What are the differences between AT&T and Verizon for phone carriers?

[BethCooks4U]

We have had Verizon since we've had cell phones but we are now considering going with AT&T because of things like unlimited mobile to mobile, roll-over minutes and other things. It looks like the cost would be the same.

I'd love to hear pros and cons, how is the coverage in different areas of the country for each. Has anyone switched from one to the other?

Also there is a thread that I can't find were someone said she just got an iPhone and I think she got it with AT&T with our discount for $140 for 2 phones. I'd be interested to know what all she signed up for at that price and how she did it to get our discount.

Thanks!!

 

[kristina16marie]

We have Verizon and have never had any problem dropping calls, always full bars, etc. My mom & sis also had them but then switched to AT&T last year. I now cannot talk to my mom without having the call dropped at least 3 times, and this is just while she's sitting in the same exact spot on the couch she's always called me from when she gets home from work! IMO their coverage sucks. I couldn't imagine trying to close a show with a host or something with those kind of interruptions.

 

[BethCooks4U]

Thanks. That's the kind of thing that would make me stay. However my son LOVES AT&T and claims that he never drops a call. He lives in WI so it could be his area...

I am hoping to find someone local (I never have asked what carrier my friends and team use) to see how many bars AT&T has here in my house. I only get one bar in my home and have dropped calls - not so much since I changed phones but it happens too much (with Verizon).

 

[3girls]

I would ask some local friends to come to your house that have both carriers....It may be the phones as well. Newer phones can do a bit better than older phones. Living in the middle of farm country in Illinois, is lots of fun..Verizon doesn't work well here, but Att is better. My mom's older phone some trouble, but my iphone 4s is fantastic. I can use it in my basement with no issues. I have always had ATT for my service for over 15 years and travel quite extensively throughout the US, so I know there service is great! There are always exception to the rule though, Good luck in your quest! Of course it always comes back to your bottom line and include your business in your bottom line...cost of dropped calls, missed messages, so on....

 

[ChefNelson]

Yes, definitely check with subscribers in your local area. We have AT&T in Wisconsin too and rarely have a problem (we chose it to begin with because they offered the best coverage in the areas we traveled to most, before everyone started having service everywhere). Something to consider is also the phone type. I have been at conventions side-by-side with an iPhone user (I have a BlackBerry) and I will have FAR better reception than they do. BlackBerry, Apple, HTC, Samsung ... they all have different reputations for how they perform as a PHONE, it is worth checking them out side-by-side and considering what will be the best solution for your needs.

 

[kam]

We had AT&T for years and just recently switched last July to Verizon (we were switching to a smartphone and went with Verizon to get unlimited data). We have much worse coverage now with Verizon. Our calls drop, can't get reception in places (grocery store) where we could before, and many times I call DH and go to voice mail and call right back and he swears the phone didn't ring.

I would go back to AT&T in a heartbeat. But, it is probably just my area and it could have something to do with the actual phone, too.

 

[vanscootin]

I had been with Verizon for 16 years... when I first got a cell phone... the reason why we left them is because we kept getting data charges on our phone bills. This was before we had smart phones and just had those flip phone things. Every month there would be a data charge when we weren't using data. I would call custoemr service. And they wouldn't take it off the bill. Finally I said block all data usage from our phones thinking this would ensure we would not have any data charges. I was wrong, and their customer service was so terrible that they couldn't explain why we had data charges if it was blocked and still wouldn't take them off the bill. So we went to at&t. Then I got the bill for cancelling our "contract" which was over $200. I called their customer service and said how crappy it is that after 15 years of loyalty and paying bogus data charges, I don't feel I should have to pay the cancellation fee. Obviously, I knew I would have to, and I did pay it, but I had to share my thoughts with them. About a year after there was apparently a class action law suit against verizon and I got a random check in the mail with all the bogus data charges I had paid.

We've been with at&t for almost 3 years now and I have been very happy with their service, customer service, billing, everything. I like that we have the roll over minutes, because with verizon it's like throwing money away. The only place in town I don't have service is in the state park by the lake. And how often am I there that I want to actually be on my cell phone. And even though the savings is not that much between the two companies... it's worth more to me to be with At&t than verizon.

 

[Becca_in_MD]

It's time I start paying attention to this confusing world of phones, coverage and service plans. I pulled out my Jan. '12 Consumer Reports for their article on phones and plans. It's overwhelming. They rank the best phones for each provider. AT&T scored the lowest in satisfaction in almost all the cities in its survey. Verizon was among the more satisfying. The best carriers were US Cellular, Verizon and Sprint. I remember when I was getting my pre-paid phone a few years ago, there was a map on the T-Mobile website that showed their coverage. I would there there is a website out there somewhere the shows a comparison of coverage over the whole US.

 

[chefa]

I think you can go out to all providers sites to see their coverage. Personally, I've had AT&T since I had land lines with Southwestern Bell and never had any issues. They cover where I travel and I've always had excellent service.

 

[heather223]

I have At & T service in my home (TV, Phone, Internet) and like the service. I have Verizon for cell service and I don't drop calls. As for customer service, they suck! I added my PC discount well over 2 months ago, it shows on my account as being there, but I have yet to actually receive the 20% back! I had to call them yesterday because I got a text that my account had been blocked. Long story short- someone was trying to access my account. They couldn't tell me any information about it- AND the person placed an order!! They were to call me back with more details on that issue and also the issue with my PC discount and I have yet to get a call. I will be considering switching when our contracts are up. (Of course we just signed a new contract in Feb. so I could have the iPhone.)

 

[BethCooks4U]

Thanks for the imput. It does help to get other people's thoughts, especially since this is costly and a long commitment (2 years is a long time to be stuck if we feel we made a mistake).We aren't switching until the new iPhones come out and while I am leaning heavily to switching because the mobile to any mobile and the rollover minutes are huge benefits, DH is still thinking Verizon for two reasons: Verizon has more areas with 4g lte which the new iPhone will use and when he was unemployed he called to cancel the cells and they dropped our service to $10 per month during that time (no extras like text, data, minutes...) but still, they did help us. My arguement is we get quite fast service with 3G so at least it would be good and probably better than now while AT&T catches up with lte service areas... Haven't convinced him yet. Now he's talking that we should not only wait until the new phones come out but a month later to hear what other people experience. Ugggg. I want it NOW!!

 

[babywings76]

We use Verizon and are pretty satisfied. All my family members use Verizon w/ iPhones, so I don't think we'd switch since we can call them for free. Most of my friends use Verizon as well. It's free to call fellow Verizon subscribers and we also went online and entered in the 5 land-lines that we tend to call the most from our cells so that when we call them, they don't count either. Right now just my husband has a data plan, but his work pays for it. He's forced to use a Blackberry, though. :yuck: I'd love to get an iPhone, but I don't want to pay for a data plan right now. Too many other monthly "wants" & "needs" get in the way.

 

[esavvymom]

I have had Verizon for years and never had any problems....not wth bogus charges, or ay of the things mentioned. Id di have problems with dropped calls after 1-2 minutes when I had my blakcberry, but when I switched to a Droid two years ago, that stopped....so that must have been my phone.Anyway, one big thing I notice is that my DH has AT&T through work, and he will have LOTS more dead zones than I do. At my parents in Ohio, in the mountains, this past weekend we were at the nc zoo even (and a few in our group had the same coverage issue there)....he would have zero to maybe one bar, while I had three or more and not on "extended network". At home in the metro area (Raleigh), itis obviously not an issue. But in rural area, AT &T doesnt seem as reliable for him compared to mine.Hope that helps!

 

[vanscootin]

At my parents in Ohio, in the mountains, this past weekend we were at the nc zoo even (and a few in our group had the same coverage issue there)....he would have zero to maybe one bar, while I had three or more and not on "extended network". At home in the metro area (Raleigh), itis obviously not an issue. But in rural area, AT &T doesnt seem as reliable for him compared to mine.

Hope that helps!

I'm sure the extended network happened more than just this weekend, but I do know that At&t was updating yesterday which caused a lot of people to go to the E instead of 4g.

DH and I kind of freaked out because I was discussing this thread with him and then our phone started to have issues. LOL.

Like underwear, phone carrier preference is such a personal choice. And their marketing and specials make is so hard to choose!

 

[higoobs]

Wow I guess all companies can have dropped calls according to location. So anyway let's say Verizon and sprint do well in my area. Which is the better deal for talk, text, data?

 

[BethCooks4U]

Wow I guess all companies can have dropped calls according to location. So anyway let's say Verizon and sprint do well in my area. Which is the better deal for talk, text, data?

All of the carriers have brochures that state the charges for the packages they offer. You can get all of them at Target and probably Best Buy.

 

[PamperedChefLayla]

I have had Verizon for a loooong time with no problems they are always very accommodating when the Hubs & I travel to Mexico etc to change my data & phone plan to accommodate the locations & then change it back mid billing cycle. I think there service is great and I love that I was "grandfathered" in on the unlimited data plan.

 

[heather223]

Thanks for the imput. It does help to get other people's thoughts, especially since this is costly and a long commitment (2 years is a long time to be stuck if we feel we made a mistake).

We aren't switching until the new iPhones come out and while I am leaning heavily to switching because the mobile to any mobile and the rollover minutes are huge benefits, DH is still thinking Verizon for two reasons: Verizon has more areas with 4g lte which the new iPhone will use and when he was unemployed he called to cancel the cells and they dropped our service to $10 per month during that time (no extras like text, data, minutes...) but still, they did help us.

My arguement is we get quite fast service with 3G so at least it would be good and probably better than now while AT&T catches up with lte service areas... Haven't convinced him yet. Now he's talking that we should not only wait until the new phones come out but a month later to hear what other people experience. Ugggg. I want it NOW!!

When is a new iPhone coming out? Also, I was told by Verizon that if you have unlimited data now, once you upgrade you device (not the plan, just the device) you will loose the unlimited plan.

I also got a response on my issue with our PC discount. I was an Alltel customer that got moved to Verizon. I have kept my Alltel plan the entire time because it is just that good. (Verizon employees told me not to switch until I have no choice!) Now I have to research to see if I should switch to a current Verizon plan. It is so frustrating!

Hope you get your iPhone soon! I love mine!

 

[BethCooks4U]

They are coming out with a 4g lte version. It was supposed to be June but now I hear Sept or Oct. I think they are waiting for Verizon and AT&T to get more 4g lte coverage first.

 

[vanscootin]

When is a new iPhone coming out? Also, I was told by Verizon that if you have unlimited data now, once you upgrade you device (not the plan, just the device) you will loose the unlimited plan.

I also got a response on my issue with our PC discount. I was an Alltel customer that got moved to Verizon. I have kept my Alltel plan the entire time because it is just that good. (Verizon employees told me not to switch until I have no choice!) Now I have to research to see if I should switch to a current Verizon plan. It is so frustrating!

Hope you get your iPhone soon! I love mine!

You will be forced to switch plans when you upgrade your phone. We just had a similar situation with my mom. She moved from out of state and went to change her phone number and decided she wanted a new phone and they told her that she had to change her plan because they didn't offer that plan anymore.