So, after looking around a bit, I’m considering going with Virgin. I can get 300 talk minutes (which is still more than enough for me) and unlimited text and data for $35/month, which is still $10 less than I pay Verizon for the minimum of 450 minutes/250 texts and no data at all. (For those who missed it, I switched to 250 texts after starting this thread, so I’m now at $45/month, not $60. But still.) If I did, I’d buy a phone that’s $150, which would be paid for in a year with what I save on Verizon.
My one remaining concern is coverage. Virgin uses Sprint, and looking at their coverage map, it looks like there’s solid 3G everywhere around here (Maryland DC suburbs), but voice service is between “good” and “fair”, with only scattered patches of “best”. There are no “no service” areas around, as far as I can tell, but I have no idea what “good” or “fair” mean. Am I going to have to deal with sketchy reception and dropped calls all the time? I can count on one hand the times I’ve lost a call with Verizon, and I get reception almost everywhere. I’d like to pay less (and get more!), but crap phone service would be a sucky tradeoff.
Incidentally, I called Verizon and told them I was considering going with another provider. I explained my situation and asked if there was anything they could do for me to make it more worthwhile to stay. I thought maybe they could offer me a discount on service or a nicer phone (beyond the standard upgrade), or something. After a long time on hold, I got transferred to their “win-back” department, where I repeated my whole spiel, and was told that since I was still a customer, I should be talking to “loyalty”. They tried to transfer me again, and I got disconnected. So I called back, asked to speak to “loyalty”, and they wouldn’t transfer me at all. They just said that no, there was nothing they could do, their costs are high because they’re providing a superior network, and basically threatened that I’d be sorry if I switched because of the loss in call quality. Which of course made me want to switch just for spite.
But *will *I be sorry? How bad is Virgin/Sprint voice service?