Verizon vs ATT

[vtchris]

Does Verizon still have the best nationwide (lower 48) coverage in general or has ATT caught up?

[T18skyguy]

Same here with T Mobile, saved a ton of money over Verizon, so is good enough for me. Verizon does have the best coverage, but they bend you over good for it. If you want the absolute best call coverage, go back to a flip phone. A flip phone only needs one tower, where a smartphone needs to see two.

[Bill_Satellite]

We moved to T-Mobile about 6 months ago and we have been all over the Western US without issue. We lose it sometimes on the Interstates but we did with Verizon as well. We have come upon a few locations where the internet is not great but that happened with Verizon as well. We also have AT&T for data only and that works great but not always. We used to have Sprint for data and that service is simply TERRIBLE. For the money I am saving with T-Mobile I can get by just fine with T-Mobile.

[garmp]

DW is on Verizon and I am on ATT. We seem to be covered most every where we go.

[wski]

With ATT I could never receive a signal inside the house. Switched to Verizon and all is good. IMHO Verizon beats ATT hands down.

[jcpainter]

A carrier's phone and data service often use different frequencies. This results in sometimes having great phone service but lousy data service . . . or it can be the other way around.

In most parts of the country that we've been they both work fine. We did stay at one state park where Verizon would not work at all (even for a phone call) and AT&T was great. We had to turn on WiFi calling on our Verizon phones and connect to the AT&T hotspot in order to make a phone call!

We travel quite a bit. As Web Administrator of The RV Travel Club, it's very important that I have decent connectivity wherever we roam. Thus, we have both AT&T and Verizon "true unlimited" (grandfathered) hotspot plans.

One HUGE difference between the two carriers is how they handle domestic roaming for data. Most carriers "partner" with other companies when they don't have towers of their own in a given area. This is called domestic roaming. It happens in the background and is transparent to the consumer.


However, effective July 31, 2018 AT&T started enforcing their domestic roaming data caps. Depending on your plan, AT&T domestic roaming caps vary between 100-400mb per month.

Verizon does not implement domestic data roaming caps. Fortunately when we hit the AT&T domestic roaming cap, we also had the Verizon hotspot and were able to regain connectivity.

Phone calls and texts are not impacted by this, only your off network data access.

Once you hit that cap, you no longer have data service until you either move to an area where you are using AT&T's own towers or your monthly plan rolls over.

[RGar974417]

I had AT&T years ago and they were terrible. In 2016 we were in Yellowstone. I had Sprint and my wife had Verizon. There were places she had signal and I didn't.There were other places where we both had signal but she had data and I didn't.I now also have Verizon.

[RGar974417]

I had AT&T years ago and they were terrible. In 2016 we were in Yellowstone. I had Sprint and my wife had Verizon. There were places she had signal and I didn't.There were other places where we both had signal but she had data and I didn't.I now also have Verizon.

[D_E_Bishop]

We have both, there are places where one will work but not the other and some where nothing short of satellite works.

For those of you from the East/Mid-West, NOTHING but satellite works in Navajoland and many swatches in the deserts that do hot have coverage.

Kinda nice too!

[rr2254545]

MrWizard wrote:
verizon customer service has always done well by me
and its the rare place, i can't get a signal

BUT ATT has come along way and is a close second

Used Verizon for the last 10 years and 74,000 miles of camping in the MH, as you can see from our map below we are well traveled - it is very rare that I do not have phone and data on my FMCA Verizon MIFI plan

[RoyB]

One of my kids has sprint service which is shown on their coverage map as working here in King George Va... Doesn't work at our house haha... We have one spot on the porch steps that seems to work for them haha... It's almost like Green Acres here when it comes to sprint cell phones... Both Verizon and ATT work just fine...

Was on the road alot in my working years and VERIZON was the only service we would have success to use when on the road... Use to visit the wife's family in GOBER TX and nothing works there haha... Yes I know where Gober TX is haha...

I guess most all of the carriers work pretty good following the interstates etc... If I needed to get off the Interstates I found VERIZON the best to use...

Carrying my VERIZON MIFI BOX has saved the day with us many times having Secured Internet access all over the country...

Back in my GOVT days we would always check out the VERIZON MOBILE USB Internet connections for our laptops when on travel... When you were working on Radar sites along the upper US/Canada Border only VERIZON would work there...

I guess all the smart mode cellphones have replaced all of these things now days...

Roy Ken

[EV2]

Colo Native wrote:
I have had both and Sprint too, Verizon #1, ATT close 2nd, Sprint the worst of all, wife has T mobile and it right there with ATT.

T mobile is nowhere near ATT outside of metro. Huge areas of MidWest have no TMobile coverage. If considering discount carrier try Cricket. It is essentially identical to ATT.

[GordonThree]

I recently switched from Verizon to AT&T, and it's been pretty smooth sailing.

Biggest benefit is unlimited talk, text and data in US, Canada and Mexico. The caveat is that over a period of months majority data has to be on home network.

Coverage wise, I've found many places have Att but not Verizon, in the UP, Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Best benefit is it cut my bill in half.

[STBRetired]

I have Verizon, SIL has ATT. Most places are the same, but there are a couple of tracks where we race that I have signal and he does not. Around population centers, they seem about the same. Out in the boonies, I've had better luck with VZW.

[Colo_Native]

I have had both and Sprint too, Verizon #1, ATT close 2nd, Sprint the worst of all, wife has T mobile and it right there with ATT.