The Verizon Wireless Megathread: Tears for tiers

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The Verizon Wireless Megathread: Tears for tiers

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Verizon does not sell service in at my billing address, but they have a roaming partner that they do 3G and 4G with. In fact, a VZW phone in my area doesn't show that it is roaming at all.

Anyways, I end up traveling most of the time and I want to get a Verizon account since they have better phones than the local roaming partner.

Does anyone have experience with signing up for Verizon service when they didn't have a billing address in side the Verizon service area? Can I just go to the nearest city that has VZW and sign up there using my address, or would I have to get a P.O. Box or something in that area?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 20:57

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:04

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think the bigger thing to come out of everything being VoLTE is that it could lead the way to buying unlocked phones from other places and using them on VZW by using a VZW sim card. No more CDMA hardware lock out.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 12:39

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

bull3964 posted:

It's a customer support nightmare and they can make more money by keeping them as separate buckets. They won't be able to advertise their plans as unlimited voice and then charge on the back end for data for the voice calls.

VoLTE data rate is only about 12.65kbps max. That's about 1mb for every 10 minutes of phone conversation.

Hell, we should be so lucky that they get rid of separate voice/text pricing and make it all data because people who make very few calls would make out like bandits on the new plans (I wouldn't only use about 50mb of data on voice a month), but they won't

I think its more likely they will just keep voice and text as unlimited and not count it against your data usage since it would be pretty easy to do from a billing point of view and voice data usage would be negligible for most users.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 14:28

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

doctor thodt posted:

Is anyone picking up a Droid Ultra later this month? I either need to be talked into it or talked out of it.

I am probably going to get the Droid Maxx for the better battery life. It's hardly any bigger than the ultra and has nearly double the battery in it.

The Galaxy S4 and the HTC ONE are both more powerful phones, but I have been reading that 4 core are rarely used and in most real life cases, 2 cores are typically just as fast. Plus you the new Droids have the always listening for voice recognition and the always on screen notifications thing. And they are going to be mostly stock android and the previous Droid models have gotten good update support.

There, did I talk you into it?

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 12:31

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Mighty Horse posted:

The Verge really didn't like the new Droid Ultra/Maxx

http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/27/4659876/motorola-droid-ultra-and-droid-maxx-review

seems like they are bashing it a bit much here, or is it just me?

The dock it bad for not being the prettiest phones, and they make a big deal out of the Maxx not having as good of battery life as last years Maxx. But yeah, it seems overly harsh to me.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 17:56

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

highme posted:

When I use voice commands on my dmaxx to send a text it sends two copies to the recipient. Is anybody else experiencing this?

No.

Did you stutter?

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 20:08

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

iostream.h posted:

Thank you for this. Seriously.
Everybody knows there's no reason for data caps other than sheer price gouging and no one gives a poo poo because it doesn't affect them.

Did I miss a change in wireless technology in the last year that removed the limits of wireless bandwidth?

Wireless carriers arguably charge too much for most/all of their services, but wireless spectrum is a limited commodity shared between users and VZW services wouldnt work for poo poo if everyone used it like some of the people in this thread.

But it was their mistake to every offer it as unlimited if they couldn't supply it. And that is something that they are trying to fix.

To these people who say they are gone if they are forced off, Iam curious which carrier they will switch to. Att is the next best network, but they dont have unlimited anymore. Tmobile and sprint do but tmobile throttles and sprint is functionally usless in most areas.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2013 02:52

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Roundboy posted:

hopefully this isnt redundant, but where does this camera update put the camera on the max compared to the other 'big phones' (s4,g2,ONE) ?

(i know the maxx didnt get the update... yet?)

It should be the same update that the MOTO X got recently.

see here

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/09/23/moto-x-camera-update-new-vs-old/

# ¿ Sep 26, 2013 20:15

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

bull3964 posted:

And, once again, caps do nothing to curb congestion. Stop perpetuating that myth.

Caps might not, but I bet overage fees do.

Get hit with a few $20+ overages and I bet your average user will be more mindful of their consumption and be on the look out for free WiFi more often.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2013 19:37

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

bull3964 posted:

Once again, repeat after me, caps do absolutely NOTHING for both spectrum congestion nor backhaul congestion. It's not a solution for anything other than making more money. If they want to provide a good experience to everyone, they would be looking to traffic shape congested nodes, not saying "it's a free for all until you run out your cap!"

LTE is 300% more spectrally efficient than EVDO. Transit costs are dropping by over 50% year over year. If they want to manage traffic issues, then they should traffic shape on congested nodes. Once your data hits the backhaul, we're essentially talking pennies per GB so it's not like people using a ton of data are costing tens of dollars a month more than lite users.

bull3964 posted:

Verizon would "upgrade their networks as demand increased" because they would be forced to to do so to remain competitive. That's the way a competitive market works. If they had to raise prices to do so, then they would, but again, that would be constrained within the restrictions of what the market would bare.

Stop fixating on flat rate unlimited and just realize that Verizon (and ATT) are not delivering their services at prices we would have if they actually competed.

I actually prefer per MB pricing. Give me per MB pricing based off of 4gb for $30 and I would jump on it. But it's apparently OK to charge us overages if the cap is exceeded but not refund money if you don't hit your cap.

Every input into the technology behind mobile networks is dropping in cost like crazy yet prices keep going up.

LTE maybe 3 times more spectrally efficient than EVDO, but that doesn't change 2 facts:

Data usage is going up

Spectrum is limited

You keep saying that carrier can just afford to upgrade their network, but there is only so much you can do about radio congestion. You can put up more towers, but that doesn't help if your users are too densely populated and you have already deployed your available spectrum. T-Mobile already does data throttling once you reach your limit, rather than charge you more. But really, I think I would rather pay an overage and still get usable service instead of being choked down to 2.5G speeds. I know throttling is not the same as traffic shaping, but the short of the long is that if I am paying for a high speed wireless service, I expect it to be a high speed wireless service. I don't even want it to be slower because too many people are standing too close to me or because I downloaded too many large files. I often need this connection for my job, so it is important to me.

You might be right that traffic shaping congested nodes is a good way to handle it, but it's not a long term solution. Data usage will continue to rise. If users don't have an incentive to curb their usage, congestion will become unmanageable.

Sprint is still a great example of this. Many markets they have deployed LTE in only get speeds similar to EVDO. I have seen it in New York and Atlanta and in even large airport I have passed through. It is why I left Sprint to come to VZW, even though it is a lot more expensive and not Unlimited.

I agree that data plans are expensive. Probably more expensive than they should be. I wish that the telecoms were still required to reinvest X% of their profits in to their own infrastructure like their were before deregulation.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2013 16:35

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

bull3964 posted:

People can only get so densely populated in an area and there ARE ways to deal with it. All the carriers are deploying smaller and smaller sites.

Verizon is going to do that specifically with the AWS spectrum they have.

http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/156545-verizon-wireless-strategy-for-aws-spectrum-small-cells

In areas like NYC, you could eventually have a building with half a dozen of those smaller cell sites in them or a larger one every block, providing access to a much smaller area.

The carriers also have mobile cell sites that they can roll into sporting events to handle the excess capacity now.

Spectrum is limited, but careful deployment of site density and tuning of their range means we aren't in danger of running up against a hard capacity limit any time soon. Or rather, there is a hard capacity limit in the amount of data a slice of spectrum can carry, but we can keep progressively shrinking the sites and making more of them to handle it for now.

How small do you expect them to make their cell sites?

bull3964 posted:

Again, this is largely a backhaul problem and not a spectrum congestion problem.

I would really like to see some proof to back this up. I know that the new Network Vision upgraded sites are supposed to have Gig backhauls, but several I have been on are still very slow. I don't know how anyone other than Sprint can prove or disprove this.

bull3964 posted:

You are still operating under the misconception that caps make any meaningful impact on congestion. If everyone on a node is under their cap, has a sufficiently large enough cap, or simply doesn't care about overages, then performance is going to suffer if the site is not sized properly. Do you really think someone waiting at the airport is going to go 'I'm not going to stream this movie right now because I might go over my cap in 28 days' rather than just say 'gently caress it, I'll deal with the overage charge if it comes later because I'm on vacation and I want to watch this movie while I wait for my flight.'

Caps are also terrible because there's no weighting in relation to how congested a node may be. You could have one guy that's using 1.99GB every month in the center of Manhattan while another guy who usually only uses 1.5gb a month in rural Wisconsin who just happens to hit 3.5gb one month because he was traveling. Who used more data over the course of a year and who ended up paying more? Who did more "harm" to Verizon's network?

I get what you are saying. Caps are not fair. I do agree that having a data cap isn't going to fix the example of the Manhattan vs Wisconsin directly. But by making customers pay attention to how they use their data and monitor their overall consumption which does indirectly help that example. Joe user in Manhattan is less likely to use data all the time, and so would the other users in his same area.

Caps = Lower Data Usage

I understand that lower data usage is not the same thing as fixing congestion, but you can not argue that they are not related.

And yes, I do really think that someone sitting in an airport might thing twice about streaming a movie if there is a chance they might go over their monthly cap and have to pay extra. They might actually plan a head a little and download the movie on to their device before they leave their house, or they might use the airport WiFi rather than just stream off of LTE. I know this is true because I do it all the time. I load up my phone or tablet with movies

In the end, it doesn't matter. All signs point to unlimited going away on Verizon. And I don't expect it to come back until there is another significant advancement in wireless technology or possible after they retire their CDMA network and repurpose that spectrum for LTE.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2013 18:28

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

AlexDeGruven posted:

Yeah, but Sprint is a special kind of bad. Unless you happen to live in an area where they have a barely-used LTE tower with a magical backhaul setup that allows them to actually provide decent speed.

I live in such a town and Sprint has great LTE speeds...

If you are on the main drag and have line of site of the water tower the LTE is transmitted from.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2013 15:06

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Three-Phase posted:

What you're saying is that people are not familiar with how fast the 4G is versus 3G, so they burn through data much faster? (Like someone used to driving a little Toyota taking a ride inside a F1)?

I've also heard horror stories about where people get "out of the blue" data usage. That gives me pause.

Verizon will/can send you emails and sms warnings when you hit certain usage percentages: 50% 75% and 90% I think.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 03:34

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Miyamotos RGB NES posted:

Oh okay, thanks. Yeah because there's another guy I work with that has the Razr Maxx HD and he gloats about the battery life but nothing close to what I am hearing about the Droid Maxx (holy hell these names are confusing).

If it helps at all, Motorola some times calls it the Droid Ultra Maxx because it is the Maxx variant of the Droid Ultra (which is self is a variant of the Moto X). To bad Verizon doesn't call it that...

# ¿ Dec 14, 2013 02:25

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

kensei posted:

My MAXX updated to Kitkat and I have not had any issues at all. Battery life seems just as good, and the only thing I dislike is the blue carrier icons where all other notifications are white. I actually gave a favorable review on the survey, but I feel bad for all the people that got bricked.

I never got the survey.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2013 23:14

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

So, open enrollment on Edge if you bought your phone before 11/13/13? So I can switch to an Edge plan and save?

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 21:07

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

hoobajoo posted:

Basically you can switch by turning in your phone and get a 10 or 20 lower line access, which will offset some or most of the cost of Edge. If you were already thinking about it, it's a pretty solid deal.

If my employer discount still works on Edge, I could get the 10GB plan for $80 and each line access fee would be $20, making my bill $120 pre taxes and fees. That's about $40 a month cheaper than what I am currently paying.

Paying for the device on Edge is pretty much break even.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 21:41

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

The discount will come off of the 2GB Data fee. So you should get $7.50 off.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 22:31

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

CancerStick posted:

I don't know. With this deal
http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-promo-prices-moto-x-penny-contract
I could save a few hundred dollars so why not as long as I can find a way to make it work. Was more just checking if any VZW employees or anybody has done it that could offer input.

Anything you do involving an upgrade on your account is a chance of you losing unlimited. If you value it at all, then buy the phone out right.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2014 21:40

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

hoobajoo posted:

If you buyout the Edge or make all 24 payments, the discount goes away.

This is the first time that I have read that part of the deal.

And it is bullshit.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 20:06

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Dragonrah posted:

Maybe I don't get it, but why would they continue to give you a bill credit when you no longer make payments.

For example, I got a Note 3 a few weeks ago on edge for $29.xx and get the $20 bill credit, so I only have to pay $9 and change a month. I'm not planning to upgrade until sometime after I pay off the 24 months, but after I'm done making payments, I don't expect to keep getting the $20 bill credit. There is no need? It was my understanding that after the 24 months I own the phone and would no longer have the $29.xx on my bill and therefore have no need for the credit. I guess I could see this upsetting someone if that person was told that the $20 bill credit was yours for as long as you kept the phone regardless if you were still making payments. Honestly, I wouldn't have believed the rep if they had told me that because it would make no sense to give me credit when I'm not upgrading or getting my contract extended.

Am I missing something?

The assumption that I and some others had is that Verizon was trying to have a plan that was similar to T-Mobiles, where you would have a discounted rate if you payed off your phone instead of purchasing one using a subsidy.

So, if I pay off my phone on Edge and I don't purchase a new one, I would expect my plan to stay discounted because I didn't use a subsidy.

I don't feel entitled to a discount, I just can't see who on Earth this plan is supposed to appeal to.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 23:00

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

My Droid Maxx just gave up the ghost. Still have a month and a half before I am eligible for an upgrade, and I wanted to wait to see if there was a good 2015 phone before I bought something new.

What is a cheap phone with LTE that I can get that won't make me want to kill myself. I was looking at the Moto E LTE off of amazon. Several of the reviews say that you can use it on a post pay account even though it is a pre-pay phone. I just want something to get me through the next month or so.

edit: looks like there is a post paid version of the same phone that is only about $10 more expensive on Amazon.
edit 2: gently caress, looks like that version is just the LTE/GSM version and not the LTE/CDMA version...

Lowen SoDium fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Jul 24, 2015

# ¿ Jul 24, 2015 21:48

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

WeaselWeaz posted:

Moto E LTE works fine, I had to replace my Maxx with one. Just activate it on the MyVerizon website and not in store or over the phone. I liked it better than the Maxx in many ways.

Edit: For clarity, Verizon allows prepaid 4G devices on postpaid accounts and states so in their policies. Reps may not understand that which can cause them to refuse to activate it.

I picked up a prepay E from best buy. Funny thing, Verizon is not allowed to sell service in my area because a regional carrier has a lock on the frequencies they use. Verizon and this carrier have worked out a roaming deal. But the point of that the local Best Buy isn't supposed to sell Verizon phones. I bought the phone online with in store pick up and the manager told me when I got there that it was an inventory error that they even had them in stock

I couldn't swap sims because the maxx used a nano and the E used a mini. And I couldn't active it on the Verizon web site or by dialing *228. But their online support chat got it activated for me in a couple minutes.

This phone is surprisingly nice for $45. It's snappier than my Maxx was, and it has 5.1 already. On the other hand, Screen is smaller and lower res I think, no always listening, no AMOLED, no flash, no wireless charging. But, it will more than work for me until my contact is up and I can get something new.

Lowen SoDium fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Jul 25, 2015

# ¿ Jul 25, 2015 14:37

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

So does this mean that the new plans are no longer 2 year contracts?

# ¿ Aug 8, 2015 00:18

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Do you have to be out of contract to make the change? It won't let me right now but I don't know if it's because I still have a month left on contract or if because I am using a Pre-Pay Moto E right now. The Website is not clears, it says I can't change because my contract or one of my devices are incompatible.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2015 18:26

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Zero VGS posted:

Yeah they'll give me the same plan for 40 lines that was $6000/mo with Verizon for $440/mo, and credit all the ETFs to our bill.

The Tmo biz guy said that all the iPhone 5's on Verizon are network unlocked and I can just pop a Tmo SIM into them. I know that's the case with iPhone 6 but he says Galaxy 4 and iPhone 5 and newer can all do it. Is that true?

Anything that Verizon has LTE on is supposed to be SIM unlocked. It was one of the terms of the 700Mhz spectrum auction that they bought most of their LTE radio space.

If you have a wide variety of devices, you might want to check each device, and check to see if they support the frequencies that T Mobile uses.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2015 15:30

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

waffle iron posted:

Could I take a new prepaid Verizon Moto G and get it on a post paid account with a SIM swap?

Edit: or prepaid Moto E. My father has a Samsung Fascinate that is starting to act funky.

Yes, if you already have a microsim that is activated. If you try to activate the sim that comes with a new prepaid phone, the web site will not let you. But if you talk to customer service using the support chat thing on their webpage, they will usually activate it for you.

Just a warning, they wouldn't let me change my plan to one of the new simple plans while I had the Moto E activated. I had to switch to another phone before it would let me.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2015 16:33

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

waffle iron posted:

Thanks.

This is for his work phone so he's not paying for poo poo. He works for local government so I'm presuming it's a business plan. Does that make any difference?

I don't know for sure, but I don't think it makes a difference.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2015 16:44

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Unsane posted:

contract just ended and I'm thinking about switching from my more everything 6gb/m to the new verizon plan 3gb/m. Looking at saving about $25 a month. I don't lose anything doing this right? I wouldn't be able to get a subsidized phone anymore anyway, right? Think I'm waiting for the new moto x pure or a nexus 6 refresh for a new phone anyway, my htc m7 is still doing alright.

This is correct as I understand it.

Don Lapre posted:

Does Verizon not require 6m prepaid service on a prepaid phone before it works on postpaid?

I think they are supposed to, but I have read several people say that a prepaid phone will work fine if you just swap an activated SIM in to it. But I only had a nanosim and the Moto E uses a microsim. Customer service activated it for me and didn't ask for any thing other than the sim number.

YMMV.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2015 04:05

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

bull3964 posted:

Really sincerely doubt it since there's like only a handful of people out there who have plans that don't have hotspot built into them.

Everyone still clinging to unlimited data.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2015 19:21

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

ninmeister posted:

If I purchase a Verizon Moto E from Best Buy, will it work on my regular postpaid Verizon account? I'm looking to use a dirt cheap phone as a GPS unit / actual telephone on my motorcycle instead of putting my Nexus 6P in harms way.

Not anymore, unless you use it as a Prepaid phone for 1 month, I think.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2016 03:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:04

Lowen SoDium: Jun 5, 2003; Highen Fiber; Clapping Larry

Zero VGS posted:

It blows on iPhone, I tried it with two employees and it was so bad they both had to port it back out.

You have to use the Google Voice app to call/text every time or the wrong caller id will be passed. Allegedly if you can jailbreak it then there's istore purchases that'll let the native call/text apps do so, but it's all a poo poo show if you're not on Android.

It's a lesser poo poo show on Android, but it's still a poo poo show. You still need the Google Voice app for it to call out using your Google Voice number (unless you want to use Hangouts to make VoIP calls), but you use Hangouts for SMS and MMS messages for your Google Voice number and you use Messenger or something else for your cell phones SMS and MMS messages.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2016 15:53

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