Help - Cell Phone Provider

[tometom]

I figured most of you guys live in or around Nebraska and might have some advice on cell phone providers here.

Basically I'm cheap. I have been living without a data plan, solely bacause I'm cheap. I've decided it's time to step up to the plate and just do it. I hear Verizon has good coverage, but it's so damn expensive. Anyone have any recommendations?

I've done some research and T-mobile has a cheap plan with Unlimited Texts and Data with only 100 minutes for $30. anyone using T-mobile? how are you finding it's network? With this one, I'd probably get a Nexus 4 off of Google.

https://join.republicwireless.com/ - been thinking about this. cheap plan, it basically uses wifi when available. which for me is at home and in the office (plus any others I acquire, such as coffee shops, restaurants, relatives, etc). then uses sprint when wifi not available. for $20 a month don't know if i can beat the price. Only one phone option though and I know nothing about smartphones so not sure how crappy this one is. Anyone out there try this?

I have no clue how much data I'll use. I'd probably stream movies/TV if i can. I'd use the internet quite a bit too. I hardly make any phone calls, i think my plan right now is 300 minutes and I don't come close to using that.

oh, I'm mostly looking at the monthly price, the upfront cost of say a $300 Nexus 4 or the $250 for the Motorola Defy XT doesn't bother me. but if these phones are pretty crappy, someone needs to tell me and I'll try and find another way.

 

[tometom]

virgin - anyone have any experience? I've heard that coverage sucks. but the plans are reasonable.

I'd really prefer to get into a no contract plan, so if I do find it sucks, I can get out and try something else.

 

[BigRedMoe]

I've had T-Mobile for years. No complaints. Had 4G here long before anyone else. Just an FYI though, I'm in NE Kansas.

 

[tometom]

https://ting.com/ - just came across this. more phone options. i'd need to decide how much data I'd need, but it wouldn't be too expensive.

 

[tometom]

I'm in Omaha, so not a lot of worry while here, but was slightly worried when visiting the folks in SE Nebraska, so good to know if works well in NE Kansas.

 

[tometom]

went and talked to the Best Buy Mobile guy last night. Turns out T-mobile has horrible service in Nebraska. It's so bad that although nationally Best Buy is supposed to sell all major brands, they don't even have T-mobile at the store.

my wife is leaning towards Virgin or Net10. I'm not sold on Net10 because I've been reading reviews online and there are way too many poor ones. I'm not sold on Virgin either, since it uses the Sprint network, Ting above seems like a better option also on the Sprint network.

Sorry, i see no one in here really cares that much. I'm pretty much just putting my thoughts into writing, helps me remember.

 

[iruletheskool]

I just don't really know enough to add much, sorry m8

My friend has Virgin and gets pretty good service in the larger cities, but when we drove to Denver, there were large amounts of times that he couldn't make a call or receive texts and the such

 

[HuskerInSecLand]

Walmart has a pre-paid called "Straight Talk". It's a tracphone and has true unlimited phone, data and text for $45 a month.

I have Verizon provided by my work and my wife and daughter both have straight talk. Their data signals are usually stronger than mine though I think that may be because the phone I have sucks.

 

[it'sHuskers4me]

Yes Verizon is expensive, it cost the same for one phone as it does for three so my daughter went back on my plan. Of course no data for me and wife. But two daughters have all the bells and whistles with their phones. Cheap ass Verizon won't give me a new free phone unless I get a smart phone and upgrade service on my phone. The coverage is pretty good nationwide and I am glad for that, but little else with them. Once my wife went to cut the call minutes, and the dumb ass Verizon person gave us a plan that no longer existed and we got an $800 bill for one month. It took months to get the bill fixed and they still wanted to charge us hundreds in taxes. It was finally fixed when I told them that I was calling Mike McKnight or 7 can help.

Verizon <-----

 

[Driaz]

I've only had Sprint so I can't offer any comparisons.....I like Sprint because they are cheaper, but Verizon does have better coverage.....

I don't know anything about the pre-paid plans.....sorry....

 

[tometom]

thanks guys for at least chiming in. I'm trying to find a prepaid plan that uses verizon. straighttalk has a $45 a month plan which seems reasonable.

 

[sandhill_husker]

We had verizon for about 10 years. The last few years their customer service went way downhill as it'sHuskers4me describes. They screwed up our bills, sent us shitty phones, blew off promises from one of the supervisors to review a call where one of their reps lied to us and just generally suck majorly.

My only advice is stay as far away from them as possible.

We're now getting great service from US Cellular. I've been through Denver and back to Omaha and everywhere in between I had coverage. Awesome phones too.