Which mobile phone MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) are best?

[TC Talks]

I can tell you that Sprint is not existent in the traverse City area. I don't think T-Mobile has any hardware up here.

I can't imagine it would be reliable.

[TC Talks]

While that was likely the case at one time, it certainly is not the case today. (As an aside, Sprint doesn't exist anymore; it's part of T-Mobile now.)

Looks like T-Mobile has good coverage up north aside from heavily wooded areas that are far from major roads. Most of the greater Traverse City area now has 4G LTE or 5G service from them, if their coverage map is reliable.

https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map


Verizon is certainly the gold standard for coverage in Michigan, though.

Poor in the first tier suburbs Non-existent in Leelanau County. Its useless.

[sdaddy]

If your phone can accept an eSim, T-Mobile is giving 90 days of their service free.
https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/free-trial

[craig11152]

To resurrect this thread I am no longer a happy Visible customer. It has to do with wanting a new phone. Lots of details I won't go in to.
I am a fan of the verizon network and not a fan of the T-mobile network in my particular area.

I am now thinking of trying US Mobile, a verizon MVNO since they will take the phone I was planning to buy, a Motorola Edge 2022. Its $350 at Best Buy and Motorola with 256gb of storage. The same phone at Visible, only 128GB of storage is $504. Visible says the 256GB phone isn't compatible. I think that is horseshit because all the other specs are the same. And Motorola says its compatible.

[Plate Cap]

Hi Craig,

There is no quick answer, as MVNOs are mixed bag of pros and cons. Mostly the only pro is the pricing. The cons are many: you might not have the option for free Mexico and Canada calls and texts....you might not be able to buy the 'international day pass' (really nice deal)....you may not have the full number of phones, models, memory amounts, and colors available....you will ALWAYS be considered a 2nd class citizen by the root carrier as regards their post paid customers....etc. You WILL most definitely be prioritized in times of network congestion.

I really stepped in the poop once. I like flagship phones and always have owned one. One year I decided to be smart guy and get an unlocked phone from Amazon . Quite a better deal. Well, yes, it worked on AT&T, but they intentionally withheld video calling, wifi calling (which I really need) and VoLTE from such 'BYO' phones. This happened even as a post-paid customer, with a normal account. They won't necessarily TELL you that is going on, but research on the web showed a number of customers with the same problem. I had to live with it all for a while, cycle the phone out, and buy a phone from AT&T before I got all the services back.

Most can live with most of this, but go into it with your eyes wide open. As I said, you will most definitely be a second class customer to the main carrier.

[craig11152]

Hi Craig,

One year I decided to be smart guy and get an unlocked phone from Amazon . Quite a better deal. Well, yes, it worked on AT&T, but they intentionally withheld video calling, wifi calling (which I really need) and VoLTE from such 'BYO' phones. This happened even as a post-paid customer, with a normal account. They won't necessarily TELL you that is going on, but research on the web showed a number of customers with the same problem. I had to live with it all for a while, cycle the phone out, and buy a phone from AT&T before I got all the services back.

Now that I did not know. If one did their due diligence could you know in advance what features the carrier might disable?
The frustrating thing with my Visible experience is that on the Visible website when looking at the specifications for a given phone, Visible provides a link to that phone on the manufacturers website for more information.
I was beyond stunned that Visible would give me that link then not accept that version of the phone.

Other than that I have not been unhappy. My wife is a full fledged postpaid Verizon customer and in the 22 months I've been with Visible nothing has really been noticeable about her data access verses mine. Now maybe if we walked around the football stadium on game day it would become noticable.

Visible now sells a "premium data" plan for $35 versus $25 for the standard plan. Supposedly the premium data plan puts you on a par or much closer to on a par with a Verizon postpaid customer. I don't know how true that is veses a sales gimmick to get you to pay more.

US Mobile has a similar claim but has a 40 gb or 100 GB cap on the premium data depending on the price you pay.

For me a vast majority of my data usage comes through a wifi connection rather than my provider. Whether I am at home or a kids house or work I tap into that wifi. I could probably live with a 5GB plan. But 15 or more would be a nice buffer.

[Plate Cap]

...........If one did their due diligence could you know in advance what features the carrier might disable?

That might be doable, but still a kind of tough. You would have to make a list of all the features you want to work, then sort of 'reverse research' complaints on support forums and boards not unlike this one. Then you would have to find the problem you are looking for, weed out all the outdated and just plain bad info, and make a determination. Tall order, and one that requires expert 'Googling' and patience.

I found, for example, that AT&T never actually came straight out and admitted that they had me penalized for using a new unlocked phone. When complaining about no VoLTE, video calling or (again, most important) wi-fi callling, I was eventually up several levels into technical support, and they were still either not aware of 'why' or really good at playing dumb as to the actual issue of the phone simply being directed by the carrier to shut those features off.

Be reminded that my problem was a new but unlocked non-carrier-supplied phone. You may not have a problem, but if you do yours might be the use of an MVNO between you and the carrier. If AT&T was willing to penalize me, a full-account postpaid customer, I don't think they would bat an eye at doing it to an MVNO's customer. That might make it even a little harder to get to the answer in advance. They probably have a list of 'penalties' they apply to the features available to subscribers using MVNOs.

Fine point: My wi-fi worked just fine for browsing. I just couldn't make a wi-fi based call in an area (my house, for example) where the MESH system has perfect coverage but the cellular coverage from the outside not so good. Now, with an AT&T purchased phone, it works very well....even transferring in and out of MESH to cellular coverage on a call.

I'm lucky enough that I can afford the carrier's postpaid rate; I'm grateful for that. Most of my bill comes from equipment purchases for my bride and I anyway. I'm getting stung a little on cellular service to a laptop, and need to work that out one of these days, but I digress.

[craig11152]

I wonder if that is an ATT thing? We have now bought two phones from Best Buy for her Verizon account with no problems. When I was with Verizon I bought one phone from Best Buy. In all cases Best Buy got the phones activated and transferred data from the old phone to the new phone.

Eventually I left Verizon for the MVNO world. My first go was with Google Fi. I bought a phone from them. Then when I got tired of Google Fi I went to Visible and also bought a phone from them.
Now I want a second phone with Visible but don't want to pay a 43% mark up from the going rate.

I have some time to think on it since my current phone is working OK. Its 3 months short of two years old and I start looking for a new phone at about the 2 year mark. As mentioned before I buy phones in the $250 to $375 range.