AT&T vs Verizon, any converts with opinions?

[VidJunky]

Recently found out that my employer is offering a decent, on paper, discount for AT&T. I've had Verizon for a lot of years now but I know a lot has changed in that time.

Here's my dilemma. I've looked at the maps and for my area and the places I frequent both appear to have equal coverage for cell and data so I'm only slightly hesitant about cell service and call drops. I've watched videos on data speeds but those are academic at best. I'm curious about real world, real experience from real people.

Have you switched within the last 6 months or less?

Which way did you switch, Big Red to Big Blue or reverse?

What have you noticed, gained, lost, miss?

Would you go back?

 

[SmartAssBill]

Moved from Chicago to Nashville. Had Tmobile. It was spotty down here, had LG G8. Slot of dropped calls and no internet connection. Switched to S21 5g with ATT. Been great so far. Customer service has been horrible with ATT. Will probably switch back after promotional period.

 

[cohoman]

It's been a long time since I've used Verizon, and I've been on AT&T for 15+ years now living in the Seattle area. Last week I was on a 1 week road trip up and down the west coast and my coverage was great. I was surprised how much 5G coverage I had during my trip. I'm very pleased with my AT&T service.

 

[Hardhat Harry]

I live out in the rural parts of Arkansas. I am on AT&T (have been since...forever) . For some unexplained reason, our house in covered by 5G. I am getting download speeds consistently OVER 280 Mbps and 50 upload. Yesterday actually got over 300 Mbps! I have never had issues with AT&T Customer Service with any dealings. Zero dropped calls.

 

[bkdodger2]

I've used all 3 major carriers.. Here around NY they are all pretty good so I can't really help there.. I have noticed my Verizon is a bit better inside some buildings...if possible do you have an unlocked phone extra? Maybe you can get a 30 day prepaid to test along side your current...

 

[L0n3N1nja]

Never used AT&T but as a former Verizon employee I'll tell you the coverage maps are basically false advertising. The coverage map indicates signal, but you may need to be outside standing on your roof to receive it. Lol

 

[donebrasko]

I'm going to be honest, if you can afford it, I would try a prepay sim for a month. That's the only way you will truly know. You need to experience it for yourself as you go through your daily routine.

I have Verizon in my house and my wife is att. I can tell no difference most of the time, but they're are tones where one works better than the other at different places.

 

[sulla1965]

I've used both networks via prepaid and mvno's Verizon has the slightly better cell coverage. I'm not a big data user, so I couldn't say which was better in that way.

 

[Laura Knotek]

@VidJunky Have you asked your co-workers and neighbours? That may help if you learn what carrier the people closest to you prefer, as well as any issues with lack of coverage.

 

[VidJunky]

Well folks thanks for your input. I pulled the trigger for a savings of about 30 bucks a month. A few things I've noticed in the first 24 are;

My notification icons changed. I won't say for the better or worse cause they're just icons and not that important to me.

A lot of settings got reset. Most that I've noticed are in the phone app but I've found some device settings too. When I have more time I'll have to go through them all but this i was not expecting.

Some of my apps look different. Perhaps they updated before I opened them because I can't see how changing carrier could affect an app, so this one may not be real.

5G. Again this is one that I'm not overly worked up about but I have noticed that I'm not getting it inside my work building. The area shows up on AT&T's map but the signal doesn't come inside my building now.

I also found, or haven't been able to figure out how to yet, that the AT&T app doesn't have a dark mode and I don't seem to be able to, from the app, add a profile pic. Again wouldn't call either of these a deal breaker but it was nice on the My Verizon app.

That's pretty much it for now, again only 24 hours in, some expected some unexpected. My son said his notification bar itself had changed which we don't know if it's a settings thing yet. I don't get, no wait let me rephrase that, I don't answer many calls so I can't speak to anything call related. I've used data some and as you'd and I'd expect, nothing crazy there. Everything worked.

On a side and personal note, I do already miss typing Verizon vs AT&T which requires caps lock and a symbol. Yeah that's petty I know but I'm not one for change. LOL

 

[stevetaz]

5G. Again this is one that I'm not overly worked up about but I have noticed that I'm not getting it inside my work building. The area shows up on AT&T's map but the signal doesn't come inside my building now.
L

Do you auto-connect to a WiFi network in your workplace? I ask because since my change to the 5G TMobile network I never see the 5G indicator in my Notification bar when connected to a WiFi network. If I turn off WiFi then the 5G indicator displays. When I was on the Sprint network both VoLTE and Wifi would display at the same time.

I also do not see the TMobile name as the carrier. It only shows in my Lock Screen. Not sure why.

Just curious

 

[VidJunky]

Do you auto-connect to a WiFi network in your workplace?

No. Sometimes I wish I could, especially since the move to Samsung. The whole, only being able to download updates over WiFi is one of the dumbest things, to me. I just always picture people going to McDonalds or Burger King to get the latest update for their phone. "Hey beware of open WiFi, Oh and also if you don't have WiFi make sure to stop into your local open WiFi spot to get this important update."

I also do not see the TMobile name as the carrier. It only shows in my Lock Screen. Not sure why.

Just curious

This something that bugged the crap out of me. I noticed it when I had Verizon and even made a post about it. Having that brand name in the corner on your unlocked phone was ridiculously annoying. That was one of the perks to having an unlocked device. I looked as soon as we switched and yeah AT&T right up there in the same spot.

Update for the second 24.

The AT&T website is horrible. I tried going in and setting up autopay and look around and every page took a minute to load. You might be thinking, well maybe there was heavy traffic or something, at 02:00? Not likely.

I do appear to be getting the 5G icon displayed more often and in more places, BUT if memory serves, when all the buzz was about Verizon turning on their network in mass there was a story going around about AT&T using the 5G icon for its LTE+ connection. So I can't even say if it's real. Either way, while I haven't dropped signal or lost connection I've noticed, for a company that boasts the fastest network, wait that may be T-Mo but AT&T is faster than Big Red in benchmark tests, a lot of things take a ridiculous amount of time to load. So far my POD cast app has taken minutes to load just the play list. Once connected the shows so far play fine. Google Maps has taken much longer to update my person places and routing seems to be longer too. And again, once no the road no issues but I haven't required a rerouting which I'm wondering if that would be affected like the initial routing, IDK. TapaTalk takes forever. When I tap on the notification I usually sit and look at a blank screen with a spinning circle before it finally retrieves the thread. It feels like my phone is on DSL and I'm watching the progress bar slowly creep across the screen.

 

[VidJunky]

Well, I went back to Verizon.

AT&T Should Update Colored Kites Every Day! If you read more than the first letter you read it wrong.

Where do I start? First let me say for anyone one stuck with AT&T you have my sympathy. That was the worst experience I've ever had with a carrier in so many ways.

The web site was slow and laggy, I mean when I was connected with a ethernet cable on an actual PC and it was slow and laggy. It took them over 4 months to get my bill right. That's crediting my discount, getting my bill to a predictable, this is your every month total, get the bill right. Going to the store was horrible. I'm sorry but Verizon's auto check-in recognizing your device and only requiring a pin vs literally having to check-in and presenting an ID and sometimes the pin too. That's just a bit much to ask a question. And I haven't even gotten to the service yet.

I've never had such spotty and slow internet service. I mean the phone would say 5G a lot of the time but it would take forever for pages or internet dependent games to load. And Ok yeah I know the whole not always real 5G, and 5G isn't always a lot better than LTE but when it says you're connected and things just don't load or open, that's a problem. I was trying to think of a time I ever dropped a call on Big Red, which I'm sure happened in the decade and half I was with them but I'm pretty sure I had more dropped calls in these past few months than whatever that total might have been. Then the shear number of places that I didn't seem to have service of one kind or another. I never expected this to really be an issue. I figured there were towers everywhere so even if it wasn't an AT&T tower I'd still be able to connect to someone's tower and be good but that didn't seem to play out.

Every time I would mention any of these things someone would mention this carrier or that service, all of whom I'm sure would have saved me even more money but all I could think was, if number 2 is this much worse than number 1 I don't think I want to know what number 4 - 7 would be like.

They tried to offer some perks. Unlimited media storage, photo and video back-up. Sounds really good just when Google is doing away with their unlimited option and going to a pretty low limit before hitting a paid tier. Free HBO Max, if you had at least one plan subscribed to a higher plan. Everything else was stuff other carriers offered too.

Anyway, I went back at the same price as before. I am still saving in a way. No HBO Max but Hulu which I was paying for is now free and we're getting crappy Disney+ free. I mean the point of a streaming service is content which D+ offers about a D- worth of. Too bad none of us are left leaning sports fans cause it also includes ESPN+. Not being a sports fan that is useless to me. It reminds me of Taco Bell and how everything comes with sour cream anymore. That used to be an upcharge but when you order without it now the price doesn't go down. That's ESPN for us, we're not going to use but our price still won't go down. LOL. At least I know I'll have a connection and signal everywhere I go and no worries about dropped calls.

 

[VidJunky]

And one more thing... Oh wow, I thought my battery life had taken dip. I mean it just didn't feel like it was lasting as long as it had before then tonight happened. I woke up early and started moving things around and found myself watching a bunch of YouTube. I tried to do some charging on my way to work and got it up to 76% 78%. I've actually been on it quite a bit this evening and I'm still at 43%. These past few months I would have had to of been charging at some point to be at the percentage. It could be due to the update I got unexpectedly yesterday or it could be that my device was so starved for signal that it was draining itself. I'm going with the latter because I thought I was imaging better battery life yesterday before the update but didn't really pay attention because I had started off yesterday at 100%. Being low already today I was hyper aware of my percentage so just one more advantage to Big Red.