Can't decide between AT&T or Verizon for S3

[neiljay6]

A quick peruse through the S3 Verizon forums, and you will see complains about weak signal. Have not seen these complains in the ATT S3 forums. Hmmm.. just sayin

 

[Dave4321]

One thing to consider is that Verizon has a locked bootloader so while you can root, you can't get ROMs other than modified stock ROMs until it is unlocked. If you wanted Verizon, you really should have ordered last month so you could have gotten an unlimited data plan.

My opinion is go for the phone that has the best coverage in your area. Speed doesn't matter if you can't get reception.

 

[lasooner]

I live in west LA and have Sprint. I am considering a move to ATT due to numerous dropped calls. Does ATT have LTE operating in West Los Angeles? Are download speeds fast? Sprint's LTE is fast at times but it is very inconsistent. But those dropped calls are killing me. I don't want to spend an extra $20-$25/ month for Verizon even though they have the best network.

Do any of you in my area have any comments about ATT's internet speed, dropped calls, and LTE coverage? Any info would be appreciated.

 

[Bombo_Strombo]

In my opinion the only advantage to getting the AT&T one is the faster software updates, but if you're rooted that doesn't matter anyways.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ybcthanerd]

Jus wait for tha s4

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Android Central Forums

 

[Targon]

As an AT&T user, I can tell you that you have to consider how coverage is where you are before you decide which carrier you want to go with. AT&T has far better 3G and HSPA+ speeds than Verizon when it comes to 3G. The thing that complicates things is that Verizon has LTE service in more areas. AT&T LTE is faster than Verizon LTE for the most part, and AT&T has been deploying LTE at a fairly aggressive pace around the country, so as I said, it all depends on where you live. There are a number of areas where Verizon does have better service overall.

Now, on a phone perspective, Verizon is known for butchering GPS, where GPS is unreliable due to the software on the phone and changes made. AT&T is a LOT better, and will let you disable a lot of the pre-installed software, even if it can't be uninstalled, at least you can disable what you don't want.

Now, there are some things about Verizon I personally don't like, and to be honest, I find Verizon to be a dishonest company...the word sleezy comes to mind. A part of this is that I live in a place where Verizon is the local phone company, and have seen them throw $10 services onto the bills of people who never requested the service. It turned out that Verizon threw a "one month free trial" of a service at customers, and if you did not call to say you didn't want it, you got stuck paying for a service you never even knew you had(unless you read your bill). This may not be recent stuff, but with that sort of history, I will NEVER give Verizon a penny of my money, even if they offer LTE where I live while AT&T has capacity issues on my local tower. I'd rather know my bill doesn't change from month to month than have to check my bill to make sure something strange isn't going on.

 

[mty msi]

Both Verizon and AT&T have issues. IMO neither is a great choice but for many (myself included) they are the only choices. Definitely depends on the coverage for each carrier where you'll be using your phone the most. If everything else were equal I'd pick the least expensive option. Since 1-9-13 AT&T has a nationwide random intermittent issue with callers to your phone getting messages that the call can't be completed at this time. It effects every 4G phone they use in every market they offer 4G service. I've got the 4G disabled on my S3 because the issue is only on their 4G network. I have read on a number of different threads that Verizon is difficult to deal with when you have a problem, not that AT&T is a cakewalk by any means but you don't see the same criticism of AT&T in that regard that you do Verizon. I'd love to have U.S. Cellular but they're not in my market, Sprint has no 4G & T-Mobile while a little bit cheaper than AT&T & Verizon has nowhere near the coverage in the outlying areas of where I live. I'm loath to recommend AT&T but if they're cheaper and have equal coverage that's probably your better choice.