Cell Phone / Internet Input Requested

[Ian S]

As others have said, with your existing Comcast account, it would make sense to switch your internet over to them to get a bundling discount. If the cable infrastructure in your area is good, it's hard to beat for internet service. As for cell phone, T-Mobile is great if you have good signal but that applies to any cell phone provider,. I have to think with the Sprint merger, T-Mobile will get even better. If you are in an area where all the carriers have good signal, then I'd go on price and T-Mobile pricing for seniors is hard to beat. If you travel or make calls regularly to other countries check out costs to do so. I call my mother in Canada every day for half an hour or longer and with T-Mobile it doesn't cost me anything. When I travel there, I get 5 GB of high speed data for free along with free calls and texts. The same applies to Mexico.

[cathy63]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaunchyPirate MVMO's can offer WiFi calling if they want to. Or at least some can. When I used Mint (a T-Mobile MVNO) they offered WiFi calling at no charge. It didn't seem to help me with dropped calls, however. I left Mint after 2 months.

Yeah, it depends on the MVNO. Xfinity Mobile, which is what my Mom has, uses WiFi calling. When I researched mobile plans for her, I found that to be the cheapest option for an existing Comcast subscriber with low data usage. It runs on Verizon's network, so you also get 5G if your phone supports it.

[OldShooter]

I think the "best" carrier depends on your specific needs. Do you use a lot of data or not? Do you travel outside the US often enough that always having a reliable phone is important?

In our case, we use very little data and (until recently) traveled internationally a couple of times a year. For us, Google Fi is a good fit. Data is $10/gig but you pay only for what you use. Many months our data bill is under $1. International coverage is about as good as it gets. 200 countries +/- with calls mostly at 20 cents/minute and data at the same $10/gig.

Our Google Fi bills typically run about $45 for two lines, unlimited talk and text. Here is the most recent one:

Flexible Plan $35.00 ($20 for first line, then $15/line)
Last month's data (Used 0.14 GB at $10/GB) $1.39
Taxes & regulatory fees $8.84
Total $45.23

If you use a lot of data, though, that $10/Gig can start to look expensive. I am not hampered by any facts, but my guess is that Google will be reducing that number in order to remain competitive, but it doesn't matter much to us anyway.

HTH

[njhowie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Ive been with AT&T for ever. But the last 3 months they've charged me a late fee every single month despite the fact that I'm on auto pay. Than I have to call and get them to remove it. The bill for one phone and Internet is $170 a month. I've noticed that T-Mobile would be about $80 for the same thing. Does anyone use T-Mobile, or is there better option out there? I don't have a land line. But my cellphone does cover all my needs. My cable (Comcast) is separate but they haven't messed up billing yet

Moved DW/DD over to T-Mobile Magenta Unlimited 55 last month. Very happy.

DD brought her own iPhone and just needed new SIM card. We got DW a new Samsung 5G phone with promo for 50% off.

I remain on MetroPCS (now owned by T-Mobile). I contemplate switching to Mint, but I'm going to need a new phone soon, as my ZTE is past end of life, no longer supported (but would work with Mint), can't upgrade past Android 6, etc. I figure I'll just stick with what I have until it's no longer usable and then get new phone and plan.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Not exactly. It's 1 cell phone + home internet. And I think I'm paying too much

My home internet is $45 a month for Fios service. This is for 30/30 service, which is slow according to many, but completely adequate for me. I am not a gamer nor do I download/stream video 24/7.

My phone bill is $60 a month for two lines, unlimited everything from T-Mobile. This is their age 55+ deal. I believe it is now $70 a month.

So that is $115 dollars a month for for internet, two phones, unlimited everything.

[OldShooter]

We're on a $35/month promotional rate from Comcast that will go to IIRC $55 next year sometime. 100 down, 5 up. Works for us. So our total internet + Google Fi phone will be about $90 but that is not unlimited cell phone data. Our bill would climb to equal @Chuckanut's if we used over about 2.6gig which I know for some people is not much.

"Landline" is VoIP Ooma at about $10month/premium plan.

[tb001]

We ditched an expensive Cox plan for home internet over the summer. Switched to spectrum for $55/mo. It’s their 200 speed with unlimited data upload. We watch streaming shows and have a bunch of nest cams that use a lot of upload data. It’s been far better than Cox.

Now in the process of canceling our $$$ Verizon/att plans. I’m moving to prepaid att for $300/yr with 8gb/mo of data. DH had to do the $30/mo option because he was a current att customer.

We tried like crazy to get t mobile to work, but reception just wasn’t good enough in our area.

[TrvlBug]

I'm on the Peninsula and we pay $80 for highest speed fiber internet (will increase to $90 after promo ends) and $115 for cell...2 phones & one Apple watch. We don't use a lot of data so at lowest level.

We also have AT&T landline and their DirecTV and could save $10/month if we bundled . Told them thanks but no thanks, I've heard too many horror stories about bundling.

Unfortunately we live in an area that's always last to be upgraded and Comcast service sucks big time as they're beyond capacity in our area.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut ... This is for 30/30 service, which is slow according to many, but completely adequate for me. I am not a gamer nor do I download/stream video 24/7. ...

Ditto here. 30 mbps has been plenty for us and we frequently stream on one tv and have no buffering at all.

I suspect that when the kids visit for a few days before Christmas it'll put a strain on that 30 mbps connection... they have to live with it or use their cell data.

As I recall it saves us $20/month over the internet that they give you if you just ask for internet without asking about speeds and prices.

[tulak]

I got lucky at in my new townhouse: unlimited gigabit for $65/month.

I WFH and it helps to have a quicker connection (we are high bandwidth users). I agree that most people are fine with lower speeds and anything over 100Mbps is overkill.

[rt-texas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldShooter I think the "best" carrier depends on your specific needs. Do you use a lot of data or not? Do you travel outside the US often enough that always having a reliable phone is important? In our case, we use very little data and (until recently) traveled internationally a couple of times a year. For us, Google Fi is a good fit. Data is $10/gig but you pay only for what you use. Many months our data bill is under $1. International coverage is about as good as it gets. 200 countries +/- with calls mostly at 20 cents/minute and data at the same $10/gig. Our Google Fi bills typically run about $45 for two lines, unlimited talk and text. Here is the most recent one: Flexible Plan $35.00 ($20 for first line, then $15/line) Last month's data (Used 0.14 GB at $10/GB) $1.39 Taxes & regulatory fees $8.84 Total $45.23 If you use a lot of data, though, that $10/Gig can start to look expensive. I am not hampered by any facts, but my guess is that Google will be reducing that number in order to remain competitive, but it doesn't matter much to us anyway. HTH

We're in Costa Rica where we stayed when covid started. Put our two iPhones on Google fi to keep in touch with the family and I was doing some remote work when we came down here.

Works great, 90% of the time we're on wifi and our bill runs $48-$52 a month for both of us.



If you do any international it's about the best plan I have found. Also great to get off the plane in the states and turn my phone on and it works with the number I have had for 20+ years.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsHaloFIRE We have 3 tmobile phones on an old people plan. Costs us about 90 a month for unlimited everything including hotspot and international data. If we didnt want the international data we would be with one of the discount companies. Googlefi/Republic/Redpocket etc. They just buy cheap airtime from sprint and verizon and pass along the savings. Dont be afraid of discount carriers. House internet is 59.99 a month, up from the discounted introductory rate.

Are you sure you get unlimited hotspot? I didn't see that offered and that's what I'm looking for. Sometimes they offer some amount of hotspot service at high speed, say 10 or 20 Gig, and then switch you to a much lower speed. That's far from "unlimited" and wouldn't work for us.

If it is full, unlimited high speed (4G) hotspot, where did you see it. I'd jump on that.

[Major Tom]

If you don't need much in the way of speed i.e. you just want to check email, browse websites, and are happy streaming movies at low image quality, then look into Visible. Visible is owned by Verizon and operates on the Verizon network. For $40/month, you get the usual cellphone deal of unlimited calling and texting, as well as truly unlimited data. The only catches to the data plan are that your speed is prioritized. When the network is busy, your speed goes down. At night, it gets faster. I use the phone as a hotspot. When used in this way, the speed is capped at 5MB/S. Occasionally, the speed gets unbearably low (<1MB/S). When that happens, I reset the network connections, and the speed improves.

If you team up with 3 other people, in what they call a "Party Pay" arrangement, your monthly bill goes down to $25. It is easy to find people to go into this arrangement with you. There are FB groups for the purpose of finding people to do this with. It took me a few hours to populate my group with 3 other members.

Some phones limit hotspot use to one connected device, in which case, you can use a WIFI router to connect multiple devices. My monthly bill for cellphone and home internet is $25 inc taxes and fees. I have an extra cellphone, by choice, for backup, which costs me $185.45 a year for unlimited calling and texting, but no data. I get the data via the hotspot on the other phone.

[gayl]

So far I adjusted my cell phone plan with ATT and it dropped $30 month. I typically use 4GB a month. Will look into bundling internet with cable (xfinity) next. It's not entirely the cost, it's also charging a late fee which was caused a ding on my credit report. Got that corrected this morning too.

The strange thing is that it looks like my cable bill would only go up about $10 month to $105+ taxes / fees if I move my internet there. That can't be right

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl The strange thing is that it looks like my cable bill would only go up about $10 month to $105+ taxes / fees if I move my internet there. That can't be right

Why not? Bundling is a great way to save money. I don't have cable, but $95 for cable only seems high. I'm not surprised it's only $10 more to add internet.

[cathy63]

Yes, if you add Internet to your existing cable, you should get a discount on both, so the $10 introductory price could be right. It'll probably go up to $30 or so in a year.

Also, one thing I don't think anybody has mentioned is if you use an email address that's connected to AT&T's ISP service (e.g. @sbcglobal.net), you'll lose that if you move your service. If that's the case, switch over all your email and account logins to something like gmail before you disconnect the AT&T Internet.

[pb4uski]

^^^ Yes, I did that years ago so now I can change ISPs if I find a better deal and there is no disruption to my email service.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Not exactly. It's 1 cell phone + home internet. And I think I'm paying too much

you are. check pricing with your local cable provider. you may be surprised.

[Murph]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Not exactly. It's 1 cell phone + home internet. And I think I'm paying too much

You are.

[maestro]

With more alternatives to services, competition increasing, I'm thinking unbundling is the way to go. I have Consumer Cellular for unlimited voice and text and 2gb data for 35/month. Very happy with service, and thinking time to cut cable cord, too, as I still have that bundled with internet.