[ale] fyi - cheaper way to add a smart phone to verizon account
Neal Rhodes
neal at mnopltd.com
Mon Jul 15 11:32:52 EDT 2013
I have historically agreed on your view that Verizon has the best
coverage in the sticks.
However, we are now several months into a comparison of Verizon and Ting
(Sprint). When we are traveling in the motorhome, we use my Verizon
phone for WIFI, (for three notebooks, one tablet, and her phone) and
my wife's Ting (Sprint) phone for voice. We have one Wilson Sleek
cell repeater/amplifier with the little mag mount antenna.
We have found this to be an excellent comparison of actual coverage
between carriers.
http://www.rootmetrics.com/check-coverage/
Thus far, we have yet to find somewhere that the Ting phone doesn't work
for voice and the Verizon phone does. Note that if you read the fine
print, Ting, being CDMA, will roam on the Verizon network for voice.
This includes a 3 hour client conference call while parked at a turnout
on the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia where I
think it was 20 miles line-o-sight to the cell tower in some town
waaaaaay down the mountain. That's a new definition of nuthin'.
By definition, we don't camp in major metro areas. Yes, the Wilson
repeater does provide about 1.5 more signal bars than without. Still,
we're getting good voice out of the Ting phone.
The downfall of Ting is you are still locked into a CDMA phone. The
apparent upfall of Ting is you can roam on the best nationwide voice
network. And you definitely do NOT want to use a lot of data with
Ting. The whole point is it's cheap for voice but still allows you to
have a smart phone with minimal data costs.
I can justify the single grandfathered unlimited data Verizon phone as a
company expense. When we've got two corporate client notebooks using
it as their network access for VPN, I have no flamin' idea how much data
is sloshing back and forth. And I don't care, because apparently with
4G, Verizon has no cap on tethered WIFI data. It also gives us a
fallback at no extra cost if our DSL dies. Like when the power went
out a couple weeks ago and we had to finish a software release by
candlelight.
On Sun, 2013-07-14 at 22:47 -0400, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> In my opinion, Verizon is the best for working out in the boonies. My folks are in Jasper and my wifes' are in north central Ohio. Verizon is the only thing that works. (Haven't tried ATT. Don't like them.) That's one reason I keep it. Ting works on the Sprint network. If they had coverage out there, I might switch. But, you still pay $ 60 / mo for 3 GB of data I think. As it is, I still have two dumb verizon phones and a myfi 4g modem that I only pay to turn on when I'm on a trip to Ohio. Otherwise, I have to stick to wifi.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron
>
>
> Neal Rhodes <neal at mnopltd.com> wrote:
>
> >I couldn't make the Verizon Shared device dollar numbers work to my
> >advantage and got my wife a phone from ting. So far it's just fine if
> >you consciously don't use the data size much. (i.e. use wifi when
> >possible)
> >
> >I'm retaining my Verizon unlimited account for the time being until
> >they
> >really piss me off. But it's getting harder and harder to cost
> >justify.
> >
> >On Sun, 2013-07-14 at 18:08 -0500, Brian Mathis wrote:
> >> I was looking into Share Everything for my parents, and after running
> >> the numbers (and seeing other comments online), those plans are only
> >> designed to get more money out of you. It might be worth it for a
> >> family of four where everyone has their own phone and some members
> >use
> >> a lot while others don't, but for one or two people, it just didn't
> >> seem to make sense.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ❧ Brian Mathis
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
> >> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> This message is for those of you, if any, who have verizon
> >and
> >> don't have any smart phones on your plan. I have an old
> >> family share plan with two dumb phones, 750 shared minutes,
> >> and 250 text messages on one phone. I talked to a verizon
> >rep
> >> yesterday to see what my smartphone options are.
> >>
> >> For purposes of this discussion, I'm talking about bringing
> >my
> >> own used device rather than buying one from verizon.
> >>
> >> One option they rave about is the share everything unlimited
> >> plan. For this, the dumb phone costs $ 30 / mo, the smart
> >> phone costs $ 40 / mo, and the 2 GB (used to be 3) data plan
> >> costs $ 60 / mo. So, that totals to $ 130 / mo.
> >>
> >> However, the rep said I could actually keep my old plan,
> >which
> >> costs $ 75 / mo, and add a smart phone for $ 30 / mo. So,
> >> that only adds up to $ 105 / mo. So, while I would not have
> >> unlimited minutes and texts, and would still have 2 GB of
> >> data, that's $ 25 / mo cheaper. I don't know if I'll do
> >this,
> >> since I can still use my tablet at wifi hotspots. But, I
> >> thought I'd pass it along.
> >>
> >> Sincerely,
> >>
> >> Ron
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard
> >> and K-9 Mail.
> >> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch
> >> screen.
> >>
> >> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you
> >> might want to
> >> call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from
> >> alternate energy
> >> mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email
> >messages
> >> very quickly.)
> >>
> >> Ron Frazier
> >> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
> >> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> >> Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> >> Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
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>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
> Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
> Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
>
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