Wanting to free myself from Verizon

[mabinogi]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I'm not finding it in the first couple of pages. I'd love to free myself from Verizon's crazy expenses, and am wondering what the best option would be. We have a lot of time left in our contract (17 months, I believe) so the cost savings would have to be fairly significant to make it worth it in the short term -- we're facing a $580 termination fee. We have a family plan with two of us on it, and we both have iPhones (5s and 6). I'd love to take those devices with us.
Our needs:
Minutes: 100-200
Texts: 200ish
Data: 2 GB

Right now I'm considering Ting, but would love to hear others' opinions. We live in southeast Idaho, but we are in an interstate town, so I would think most companies will have decent coverage in our area.

Thank you!

[nathan01xl]

Sprint has been advertising paying for costs of switching and has the cut your bill promotion. They may be worth exploring since your termination fees are so high

[Daley]

Four things:

First, have you tried the guide (unabridged) yet?

Second, two gigabytes of data is ridiculous - going on a data diet is trivial to do and won't net you any significant savings switching to an MVNO without doing first.

Third, your Verizon iPhones are already carrier unlocked for GSM service. It's easier to set data and MMS APN settings on the iPhone for T-Mobile based MVNOs than AT&T MVNOs, however.

Fourth, depending on how SE Idaho we're talking here, AT&T network coverage for Idaho looks about comparable to Verizon's, though AT&T does have a pretty significant Wyoming gap to consider. Though Ting's GSM service has roaming agreements off T-Mobile in Wyoming and elsewhere, it's still purely T-Mobile coverage in Idaho, which is significantly worse than AT&T's coverage. If you're willing to switch networks away from Verizon, you need to research coverage for your primary service areas first.

[mabinogi]

1. Thanks - I hadn't found your guide post yet, and will look through it this afternoon.
2. We actually rarely use 2G of data. It usually hovers at or just below 1G, but occasionally goes above, so I was just figuring that we'd want 2G to cover our bases. I think most of our data usage is probably listening to streaming music in the car.
3. That's great that the Verizon iPhones are carrier-unlocked. That was my understanding. Does that mean they can be taken to ANY provider?
4. We are in Idaho Falls, ID. We rarely venture into Wyoming. (We're also hoping not to be in Idaho Falls for much longer than absolutely necessary.) Based on the small amount of research that I've done, it looks as though in and around town, coverage should be fine for most carriers.

[Daley]

2) It sounds like most of your mobile data is streaming music, so cut that out and you should easily be able to get in well under 100MB territory, even with an iPhone. Think of it this way: every gigabyte of data you have to pay for to stream music shouldn't be viewed as mobile phone costs, but it should be viewed as entertainment cost - and if you're already paying for streaming music services, add this cost onto that other bill as well. The average cost of mobile data is roughly $10/GB and those phones probably have far more than 1GB of free data storage on them that can be used to store music offline, so factor accordingly. Mobile data is expensive, and it's easy to get around the costs with a little pre-planning.

3) Any GSM provider, but no Sprint MVNOs and no Verizon MVNOs that can't activate LTE handsets, which means the only Verizon MVNOs available for activation are America Movil brands currently, none of which are recommended in the guide for a multitude of reasons. This said, there can be APN configuration issues with some AT&T MVNOs and iPhones... but blame Apple for that.

4) If you're thinking of switching networks, it pays to do due diligence. If you want a better idea of general reception coverage, check croud-sourced maps with Root Metrics, OpenSignal, Sensorly, DeadCellZones.com, and CellReception.com for overall reported coverage in your area. They aren't exactly complete either, but you can make a good guess between them and the official coverage maps. Also, ask friends who they're with and how the reception is. This should help give you a far greater understanding of what will and won't work in your area.

[kpd905]

I'm looking into going with Page Plus.  Just looking for a cheap plan with data than includes roaming, so their $30 plan sounds good. 

We have Virgin Mobile now but went on a trip up to the Lake Superior ice caves and didn't have a single bit of service for that entire weekend.  Not cool.

I've read I.P. Daley's guide, but I'm looking to get a Galaxy S4, and not really sure if Page Plus is my best bet or not.

[cshaw]

I made the switch from Verizon to Ting the first of February.  I'm also in IF.  You can search Verizon and my user name to find my original post on the subject, or feel free to send me a PM if you'd like more details on how our experience has been so far.

Here are some quick details:  still glad we made the change.  Sprint network definitely not as good as Verizon outside of the populated areas, works fine in IF/Ammon where I live.  There are four of us and our Ting bill was low $80's in February and upper $70's in March.  We had $980ish in ETF with Verizon, which Ting credited us 25% of if I remember correctly.  The ETF credit Ting gave us has covered our first two month's bill with them and I still have about an $85 credit, so it should cover April as well.  Basically we've dropped our bill from $240 a month with Verizon to $80ish with Ting.  Our minutes have been in the 400-600 range, texts 2500-2700 (I have 2 teenagers), and data 1.7-2g (again, I have teenagers).

Hope this helps.

[mabinogi]

I made the switch from Verizon to Ting the first of February.  I'm also in IF.  You can search Verizon and my user name to find my original post on the subject, or feel free to send me a PM if you'd like more details on how our experience has been so far.

Here are some quick details:  still glad we made the change.  Sprint network definitely not as good as Verizon outside of the populated areas, works fine in IF/Ammon where I live.  There are four of us and our Ting bill was low $80's in February and upper $70's in March.  We had $980ish in ETF with Verizon, which Ting credited us 25% of if I remember correctly.  The ETF credit Ting gave us has covered our first two month's bill with them and I still have about an $85 credit, so it should cover April as well.  Basically we've dropped our bill from $240 a month with Verizon to $80ish with Ting.  Our minutes have been in the 400-600 range, texts 2500-2700 (I have 2 teenagers), and data 1.7-2g (again, I have teenagers).

Hope this helps.

Hey cshaw! Wasn't expecting to run into someone else from Idaho Falls! Thanks so much for the information on how Ting has been working out for you so far. That is great to hear - sounds like it will work well for us. I live in town, so I imagine coverage would be fine. When we get out of town, it's usually to go hiking, etc., so I'm not too worried about having excellent cell coverage. Did you keep your Verizon devices when you moved over?

[Daley]

Did you keep your Verizon devices when you moved over?

I am not cshaw, but I can (and have) answered this question already earlier on and in the guide. The answer is no. You cannot activate Verizon handsets with Sprint MVNOs, nor can you activate Sprint handsets with Verizon MVNOs. You can, however, take your Verizon iPhones over to a GSM MVNO. Ting's Sprint service can only activate Sprint handsets, and Ting's T-Mobile with roaming coverage - though you can use your iPhones with - is not going to be anything remotely close to their Sprint with roaming coverage in your area. Ting's Sprint coverage roams on Verizon, US Cellular, and a few other regional providers. Ting's T-Mobile coverage only roams on other regional GSM providers with no AT&T roaming support, and Idaho has no other GSM providers except for T-Mobile and AT&T, IIRC. Lastly, Ting's not even remotely a great deal on the GSM end, especially on the T-Mobile MVNO end. Their strong suit is multi-line accounts and CDMA service.

If AT&T coverage is solid in your area (and it will likely be more so than T-Mobile) and you got your data usage under control (under 400MB combined - easily done), you could keep your current Verizon iPhones and go with Puretalk USA where you could get away with not needing to spend more than $25-35/month total using their family plan, especially if most of your texts are between each other and you offload from traditional SMS to data with iMessage or whatnot. Even if you bumped yourselves up to 1GB of shared data, it still wouldn't break $45, and at that price range, you could even do two simple plans with 250 minutes and 400MB of data each line and only come in at $40/month. There's also Consumer Cellular as an option in that $35+ range that will work with even less data sacrifices (though there will be taxes on top like Ting charges) and you won't have AT&T MVNO/iPhone data configuration issues that you might elsewhere, plus you'll get both AT&T native and T-Mobile roaming network coverage.

You go beyond these options, you're either looking at needing to spend in excess of $60/month and still need to go on a data diet to get below 500MB of data usage per line a month to keep your current handsets with a Verizon MVNO that will frankly have terrible customer support, or you'll have to lose money, go through the hassle of, and contribute to even more electronic waste in the end by selling off your current handsets and buying replacements compatible with the Sprint network which you'll then be locked into but still might have activation problems with due to Sprint's recent FED activation screw-up.

There's a reason why I keep the guide, I know what's going on in the market and with the MVNOs. Take my advice: keep your handsets, go on a data diet, and go with an AT&T MVNO from the guide once you confirm AT&T coverage in your area is solid. You should easily be able to get in well below this price point with some data belt tightening (the cheapest you'd be able to get going with an AT&T MVNO for your talk and text needs being $20/month total with Airvoice using their $10 plans if you gut your data below 50MB each handset), but if you spend more than $55/month total after taxes, you're paying too much.

[HipGnosis]

I've been using Verizon phones (and network) via PagePlus for many years now.
I get plenty of talk and text with 500 Mb for $30 a month
You can get 1 Gb for $40.
But they don't have a family plan - you can't share the data.

[kpd905]

I've been using Verizon phones (and network) via PagePlus for many years now.
I get plenty of talk and text with 500 Mb for $30 a month
You can get 1 Gb for $40.
But they don't have a family plan - you can't share the data.

Did you buy the phones from PagePlus or bring them from Verizon?

[mabinogi]

Thanks, I.P. Daley. I will look into Puretalk USA and Consumer Cellular. Those sound as though they may be a good fit for us. Although I'm confident I can get my own data usage down, I'm less confident about getting my husband on board with reducing his. He cannot use his workplace wifi on his personal devices, so he uses most of his data during the workday. He's also less onboard with reduced spending overall, so I doubt I could get him to commit to a dramatic data diet.

[cshaw]

When we moved over we sold our Verizon iPhones on Swappa and bought used Sprint iPhones on Swappa.  It was pretty much a wash cost wise.  We did get stuck with a Sprint phone that wasn't eligible for Ting for a few weeks, but that fixed itself.  If you go that route just make sure the ESN/MEID is eligible for Ting: not all Sprint phones pass the test.

Hope that helps.

[Daley]

We did get stuck with a Sprint phone that wasn't eligible for Ting for a few weeks, but that fixed itself.  If you go that route just make sure the ESN/MEID is eligible for Ting: not all Sprint phones pass the test.

Cshaw, you encountered issues with the Sprint FED activation screw-up I was talking about earlier:

selling off your current handsets and buying replacements compatible with the Sprint network which you'll then be locked into but still might have activation problems with due to Sprint's recent FED activation screw-up

The problem still exists, and it's only been partially fixed, though there has been progress. There's still iPhone activation issues, for one.

[HipGnosis]

I've been using Verizon phones (and network) via PagePlus for many years now.
I get plenty of talk and text with 500 Mb for $30 a month
You can get 1 Gb for $40.
But they don't have a family plan - you can't share the data.

Did you buy the phones from PagePlus or bring them from Verizon?

The first one I bought from Radio Shack with a coupon - it wasn't a smart phone, but it did text.
The next 2 or 3 were bought used.  I got my current Moto G (which I luv) as a refurb via an amazon seller (found the phone on Amazon, click 'Refurbished').
Note: you can NOT use Verizon pre-pay phones.

[NCGal]

I'm almost a month into Selectel which runs on Verizon. So far it's been a positive experience. Even their customer service is good. I could have ported my old pre-paid phone as I had it more than 6 months, and an MEID check confirmed that. I bought a post-paid Moto G from Selectel which came with Jelly Bean but I was able to update to KitKat. I'm on the $29.99/month plan with 1300 min talk, 3000 texts and 500mb data. The only thing that would really eat into data for me is Google Maps, but I'll rely more on a Garmin for GPS. Selectel also has an option to buy a $10 flex card with any plan. It carries over month to month and would provide a buffer for any overages.