How's Prepaid?

[wheeliegal79]

Absolutely no way am I paying current plan pricing. Can I expect at least halfway decent coverage on prepaid as long as there is a decent Verizon signal in the area? Is BYOD typically smooth? TIA!

Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk

 

[Crashdamage]

There's several differences between being a postpaid customer and a prepaid customer. These conditions are sometimes true whether you stay with a major carrier and only switch plans, or whether you go from a major carrier to a 3rd party service reseller, a mobile virtual network operator, aka MVNO.

1. You may have reduced coverage, especially in rural areas, due to not having access to other carrier's towers via roaming agreements. This is most likely to happen with MVNO providers.

2. You will have intentionally reduced data network speeds if the network is congested or in very severe congestion possibly even no connection at all. This is because postpaid customers get priority on data networks over prepaid customers. And in turn, prepaid customers of the major providers get network priority over MVNO customers.

3. Postpaid customers have conditional call forwarding available, which for some users is very important. Prepaid and MVNO customers may or may not, depending on the provider. I'm one of those who absolutely must have conditional call forwarding.

4. Prepaid customers may get the B Team when using customer support. Often trainees staff prepaid customer support to get experience before moving to the A Team for postpaid customers.

5. Postpaid may get free music streaming, free roaming in other countries, signal boosters or other perks that prepaid do not, again depending on the provider.

6. Prepaid is cheaper, and prices usually Include all taxes and fees. Postpaid does not.

Prepaid or MVNO service can definitely save money. But you get what you pay for, and It's up to you to decide which is most important to you - service quality or the bottom line.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001.

 

[UDPGuy]

There's several differences between being a postpaid customer and a prepaid customer. These conditions are sometimes true whether you stay with a major carrier and only switch plans, or whether you go from a major carrier to a 3rd party service reseller, a mobile virtual network operator, aka MVNO.

1. You may have reduced coverage, especially in rural areas, due to not having access to other carrier's towers via roaming agreements. This is most likely to happen with MVNO providers.

2. You will have intentionally reduced data network speeds if the network is congested or in very severe congestion possibly even no connection at all. This is because postpaid customers get priority on data networks over prepaid customers. And in turn, prepaid customers of the major providers get network priority over MVNO customers.

3. Postpaid customers have conditional call forwarding available, which for some users is very important. Prepaid and MVNO customers may or may not, depending on the provider. I'm one of those who absolutely must have conditional call forwarding.

4. Prepaid customers may get the B Team when using customer support. Often trainees staff prepaid customer support to get experience before moving to the A Team for postpaid customers.

5. Postpaid may get free music streaming, free roaming in other countries, signal boosters or other perks that prepaid do not, again depending on the provider.

6. Prepaid is cheaper, and prices usually Include all taxes and fees. Postpaid does not.

Prepaid or MVNO service can definitely save money. But you get what you pay for, and It's up to you to decide which is most important to you - service quality or the bottom line.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001.

1. Verizon prepaid does actually get roaming

2. Prepaid and postpaid are the same as long as its a 4g LTE phone. Verizon can not discriminate

Posted via Nexus 6 with unlimited international data via AT&T

 

[Crashdamage]

1. Verizon prepaid does actually get roaming

2. Prepaid and postpaid are the same as long as its a 4g LTE phone. Verizon can not discriminate

1. Well, I did put conditions on it.
"You **may* have reduced coverage,"
"This is most likely to happen with MVNO providers."

2. AFAIK all the major carriers give network priority to postpaid over prepaid. Are you sure? And why is it that "Verizon can not discriminate" if other carriers can and do?

Prepaid is alright, I don't want to give the impression I have anything against it. I'm just putting some info out there for people to think about. I've given serious consideration lately to switching from T-Mobile postpaid to Metro PCS. Metro does have conditional call fowarding, a must-have. But it's hard to give up some of the other perks we get from T-mobile. Still kinda mulling over whether or not the savings is really worth it.

 

[sulla1965]

Verizon prepaid if fine, I can't tell the difference between post paid. $48/month and 2 GB with auto pay