Cell service in KC



  • I’m thinking about changing from Virizon to Sprint. So I was wondering if anyone could give me a thumbs up or down is it great or does it suck?



  • @Ralph

    I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile about 6 years ago and I couldn’t be happier. Great rates excellent tech. support and lots of perks. I get a call about every other month asking how my service is working and they usually have a freebie for me.



  • @JayHawkFanToo you must be special?



  • @JayHawkFanToo T-mobile gives freebies every Tuesday. Many times it’s a free movie rental on VUDU a few weeks ago it was a free subscription to ESPN the Magazine with ESPN insider access.

    Verizon has much better coverage in SW Kansas than T-mobile though. Sprint and T-mobile both cover the KC metro area very well, but Sprint’s customer relations are usually poor. (I worked for Sprint repair for a bit - not a bad company from my angle, but not so great for others)



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    But of course I am special…and not in a short bus kind of way. LOL.



  • @dylans

    I am familiar with the freebie Tuesday, although I really don’t use it that much. Last time They called me they asked if I was satisfied with my router and I said I was but they over-nighted me a brand new one, for free, made specially for them by ASUS that optimizes wireless calls, not a bad deal. Every time they call they always go over my contract to see if they can get me a better deal; no other service provide has ever done anything even remotely similar, when they call it is usually to raise the rates. Of all the service/utility providers I deal with, T-Mobile is by far the best.



  • @JayHawkFanToo, @dylans, thanks for the T-mobile tip. After talking to all the carriers I found that the 2 year contract and early termination fees are a thing of the past, now they want you to by a phone and pay it off over 24 months. So now I’m looking for an unlocked phone that is compatable with all the carriers. I maybe wrong but it seems that you can change carriers month to month with no penalty.



  • @Ralph

    That is by and large correct. We are now moving to the European model where providers provide the service and you can buy your phone wherever you want. I bought my latest phone on EBay; it was essentially brand new and I paid a whole lot less.

    I don’t believe there is a phone that is compatible with all carriers since they use different technologies. I was able to make Verizon high end phone work on T-Mobile but some of the T-Mobile features, such as hot spot, were not available and I ended up getting a fully compatible T-Mobile phone.



  • @Ralph Check at Best Buy. I went phone shopping for my mother and picked up a (new) iPhone 6 last week they described as “universal” that works with any of the major carriers if you swap sim cards. I don’t know if they had other unlocked phones, but that was interesting to me, and they said it would definitely work with AT&T or Sprint (so it should work with any GSM/CDMA carrier with the appropriate sim).



  • @DanR, @JayHawkFanToo, sprint has a lg g5 for half price now for 288 it has both technologys, i’m going up to best buy now to make sure it works with all. if so I’ll try sprint for 3 month, and move to the next one. what Dylan and @JayHawkFanToo said about t-Mobil sounded good so that will be my next stop.

    PHONE PRICES ARE INSANE



  • @Ralph

    Providers used to give away the phones and charge a lot more for the service. Under the Euro model, we pay a lot less for the service but buy our phones; obviously you can get them from the providers and pay over 12 or 124 months, but if you change provider, the fullbalance is due immediately. Best of luck in your search for a new provider…



  • @dylans Verizon had much better coverage than sprint for sure. At least in the metro. We dropped calls like a hot potato for years & I was 10 miles from Sprint 🌎 effin HQ Verizon works well in southern misery/northern Arkansas too. T Mobile often failed to work in larger structures also.



  • @Ralph I have straight talk because im poor but i like it. Verizon is the best here in central ks but i hated the $200 bill and striaght talk uses the same towers.



  • @globaljaybird

    How long ago was that? Sprint has pretty good coverage in the metro area now. Verizon might have good coverage but I have yet to find one customer that is happy. Near the Plaza in KC the coverage is lousy and if you go inside a building it drops immediately. You cannot use your Verizon phone over wi-fi like T-Mobile, so you have to get a booster ($160), place it by a window with antenna and then it takes a couple of minutes every time you go inside before the phone connect to the booster…a royal PIA and their tech. support sucks. Even with a more restricted coverage, I would take Sprint over Verizon any day.



  • I like Tmobiles extras, price, and customer service. My wife has a T-Mobile phone.

    I have a Verizon phone because I use it for work and can’t afford to be out of service that much. The customer service sucks and there are no extras, but my phone works everywhere unlike the T-Mobile one.

    To each their own.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Past 2 years Verizon was good as gold & sprint awful 2 years prior. I will add that I used a Samsung Galaxy when with sprint & iPhones since with Verizon. Not in the boonies then either. Was out south of Heritage park a few mi but still in Johnson co. New iPhone works really well in the Twilight zone here at Table Rock too.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Sprint actually gave us a hotspot booster which I found in a tote the other day, but it didn’t make any diff in our signal.



  • @globaljaybird

    If it is anything like the Verizon, you have to place it near a windows or wherever there is reception and extend the antenna and then your phone connects to it. With T-Mobile, if you don’t have a good signal, you can connect to any wi-fi connection and you are in business.



  • @JayHawkFanToo Yep that’s the window one-or as Groucho used to say Of course that’s a ridiculous innuendo, Love always comes in the door & your money goes out the window."



  • @JayHawkFanToo I have Verizon, works great. Sons sprint was awful around here. Lots of dropped calls for him



  • @Crimsonorblue22

    Like i said, Sprint has a great signal around the KC Metro area since they made sure their HQ town had great signal. Other areas, like with other providers can be hit or miss. You can go to the various web sites and they have maps of their areas of coverage including the high speed and the plain one as well.

    As I understand, 90% of the people are 90% of the time within 30 miles of their home, so if you have a good home signal, chances are you will be fine the great majority of the time. I travel a fair amount so I need to have decent coverage in the areas I travel more often, T-Mobile has been expanding it coverage and it is decent most everywhere I go unless I am in the middle of a lake bed in a large military reservation on the western part of the country. You have to find what works for you and where you are. YMMV.


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