IowaCowboyLost in the Supermarket Premium Member join:2010-10-16 Springfield, MA
1 recommendation |
Postpaid user hereToo bad I couldn't double my data. I am on the 4GB plan which is split between an iPhone, iPad 3, iPad mini, a Jetpack, and two dumb phones. I use about 1-2 GB per month.
I am looking forward to the iPhone 5. Maybe Christmas will come early as my upgrade is less than a week away. |
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1 recommendation |
What pissed me off the most about the new share plans is the fact that I have no means whatsoever to opt out of voice minutes, or pay for a reduced amount. I use nowhere near "unlimited" voice minutes. I hate talking on the phone and use maybe 30 minutes a month at most.
Text messages? They've done a clever end run around iMessage too by making all share plans include unlimited text messages. Of course with iMessage you're using your data allotment instead of your free texts. |
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SimbaSevenI Void Warranties join:2003-03-24 Billings, MT
1 recommendation |
Still not a good deal..Especially with Straight Talk's $45/mo unlimited plan, which already includes 2GB of Data.
at&t and VZ really need to get with the times. |
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Say it isnt so!How are they possibly going to handle double the data on such a full and fragile network?
So did Verizon double their capacity over the weekend and I missed it? |
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to SimbaSeven
Re: Still not a good deal..Net10 is offering a similar plan as their sister company. Pretty soon all TracFone companies most likely will- especially since they already have a business side of the company. |
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IowaCowboyLost in the Supermarket Premium Member join:2010-10-16 Springfield, MA |
to SimbaSeven
Straight Talk may be good for price but not for customer service. Hopefully you'll never have any issues. My former neighbor has a TracPhone and he says they may be good on price but the customer service is not the best.
I had a problem with the 4G connection on my newly purchased iPad Mini and a quick call to customer service resolved the issue. They had me power down the device, remove and insert the SIM card (which was a pain in the butt as they now use those nano SIM cards, which are hard to handle with my large hands) and the CSR (who was a tier 2 tech support representative in a US-based call center) changed a few provisioning settings on VZW's end and problem solved.
I don't even think MVNOs have access to their host carrier's network settings past activation/deactivation. And the tier 1 carriers can address network issues better. |
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1 recommendation |
to fifty nine
Re: Postpaid user hereThe unlimited voice/text is essentially a giveaway with the new plans. The per-device cost exists primarily to recover the device subsidy, hence why tablets cost next to nothing, while smartphones are $40/mo. The data packages are the true revenue source with the new plans.
The real crime here is that you can't BYOD and pay a reduced per-device cost. I believe that T-Mobile has slightly cheaper plans for BYOD users, but none of the other carriers have ever shown an inclination to follow in their footsteps. |
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to Skippy25
Re: Say it isnt so!Ha, like this pricing was ever about network congestion.
It's price gouging for a market with insatiable demand and limited competition. |
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88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness |
to Crookshanks
Re: Postpaid user heresaid by Crookshanks:The unlimited voice/text is essentially a giveaway with the new plans. The per-device cost exists primarily to recover the device subsidy, hence why tablets cost next to nothing, while smartphones are $40/mo. The data packages are the true revenue source with the new plans.
The real crime here is that you can't BYOD and pay a reduced per-device cost. I believe that T-Mobile has slightly cheaper plans for BYOD users, but none of the other carriers have ever shown an inclination to follow in their footsteps. What do you mean BYOD? what device would you use besides one that actually works on Verizon's network? And T-Mobile's coverage sucks dick. |
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88615298 |
to fifty nine
said by fifty nine:What pissed me off the most about the new share plans is the fact that I have no means whatsoever to opt out of voice minutes, or pay for a reduced amount. I use nowhere near "unlimited" voice minutes. I hate talking on the phone and use maybe 30 minutes a month at most.
Text messages? They've done a clever end run around iMessage too by making all share plans include unlimited text messages. Of course with iMessage you're using your data allotment instead of your free texts. They give everyone unlimited minutes/text so everyone is on the same plan. Besides the future is making everything data anyways since it is actually all data. In 10 yeas you won't have "minutes", texting" and "data" it will just all be data. So you might as well get used to it. |
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88615298 |
to SimbaSeven
Re: Still not a good deal..said by SimbaSeven:Especially with Straight Talk's $45/mo unlimited plan, which already includes 2GB of Data.
at&t and VZ really need to get with the times. Well let's see Straight Talk uses At&t, Verizon's and Sprint's networks and have ZERO infrastructure costs. Gee I wonder why they can offer unlimited everything or $45 a month? |
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88615298 |
to Skippy25
Re: Say it isnt so!said by Skippy25:How are they possibly going to handle double the data on such a full and fragile network?
So did Verizon double their capacity over the weekend and I missed it? You do realize their smartphone plans are strictly 3G. And as they expand their 4G network and as more people buy 4G devices there are fewer people using 3G thus bandwidth is freed up. But I'm sure you knew this and took the time to actually educate yourself on the technical details of cellular technology. |
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Where I live you'd be hard pressed to get 1Gb a month on 3G. Verizon so overloaded I get .01 mbit/sec on 3G. Get 12 mbit on LTE though. |
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ChadA work in progress join:2002-05-08 Redwood City, CA |
Chad
Member
2012-Nov-26 11:45 am
New Smartphones only?Anyone know if this promo is available to new subscribers who bring their own hardware? i.e. not purchase a new smartphone from Verizon? I have a used CDMA iPhone 4 I'd like to active.
Thanks! |
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Verizon is OVERPRICEDThere's many other choices for prepaid besides them. $80/mo is ridiculous (that's what you're paying when you're STUCK IN A CONTRACT). So many other carriers are offering better deals..straight talk, t-mobile, virgin, metro pcs, boost, etc. I don't know why anyone would be crazy enough to pay that much. Do your research before buying a phone. Paying for the phone up front and going prepaid is definitely better in the long term (cost wise). Especially if you've got an unlocked phone. |
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to 88615298
Re: Postpaid user heresaid by 88615298:What do you mean BYOD? what device would you use besides one that actually works on Verizon's network? I guess you've never considered the option of buying a lightly used phone at a quarter of the price off eBay? Or an old phone from a friend? Or (*gasp*) paying retail for one? There are lots of ways to get a Verizon phone without purchasing it with a 2yr contract through big red. I've gone 5+ years without renewing my contract at times. said by 88615298:And T-Mobile's coverage sucks dick. T-Mobile is a perfectly viable option for many people, no reason to bash them because they aren't good for you. |
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to 88615298
Re: Still not a good deal..said by 88615298:Well let's see Straight Talk uses At&t, Verizon's and Sprint's networks and have ZERO infrastructure costs. Gee I wonder why they can offer unlimited everything or $45 a month? Unless you believe those providers are selling room on their networks at a loss, which seems unlikely, the MVNOs are paying for those infrastructure costs in what they pay those providers for space on their networks. Jim |
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to 88615298
Re: Postpaid user hereFor those of us in medium sized or larger cities, T-Mobile is at times faster than Verizon LTE.
That said, I'm using Sprint because they offer LTE where T-Mobile offers GPRS, an hour and forty from here. |
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iansltx |
to TBBroadband
Re: Still not a good deal..Nah; normal Tracfone is a standard pay-per-minute prepaid offering, with lower-end phones. You can get similar phones on Net10 or Straight Talk with the unlimited plan if you want, but they key differentiator between TF and Net10 is that you can get smartphones on Net10 and Straight Talk (unlimited plans only), whereas that doesn't happen on TF. |
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iansltx |
to IowaCowboy
You're right; Tracfone customer service is poor. However you can do most things online. And is it worth $45 per month to get good customer service from your wireless carrier? |
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iansltx |
to 88615298
You forgot T-Mobile.
Also, they have smaller (but still existent) infrastructure costs...and they pay the big carriers per minute/text/megabyte wholesale. So it isn't like they're getting a free ride. |
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iansltx |
to Eagles1221
Re: Say it isnt so!Depends on your area. I've seen plenty of places where VZW can hit 2 Mbps over 3G. The number of places where that's possible are shrinking, but there are still some out there. |
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iansltx |
to genzoulv
Re: Verizon is OVERPRICEDYou're missing one important piece of the equation: if you want to use a smartphone on Verizon's LTE network (the largest LLTE network in the US by far at this point) you have exactly one option: VZW postpaid.
If you can put up with lower coverage for LTE (everyone), lower data speeds for LTE (MetroPCS or CricKet) or lower upload speeds for 4G (T-Mobile), a spotty non-LTE 4G network (Boost/Virgin 4G) or no LTE/WiMAX at all (Straight Talk), they are indeed cheaper. You can get unlimited everything-except-data and 5GB of that, plus tethering, for $60 per month on CricKet, but their LTE footprint is limited at this point and I'm seeing peak speeds of 6 or 7 Mbps with full signal, days after the network launched. Performance will likely go down from there for several months until CricKet can refarm CDMA to boost its LTE bandwidth.
Verizon has the premium network and they know it. So they charge a metric ton for folks to use it. |
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FFH5 Premium Member join:2002-03-03 Tavistock NJ |
to Crookshanks
Re: Postpaid user heresaid by Crookshanks:The real crime here is that you can't BYOD and pay a reduced per-device cost. I believe that T-Mobile has slightly cheaper plans for BYOD users, but none of the other carriers have ever shown an inclination to follow in their footsteps. The new buyer of Sprint has plans to shake up the cellphone plans to force AT&T & Verizon to compete. If he follows thru, maybe customers will get a break. » Sprint's new buyer wants to stick it to AT&T & Verizon |
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to 88615298
said by 88615298:What do you mean BYOD? what device would you use besides one that actually works on Verizon's network? And T-Mobile's coverage sucks dick. A used phone. |
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fifty nine |
to 88615298
said by 88615298:They give everyone unlimited minutes/text so everyone is on the same plan. Besides the future is making everything data anyways since it is actually all data. In 10 yeas you won't have "minutes", texting" and "data" it will just all be data. So you might as well get used to it. They give everyone unlimited minutes/text so that they can bump up the price without actually increasing the price. It's $70 for 4GB of data and unlimited minutes and text. It's not "all data" now. The voice and text are carried independent of the data stream. Who cares about 10 years from now. Today I don't want to pay for voice service that I don't really use. |
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to 88615298
Re: Say it isnt so!Yep, even Wal-Mart had a pre-paid Verizon on the black friday sale for $69.88 (was $129.88), but it was strictly 3G. did have a sticker on the box that said "NOW 2GB DATA". said by 88615298 You do realize their smartphone plans are strictly 3G. And as they expand their 4G network and as more people buy 4G devices there are fewer people using 3G thus bandwidth is freed up. But I'm sure you knew this and took the time to actually educate yourself on the technical details of cellular technology. [/BQUOTE : |
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Justin24 to iansltx
Anon
2012-Nov-26 3:53 pm
to iansltx
Re: Verizon is OVERPRICEDI totally agree with this. Verizon has the best LTE coverage by far and to those that want cheaper plans and/or spotty coverage can make their own decision. |
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88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness |
to Chad
Re: New Smartphones only?said by Chad:Anyone know if this promo is available to new subscribers who bring their own hardware? i.e. not purchase a new smartphone from Verizon? I have a used CDMA iPhone 4 I'd like to active.
Thanks! They have 3 smartphones available for this if you have one of these 3 phones you can use it. |
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88615298 |
to genzoulv
Re: Verizon is OVERPRICEDsaid by genzoulv:There's many other choices for prepaid besides them. $80/mo is ridiculous (that's what you're paying when you're STUCK IN A CONTRACT). So many other carriers are offering better deals..straight talk, t-mobile, virgin, metro pcs, boost, etc. Most of which if any don't have any infrastructure. Kind of easier to offer cheaper service if you don't have to spend any money on towers or a network or maintenance etc etc |
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