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[–] Thisismyvoatusername 1 point -1 points (+0|-1) ago 

I have Verizon.

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[–] memememema 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

No cellphone since 2008 Feels good man.

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[–] pangaea 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I use MintSim. They have the cheapest single-line plans I could find anywhere. Only catch is that you have to pay for the whole year up front to get the maximum discount (no pay as you go or monthly billing). I actually prefer it this way but that could be a deal breaker for some. My single-line plan only works out to $20/month with 5GB of high speed data along with unlimited talk and text.

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[–] rottenwheel [S] ago 

Also, what network does MintSIM even use? Do they have their very own network?

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[–] pangaea ago 

T-Mobile

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[–] rottenwheel [S] ago 

This is actually an intriguing option. Given that it's prepaid, you did not give out your personal information other than your name and mailing address, correct? How did it work? How long have you been with them? How's the service overall? Speed rate? Thanks for chiming in!

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[–] pangaea 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Service is good where I live. They just need payment details along with your name and address though it might be possible to buy a sim in a brick and mortar store with cash and no payment details.

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[–] DillHoleBagHands 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

I use T-Mobile and have only experience some signal issues and I live in BFE, Indiana. Signal is still spotty farther out, but if I am going out that far, I don't bring my phone... The nearest actual city is Bloomington, and I have zero issues there. My signal is full bars 80% of the time and data is extremely fast. I did a head to head speed test with three friends, one Verizon user and two AT&T users. I ended up having the fastest phone data.

I am still on a really old prepaid plan. $30/month, Unlimited text and data, with about 100 minutes. I am a cheap bastard and I do not talk to people, so it works well for me. As far as I know, there is nothing cheaper on the market right now.

Be advised that you could be losing signal in buildings due to their construction, not the carrier. I used to always have issues with signal on campus. Big concrete buildings with steel supports do not help signal strength.

Just my two cents.

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[–] TheBuddha 1 point 1 point (+2|-1) ago 

US Cellular.

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[–] sbt2160p 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Boost Mobile isn't a carrier, it's an MVNO run by Sprint on the Sprint network.

The big question that you need to ask yourself is whether you're morally able to support one of the Big Two mobile service companies, AT&T or Verizon, and likely get good service. Or if you're willing to put up with sub-par service on T-Mobile or Sprint. It's that simple.

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[–] rottenwheel [S] ago 

TIL what MVNO means. Interesting new knowledge, thanks!

What have you heard about Sprint? Thus far there's a balance between those who say their coverage and reliability is acceptable and the others who say it is not worth it and I should not ever try migrating over to Sprint.

Morally speaking I'm going after this kind of handcrafted, local carrier that doesn't happen to have as many customers as the biggest counterparts. Read: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile or even Sprint itself, yet preserves the functionality intact and has great deals. I keep hearing bad things regarding MetroPCS and Cricket. The former for being just not reliable at all and the latter because it's filled with latinos, lol. That leaves me with Boost Mobile only, as the 'best' option out there to avoid filling rich pockets and receive a good service.

When writing those big companies, I came to the thought Sprint is somewhat the smallest of the biggest, what do you think? Both T-Mobile and Sprind seem to be the smaller, compared to the others. I pursue an ethical company (irony...)

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[–] sbt2160p 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Sprint is very location specific, much like T-Mobile. It's a toss-up on whether they're good in a particular area or not. Maybe check RootMetrics' website for details on performance in the areas you're interested in. They have a lot of data and a good coverage map.

http://www.rootmetrics.com/en-US/home

And again regarding MVNOs... MetroPCS is just T-Mobile. Cricket is AT&T. Boost Mobile is Sprint. There pretty much are no small, local carriers like what you're seeking.

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[–] PraiseIPU 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Tmo

Truck driver been all over the country. Rarely have signal problems. Occasional data dead spots though like you.

The phone also matters. Some of my phones (blackberry, LG, Blu) won't pull signal while a my gfs moto gets perfect signal.

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[–] Xicronic 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

My parents have a Sprint family plan so I'm on it, the service is pretty terrible. IMO Verizon would be the highest quality provider (and maybe the only real option in some rural areas) but they are also pricey. Once I finish college and self-sustain I plan to go T-Mobile since they use GSM and let you unlock the bootloader, so it is easiest to get a custom ROM and root.

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[–] rottenwheel [S] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Do you mind disclosing where you live, whether suburbs or big city? I keep hearing Sprint is unreliable in terms of coverage, yet others have said otherwise in both cases: Sprint and Boost Mobile, piggybacking their network services, as you may know.

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[–] Xicronic 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

I visit family during the weekend so I'm usually in a big city during the school week and in the suburbs during the weekend. I get LTE most of the time in the city and a mix of LTE and 3G in the suburbs. But the connection is very spotty if you are indoors or in a car, for example I will usually not receive texts while I'm at the mall until I go outside. And the connection speed is a joke. We have unlimited high speed data and with a full bar LTE connection I can download files at 50-800 KB/s, usually hovering around 200 KB/s. As a "power user" I am unsatisfied but if you only text you'd probably be fine.

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