After AT&T's latest "we'll give you a discount but only to shut you up, and then yank it away in a few months" game, I've decided it's time to move on.

T-Mobile seems to be my best bet for that many lines; I think their "T-Mobile One" offers a plan for about $30/per line per month.

They probably all suck rocks, I know, but I've got to get away from AT&T.

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Coverage, coverage, coverage. Make sure you have it.

xfinity (run on Verizon) if available in your area (if you have Comcast) can get you 5 lines. I am not sure what happened if you have 6 or 7 lines, maybe you pay a little more? go ask them.

EDIT: voice and text is free.... only pay $2.47 tax per line. And then $12 per GB.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2019 04:05PM by space-time.

If it was AT&T or tin can and a string, I would take the can.

Quote
cbelt3
Coverage, coverage, coverage. Make sure you have it.

I'm not sure T-Mobile has good coverage in most of Arkansas. I think it's only AT&T and Verizon.

Grass is always greener on the other side... ATT is great here. And I can never seem to beat their price.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

The problem I have is that every few months, they increase my bill by something like $55 to $100. There's no change in data usage or talk. And when I call (and spend upwards of 2 hours on the phone with them, as they "need to talk to their manager" repeatedly), they bring me back down in cost (close to, but not exactly, where I was before), and then 3 or so months later, the same thing happens and I have to call them again.

I'm happy with AT&T's service and coverage, but this price creep thing is @#$%&. I dumped Republic Trash b'c of that, and will do the same with Comcast (famous for price creep) if anyone in the area can get their @#$%& act together an offer an alternative.

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I switched from AT&T to T-Mobile to get some deals. You can get an over 55 senior deal, and I got a new 64GB Samsung S8 for $200 as part of the deal. They also paid off the balance on my old AT&T phone which was sweet because it was not worth nearly what I owed on it.

And when I'm in an iffy area of coverage, the "T-Mobile" logo at the top of the phone switches to read "AT&T" and I get good coverage! Then, when I'm back to a strong signal, "T-Mobile" shows back up!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2019 04:56PM by DP.

if you have coverage on their map, T-Mobile has been very good to us for 7 years or so. Ting is what my brother uses, rec'd by someone here. It uses T-Mo networks around here. Very good as well, and stoopit cheap if you don't use a lot.

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

Freedompop?

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When I was managing 100 phones all over the country, I found that AT&T sucked the least in the most places. That doesn't mean that they were good, or that they were bad. All the mobile phone carriers sucked to some extent in various markets. My boss in Tacoma LOVED T-Mobile. Where I am, 130miles away, was a complete deadzone for T-Mobile. Still is. Their phones only worked inside Starbucks because they had a freewifi hotspot inside every Starbucks at the time. We had users in Athol MA that insisted that Verizon was the only way to go. Sure enough, in Athol MA Verizon was the only carrier that had any signal at all. But AT&T seemed to suck the least in the most places.

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We have 6 lines on T-Mobile (and one "parked" for $3/month on pre-paid). We are grandfathered under a Simple Choice plan, but it's similar to the T-Mobile One plan.

T-Mobile's coverage across the country has gotten a lot better over the last couple of years, but still has some holes. We drive from Atlanta to Michigan every summer, and can now listen to internet radio pretty much the whole way.

It's important for T-Mobile that you have phones that support LTE band 12, especially away from big cities. The iPhone 6 and earlier do not, but all later iPhones do, starting with the 6S and SE.

T-Mobile is supposed to be rolling out service on LTE band 66, which the iPhone 8 and X and later support, and LTE band 71, which the XS and XR support. I don't know how widespread those bands are yet. They don't mention them on their coverage page (but do mention LTE band 12)

T-Mobile will also supply, at no charge, a device to give you better in-home coverage if the signal is weak where you live. We have one we use at my mother's vacation house in Michigan - the "4G LTE Cell Spot", which plugs into the internet router and gives us a cell signal. It's actually a better signal than the router's WiFi. T-Mobile has other options too, like WiFi calling, an LTE booster, and a "WiFi Cell Spot Router".

T-Mobile has a great deal on international roaming. FYI, the iPhone SE that was sold by T-Mobile is not the best model for T-Mobile when going abroad. The Sprint/Global version (A1723, which is what I have) is a better choice. It loses Verizon's main LTE band, but gains LTE band 7, important in Canada and Europe, and LTE band 28, also important outside the U.S.

Notes on other iPhones and T-Mobile:
- iPhone 6S: the AT&T model (A1633) has LTE band 30, which conceivably could be useful for roaming from T-Mobile

- iPhone 7, 8 & X : the Verizon/Sprint models have Qualcomm radios. The AT&T/T-Mobile versions have Intel radios. There is evidence that the Qualcomm radios work better with marginal signals. So ideally you would use an unlocked Verizon/Sprint version of these iPhones on T-Mobile (and AT&T as well).
Here are the relevant Verizon/Sprint model numbers:
7: A1660
7 Plus: A1661
8: A1863
8 Plus: A1864
X: A1865

for the U.S. and Canada, there is only one model of the XS and XR, both with Intel radios.


Good luck.

- Winston

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Be seeing you.

yea, what Winston said. We have a 4G LTE in the house coz we're in the boonies

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

Quote
Zoidberg
The problem I have is that every few months, they increase my bill by something like $55 to $100. There's no change in data usage or talk. And when I call (and spend upwards of 2 hours on the phone with them, as they "need to talk to their manager" repeatedly), they bring me back down in cost (close to, but not exactly, where I was before), and then 3 or so months later, the same thing happens and I have to call them again.

I'm happy with AT&T's service and coverage, but this price creep thing is @#$%&. I dumped Republic Trash b'c of that, and will do the same with Comcast (famous for price creep) if anyone in the area can get their @#$%& act together an offer an alternative.

how about going prepaid? how much data do you use?

[www.att.com]

Look into Google Fi. I'm happy to send you a referral code if you go that route. You'll get a service credit too.

Additional lines are cheap and you don't have to deal with the cgames of other carriers.

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My wife and I use consumer cellular and pay about $50/mo. for two lines. (total!) I'm not sure if thats useful info for you but I thought I'd share. Oh, they use AT&T network. We've been happy. We're paying nearly half of what we were paying before.

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Don't ignore the resellers. We just jumped to Simple Mobile (T-Mobile network) yesterday, getting two lines unlimited for $78/month with taxes included.

This is a great resource, you can pick settings for the service you're looking for and then comparison shop:

[www.whistleout.com]

Quote
Zoidberg
The problem I have is that every few months, they increase my bill by something like $55 to $100. There's no change in data usage or talk. And when I call (and spend upwards of 2 hours on the phone with them, as they "need to talk to their manager" repeatedly), they bring me back down in cost (close to, but not exactly, where I was before), and then 3 or so months later, the same thing happens and I have to call them again.

I'm happy with AT&T's service and coverage, but this price creep thing is @#$%&. I dumped Republic Trash b'c of that, and will do the same with Comcast (famous for price creep) if anyone in the area can get their @#$%& act together an offer an alternative.

Switch over to Cricket?

I've been on TMo for 4 years now, coming from AT&T. 9 lines. I agree with everything Winston said.

I've been very happy. Coverage has been good traveling around the country, features are terrific, and customer service,while not pervect, is at least friendly.

The pricing is icing on the cake.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2019 10:36AM by Cary.

I recommend ATT prepaid above but I forgot to mention that they do not support WiFi calling for prepaid accounts. That feature is only for postpaid accounts.

Quote
Bill in NC

Quote
Zoidberg
The problem I have is that every few months, they increase my bill by something like $55 to $100. There's no change in data usage or talk. And when I call (and spend upwards of 2 hours on the phone with them, as they "need to talk to their manager" repeatedly), they bring me back down in cost (close to, but not exactly, where I was before), and then 3 or so months later, the same thing happens and I have to call them again.

I'm happy with AT&T's service and coverage, but this price creep thing is @#$%&. I dumped Republic Trash b'c of that, and will do the same with Comcast (famous for price creep) if anyone in the area can get their @#$%& act together an offer an alternative.

Switch over to Cricket?

Yep, check them out. Not sure how the numbers work for multiple lines though.
They are wholly owned by the Deathstar, so your coverage would be basically the same, not sure how they treat roaming, and all your phones would work.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2019 11:13AM by rgG.

For anyone considering a reseller (aka MVNO = Mobile Virtual Network Operator, the "virtual" being that they don't have their own cell towers), a few of things to be aware of:

- Some MVNOs do not allow you to roam off of "their" network, typically one of the four big networks (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint). The major carriers have roaming agreements that increase their coverage. T-Mobile, for example, has roaming agreements with AT&T in certain areas, and with other cell carriers. In rural areas there are still a lot of tiny cell carriers you've never heard of. You may find that an MVNO does not work as well as its "parent" network when traveling.

- If you travel internationally, see if the MVNO has international coverage. T-Mobile in particular has a very good international deal for customers on T-Mobile One.

- WiFi calling can be handy in places where the cell signal is weak, but not all MVNOs may support it. Worth checking on.


Google Fi is an MVNO. Depending on how it works, Google Fi might have some of the best coverage around, as they claim to use three networks: T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular, plus WiFi calling. However, the Google Fi info doesn't mention roaming off of these networks.

They offer an international deal that's similar to T-Mobile's (maybe piggybacking on what T-Mobile already has set up.)

Google also claims that phones that work with Google Fi can seamlessly switch between WiFi calling and cellular, something that I think the major carriers have had trouble with. Not all phones are compatible with Google Fi, but I think all iPhones since the 5s work with it.

I do wonder what Google Fi's contracts with T-Mobile and Sprint look like. The one big difference I noted between T-Mobile and Google Fi is that T-Mobile treats direct data use on a photo differently from "mobile hotspot" use. Google Fi treats them the same, but that means you'd hit their slowdown limit faster that with T-Mobile.


Good luck.

- Winston

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Be seeing you.

I have 6 lines on ATT, haven't had a rate change in years. In fact I saved about $50/month when I went from the old Unlimiited to the (then) new Unlimited plus. You haven't stated how much youre paying now, or how much data your group is using.

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

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Quote
Rolando
I have 6 lines on ATT, haven't had a rate change in years. In fact I saved about $50/month when I went from the old Unlimiited to the (then) new Unlimited plus. You haven't stated how much youre paying now, or how much data your group is using

They bounce my costs around, though data usage is typically always under 10GB/mo. Costs for 7 lines typically work out to $50/line, though sometimes it's less and sometimes it's more.

Shopping the area, I'm not sure there is a better setup for this many lines and for the coverage. AT&T is king in this region for coverage.

I'm also looking to maybe spin a couple of lines away; my mom, for instance, is a senior and should be able to get a pretty good plan thanks to that.

It's all so convoluted; difficult to manage & administer unless you just throw your arms up and say "whatever".

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Google Fi is $20 for the first line and $15 for each additional. Add $10/GB for data. So 6 lines and 10GB of data would be $195 before taxes and there's no bogus fees.

I had Sprint before. Coverage seems better. Data is faster. Their account management is waaaaaay easier.

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I should add, you can have it automatically connect to any open wifi network to increase coverage. They also include a VPN (beta) service that encrypts all your data so you're still secure on someone's network.

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