Though I rarely post, I’ve been a regular SD lurker for years and sometimes gain critical knowledge from the forums. This one (https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=880310) was especially shocking: @Darren Garrison (thank you!) says my 9 y.o. 3G Verizon flip phone is going to drop dead in December. Clearly, it’s time to upgrade.
Consumer Reports says Consumer Cellular is the top-rated provider, while my current carrier, Verizon, is down at the bottom of the ratings. I went with Verizon in 2010 because they assured me that I would get reception at my rural property, and one reason I haven’t upgraded the phone is that I never get any bars at my house, which is located in a sort of a hollow. People who visit me who have smart phones also have difficulty connecting and usually end up using my landline, though a neighbor with a newer iPhone was able to get a good signal at my house a few months ago.
So questions for all of you smart phone owners:
Is Consumer Cellular really that great? How is their rural coverage?
How about sticking with Verizon? Do I have a chance that their 4G signal will enable me to get rid of the landline?
As far as the equipment goes, I’m inclined to start with a less fancy smart phone since if I still don’t get coverage at least I didn’t spend $1000 on something I can only use in the car. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A that I like, so am looking at the Samsung J7. Anyone have one, or have something you like better?
I’m humbly appreciative of any insights you can offer!
Are you looking for prepaid or a contract? I don’t know a lot about contracts, I’ve always done pre-paid. I’m not sure what the benefit of a contract plan is, I guess mostly that you get a newer phone.
You may want to buy a phone independently and sign up for a pre-paid network. If you get your phone through a prepaid network, you may be locked into that network for 3-6 months. Right now I’m stuck in that situation, stuck with MetroPCS and their terrible internet coverage.
With pre-paid plans, there are massive discounts if multiple people sign up. It may be $50-60 for one line, but lots of places will sell you 2 lines for $80 or 4 lines for $100. So if you can find 3 other people to sign up, it’ll only be $25/month per person for a fairly decent network.
I used to own a samsung galaxy J7, wasn’t too impressed by it. The 16GB of internal memory meant I couldn’t download very many apps (many apps are memory hogs and you can’t move them to the external SD card). I ended up having to constantly delete apps to make room for new ones.
If I were you I’d spend the extra money on a phone with 32GB or 64GB of internal memory (as well as a microSD slot) because a lot of apps can’t be moved to the external memory card.
I, also live in a very rural area. I have had good experience with Verizon. We don’t get a cel signal out here. Probably never will. I have Hughes net wi-fi service and can use my phone on many Wi-Fi messagers. I can’t get voice calls. Altho there is a way to get Wi-Fi voice calls. I’ve never had landline service. Oh, and Samsung are good phones. IMO
You don’t say where you live. Consumer Cellular runs on two GSM networks, AT&T and T-Mobile. They have a coverage map where you can enter your zip code, but if one or the other has decent coverage where you live, you’re golden.
In turn, I first learned about it from this thread.
Well, I have a Galaxy J7 Crown, but I don’t use it for my phone phone, so I can’t tell you anything about call quality–I use it SIMless and in Airplane Mode as a Wi-Fi media device. I read epubs and manga, watch movies and TV, and take and edit photos and ideos with it. For those purposes, I love it. I have no interest in games so the 2 GB of RAM is enough. The CPU is fast enough for most anything (except transcoding videos with FFmpeg–but for that even the fastest phone processor is well short of realtime.) The photos and video aren’t as good as on a DSLR or flagship phone, but are far from bad. The model I have is for Simple Mobile, which is a 32 GB version, while most others get a 16 GB version. (I have a 64 GB MicroSD card in mine and will likely soon replace it with a 400 GB.) The resolution of 1280x720 may be low by today’s standards, but it looks damn good to me. Plus it has no stupid notch or cutout, no stupid curved screen, no stupid screen curved corners, and is in the superior 16:9 aspect ratio. I have spent a lot of time studying services and phones and when by the end of the year I need to replace my phone phone, I’m almost certain to be getting a second Galaxy J7 Crown (the 16 GB model) from Tracfone.
Location, location, location. It first depends on what carriers have good signal strength in the areas you want to use it. Ask your neighbors what they use. There are a couple online websites you might check which will provide coverage information on nearby highways: http://webcoveragemap.rootmetrics.com/en-US
If no carrier provides good coverage at your house then consider antennas and repeaters to strengthen the signal–or simply have a landline.
Once you find the carriers with the best signal then ask yourself how many minutes, messages and data you use. If you are a light or moderate user you might consider something like Tracfone (an MVNO).
In my case U.S. Cellular provides by far the best signal (they have a tower a mile and a half away while the other carriers have towers 9 or 10 miles away). However I have decided to stick with a landline for home phone use and use Tracfone (which uses Verizon in this area) for my very limited usage traveling.
I’m on Puppy Wireless, a Verizon MVNO. For $26 a month I get 5,000 minutes of talk, 5,000 text messages, and 2GB of data. As long as I don’t watch videos on mobile data I’ve never come close to using 2GB.
My phone is a Galaxy Note 4 in “excellent” condition from eBay. But Puppy is compatible with all sorts of phones.
Google Fi is easy and low cost to try out, and pretty good if you sign up. I found it did surprisingly well in my rural area where I suspected it would falter. Bonus is international data is treated as domestic in many countries, calls and txts overseas do cost a little but one can get around that easy enough with things like whatsapp.
Yes, I’m only looking at pre-paid. I don’t understand what the advantage is of signing up for a contract. I’m investigating buying an unlocked phone.
Thanks for the heads up; don’t know anyone off hand that I’d want to share a phone plan with!
Thanks again; you’ve reminded me of the “feature” I like least about my Samsung Galaxy Tab: Samsung’s ubiquitous and obnoxious bloatware. No sense having all those gigs when half or more are taken up by apps you don’t want, will never use, and can’t delete. I’m looking at Google & LG now too.
Yep, I also have Consumer Cellular and they have been fantastic.
I will also show you my phone, which works perfectly with it. It is a Huawei, which have a lot of security concerns for many people. I’ve honestly been happy and am probably pretty ignorant, but it has been a great phone at a fraction of the cost of a big expensive one.
I’m confused – you say you have had good experience with Verizon, but don’t get cell service at your place. Do you use Verizon only when traveling? That’s the position I’m in now, & I am tired of it.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to subscribe to a broadband service that provides adequate wifi (I don’t have a lot of heavy duty demands; rarely even watch movies). Judging from the local NextDoor comments, HughesNet satellite is just about the worst option around: slow, glitchy, and expensive. My sympathies if that’s the best you’ve got!
Yeah, I like my Samsung tablet, but the bloatware sucks.
I’m in NorCal, greater Grass Valley/Auburn area. The Consumer Cellular map seems to show that I would get 4G coverage from them outside and in a car, but not in a building. That’s the problem I have right now with my Verizon 3G phone.
Lordy yes, why does this have to be so complicated? I just want a phone I can use at home, with a modest data plan for when I’m on the road. I have an ancient $15/month flat fee plan with Verizon (very like Tracphone) and my landline runs about $50/month. I could save money if I could get one phone for $40/month!
Both neighbors across the street have no problems (AT&T and Verizon). My house seems to be in a local dead spot.
Yeah, that’s what I have now: landline + bare bones $15/mo Verizon cell service. Trying to enter the 21st century if I can. AT&T really hates supporting landlines.
My immediate family lives near Ukiah is an isolated valley. I’ve found, while visiting, that AT&T offers marginally better service than Verizon (I have both, one for work, the other personal), but both are pretty much 1-2 bars at best. However, over the years, I’ve noticed that the natives seem to all carry phones on U.S. Cellular, which seems to give them reasonable coverage (where coverage is possible- there are lots of dead spots).
from the forums. This one (https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=880310) was especially shocking: @Darren Garrison (thank you!) says my 9 y.o. 3G Verizon flip phone is going to drop dead in December. Clearly, it’s time to upgrade.