Verizon Wireless Tampa Bay – It Feels So Good to Kick AT&T to the Curb.
Written: Apr 22 '09
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Pros: Excellent coverage, no dropped calls so far, wonderful customer support.
Cons: none in 5 months of service.
The Bottom Line: In the Tampa Bay area Verizon Wireless is easily the best carrier when it comes to coverage and customer service.
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| mongkut's Full Review: Verizon Mobile Phone Service in Tampa/St Petersbur... |
Up until last December my family had gone through four years of watching the ballet between Cingular and AT&T Wireless. We initially made the switch from T-Mobile to Cingular back in 2004 because they had upgraded their phone options and offered better customer service than the abysmal T-Mobile. Things were great for the first year and then they started converting towers as a result of the acquisition of AT&T Wireless. This conversion caused us connectivity problems in several areas, including right around our neighborhood.
Things got better in the last part of our two year contract and we decided to just stick with Cingular for another two years. Big mistake. Shortly after we signed up for another term it was announced that AT&T was purchasing Cingular. Wait, didn’t Cingular buy AT&T Wireless already? Once the takeover occurred our problems started up again with increased dropped calls. I have no idea what they were doing to the cell towers after they switched the name to AT&T but the problem escalated to the point where we had virtually no coverage within about a mile of our home and dropped calls became a daily occurrence. AT&T’s slogan should have been “the most dropped calls” if there was any truth in advertising.
Thankfully in December our contract expired and after poling dozens of friends we decided to go with Verizon Wireless. What a great decision that has been.
The Company
Verizon Wireless has the largest US subscriber base at over 80 million compared to AT&T’s worldwide subscriber number at 77 million. In the past Verizon Wireless had a reputation for a limited selection of phones and more expensive plans. This has changed in recent years and now Verizon is very competitive and offers as broad a range of phone options as most wireless providers. They also have the reputation for providing the best customer service in the industry.
Our Plan
We have the Nationwide Basic Family SharePlan with two lines and 700 Anytime Minutes for $69.99 per month. The plan includes unlimited in network calls to other Verizon Wireless customers, unlimited nights and weekend minutes, and no domestic long distance charges. Nights and weekends minutes hours are Monday through Friday from 9:01pm to 5:59am for nights and 12:00am Saturday to 11:59pm Sunday for weekends. There are no domestic roaming charges. Minutes used beyond the 700 included are charged at $0.45/minute. 411 information calls are $1.49 per call plus airtime. Data charges are $1.99 per megabyte. The voice mail box holds up to 20 messages at one time of a length up to 3 minutes per message. Saved messages are stored for 21 days.
Our Phones
We chose LG VX8350s which were free with a two year contract. The phones received a CNET editor’s rating of four out five stars and weigh only 3.3 ounces. The clamshell style phones feature up to 207 minutes of talk time, a 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 playback with external controls, an external display, and a micro-SD slot.
Activation Charge
The activation charge is $35 for the first phone and $25 for each additional phone. (This can be negotiated.)
The Coverage
Verizon Wireless nationwide coverage is very extensive, particularly in the Southeast, and advertises itself as the nation’s largest voice and data network. In the Tampa Bay area Verizon blankets the entire area with digital coverage and almost no uncovered areas west of Winter Haven.
Our Experience
The transition from AT&T to Verizon Wireless has been like going from darkness into the light. In all the areas where we continually had problems with AT&T the coverage is now perfect with Verizon. In five months of usage I have yet to have a single dropped call. Compare that to almost daily dropped calls with AT&T.
The sound quality is also far superior with each call being crystal clear. With AT&T the sound quality would suffer as I moved from one cell tower to the next.
The best part of being with Verizon, besides the coverage, is the customer service. I’ve had about half a dozen opportunities to speak with Verizon reps and each has been a pleasure. With AT&T it was nothing but canned responses to inquiries about coverage problems. Often it felt like we were bothering the representative by calling in with questions. The Verizon reps I’ve dealt with have all been not only courteous but also quickly and efficiently resolved and questions or issues we’ve had.
Overall I would rate our first five months with Verizon Wireless as the best experience we’ve had since we first started using cell phones in the 90s.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69.99
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