Do ATT & Verizon Limit Towers for PayGo Phones

We have Verizon (on a plan). We get weak reception at home and also got weak reception at home when we were with ATT.

We get excellent reception everywhere else with Verizon. I'm thinking our home is in a dead spot. I can drive a couple of miles and get great reception.

BOTH restrict the users of any PayGoPhone to their own towers. They are not allowed the use of partner towers or roaming towers. The same is true of all the resellers like Walmart Straight Talk, Tracphone and others. If you think this is wrong info, call the company and ask them. I did.

Verizon Prepaid has a lot less coverage as it is only on Verizon towers and not on towers where regular Verizon has roaming agreements. Try half of Missouri and Oklahoma for examples. I still use prepaid as it does have service where I need it.

I have ATT pay as you go and the wife has prepay, mine is better at home but I think it's the phone. My pay as you go works everywhere hers does and it worked everywhere hers did when she had a plan.

The verizon website has separate coverage maps for prepaid and plan.

Linky.

(That link looks messed up, but I clicked on it and it worked. RV.net site formatting is just weirded out by the URL formatting.)
Moderator's Note: Fixed the link.


Click on 'Detailed coverage map for your area' and you will see options for prepaid, 4G, etc.

Depending on where you go, there may be no difference or a pretty big difference.

I have also been thinking of switching to another service as my AT&T at the house here is weak. But it's only since the trees here in the woods have leaved out. My son has Verizon and has less signal here than I do with AT&T. I think both are on the same tower just over a mile from the house. A few weeks ago I was getting dropped calls here at the house I called AT&T about it, they did call me back and said they found a problem on the tower and would repair it. I still have a weak signal but no longer get dropped calls.

Here is approximately the difference between Verizon regular voice & messaging coverage, and its prepaid service.

Good coverage on prepaid Verizon, unless one is traveling from Illinois to Texas. Lots of no service in Missouri and Oklahoma. Data was slightly better. By the way, coverage is the same on Straight Talk phones that are on the Verizon network.

1492 wrote:

Here is approximately the difference between Verizon regular voice & messaging coverage, and its prepaid service.

Thanks for that overlay, I never knew there was a difference! I'm on prepay and so far am pleased.

pay as you go and pre pay.. same thing

Post Pay is contract/subscription service