My question: should I switch from VZW to AT&T? I have the unlimited data plan with VZW, I barely get close to 1.5gbs of use even with LTE. My wife has AT&T with the unlimited data plan as well. We could save about 40 dollars a month if I make the switch, plus I really want this phone. I had the razr maxx and the battery life is amazing but I gave that up and went back to a iPhone 4s. I love the camera, what can I say. Anyway, what are y'alls opinions on making the switch, I am located in Tampa so there is LTE here. Thanks in advance
Honestly I LOVE my AT&T One X. BUT I don't know that I would leave Unlimited Data in an LTE area... I think the best thing you could do is wait for Verizon to release their version of the Galaxy S III and go for that on Verizon.
I'm not trolling the GSIII I just think leaving Unlimited Data if you are happy with your current coverage with Verizon would be a big hit. Plus with how fast LTE is and how much data you could consume... If you weren't on Unlimited and AT&T gave you good coverage in your area, I would say go for the One X, it's an amazing phone.
Just my Opinion.
..Gromet
I may be biased. I work for att, but not for mobility. Here is my experience though. I am in Dallas so LTE for both verizon and ATT.
ATT:
LTE speeds are amazing. 30 mbps down 18 mbps up. (no network congestion)
4G speeds are good. 8 mbps down 2 mbps up.
LTE coverage is limited but 4g speeds make up for it. If you live in a coverage area, then this phone is great.
Customer service has always been helpful to me. Never considered any of them retards but some are uneducated. To them it is a job, for us it is a passion so there will always be that difference there.
Verizon:
LTE speeds are decent. 15 mbps down 8 mbps up.
3G/ CDMA speeds are horrible!!! 1 mbps down 200kbps up
Wide LTE network but with very weak signal. (cant penetrate office building or apartment or carport.)
If you dont get LTE, your data acts like a slug stuck in maple syrup.
Customer service is atrocious.
Little side story:
Switched to verizon on jan 1st for the galaxy nexus. I had ATT port my number over to verizon and they set up my account with auto-billing. I loved the phone, and out doors the speeds were pretty good. ATT disconnected my account and I paid the ETF of like 200 bucks. Over the next 5 days i was plagued with issues. No data indoors. No voice indoors. Kept dropping LTE while i was in the dark red LTE coverage map. I ended up returning the phone on the 5th of January.
Called ATT and they ported my number back and closed out my Verizon account. I returned the phone and the box under their "No worry guarantee" that states no ETF or charges in the first 14 days if you arent happy with service. ATT took me back with open arms and acted like it never happened. Instant refund of ETF, kept my grandfathered unlimited data.
March 8th Verizon charged 472.58 for the ETF and one month of service... I have called every 5 days to get my money back... still havent received my check. Worst customer service ever.
This actually got me fired back up. Just filed a BBB complaint.
On a side note:
The one X is a great phone. I would take it hands down to an iPhone. I am not a fanboy of any phone. Ive had them all. Its for the sure, the best android phone i have owned. iPhone is still more user friendly but this phone has the power. The camera on this beast is purely amazing. My gf has the iphone 4s and she likes my camera more.
Interesting - I face(d) a similar dilemma...
I'm in Columbus, OH so I've gotten used to verizon lte for over a year now. I've been more than pleased with verizon's service in general I'm not sure how at&t's service is here but we'll see..... I have a feeling their HSPA+ here sucks, I know their latency/ping times historically have been bad here. I'm confident LTE will be here by the end of the year though.
Basically at this point at&t has some phones I really wish vzw had - lumia, gnote, and of course the one x.
That said, I just took the plunge last night for the $130 gray one x on amazon it just seems awesome and my droid charge isn't cutting it (since my razr went through the washing machine )
I'm going to have to pay a $200 ETF on verizon, but that plus the price of the one x is the same or less than I'd be paying even if I bought a used galaxy nexus off craigslist. If at&t's service ends up sucking, I'll get out of the contract within 30 days, port my number back over to verizon where I'd technically be considered a new customer and I could get a brand new subsidized phone much cheaper than if I stayed and went craigslist route off contract.
oh by the way - I really miss simply swapping sim cards between GSM phones. Verizon makes a B to switch phones, even with the 4g LTE phones which use the SIM, you can't reuse your old sim ever, you always have to get a new one, its ridiculous.
Pick your carrier based coverage, not a single device. Every one of the "big 4" carriers are picking up a phone in the One series, so its a good bet that Verizon will follow suit and release a version of the One, or something very similar.
If your wife gets good reception in your area, and losing the unlimited data plan is not an issue (which it doesn't sound like it is), then by all means switch. Saving $40 a month is significant. But just anecdotal experience, AT&T coverage is awful in many places where Verizon gets full bars. You'll find spots where one carrier is better than another, and vice versa. But overall, its my experience that Verizon gets signal in more places than AT&T, particularly in less settled rural areas. I was on a trip in Alabama with friends last year. The Verizon folks in my group had full bars and fast 3G. I had no data, and could barely even make a voice call (with sound breaking up and dropped calls) on AT&T.
redpoint73 said:
Pick your carrier based coverage, not a single device. Every one of the "big 4" carriers are picking up a phone in the One series, so its a good bet that Verizon will follow suit and release a version of the One, or something very similar.
If your wife gets good reception in your area, and losing the unlimited data plan is not an issue (which it doesn't sound like it is), then by all means switch. Saving $40 a month is significant. But just anecdotal experience, AT&T coverage is awful in many places where Verizon gets full bars. You'll find spots where one carrier is better than another, and vice versa. But overall, its my experience that Verizon gets signal in more places than AT&T, particularly in less settled rural areas. I was on a trip in Alabama with friends last year. The Verizon folks in my group had full bars and fast 3G. I had no data, and could barely even make a voice call (with sound breaking up and dropped calls) on AT&T.
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Actually HTC confirmed that Verizon won't be carrying any of the one series. But to the OP, I think you should stay with Verizon cause you have a sweet deal. Unlimited data with LTE and good coverage? Don't give that up that would be a mistake in my opinion. Like someone else said I think you should wait for the Verizon LTE version of the Samung Galaxy S III
Good points made by all - I'm personally tired of verizon skipping out on quality phones. They won't carry the one x because they want to feature the droid incredible lte - what a joke, I don't want a 4" phone. Verizon doesn't like WP7 and won't have the lumia for the foreseeable future. THey didn't carry the galaxy note, they didn't carry the SGII because of the galaxy nexus, etc... I'm tired of all the "droid" line of phones too, that terminology is old and annoying.
All that said the actual carrier IS very important - if at&t sucks, I'll switch back. I don't use LTE or mobile data enough for my unlimited data to matter to me.
I feel the same way about the droid line.... Let me know how it goes with AT&T dude. I'll wait for know
Think long term. If you give up your unlimited plan, chances are you will not be able to get it back. Regardless of if you use sub-2gb/mo now, you will definitely use more in years to come. Mobile data usage will only increase as carriers try to push cloud services, streaming services increasingly stream at higher bitrates, and so on. You don't want to get caught with your pants down tomorrow because you decided to save $40/mo today.
Likewise, consider what you would be trading it for - a phone that will become mediocre within a year, and completely replaceable by the time your contract expires. Will it really be worth it?
If you have unlimited, keep it.
I have been testing the theory that I can upload all of my media to the cloud and use google music or similar. So what I did was upload my media (appx 14gb), took out my external sd card (Captivate I-897) and started using the streaming service on 5/9/12.
Proir to the test I was at max hitting 1gb per month on my unlimited data plan.
In less than one week streaming my media..... 1.5gb! I will easily go over 5gb in a month and expect to be throttled.
I really like the One-X, but it is becoming clear that it won't work for me with only 10gb of usable storage.
I don't keep anything on my phone. Maybe like 20 songs max. I use it for email, web and talking. I will have to see I guess.
eakrish said:
I don't keep anything on my phone. Maybe like 20 songs max. I use it for email, web and talking. I will have to see I guess.
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Yeah, maybe your current usage needs don't exceed the base and thus make unlimited seem unnecessary. But typical data usage has increased over time, not decreased, so if tiers stay the same there will be many people crossing the base data plan threshold into overage territory.
I just think unlimited is worthwhile to keep in this climate of increased cloud usage.
barondebxl said:
Actually HTC confirmed that Verizon won't be carrying any of the one series.
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Some websites are calling the Incredible 4G LTE just a repackaged One S. Although agreed, its a budget phone, and not on the same level as the One X.
Really odd to see people complaining about the Android lineup on Verizon, and talking about jumping to AT&T. AT&T has always been a joke as far as Android support. They just happen to have one good phone right now.
redpoint73 said:
Really odd to see people complaining about the Android lineup on Verizon, and talking about jumping to AT&T. AT&T has always been a joke as far as Android support. They just happen to have one good phone right now.
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Really, just one good Android phone? They've always had better phones than VZW. VZW carries like 1 HTC, 14 Motorola's, and if you're lucky 1 or 2 sub-par Samsung devices a year. Not to mention the CDMA Galaxy Nexus on VZW is a joke. Was the rumor of Google no longer supporting the Galaxy Nexus true?
dale_cooper said:
Interesting - I face(d) a similar dilemma...
I'm in Columbus, OH so I've gotten used to verizon lte for over a year now. I've been more than pleased with verizon's service in general I'm not sure how at&t's service is here but we'll see..... I have a feeling their HSPA+ here sucks, I know their latency/ping times historically have been bad here. I'm confident LTE will be here by the end of the year though.
Basically at this point at&t has some phones I really wish vzw had - lumia, gnote, and of course the one x.
That said, I just took the plunge last night for the $130 gray one x on amazon it just seems awesome and my droid charge isn't cutting it (since my razr went through the washing machine )
I'm going to have to pay a $200 ETF on verizon, but that plus the price of the one x is the same or less than I'd be paying even if I bought a used galaxy nexus off craigslist. If at&t's service ends up sucking, I'll get out of the contract within 30 days, port my number back over to verizon where I'd technically be considered a new customer and I could get a brand new subsidized phone much cheaper than if I stayed and went craigslist route off contract.
oh by the way - I really miss simply swapping sim cards between GSM phones. Verizon makes a B to switch phones, even with the 4g LTE phones which use the SIM, you can't reuse your old sim ever, you always have to get a new one, its ridiculous.
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Just an FYI, with the 4G LTE devices on Verizon, you can swap SIM cards no problem. I have switched between probably 5 or 6 different phones without issue.
Y2J
I dumped att and decided to try Verizon and razr maxx, ended up returning maxx and going back to att for the hox. I agree about there not being great devices on Verizon( at this time at least). Even though I live in a Verizon lte area my data speeds seem similar on att....why I have no idea. Anyhow I use wifi a lot, so really unless it was really lagging I don't care.
I do want to add just like a previous poster on this thread Verizon tried to hit me with a bill for $466 for 8 days of service. They were trying to say I did not return phone. Well luckily I still had return receipt, but it took a lot of phone calls.
I called up Verizon and they offered me a free upgrade to whatever LTE device I wanted plus 100 dollars off, what should I get?
Wait for the g3?
I have until the 31st of May....
Unfortunately they really don't have any lte devices worth a crap besides the GN.
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Does anyone know how i could possibly get this done? I've had my phone flashed to page plus with 3g and its working okay, but i would like to switch to another carrier and still have 3g speeds
You could try Craigslist. Just make sure you do your trade with somebody at the store and make sure the ESN is clean and you trust the person.
I've currently got my GS3 on there and have had a handful of responses. Unfortunately nobody wanting to trade for the DNA that I'm after.
I traded from T-Mobile S3 to Verizon S3. It wasn't a "trade" per say. I sold my TMo S3 on craigslist, and used the money to buy a Verizon S3 an hour later.
I too am looking to get a DNA. I need that unlocked 3G GSM feature while I travel overseas next month.
I did this going from Sprint to Verizon on Craigslist. Should have no problem, just make sure the ESN is clean. I believe Verizon has a website that you can use the verify the ESN...
You made 2 threads for the same thing. Advice has been given
Threads closed
I have what I think may be a complicated question which I can't seem to find the answer to regarding T-Mobile's promo with paying your previous carrier's Early Termination Fee. I'm thinking of switching from Verizon to T-Mobile and currently have a Galaxy S4. I understand in order to qualify for the promotional phone prices you need to trade-in your old device.
Here's the Question of the day...
Before switching over to T-Mobile, can I just swap/activate my (Verizon) Samsung Galaxy S4 with my old (Verizon) Samsung Stratosphere, so THAT'S the phone they take from me? Because I would love to keep my Galaxy S4 to sell or even for just play!
So, in other words...
Does the phone you trade in to T-Mobile NEED to be the exact same model that you had when starting/renewing your most recent 2 year contract with Verizon you think?
calebcabob said:
IDoes the phone you trade in to T-Mobile NEED to be the exact same model that you had when starting/renewing your most recent 2 year contract with Verizon you think?
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I recently made the switch from Verizon to T-Mobile (best decision I've made in my life). I didn't do the ETF promotion, since I made the switch the day after my contract was over and was bringing my own device. I don't remember exactly what was involved, but I remember that they needed access to my Verizon account info (not just my phone number). I remember having to go to VZW's website on my phone, looking for a previous bill that had my full account number on it, so they could put it in their computer and port everything over to their service.
Seeing as how the Stratosphere is 4 years old, and they'll have at least some access to your account information, I really doubt that they'll take your old phone instead of your S4. I can't say for certain, obviously, but I really, really doubt it. I would venture to guess that when you grant them at least some access to your account, they can also see what phone you're on contract with. While the way to "sway/activate" your device is simply swap which phone your SIM card is in, I think they'll still know that you're on contract for the S4, and not the 4 year old Stratosphere.
FWIW, paying the ETF fees for Verizon might be better than simply turning over your S4, but that depends on how much you have left on your contract. If it costs, say, $250 to break your contract, and your phone is in good condition, it might be prudent to pay the ETF and sell the phone after making the switch. But I don't think you'll be able to pull one over on T-Mobile and give them your dinosaur phone. Either you'll have to finish your contract or pay the ETF to keep your phone, or you'll have to turn in in to T-Mobile to have them pay the ETF.
I happily stuck it to "Big Red" when I switched. I needed a warranty replacement on my Droid Razr Maxx (the battery was about to explode). So I went to the store, but the entire country was out, so they had to send me a Razr Maxx HD instead. The day I received the replacement was the day my contract was up, so I switched to T-Mobile, sent back my Razr Maxx, and sold the Maxx HD on eBay for $275. Speeds and coverage in Tucson with T-Mo is better than Verizon, it's cheaper, and I have UNLIMITED EVERYTYING. Best decision of my life.
Note: I take no responsibility if you try this and it doesn't work for you...
So this was totally accidental. But I essentially bought my Note 5 for $300 after trading in two other devices for it. I ordered the note 5 on the edge plan so I could take advantage of the $200 device trade-in. As soon as I got the phone, I paid off the remaining balance so that my monthly fee essentially stayed the same (actually, it somehow got cheaper). In essence, I bought the phone outright for $496 plus tax.
But then about a week or so later, I received a text message saying "Congratulations on buying a new Note 5, you are now eligible for a $200 trade-in" along with a promo code to enter at their website. Mind you, I was skeptical at first since I already traded a phone in, but I went ahead and gave it a shot anyway figuring I've got nothing to lose. I went to the website and put in the promo code (the value of my trade-in device jumped from $1 to $200 lol), received the packaging material in the mail, sent in a pos phone, and received a $200 verizon gift card. This brought my total out of pocket with tax down to $330 for a brand new Note 5. My next step is convincing them to unlock it as I will be doing a lot of international travelling and if they think I'm going to be paying Verizon international roaming fees they are out of their damn minds.
So while I hate Verizon for locking bootloaders, disabling features, and blocking Samsung pay, along with all of their other gimmicks, I am at least a little internally satisfied that I DID get my money's worth on this particular phone. Thank you Verizon. You still suck!
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I did something similar. About to send in my m7 and s3
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Verizon phones are globally unlocked now I believe. Has been that way for a while now.
This has been true for the past few releases since the note 2. However nobody I have talked to at Verizon has been able to give me a straight answer on whether or not the note 5 is factory unlocked which raises my suspicion. In the past, that information was readily available and was actually used as a selling point.
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I got the same text. I wish I had a junk smartphone laying around. I thought about buying a phone on ebay, but didn't want to take the risk.
toskabab said:
This has been true for the past few releases since the note 2. However nobody I have talked to at Verizon has been able to give me a straight answer on whether or not the note 5 is factory unlocked which raises my suspicion. In the past, that information was readily available and was actually used as a selling point.
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It is def unlocked. Verizon was forced to unlock all LTE phones. It was part of an agreement for frequencies or bands.
Due to Lte 700 Mhz C block rules, the Verizon LTE phones have been sim/carrier unlocked.
That doesn't mean it supports all LTE bands though. You have to check the bands the phones support if you want to use them on another carrier.
I found this cool website willmyphonework.net. to check for frequencies in various countries.
Verizon Note 5 is sim unlocked but i believe they have Knox locked. Meaning you cant root the device and install custom ROMs.
This worked for me!
Thanks!
If you are on one of old's Verizon plan, I am on 1400 family plan, then I upgraded my wife's and my sister in law's phones to note 5 through Costco in California and they signed 2 years contract and got the phones subsidized at $277 including tax with free external charger. I didn't lose my unlimited data either when they upgraded.
I have edge plus that I bought at full price from best buy
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