Best Wireless Carrier of the Year

[micaela6955]

Living in Maine, I agree with the post above. Many of the wireless carriers have spotty service in some of the areas that are outside of the larger cities. I live about 20 miles north of Augusta, and still can get Verizon, US Cellular, Straighttalk in my area though T Mobile remains spotty and Sprint works for my area and south. When hubby was working up north he unfortunately was in areas where no local coverage was available, but now that he has transferred to working in the MA/RI area any type of coverage is great for him and there are plenty of options. I will have to check out the Google Fi for my area, as I hadn't even thought of them, although I have heard a little about it. Being a little north of Augusta, and since I travel more south these days than north, my options are not as limited.

 

[mwalls45]

AT & T Prepaid is horrible, when inside a building. And most of us who work, spend the majority of our day INSIDE A BUILDING! So you basically pay a high premium for a service, that is unusable for the most part. SPEED IS NOT GOING TO PENETRATE WALLS. 5G speeds are nothing, if they can't penetrate buildings.

 

[oneshotatlife]

I switched to Sprint from T-Mobile last year. It was the biggest mistake I have made in many years. What a pain. They have screwed up every bill I have received. I have spent over 25 hours with customer service (if you can even call it that). Most service reps can barely speak English. They continue to change my plan without my consent. They have never been able to honor the deal that I signed up for. Switching to Sprint has been a complete nightmare!!!!

 

[ledmatrix]

I'm calling bogus on this review. On StraightTalk I get 39.7 down, 3.66 up. Never had an issue with it in the year I've been using it. And now the $45 plan gets you 25GB of data. Don't experience drops or anything. Had been with US Cellular for over 15 years. Glad I dumped the grubby blood sucking vampires and switched to ST.

 

[Holger M.]

Straight Talk is actually a rally good provider, because you can choose, if you want to use Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T network with them. (This depends on your phone, of course.) If you choose the T-Mobile or AT&T network, it even roams to the respective other one, if your original network is not available.You can switch between the networks at any time, which is nice. (For this, you may have purchase a SIM kit, though.)

Generally, it makes most sense to bring your own phone. This way, you can be sure to be on the network you want. It's important to make sure that your phone supports all the bands of the network(s) to enjoy maximum coverage.

If you want to buy a phone from them, you better do some thorough research in order to figure out, which phones use which networks.
Currently, I use Straight Talk on the T-Mobile network in Southern California. Speed and coverage are fine. I switched the network from AT&T to T-Mobile, though. The 25 GB in the $45 plan are more than enough for me. There is also an unlimited data plan. The only reason, why I think of switching to Metro by T-Mobile is the lack of hot spot data.

My tip

Activation kits in the store are often overpriced. So, order the Straight Talk SIM Kit for the network, which works for you and you phone, from Walmart's website, instead. They even ship it free to the store.

Yes, Straight Talk's support is not the best, but you hardly ever use it.

Conclusion

Straight Talk can be really good, if you know what you're doing. Choose the right network/phone combination and you're golden. - If you just grab a phone off the shelf without doing the proper research, you're pretty much gambling.