Verizon V Consumer Cellular or others

2oldman wrote:
The gotcha with these lower-cost plans is coverage.

Consumer Cellular uses the AT&T GSM networks so you have the exact same coverage as a full price plan through AT&T. There is no reduction of the AT&T service just because it's via Consumer Cellular.

garmp wrote:
The DW & I both use TracFone. About $20 a month for both. I'm not a phone person, but she loves hew FB. Best part is that she is using Verizon towers & my phone uses AT&T. Very rare that one of us doesn't have coverage.
Just have to find a good plan for our hot spot to get coverage at an affordable price. We only activate ours when we travel, about 4 times a year and don't want to pay an activation fee each time.

And it allows you to use home or public WIFI instead of data that you have. We will use our data when out of WIFI range and if needed, $10,/GB.

ItsyRV wrote:
There is no reduction of the AT&T service just because it's via Consumer Cellular.

That's good. It appears it's a low-cost low use (low data) phone plan for seniors.

Things get slow at times out here in Quartzsite when, I guess, the towers get overloaded. And it's not even January!

ItsyRV wrote:

...

Consumer Cellular uses the AT&T GSM networks so you have the exact same coverage as a full price plan through AT&T. There is no reduction of the AT&T service just because it's via Consumer Cellular.

This may not be true in all locations - If you have a full price AT&T (or Verizon) plan and you are in a location that has no AT&T towers, there may be a sharing agreement (used to be called roaming) so that your AT&T phone will still work. But your Tracfone/StraightTalk/CC/etc phone that uses AT&T towers will not work.

This was true in 2013 when I was working & had a company phone - it might have changed since then.

2oldman wrote:

ItsyRV wrote:
There is no reduction of the AT&T service just because it's via Consumer Cellular.

That's good. It appears it's a low-cost low use (low data) phone plan for seniors.

Things get slow at times out here in Quartzsite when, I guess, the towers get overloaded. And it's not even January!

AT&T on a Mobley is looking good this morning here at the Q - 20.6Mbps down & 15.3Mbps up.

Verizon on a 791L Jetpack is 9.8Mbps down & 1.8Mbps up. Both to San Jose, CA.

ncscz wrote:
This may not be true in all locations - If you have a full price AT&T (or Verizon) plan and you are in a location that has no AT&T towers, there may be a sharing agreement (used to be called roaming) so that your AT&T phone will still work. But your Tracfone/StraightTalk/CC/etc phone that uses AT&T towers will not work.

This was true in 2013 when I was working & had a company phone - it might have changed since then.

Maybe someone who knows more can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it has nothing to do with the "plan" you have and has more to do with the "Phone" you have.

A CDMA 3G or less phone can not communicate over the AT&T GSM network regardless of the "plan" level you have with that CDMA carrier. Even with a 4G CDMA phone and full price no limit data plan, you're still limited in the ability to jump networks if that phone lacks the number of access frequencies used by that GSM 4G carrier. If I have a brand new 2018 I-Phone from Consumer Cellular with their cheapest plan, I would have more access to 4G anywhere and across carriers compared to someone with a full price full feature plan from Verizon but who is using some older 4G phone made 4 years ago.