also check to see if theres a employee discount available. I've seen some employers offer 25% off the share everything calling plan and it knocks a bit off the bill.

This is from a VZW employee perspective. I'm a data consultant there but I did customer service quite awhile back. Verizon is a premium price but you'll more often then not get premium service. I think in all my years I've had Verizon I've only dropped one call ever, and the data is extremely reliable.

But, its expensive, and if I wasn't a employee and didn't have my employee discount, I would probably go with T-Mobile as my next choice of carrier.

Both are good.
 
Verizon is always rated top for customer service (no clue why) but they are anal in how they lock down their phones and throw in custom features that consumers hate. They move wifi to notification window on quite a few phones (not the toggle switch but the pull down notification); they lock the boot loaders; their lte implementation has frequent issues that cause phones to peridocially drop lte (at least on my phone; but it is well reported if you check xda or similar; this is not a signal drop but an authentication drop); they make contracts with third party for $$$ and add their apps to your phone (first it was ms; now amazon) that you cannot delete. They put excessive branding on the phones (for example logo on the home key of the note ii) They want to collect your personal information so they can send you targeted ads. No clue if the other phone companies are doing similar things but imho verizon is going a bit far with the combination of all these practices. On the other hand they might be a decent stock buy if they are successful with all these cross license deals (in addition to highest $$ for service) if folks put with these practices.
 
Anyone use T-Mobile in hawaii? Reception good all around especially in doors?
 
Medion said:
Verizon - You're pretty much limited to the Share Everything plan now. That's $40 per smartphone per month, plus a data surcharge. This $40/smartphone fee includes unlimited minutes/text. So I'll just break down your total monthly cost by data differences (since minutes/text are the same)
4GB - $190/mo
6GB - $200/mo
8GB - $210/mo
10GB - $220/mo

T-Mobile - TMO offers value plans, but unlike Verizon, won't subsidize phones on these plans. The benefit is a lower monthly bill. It's up to you to determine which way the tradeoff swings. You can go with either 1000 minutes or unlimited. All plans offer unlimited text. Plans that I'm quoting offer either unlimited data (throttled after 2GB) or unlimited (without throttling).

1000 Minutes;
Throttled after 2GB - $94.98/mo
No throttling - $124.98/mo

Unlimited Minutes;
Throttled after 2GB - $134.98/mo
No throttling - $164.98/mo
Click to expand...

That breakdown is hugely helpful! I was going to say that 1000 minutes was plenty, but then i realized that the plan doesn't have unlimited weekend minutes, and overage rate is $0.45/minute :eek:.

$134/month is not a bad price at all, and over two years it should cover the cost of the phones. However, there is certain convenience to getting the plan bundle with the phones and having everything taken care of for you. Sacrifice choice for convenience? The verizon pre-installed bloatware really bother me though.

The international calling is a good feature to have. We do travel occasionally and end up buying local pre-paids. It would be nice to keep your own phone....and try not to get it stolen.
 
mastaBlasta said:
That breakdown is hugely helpful! I was going to say that 1000 minutes was plenty, but then i realized that the plan doesn't have unlimited weekend minutes, and overage rate is $0.45/minute :eek:.
Click to expand...

I think all Tmobile Classic or Value plans include this:
Unlimited T-Mobile® to T-Mobile calling
Unlimited Nights and Weekends

So your family can talk as much as they want, and you do get free nights and weekends..
Besides, who talks during the day, you just typically send txt messages!
 
Currently using the 1000 Shared Minutes plan for two lines. Unlimited Text, Data (before 5gb data throttle), Nights/Weekends. My monthly bill is $115 a month (would be cheaper but my wife has insurance on her Blackberry, and made sure it was justified twice already). The mobile hotspot feature on my Galaxy S 3 has also come it handy multiple times to entertain my nieces watching movies on Netflix on the road. For some reason they want me to pay for USB tether, but not mobile hotspot.
 
Verizon LTE:

Screenshot_2012-12-10-08-28-49.png


Enough said. This kind of pipe is so useful at times.
 
mastaBlasta said:
but then i realized that the plan doesn't have unlimited weekend minutes, and overage rate is $0.45/minute :eek:.
Click to expand...

Unlimited night and weekend minutes are included. Click the plan you want (500/1000 minute) and a popup will appear explaining this.
 
straight talk. $45 a month. unlimited talk/text and 2GB of HSPA+ data. I am using the AT&T sim card in my Nexus4 and haven't hit a dead spot yet. Cool thing is that Straight talk lets you roam onto the Tmobile towers if AT&T doesn't have service in the area.
 
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