Verizon vs AT&T

MamaGoose wrote:
Here's our situation:

We'll be using devices for a personal wifi hotspot and wireless home phone when we RV in the U.S. We're planning to be in the southwest, and we'll probably at some point head across the south to Texas...might even get up to Florida some day.

We've spoken to reps from both of these providers, we've compared costs and plans. It comes down to coverage. We figured this forum would be the best place to ask because areas that RVer's go would be our concern.

If I could find a way to post a poll to this forum, I would. So far, it appears that most people here use Verizon.

In cost comparison, it is not cost effective for us at this time to acquire U.S. cell phones, so we've decided on using wireless home phone (we have a condo in the U.S. with a land line, so we want to change that so we can bring that phone with us in the R.V. when we go on the road). We would have the wireless home phone device and a separate hotspot device, such as a Jetpack from Verizon or an AT&T device.

So...for any and all who care to chime in, we would really appreciate your input. Verizon or AT&T?

Thanks!

I think if you go to the AT&T site and look at their coverage map VERY CLOSELY IOW expand it. You will find that in the Southwest AT&T has more 4G coverage than Verizon. I just went through this whole thing myself.

Consider this too. I find the AT&T Hotspot much easier to work with and to read than the Verizon (which I have had opportunity to use both for extended periods)My phone is Verizon but I am going to go with the AT&T Hotspot for my wifi.

I had Verizon MIFI device for 2 years and had poor coverage. It would not work at my home. Finally, after Verizon ran a check on my device, they replaced it with a newer one. Still had poor coverage, so they released me from my contract and I went to AT&T. It works at my home and well on the road. We have traveled a number of states both before and after switching and the AT&t has worked well for us.

Coverage maps are one thing, actual coverage within those areas is another.
In our travels through the South, Southeast, Southwest and mountain states we have found there is no better service than Verizon. We have lost track of the number of times where we are near people with other service, especially ATT, where they have NO service while we are talking away or using data. Many is the time we have loaned our phones to someone needing to make a call but their phone with another carrier has no service.

One thing to consider....

For many years Verizon has bragged about their coverage map.. Best there is. OR,,Rather... Best there WAS.

AT&T has been doing a major system upgrade.... Their coverage map now looks a lot like Verizon's (Some minor differences).

I have land in New Mexico and there is no service there except Verizon. I have traveled a lot for pleasure and work and Verizon has been the best choice for me.

The problem with using a 15 day money back guarantee if traveling is you won't cover all your locations within the 15 days. I spent 304 days on the road during the 2013-2014 winter, most of the time in the southwest & western states, much of the time away from cities and main roads. I carried both a Verizon based hotspot & an AT&T phone, both in Sleek amplifiers.

While the coverage along major highways & cities was pretty much equal between the two carriers, once I got away from civilization the Verizon coverage was better. Of course there were exceptions, and if you are going to stay in one location most of the time it pays to choose the carrier that best covers that area. If you are moving from place to place without prior knowledge of carrier coverage, & planning to spend most of your time away from cities & towns, I'd choose Verizon.

I agree with golden4077, all of the carriers have their pros and cons. It's really a matter of what will work for you based on your requirements. I have had them all (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) over the years, watched the many consolidations, and had the fun of testing many cellular devices as part of my job. There is no "one size fits all" which is why we do have choices.

I am also currently a satisfied AT&T customer. AT&T has really made a lot of strides in the last 5 years in building out and strengthening their network and have some great choices for phones. Verizon has grown as well during the change from CDMA technology to GSM and now LTE. Sprint and T-Mobile don't have the network reach but offer some great plans.

Most carriers offer a 15-day money back guarantee. Try them out and see if they will work where you camp.

If you look at the national coverage of AT&T and Verizon, they geographic coverage will be nearly the same.

AT&T covers 300+ million people
http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5711

Verizon covers 98% of the population
http://www.verizon.com/about/sites/default/files/Verizon_Fact_Sheet.pdf

It is basically a statistical tie with each claiming to have the largest.

Both Sprint and T-Mobile have smaller network footprints.

Who has the fastest?

http://recode.net/2015/03/10/iphone-speed-test-att-tops-verizon/

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-offers-fastest-average-lte-speeds-opensignal-report-finds/2015-03-12


Do a Google search and you can find all the carriers have won some sort of network performance measure (speed, reliability, % on LTE, dropped calls, etc.).

I would classify the difference between Verizon and AT&T as a Pepsi vs. Coke argument. On the major highways and cities (10,000 population and larger), the difference will hardly be noticeable. The difference will come in the rural areas or specific parks you frequent.

When someone says Verizon terrible (or great) or AT&T is terrible (or great)? It is worth asking why. I find people giving opinions about other carriers based on experiences that are several years old. Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of network build out and consolidation. Just because they were driving in South Dakota 4 years ago and one carrier was great or the other poor, is not all that helpful. I also find people equating their device satisfaction with the network. If you are using an old hotspot without the latest network technology, don't blame the carrier. An iPhone 3GS is going to run slow on any carriers network.

Frankly, you will find that about 90% of the coverage will be the same between the AT&T and Verizon. The last 10% will be subject to your specific travels.

Your satisfaction with your wireless experience will be impacted by coverage but don't forgot about the other factors such as device/handset selection, customer service, network speed, network reliability, cost/rate plans, etc.

Personally, I have been a customer of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T over the years. All of them had pros/cons. Currently, I am satisfied AT&T customer. Here is what I like about AT&T:

-Overall, good coverage
-Fast LTE speeds
-US Based customer service centers
-Device selection
-Flexible rate plans

In your evaluation, look at your needs and priorities. Look at your frequent travel locations. All the carriers have coverage maps on their websites.

That is not the issue (Mamma G).. There are at least 3 or 4 different cell phone technologies..

Just like an older NTSC only TV can not receive modern ATSC over the air television. (If not for designing with multiple decoders the reverse would also be true) and there is a 3rd standard for digital cable, and a 4th for encrypted cable.

Just like DISH NETWORK and DIRECTV use different non-compatable codecs for Sat TV

AT&T,,T-Mobile and your cell provider all use one speciic codec (COder DECoder) to convert voice to digital data for transmission and back on reception,,It is called GSM and in some tests I ran years ago ... it is the best,which is why I carry a T-Mobile...Omnipoint was the first all GSM network (AT&T came later)..Omipoit became Voicestreams became T-Mobile.

Verizon uses a different one as does Sprint/NoTel.. er, Nextel.

Most other "providers" are really resellers of one of the above..Virgin Mobile for example buys time on SPRINT towers.

Our Canadian cell phones work with AT&T. They also work with T-Mobile if that signal happens to be stronger. They don't ever find Verizon, so I think our cell phone carrier doesn't have a roaming agreement with Verizon. Therefore, I can't really compare coverage. I've looked at coverage maps at AT&T and Verizon websites, but of course that would be skewed in the respective company's favor. This is why I've been asking end users, and I've noticed most people we talk to do go with Verizon.

As an aside, we noticed on the way south that AT&T seems to have abandoned a large area of Montana. Our cell phones picked up a network called "Sagebrush". No roaming agreement with our Canadian cell provider, so we had no service at all for a few hours. Found a discussion about this here:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1849919-Coverage-changes-eastern-Montana

It was pretty bizarre crossing the border and having no service in an area where we had always had AT&T. Other than that, we've had good coverage with AT&T, but, as I said, most RV'ers we've spoken to here and in person do recommend Verizon.