Phones Heads Up

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by OhTom

This is an interesting thread to me. We live in a rural area in E. Ohio. The only cellular coverage we can really count on is Verizon. In the past we tried using their MiFi for our internet(no cable). It kept saying we were using above our allotment, bumping us up to larger plans. So I tried an experiment and shut off our Mifi(even removed the sim card), shut off the internet in our phones. Waited a week or two before going into Verizon to check our usage. Oddly, it showed the same amount of excessive data usage. The verizon rep had no answer as to why, agreed to let us out of our MiFi contract, but refused to refund any of our previous billing. I've never felt the same about the company since, but they are the only coverage for cell phone that we can depend on, here at home (we have had friends here with AT &T and Sprint-neither had service). We have since found a wireless provider for our internet that is mostly dependable and can watch Netflix or You Tube for $35/month. Verizon was charging us $250/month for 2 phones and 20 Gig of data for our internet that almost NEVER worked.
So , I am hoping someone here will have a good solution for when we start to travel.

Thomas,

Your situation is not explainable though Netflix can chew through any data plan. When we gave up broadcast TV and first switched to streamed TV we were using over 100 gigabytes of data a month.

I was wondering what provider you are now using.

[Uplander]

Interesting topic...I find that coverage is far more important than some other features. My primary reason to own a cell phone is to call and be called.
Coverage maps often fail to note the many blind spots with no coverage.
I live in the Adirondacks in upstate NY and also spend a lot of time in Northern
Maine and most companies offer little coverage, spotty coverage or no coverage at all. My advise is not to trust their coverage maps or the tall tales the sales people spin when you ask about coverage.

If the phone companies would just switch to satellite based systems and give up their antique cell towers things might improve. As I understand it Europe does not rely on cell towers but satellite based systems for proper coverage.

If you live and/or camp in the boonies you already know the penalty you must pay for peace, quiet and country living...it can all be frightening when you can't call 911 or anyone else in a life and death emergency.
Where I live even land lines are unreliable.

Good Luck whatever plan you choose!!

[OhTom]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Thomas,

Your situation is not explainable though Netflix can chew through any data plan. When we gave up broadcast TV and first switched to streamed TV we were using over 100 gigabytes of data a month.

I was wondering what provider you are now using.

Hi Norm,

Our current provider is Verizon for cellular (no choice due to reception) and when they had our internet, it would never load hardly anything, let alone a video.
Our internet provider now is a very small 3-4 person(RAA Data Svc) company that has a tower in the next town over. He puts up relays where possible and then aligns a receiver on the side of your home, cabled to a switch inside and your router. The owner is a character, a hard working entrepreneur, that said "every customer is $1 a day, doesn't sound like much of a living, until you add up all the customers".
I can't tell you how exciting it was to be able to watch a movie here without driving to a video rental store--magic. It reminded me of when I was a boy and a neighbor had the first color tv. None of the area stations were broadcasting in color yet, so we all went over and watched the static in color (red, blue, green).
Armstrong Cable stops 2 houses away. I went to their office and asked what it would take to get the cable up to our house (say 400' max) and the manager quoted me $9000.00, and that would just get it to the pole in the cornfield across the street ! Then I would also have to pay to run across the street and then the 175' down to our house. Needless to say....

[Uplander]

Cable ??? I had cable TV and could not wait to get rid of it. I switched to Direct TV and I can say it is the best run company I have ever delt with.
Cost and variety beats cable hands down. Cable is just overpriced.
Direct TV= better picture quality, greater variety, better sound quality and fantastic HD clarity!!! Plus great customer service.
Everyone who switched to Direct TV from cable at my suggestion is 100% happy.

[Roger C H]

Our son bought us a T Mobile phone while we were visiting him in Honolulu several years ago.
We have kept up the subscription ever since. Once a year we renew for $100 for 1000 minutes. That works out to $8/month. We hardly ever use it but they do carry over unused minutes if you don't let the subscription lapse. Coverage isn't the best, but it suits our needs.
For internet on the road, we use our laptop at McDonald's or other restaurants that have WIFI connection.

[Roy in TO]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Thanks son, I see the coverage maps, Quite interesting. T-Mobile shows coverage in Canada on their maps, probably using a local carrier.

I suggest you ask T-Mobile who their roaming arrangement is within Canada. Then check which bands/services their arrangements provide.

We only have a few actual carriers here, many of the companies resell the biggies.

[Johnny M]

With declining service at home from Verizon over several years even with a range extender hooked to DSL, we switched to Consumer Cellular which is on the ATT network and we couldn't be happier! No contract, low cost build your own plans of talk & data, great reception, and 2 new smart phones for me & wife for well under $200 and we have no complaints! Our bill is now half what it was

[Raz]

Looking for a phone for on the road, I asked here. From the the responses we went with Tracfon. A simple phone was $20. For $20 we get 90 days and 120-150 minutes. Ours is a GSM phone so I suspect it uses AT&T. So far, so good but I'm told if you need customer assistance you will need to learn a new language.

Up until recently the only way we could get internet at home was a Verizon mifi. While the technology is fast, our data rate was slow. At times close to dial up slow. Lots of folks on with insufficient capacity. I doubt T mobile would be different. So while they advertise free streaming, will they have the capacity to pull it off?

[gordon2]

Originally Posted by Johnny M

... we switched to Consumer Cellular which is on the ATT network and we couldn't be happier! ...

I've been with CC also for a few years now.. two lines that share up to 750 minutes, text and very limited internet (30 MB, yes MB not Gig)...

All for under $38 a month.

CC is great for people who are generally light uses of their phones, and do not stream video or use other very intensive internet services. And for people who, while generally are light uses, do have occasional spikes in usage. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at anytime. No contract or roaming charge. Thats me - I use my cell phone hardly at all for a few months, then hit the road and use it a lot. (BTW, line 2 is used regularly)

Consumer Cellular operates on two different networks: AT&T and T-Mobile. I have found AT&T coverage good for the most part. Not as extensive as Verizon, but in the areas I go it is fine.

CC plans do go lower in cost than what I am paying so its not unreasonable to have a CC phone as a back up - one that might work on the AT&T (or T-Mobile) network when your primary phone does not.

I recently upgraded from a 5 year old 3G phone to a Moto G (gen 3) LTE phone and I am very happy with it. These phones do cost $175-$229, a cost that should be factored in. Thats an additional $3.82 a month if I keep the phone for five years. There are other options for phones of course.

[Uplander]

This might be slightly off subject but I did see a few posts about streaming and television viewing. I'm low tech so the only streaming I do is for trout. The television viewing thing for me is not that important when camping but full timers do need something. If my roof antenna does not find a station or two to watch then I do not watch TV...however I did note that my latest junk mail delivery had another Camping World brochure that featured several roof top "dome-shaped" devices that were television receivers for Direct TV or Dish TV from the satellites....seemed a little costly but might be an answer if now that Direct TV has merged with AT$T they might offer both television, telephone and perhaps data in a package. If such a full service package was available it might be perfect for full timers living the RV life!

This high tech world is becoming too much to keep up with.
I Boondocking to escape this techno-Merry-go-round world.

Happy Camping!