want to switch carriers but have questions first

[ShaggyKids]

Hi all, Happy weekend!

I posted a week or two ago about my lousy reception at home. I then posted my question on a local neighborhood website so I got a lot of local answers. We currently have VZW and have also had TMO, both were on the same level - not so great for what we pay for service. So, I finally realized why not ask the people who live around here what service they use. Looks like about 90-95%% use US Cellular with no issues and are happy with it. I don't know why I didn't think to ask the locals before.

US Cellular uses ATT towers and ATT is also a provider that got good grades in my area, but more costly. Cricket uses ATT towers as well but no one around here even mentioned Cricket. Does having good reviews on US Cellular and ATT mean I would have the same kind of service on Cricket? I found out the tower that's 2mi away is an ATT tower, not TMO as originally thought. The lady at the Cricket store told me Cricket has their own towers, yes, no or a white lie?

I also learned that when it comes to towers, the owner of the tower gets the high spots but other carriers can use their towers but are lower down the totem pole? Truth? If Cricket truly does *not* have their own towers but uses ATT towers does that mean they run off the high points?

I'm hoping to finally take care of this, this weekend and get this monkey off my back.

Oh, one more question. Unlocking a phone - does that mean you can use both CDMA or GMA service *or* just another service on the same network as the phone was locked to? My husband really likes his phone and would like to keep it.

I'm done now, THANK YOU!
Deb

 

[B. Diddy]

If US Cellular has good reception, then you should definitely give Google Fi a try (since Google uses both T-Mobile and US Cellular).

MVNOs (like Cricket and Google Fi) can get deprioritized if there's heavy traffic, but from what I've heard and read, this is not very common.

Cricket is actually owned by AT&T, so I guess technically you could say Cricket has their own towers, since they're just AT&T towers.

Carrier-unlocking a phone means you can use the phone on any carrier, assuming the phone supports that carrier's network bands. CDMA and GSM (i.e., 2G) is no longer in use in the US, and most carriers are also phasing out 3G, so the phone would have to support the carrier's 4G bands. Some carriers can also be a little picky about phones supporting 4G VoLTE (Voice over LTE, which means voice calls go on the 4G signal), so it's best to discuss it with the carrier first.

 

[B. Diddy]

Here's more info about Google Fi: https://fi.google.com/about/faq/

 

[ShaggyKids]

Just letting you know ... with my thanks ... CRICKET is the winner. We signed up on Sunday and so far no issues. Hallelujah!