[question] Cell phone service

If you don't care about the latest and greatest buy a $400 or less unlocked smartphone. These phones are 90% as good as the flagship $800 phones.

 

You were still paying full price, and possibly even more, for your phone when you were on a subsidized plan. The money you paid was just disguised as higher cellular service costs. Regardless of how long you kept your phone on the old plans, your bill would stay the same. On the new plans, once your phone is paid off your bill will go down by the amount of the payment.

 

Some carriers have a "Jump" program where you pay the monthly payments and can upgrade to a newer phone for a higher monthly payment. So unless you plan on upgrading to the latest and greatest often, paying outright is the same as paying monthly.

 

As with all consumer goods, quality and price are both measurable values. I've found that Verizon and ATT have noticeably better signal strength and coverage vs all other carriers. That's why they can and do charge more for monthly rates. So, there is a legitimate value in superior signal quality to those two.

That may or may not be a concern for you.

 

All carriers have practically eliminated 2 year contracts with the exception of Sprint. You're better off calling AT&T to pretend to cancel, and getting on one of their retention plans.

 

This.

 

I think this might be industry wide, as Verizon refused to port my Galaxy Note II over from Sprint and I just went ahead and paid outright for a new phone rather than have an extra $20/month note.

 

They wouldn't have been able to port a Sprint Note 2 anyway, regardless of the contract change. Sprint has ESN locks on old phones like that so you could only move it on Sprint or Sprint MVNOs.

Verizon is actually legally required to keep in open access device policy. That requirement (along with a specific net neutrality requirement) was tied to the 700 mhz auction of the Lower C block that Verizon bought. This is also why all Verizon phones are always unlocked. Again tied to those same rules. You can thank Google for that as they are responsible for those rules being imposed on Verizon.

 

I was able to get the 6s last year on a discounted, but it was way trickier than usual. It seemed like they were moving to no longer doing it.

Which is disappointing, as I am grandfathered unlimited data with AT&T, so the unlimited data + discounted phone made it more than worthwhile to stay with them.

Not in the market for another new phone for 1-2 more years. Not looking forward to paying full price for a phone...

 

I'm on Cricket. $100/M for 5 lines unlimited voice/txt/data (though slowed after 2GB per line).

Depending on your wants and needs, there are lots of good phones for under $200, and serviceable smartphones under $50.

 

I love Cricket's service, but their service sucks in Toyota Center, and the 8MB cap pisses me off sometimes.

I moved over to Metro PCS since they had a $30/6GB per line family plan back in April, and notice the difference in data coverage. I NEVER went to 3G on Cricket, yet got it on the 3rd day on Metro PCS.

 

https://ting.com/

Thought about switching to these guys. Can customize your phone plan and avoid costs with stuff you don't want or use as frequently. Can't vouch for their quality but recently came across them.

 

ATT is the most expensive... But their subsidized plans were a joke before... At least on Next (if you didn't buy the phone outright), there's an actual end date to the extra fee (for the 2 years, I mean before they were charging an extra $40 on a shared plan indefinitely). Now On ATT, Next is the way to go though.. Not paying anything more than the phone is worth and can pay remaining payments at anytime to get your next phone (so no contract/termination).

On a side note, I didn't realize grandfathered unlimited plans were worth money to sell/transfer on ATT (so if anyone has one look into it). I dumped mine a while ago because the throttling of the unlimited data was brutal.

I'm thinking sprint/t-mobile might offer the best plans. But haven't looked, I'm on a discounted plan through employer for att

 

I use them. There might be cheaper plans out there, but the service is good and their online tools are up-to-date. I believe they use Sprint and T-Mobile networks.

 

Could never use them. I had prepaid T-Mobile before moving to Cricket and their network was awful for me (data & voice).

There are a few places I have issues with coverage with Cricket, but Straight-Talk/Verizon doesn't have the same discounts for family plans.