I’ve had Sprint for about 4 years, AT&T and Verizon
before that. Sprint has the best
customer service of these companies and offers some good plans. Here’s the downside- their high speed
data. They offer unlimited data but it’s
not worth anything when I can’t access it and when I can it’s so sporadic and
slow that I can’t use it. My plan gives
me 450 mins of talk time (cell to cell, any carrier is free; after 7 is free),
unlimited data and unlimited text. Due
to a misunderstanding about Google Voice integration (I ran up an additional
$70 bill based on erroneous information given to me by Sprint customer
service), Sprint gave me an additional 300 mins every month for as long as I am
their customer.
That’s what Sprint gave me for $80 per month. So I decided to look around and here’s what I
discovered- there’s a better way.
I looked around and
decided to buy a Google Nexus 5 unlocked phone https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_5_16GB_Black?id=nexus_5_black_16gb. I’ve had good luck with the Nexus phones,
they’re usually updated quickly and the price, $349 for a 16 GB unlocked phone
that I can take almost everywhere was pretty convincing. Your mileage may vary and you may not need a
phone that accepts a SIM card, but for my plan, I did.
So, phone ordered, I looked at prepaid, no contract
plans. There are lots of them out there https://www.google.com/search?q=best+prepaid+cell+phone+plans&oq=best+prepaid+cell+phone+plans&aqs=chrome..69i57.7099j0j4&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8
but I was looking for specific things.
Unlimited calling, unlimited text, and unlimited data. I use my phone for a lot of things, tracking
mileage, work hours, research, Facebook Page management, remote assistance and
monitoring remote computers. I was
concerned about data usage. So, using
Sprint’s online tools, I reviewed my historical data usage. Even with doing all these things on my phone,
I never exceeded 2 GB of data usage per month.
Armed with this data my choice narrowed.
Since my main complaint with Sprint was slow data speeds and poor data
coverage in my area, I knew that was going to be a primary criteria for my
search.
After reviewing coverage maps for T-Mobile, Verizon and
AT&T I decided on Straight Talk. It
uses AT&T cell towers and AT&T has 4G LTE coverage in my area. It’s a nationwide plan with no roaming. Unlimited text. Unlimited data (really capped at 2.5 GB full
speed- after that the connection is throttled until the beginning of the next
billing cycle). Sounded ideal for my
needs. I ordered the $45 Unlimited
Nationwide plan and using a coupon code easily found online, ordered a microSIM
card and a month of service shipped to me overnight(coupon for free overnight
shipping), with tax it came to $55.76.
Easy instructions using the StraightTalk website had my
phone activated and online in less than 10 minutes. My seat of the pants testing shows that I
have much faster data. Call quality is
just the same (excellent). On the dog
walk this morning (where traditionally I have no service), I was able to stream
NPR weekend with no hitches or interruption and then stream music from my Google
Music account with no hitches or interruption.
My plan is to use the service for another week or two in different locales and examine
the performance. I still have my Sprint
Galaxy Nexus and will test the connections of both phones at the same time and
report back here with my findings. But
right now I’m thinking how happy I am that I will be saving $35 per month and
having better service!
Look for my next article, How I Cut The Cord or Living
Without Cable, coming soon!