prepaid vs contract cell phone

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SMR

SMR

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hi-
DW has a Verizon prepaid phone. we took a few weeks and went to visit her mom and the service was not great, we were in an area where others by us had coverage and could make calls on their Verizon plan. she had the same problem last year when we went to West Virginia- I could make and receive calls where she could not, I have a tracfone prepaid on the Verizon network.
I was told that the contract phones get better service than a prepaid- has anyone heard this or could it be the phone is of lesser quality
she has a Samsung Galaxy J1.
it works great where we live and in the larger towns - just not as well in state parks and off the beaten path.
thanks!
 
Phones are essentially two-way radios and, as with regular radios, there are good ones and better ones and terrible ones.  Prepaid phones tend not to be the "better" ones.
 
I don't think prepaid phones roam off of Verizon's network while the contract phones will if they're in an area without Verizon coverage.
 
Basically the Tracfones are junk low cost phones.
The quality of the transceivers is the key.
Most contract phones today are dual band, and have both 3g and 4 g capable radios.
Verizon has the best coverage in all campgrounds I have been in California and Oregon. Now that every provider will support
Independent phones and you can purchase a sim card. Buy a Huawei China Phone that supports CDMA and 4g for 100.00 and order Sim card from VZ for 35.00 about.



 
Willandgiselarv said:
Basically the Tracfones are junk low cost phones.
Click to expand...
I beg to differ with you. A few month ago I upgraded my back up phone to a reconditioned LG Power for $49.95. I was blown away by the phone. I liked it better than my Samsung S6. The camera wasn't as good but everything else was as good at a small fraction of the price of the S6. I liked it so much I sold my primary phone and bought an LG G4 for about $300. It wipes the floor with the S6. Unfortunately the Power is out of stock at Tracfone at the moment but Amazon has them new for $60.

http://www.amazon.com/TracFone-Power-Android-Prepaid-Smartphone/dp/B00YPSZPIK/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1461299813&sr=1-1&keywords=lg+power

And it is $6 a month for basic service.
 
My wife and I have been very happy with our Tracfone/Verizon LG L41c Ultimate 2 Android phones. We've had usable service in numerous places where others had no or very poor service. And with Tracfones "Bring Your Own Phone" service, you can use many other phones with them beyond the ones they offer. We average about $16/month for the two phones, including voice, text, and data.
 
Basically the Tracfones are junk low cost phones.
Click to expand...

Depends on which model you buy, though. Of course the ones offered with dramatically low prices are not such great phones, but somewhat better models are available too. In our experience with two Tracfones, though, even the better model phones offered thru Tracfone were adequate only in areas where service was strong.

When Verizon (or AT&T or Sprint) sells network airtime time to a 3rd party service, they typically include restrictions in the contract to offset the lower price the other service is paying. And since the 3rd party usually is looking to offer a low-cost phone service, they like that. Restrictions often include things like limits on peak-time usage, no-roaming on Verizon's partner networks, maybe limited or no 4g (LTE) service in some or all areas,  no or limited data service, etc.  In other words, just because the phone "works on the Verizon network" doesn't mean you get the full capability of that network.

Think about it: it would be silly for Verizon to sell time on their network, at a discount, to a competitor and give them the exact same service as Verizon itself sells.
 
Straight Talk offers hotspots for both Verizon and AT&T. I had one of their Verizon 3G hotspots awhile ago as a backup to my Verizon direct hotspot, it worked ok, albeit the data was expensive. Now I have an unlimited data 3G hotspot that costs $5/month for a backup and fill in to keep my 4G hotspot usage within plan limits.
 
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