Changed cell phone plans?

[Frank B]

We have always bought AT&T SIM cards for our unlocked Samsung phones when traveling to the States from Canada. Has worked well, and AT&T had an unlimited data plan that allowed tethering the whole unlimited amount of data. We tried that again this year. We were told that our Canadian phones were no longer compatible with their network.

The 'solution' they offered was to buy a cheap AT&T Android phone, and tether off that. OK, so we got a couple of cheap phones for about $30 each and the unlimited data plan for $55/mo US. Now I find that mid-month I have used up the 10 GB of tethered data. The remainder of the 'unlimited' data can only be used on the AT&T phone. That was not mentioned to me when I bought, but is probably in the fine print somewhere.

I'm really not happy, but you can't fight with Ma Bell, so I am either going to have to find another carrier, or cough up $10 for each additional 5 GB slice of data that I can tether.

I am finding it difficult to determine online if any of the other carriers offer anything less restrictive. Anyone have any suggestions other than coughing up more money to AT&T?

Thanks!

Frank.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Verizon's pay-as-you-go subsidiary Visible. $25 a month or $15 a month for two months if you sign up before the end of the year using the code HOLIDAY. Unlimited everything including medium speed hotspot data (fast enough to stream video) but you can only use one device at a time on the hotspot. US only coverage and if you are on a crowded tower, you will be the first to have your data slowed in favor of full fare customers.

Why Visible is so cheap also explains why your Samsung phones no longer work with AT&T. US cell companies are phasing out their 3G and voice networks to re-use that spectrum for 5G, which means phones have to use 4G VOIP for voice calls. Visible was started to help with this transition, you get an incredible deal in return for getting off of the old voice spectrum.

If you bring your Samsung phone to Visible, it will be converted to VOIP via a software patch. This may cause problems when you try and take your phone back home.

I suggest keeping one or both of your AT&T phones and getting a Visible phone just to use the unlimited data. Or you may be able to trade in one of the cheap phones for a Visible phone. The free with trade-in and $50 ZTE Blade phones are towards the bottom of their phone page.

Details are on their website.

www.visible.com

 

[SeilerBird]

I love Google's Pi network. You have to have a Google phone and then you have three networks available and it picks the fastest one. It costs $20 per phone line and $10 a month per gigabyte up to a maximum of 6 gigs. So for one person using more than six gigs it would cost $80 per month. I rarely use a phone for Internet purposes so my average monthly cost is about $22.

If you use this site to sign up then we both get a $20 credit.

 

[msw3113]

Another vote for the Visible option. Their website is a bit clunky but the cell service seems fine. We use it in an old iPhone as a hotspot when in areas that AT&T signal is weak.

 

[Larry N.]

I'm really not happy, but you can't fight with Ma Bell,

A rather minor quibble, Frank, but "Ma Bell" hasn't existed since the breakup at Divestiture in Jan. 1984 ( 1/1/84 is hard for me to forget ), and the current entity with the AT&T name is the former Southwestern Bell, which a number of years ago bought what was left of the original AT&T (just long distance, basically, plus the name).

The cellphone world (in fact, pretty much most telecommunications) is often confusing to me, these days, though I get by with Consumer Cellular pretty well, for my needs. But I've not been in your shoes, needing a temporary phone OR lots and lots of data.

 

[UTTransplant]

You might want to look at the FMCA hotspot deal. Unlimited data on T-Mobile and Sprint networks, $50/month when in use, low monthly cost when you aren’t using it ($7 or $8 IIRC). You must be an FMCA member of course which is another $50/year. It works well for us most of the time, though there are places our Verizon hotspot works better. The Verizon plan we have with unlimited hot spot data doesn’t hag
fe a low “inactive” mode though.

 

[Frank B]

Verizon's pay-as-you-go subsidiary Visible. $25 a month or $15 a month for two months if you sign up before the end of the year using the code HOLIDAY. Unlimited everything including medium speed hotspot data (fast enough to stream video) but you can only use one device at a time on the hotspot. US only coverage and if you are on a crowded tower, you will be the first to have your data slowed in favor of full fare customers.

That sounds good enough for our needs. The limit of one device tethered at a time is a non-issue for us. We would get two phones and two plans anyway. Our data hog is Zoom, but it deals reasonably well with slower networks, and we spend our time down South in the great open desert where towers are not usually heavily loaded.

My only question would be whether one has to have a United States postal address to be able to get a plan like that? This was the problem in years past. The AT&t store in Great falls Montana allowed us to use their store address as my home address, and that satisfied their computer. Not sure what it will do when trying to set up payments on a US dollar Visa account that has a Canadian postal address?

Have you heard any information from Canadian snowbirds on that?

Why Visible is so cheap also explains why your Samsung phones no longer work with AT&T. US cell companies are phasing out their 3G and voice networks to re-use that spectrum for 5G, which means phones have to use 4G VOIP for voice calls. Visible was started to help with this transition, you get an incredible deal in return for getting off of the old voice spectrum.

If you bring your Samsung phone to Visible, it will be converted to VOIP via a software patch. This may cause problems when you try and take your phone back home.

Yeah, I won't be doing that. My wife's s6 is due for an upgrade, but I plan on keeping my note 9 for a while yet.

However, with the speed at which things are changing, I won't be buying any more expensive flagship phones either. Just can't keep them long enough to recover the cost.

I suggest keeping one or both of your AT&T phones and getting a Visible phone just to use the unlimited data. Or you may be able to trade in one of the cheap phones for a Visible phone. The free with trade-in and $50 ZTE Blade phones are towards of their phone page.

Details are on their website.

www.visible.com

Makes sense the more I think about it. Then we have coverage on two major networks.

Anyway, thank you for pointing me in that direction. I will certainly check it out.

 

[Frank B]

A rather minor quibble, Frank, but "Ma Bell" hasn't existed since the breakup at Divestiture in Jan. 1984 ( 1/1/84 is hard for me to forget ), and the current entity with the AT&T name is the former Southwestern Bell, which a number of years ago bought what was left of the original AT&T (just long distance, basically, plus the name).

The cellphone world (in fact, pretty much most telecommunications) is often confusing to me, these days, though I get by with Consumer Cellular pretty well, for my needs. But I've not been in your shoes, needing a temporary phone OR lots and lots of data.

To quote Shakespeare, a Ma Bell by any other name smells just as bad.

 

[Lou Schneider]

The Beatles revealed Ma Bell's first name is Michelle ...

 

[Larry N.]

To quote Shakespeare, a Ma Bell by any other name smells just as bad.

Actually, worse, to me...

 

[SeilerBird]

The Beatles revealed Ma Bell's first name is Michelle ...

Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble tres bien ensemble

 

[msw3113]

My only question would be whether one has to have a United States postal address to be able to get a plan like that?

Visible wanted a mailing address to ship me a SIM card so it came to our campground at the time. I don't remember what other information they required.

 

[Frank B]

Il parait qu'on a des Francophones ici.

 

[msw3113]

Je ne comprends pas.

 

[Frank B]

Visible wanted a mailing address to ship me a SIM card so it came to our campground at the time. I don't remember what other information they required.

K. Our friends in Blythe said I could use their address as a ship to location. Now we'll see if they will accept my Canadian credit card in payment for an item being shipped to US address.

 

[LarsMac]

I love Google's Pi network. You have to have a Google phone and then you have three networks available and it picks the fastest one. It costs $20 per phone line and $10 a month per gigabyte up to a maximum of 6 gigs. So for one person using more than six gigs it would cost $80 per month. I rarely use a phone for Internet purposes so my average monthly cost is about $22.

If you use this site to sign up then we both get a $20 credit.

Yeah, Google Fi is much better, and, so far, cheaper than the other outfits. And they even take in other phones, now.
I was a loyal ATT customer for a very long time. But no more.
Fi has been my network for four years, now.

 

[jymbee]

Visible wanted a mailing address to ship me a SIM card so it came to our campground at the time.

I just ordered a Visible SIM and given the COE site we were at didn't have someone on duty to accept the delivery, I had it sent General Delivery to the nearest Post Office. Big mistake. When I went to the PO the clerk did indeed have the envelope but would not give it to me unless I paid twenty seven dollars! Something about the package now being in their system and there was nothing I could say to get him to hand it over. I just refused the delivery and they apparently sent it back to Visible.

So after some back/forth on Chat with Visible about the situation, they were able to cancel that account, set up a new one and I had the new SIM sent to the local FedEx for pickup.

My mistake I guess as I should have thought of sending to a FedEx office initially.

 

[Frank B]

Yeah, Google Fi is much better, and, so far, cheaper than the other outfits. And they even take in other phones, now.
I was a loyal ATT customer for a very long time. But no more.
Fi has been my network for four years, now.

Will Google Fi do a two or three months pay as you go plan, or do they require that you sign up for a year? I know that they will make use of my Canadian Galaxy Note 9.

We go back to Canada in late March. Google Fi is not available to Canadian residents living in Canada yet.

 

[SeilerBird]

Will Google Fi do a two or three months pay as you go plan, or do they require that you sign up for a year? I know that they will make use of my Canadian Galaxy Note 9.

We go back to Canada in late March. Google Fi is not available to Canadian residents living in Canada yet.

Yes, Fi is pay by the month, no contract at all, starting up is very easy, and the best part is you don't have to visit one of those strip mall cell phone stores again.
Everything is done on line and quickly.

 

[Frank B]

Yes, Fi is pay by the month, no contract at all, starting up is very easy, and the best part is you don't have to visit one of those strip mall cell phone stores again.
Everything is done on line and quickly.

OK, I'm looking at the Unlimited Plus plan for two. 22GB before throttling to 256 kbps kicks in, then $10/GB after that for additional high speed. We are using Zoom a lot on the road, and will easily use up 20 GB each in a month if we choose to do a bit of Netflix as well.

The problem is how much of that 22 GB is available when using the phone as a hotspot? I have scoured the web and there is NO CLEAR LANGUAGE that I could find on that.

This is how I got burned by AT&T, who AFTER I bought cut off my hotspot at 10 GB of my 'unlimited' plan. The remaining 12 could not be used in the hotspot, only on the phone. This is pretty much industry wide, other than the Visible plan mentioned above.

IF THE WHOLE 22 GB IS AVAILABLE ON THE HOTSPOT, then I will pay more for Google Fi because all its data is high speed, not limited to 5 mbps as is the case with ALL the data on the Visible plan.

Anyone have a definite answer on that?

Thanks.