Best Wireless Carrier 2015 (Archive)

[rgd1101]

I had to stand outside or by a door or window to use virgin mobile calling without missing what people say. I was with virgin for 3 years and 3 phones. Iv had metro for 2 weeks I can hear people anywhere in my apartment. I live in a major city phoenix az. Virgin mobile is the worst ever, their insurance premium is 100$ on a 150$ phone.

VM use sprint. metro pcs use t-mobile.
why would you get insurance on a $150 phone?
What about google project fi? it use US Cellular, sprint and tmobile network. or wifi.

 

[Andrew_160]

Every single other website besides this one ranks AT&T last for customer service. Check your facts.

 

[Nimade]

When I was in the US I picked up a prepaid T-Mobile SIM and put $30 for the month.

My phone couldn't read the SIM. Called customer service; they said it needed to be activated and to wait 2 hours.

2 hours later; phone still couldn't read the SIM.

Called customer service again. Told me to jump in a taxi - $30 fare - and bring it into a T-Mobile shop.

I said this option was not doable and asked for a refund. Was put on hold on and off for 2 hours then told they couldn't refund me, after they had me scratch off the recharge card to activate the account.

I've traveled in developing Asian nations for years - never had a problem with a SIM.

T-Mobile's service and customer service is worse than: Indonesian, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and China.

Worst service provider I've encountered in the world. Well done you.

 

[Techguru2]

All I have recieved from Metro Pcs is deception and lies.It should have been obvious to me the second they told me that they only had a 7 day return policy on plans and phones that they would be a horrid company to deal with.Here is a copy of an email I sent to the vp of customer service-

I am currently a Metro pcs customer.After spending a large amount of money and time due to missinformation from the local metro pcs dealer.I finally had a phone and another account and plan to fit my needs.After all of this I had hoped my problems were over.The one and only reason I chose metro pcs over other providers,is they're claim of having 3g speeds after the high speed data cap is reached.Well today the cap was reached and I found that the internet became virtually unusable.After running several tests I found that I was only getting
.05 mbps.Way less than the 3g speed claimed by metro pcs.I even tried switching to 2g and found that no matter what type of data connection it was the same speed and that the 2g connection was being throttled down aswell.After talking to Cricket wireless I found that they guarantee speeds of 128kbps aka 1.28mbps after high speed data cap is used.Not 3g by any means but allot better than 05mbps provided by metropcs.I have started looking online for attorneys and class action lawsuits against Metropcs due to the amount of money,time and suffering this company has caused me.After recieving another 1gb of high speed data I decided to futher test my theory on the throttling of the 2g connection as well and found that i was correct,my speeds on 2g had increased to 2mbps as long as I was within the 1gb of high speed data.It also used data off my 1gb of high speed data when connecting to the 2g network.I do not want to have to seek legal recourse,but if not refunded i will have to move foward in doing so.

 

[rgd1101]

did Metro PCS said guaranteed of what speed? 3G is just a spec

can't find anything on Cricket wireless guarantee speed.
this is the thing I found
Cricket states, “When your data use exceeds the respective high-speed access allowance, your data download speeds will be reduced to a maximum 128Kbps for the remainder of your monthly billing cycle.”
http/www.gottabemobile.com/2015/06/21/cricket-wireless-10-things-to-know-before-you-sign-up/

 

[Techguru2]

@RGD1101 3g is standardised at 144 kbps aka 1.44 mbps or higher.

http/www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399984,00.asp

This is how metro sells they're plans with a claim of 3g speeds or higher after data cap.
Other companys claim 2g and have it in writing as u stated(Cricket-128kbps).So Metropcs is lying outright,since they're speeds only reach half of what cricket claims.

 

[Techguru2]

144kbps is the (base) standard,.Did u not read the link?

 

[Techguru2]

Also .5mbps is unusable,so they shouldn't be able to call it unlimited

 

[rgd1101]

here a real world test from a few year ago, it still call 3G even if it doesn't do mix speed
http/www.pcworld.com/article/253808/3g_and_4g_wireless_speed_showdown_which_networks_are_fastest_.html

http/www.diffen.com/difference/3G_vs_4G
https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_broadband
"The download (to the user) and upload (to the Internet) data rates given above are peak or maximum rates and end users will typically experience lower data rates."

 

[rgd1101]

"Services advertised as 3G are required to meet IMT-2000 technical standards, including standards for reliability and speed (data transfer rates). To meet the IMT-2000 standards, a system is required to provide peak data rates of at least 200 kbit/s (about 0.2 Mbit/s). "
https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G

http/www.gartner.com/it-glossary/3g-third-generation/
"3G wireless networks support peak data rates of 144 Kbps at mobile user speeds"

 

[dgillis218]

In April of 2016 I canceled my T-Mobile account. My family was moving to a location where the coverage was really bad and needed to change carriers. I still had a phone I was paying off with them, so when I kept getting bills that I got in the mail, I figured I was being billed for that phone. This made perfect sense. I knew how much I owed, so I was not worried when I tried to get online, and there was no account available. After three months I was still getting bills and decided to just pay the whole phone off in one go, so I called into the payment department. I had no reason to suspect foul play, so I did not pay as much attention as I should have to the total they quoted me. After making the final payment, the employee I was woking with told me that I still had an active line on the account. I told her that was impossible because I had closed all of the lines three months previous.
Apparently, they had kept one line open all three months. I don't know what the confusion was. I told the woman in April that I needed to completely close the account and she got all the information she needed to cancel. Today, they sent me back to the cancellation department and I was sure they would help me out and refund me the money for the service not used. It was after all, their mistake.
Imagine my surprise when the guy told me that they would cancel the service, but they would not refund me the money. He said that he could see that the service was not being used and had not been used in months, yet he said there was no "provision" to get my money back because he could not prove that the service had been canceled. Another lie. I explained to this employe that he could look up the phone conversation that they record for "quality and training purposes" and he only said that he did not want to talk around in circles and that there was nothing he could do. In shot, T-Mobile might have great prices, but the system is crooked. In my opinion, this is thievery plain and simple. STAY AWAY.

 

[Neil_26]

no ringplus?

 

[Neil_26]

Also, Cricket should be higher on the list.
Yes, the speeds are capped, but they're fast enough to do nearly everything, including streaming video on the go
And with AT&T coverage, you will get those speeds everywhere

 

[Eggy_248]

I jumped to Cricket from Verizon when I purchased my first Smartphone (Sony Xperia Z1 Compact). I made the switch because I saw that Cricket was on the AT&T network. Coverage with my phone hasn't been great because I learned after the fact that it does not support 1 or 2 of the primary AT&T bands. I've seen a couple of mentions in the above comments that Cricket's performance is poor because they cap speed at 8MBs. Is there any confirmation of this from Cricket and/or AT&T and from a speed perspective how does the AT&T outperform Cricket in a more quantitative manner from the performance tests reported in this article rated on a score of 0-50. I'd be very interested in seeing this data if the staff at Tom's Guide (one of my main g oto sites for information) would be willing to provide it. Thanks!

 

[727stretch]

Your ratings are limited in that you only evaluate performance in one city, making it N/A for anyone living in rural areas. If you tested in a rural area in the south or west, T-mob and MetroPCS would be dead last in the performance category. T-mob's network is non-existent in a lot of rural areas and small towns (even with their recent expansion). If you live in a rural area you usually need to have Verizon or AT&T or one of the discount carriers that use their networks. I use Cricket and have good coverage on the AT&T network. For the price, Cricket is an amazing value, especially their $70 unlimited plan. Their customer service call center is awful but their twitter support is great.

 

[gordokc77]

I don't know why anyone would use Cricket they are one of the worst phone carriers in the United States not to mention their phones are low grade and normally crap I guess if you live in the ghetto and have no money you would have to use them but if you don't then I wouldn't use them I got a Kyocera vibe from them and it lasted 6 months

 

[DR____L]

T-Mobile is 1st. That's friggin' hilarious!

 

[Stacey_14]

I used Tmobile for over 10 years. I began experiencing dropped calls daily & had NO access to data unless I was in a WiFi hotpot w/a full signal. The straw that broke the camels back came when my mom died & I couldn't keep a call connected for more than 30 seconds. Its hard to plan travel & funerals in 30 seconds or less. After numerous lengthy calls to customer service from my land line at work, no progress was made whatsoever. When I called to cancel service, I was threatened with huge fees & cajoled to just try a few more things for over 40 minutes before getting things disconnected. True to their word, TMOBILE has billed me ridiculous fees because I "broke my contract" after 11 years. They claimed I didn't try every possible technical Avenue to improve my signal, so I couldn't get out of my obligation. I pay a bit more for Vetizon but I can count the times I dropped a call on one hand. Customer Service is very good, and they have always worked with me if I need more time to pay. TMobile used to be good but technology has moved on & they've remained firmly rooted in place. I'm much more satisfied with Verizon. Buyer beware of TMobIles empty promises. Oh and I recently read they are now being sued in a class action lawsuit for making false claims on their data speeds. So do your homework before you commit!

 

[Yeroc_]

Sprints coverage is terrible. Even their prepaid. In an area with excellent coverage if you step inside a building your signal strength will automatically drop to 1 to 2 bars. This is abysmal for most people.

 

[Edge90]

This review is biased in so many ways...T-Mobile service doesn't even work when you are inside of a structure. Metro PCS is a city service that doesn't work consistently when traveling. Boost Mobile sucks. Sprint rips people off because there service is hit or mis, slow and often slap customers who leave because they have been lied to with big bills. Verizon does the same thing. The only difference is Verizon actually has a decent service and does not bait gadget hungry customer with device incentives as Sprint does. Going forward; I can't understand why anyone would want a CDMA telephone? At&t, Cricket in my opinion give customers the best bang for the buck. I have had all of the service I criticised. I currently use Cricket. I have travelled from California to Georgia streaming music and never dropped a beat or call... I know exactly what my monthly bill will be and I have never had a problem with my service. Why is Cricket dead last...bias. trust me this article is not to be trusted.