Anybody have experience with Consumer Cellular's Coverage?

[77thor]

Trying to cut-back on cell bills...
I'm seriously considering a switch to Consumer Cellular but am concerned about the coverage around here.
Anybody have them as a carrier??

[DerangedPony]

Looks like they use at&t so it should be OK. I have Net10 which uses at&t also and coverage is so much better then virgin which uses Sprint.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[77thor]

Oh, I was not aware of that.... Thanks.

[95 TA - The Beast]

I am probably going to be switching to Ting from Sprint... I can still use my Sprint phones, but since my kids rarely use their phones I should be able to save almost 2/3 over my current bills of $300...

We have 5 lines, all smartphones and only use 1400 min/mo, 400-800 texts/mo and <1GB of data/mo, so that equals a $97+taxes/fees bill for Ting...

I was going to move the kids phones to Page Plus or one of the other MVNOs but when I found out I could keep all the phones, have them all fully functional and save 2/3rds Ting was a no-brainer...

Currently charging old phones to transfer to sprint so I can activate the new phones on Ting... I am moving both mine and the wifes numbers to Google Voice so we never lose them and just getting all new numbers on Ting and having Google Voice transfer calls that come in on the old numbers...

I also switched from PhonePower to Vonage, got boned by a rep (who said there was a $12/mo domestic unlimited to make the sale), ported my homeline to Vonage, then I found out about Ooma, basically $4/mo for free calls VoIP (but you have to buy the device for $121 on Amazon), and they take up to 3-4 weeks to port, so I said f-it and bought a $10 prepaid Verizon phone, activated it with porting my number from Vonage and once that is done I will pay the $20 and port it to Google Voice. The Ooma Telo has the ability to be configured for a Google Voice number so everything will be seamless once that is done. If I wanted a second line or blacklisting ability or a whole host of other services the Ooma would only be $10/mo additional. The Ooma Telo also has a DECT 6.0 radio built-in and supports their own handset as well as their Linx product which is a remote receiver with a POTS port to plug into a fax machine or anything else. Great product and service for the price for our use, which is as an emergency backup for schools, doctors, etc, ie a "home" phone which doesn't get much use.

[Russ Jerome]

As long as Sprint is not part of there system your a step off the bottom. Im still paying for my Sprint service only because my family likes there cheap rates but running a business with them is out of the question. My primary phone has been a Verizon service now, haven not dropped a call ever, can post pictures from my tree stand up north with Verizon, miles away from where Sprint service ends (freeway corridors only).

[wrath]

AIO Wireless is ATT's MVNO. Been using them six months now. About as cheap as T-mobile without the crap service.

[95 TA - The Beast]

Well, I can report that I am more than halfway through my Sprint to GV/Ting porting... Got the business numbers for me and the wife ported out to Google Voice (one small hiccup with her port since I didn't request a GV number first is that it set it up with the 'Lite' version of GV, but through a backdoor I got the system to switch over to the full version once her number was ported), which cancelled those lines with Sprint, so I set those up with Ting to begin with, took all of 3 minutes per phone and it was done, including forwarding from GV for the business numbers. I setup a flip-phone with a new number for my middle child (since she is in middle-school now) and then ported the remaining three phone numbers out of Sprint (which is still in progress)... I really didn't care about those last three numbers, other than the fact that when you port them Ting will pay up to 25% or $75 per line of the ETF fee when you port. So that is saving me $120 or so I figure. I am hoping that is done later this evening and everyone is done phone-wise.

I must point out one thing I noticed when I activated the phones under Ting, and that is the PRL they supplied gets 4-5 bars on all the phones where the PRL under Sprint is only 1-3 bars. That is because it is a well known fact that Sprint plays games with the PRL lists to try to get people to upgrade to newer phones, which in turn gets them renewed contracts. I knew this back when I had a Touch Pro2 and the service dropped to nothing, I upgraded and had great service, yet the person I gave me TP2 to ended up going with a MVNO of Sprints and got awesome reception. Sprint is such a bunch of greedy asshats to pull those kind of games on long-term customers.

Oh, another thing of note is that about 3 hours after activating on Ting I got the OTA JB 4.3 update on my GSIII. Sprint has long-term customers so far down on it's list of priorities that they don't get new updates for a long time, where MVNO customers get them as soon as they are on the Sprint servers. I don't know if Verizon or ATT play the same games, but if they do, they all need to go out of business.

If anyone wants to try Ting out, I do have a referral code which gives you a $25 credit towards a new device or against your first months bill: https://zmqdo32be75.ting.com/

As a FYI, I also get a $25 credit if you sign up with the referral link. Full disclosure and all.

[95 TA - The Beast]

Well, all the ports went through and I am totally on Ting now...

And, for the first time ever, I have Sprint 4G LTE coverage in New Berlin... Started at Toys'R'Us out in Brookfield this morning, and now this evening I have 4G at home. Coincidence?