by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 06/13/2017 at 20:17
by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 06/13/2017 at 20:17
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STARS: 0
I just switched both my and my wife’s phones to Total Wireless , Tracfone’s prepaid service that uses Verizon’s network. I thought it was going to be the ideal solution for us with Verizon’s coverage and similar lack of restrictions to Straight Talk, Tracfone’s AT&T brand. But all is not well.
So far, my prepaid carrier experience has been with Cricket and Straight Talk. I signed up for Cricket a couple years ago. Cricket is owned by AT&T but operates sorta separately from their GoPhone prepaid brand. At the time, my wife was on Straight Talk, but the biggest data plan they had was 5 GB. Cricket had a 10 GB plan. But I discovered that Cricket limits LTE download speeds to 8 Mbps and blocks bring-your-own-device customers from using their phone as a wifi hotspot.
At the time, the throttling information was buried several levels deep in the terms & conditions but Cricket’s website now has it right on their plans page.
Straight Talk has no throttling or hotspot blocking, and they now offer an 8 GB single line plan for $45/month and 12 GB for $55/month. So the only downside is they don’t have visual voicemail, but you can get it from a third-party visual voicemail service like YouMail or Google Voice.
But AT&T’s coverage is not so good in rural parts of Wisconsin, and their in-building coverage in Madison is also somewhat lacking. Verizon and U.S. Cellular still have an advantage in network quality here.
I assumed Total Wireless, being another Tracfone prepaid brand, but on Verizon’s network, would be similarly free of download throttling. They don’t have the greatest deals on single-line plans but they have a 15 GB plan with up to 4 lines for $95/month after auto-pay discount. There’s nothing in the terms that specifically mentions a download speed limit.
So I got my wife a Moto G5 Plus since her ZTE ZMAX 2 was unlocked but not Verizon compatible, and ported both my and my wife’s numbers over to Total Wireless. I set up YouMail voicemail easily enough.
Then I ran a speed test. And several more speed tests.
That bottom line is from back when I was on Verizon post-paid, which I had temporarily switched to from Cricket because I needed international roaming for my honeymoon.
Here’s what the Total Wireless terms say about data speeds:
High speed data means data at up to 4G LTE speeds. Actual data speeds are subject to your wireless device’s capabilities, coverage available in your area at the time of use, and existing and changing network conditions. Data transmitted over Wi-Fi does not count against your data usage. To preserve your access to data, you may sign into Wi-Fi whenever possible, but recognize that some Wi-Fi locations may not be secure. You may use certain mobile apps to help find open networks and to keep track of your data usage. Actual availability, coverage, and data speeds may vary.
There’s no mention of any kind of specific speed limit. Compare that to the Cricket, which now has right on their plans page :
Download speeds max of 8Mbps (LTE)/4Mbps (4G). Data speeds will be reduced to 128Kbps max if you exceed your plan’s monthly data allowance. Actual speed varies by device and location.
This information used to be more buried in the terms, but it was still there, spelled out with specifics. Which is not the case with the Total Wireless terms.
The upload speeds are terrible. Sending an email with a picture attached takes forever, and it’s slow enough to make Pushbullet error out when trying to send a file to my other devices. Hell, I tried to send the screenshot to my work PC using both those methods and the email is still sitting in my outbox. I had to transfer it over USB.
Cricket was throttled but generally worked fine enough. This is THROTTLED.
This thread on HowardForums talks about supposedly the Total Wireless throttling might be going away, but someone else posting in there with a Moto X Pure Edition like mine is being throttled, while other phones in the same location aren’t.
So now I need to check my speeds at home, and check the speeds on my wife’s phone, and see what the hell is going on.
If there’s no workaround, I’m going to have to switch both our phones back to Straight Talk. Probably put my wife on the 8 GB and myself on the 12 GB. We’ll just have to put up with the marginal AT&T coverage in certain areas.
UPDATE:
I had my wife run a speed test on her phone from her job. She got like 18 Mbps.
I ran some errands on my way home today and checked my speeds along the way. First stop was still in Middleton near my office, where the Verizon network struggles in general, and I got around 8-10 Mbps on a few tests. Next stop was half a mile down the road from my wife’s office which is another couple miles from our house. Ran tests at that second stop and at home. All were in the 16-20 Mbps range.
I also am typing this update on my laptop that is connected to the internet through my phone’s hotspot, which I am happy to report works just fine.
I’ve pulled faster download speeds on Verizon in similar locations, so they may be saving some of their best LTE special sauce for their own customers, but generally it’s fine on Total Wireless.
I knew my office screwed with people’s cell signals, but I never ran a speed test there when I was on the Verizon mothership. I do know that on many occasions I had Pushbullet time out on me when trying to upload a picture from my phone to post here on Oppo, so the building could very well be screwing with the signal the same as Verizon.
Just for kicks I’m going to run a speed test from my phone in the parking lot at work, and see if I can get another person with Verizon to run a speed test at my desk. But it’s a Verizon signal problem in a specific location, not a problem with Total Wireless throttling.
UPDATE 2:
And.... I’ve been burning up data at my gym like an idiot because they’ve had wifi this whole time. There’s even a sign with the password on the wall behind the front desk. I’m a dumbass.
"itschrome" (itschrome)
06/13/2017 at 15:10, STARS: 1
I don’t understand.. why not just go direct to a carrier?
"diplodicus" (diplodicus)
06/13/2017 at 15:15, STARS: 0
Why not just use verizon direct? Their new verizon plan pricing isn’t that bad. If you can get 8 other people to join you and your wife the unlimited plan would be 55 per line, 30$ each for data +20 line access fees + taxes and “other fees”
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 15:17, STARS: 0
Because that’s more expensive.
I get an employee discount with Verizon and I was paying $85/month for an 8 GB single line plan. That’s their largest data plan short of unlimited, and for both my wife and I that’s not enough. Unlimited is ineligible for employee discounts so it would be $140/month + taxes & fees. So let’s say $145, roughly.
On Total Wireless we have 15 GB of data which is plenty for the both of us and still have Verizon’s coverage, for $95/month all in.
If we went back to Straight Talk for both of us, I can probably make the $44 (save a whole dollar a month after auto-pay discount, yay!) 8 GB plan work for myself, and definitely for my wife, so we’d be at $88/month all in. If I wanted the extra cushion of the 12 GB plan for myself then it’d be $98/month.
Even with me on the 12 GB plan, that’s $564/year less than we’d be paying on Verizon.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 15:18, STARS: 1
I’m not going to screw around getting a bunch of people outside my wife and I to join a family plan.
Verizon unlimited for 2 people is $140/month + taxes/fees and the biggest data plan they offer below unlimited is 8 GB which is not enough for the both of us.
"Jcarr" (jcarr)
06/13/2017 at 15:22, STARS: 1
What do you do that you burn though 8+ GB a month? My wife and I share 2GB and we rarely come close to reaching that.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
06/13/2017 at 15:23, STARS: 0
Bummer, I just heard about Total and was considering moving over to them. I guess I will see how the next 6 months plays out. T-Mobile has the other carriers scrambling to keep marketshare.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 15:30, STARS: 0
I listen to Pandora for the ~18 hours a week I spend at the gym, among other things.
I don’t always burn through the 8 GB, but sometimes during basketball season I want to catch certain games and there’s only TVs in the cardio area of the gym. So I’ll watch a game on my phone and that burns about 1.5 to 3 GB per game depending on how much of it I watch on my phone and whether it’s through the TNT, ESPN, or NBC Sports (for CSN) apps because each of them is more or less efficient at using data.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/13/2017 at 15:33, STARS: 0
Yuck, that’s almost, ALMOST as bad as MetroPCS. I still haven’t received my refund yet either. I don’t think I ever will...
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 15:35, STARS: 2
T-Mobile would be nice but their network has too many holes in Wisconsin for it to be a viable option for me. Assuming this throttling stays the same on Total Wireless then Straight Talk will be my best option.
"Where have all the lightweights gone?" (sniderjadam09)
06/13/2017 at 15:42, STARS: 0
T-Mo has been working hard to cover up a lot of their holes, and I’ve noticed a big change on Wisconsin’s coverage map. Have you tried their prepaid, Metro PCS, to see if it’ll work for you?
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 15:45, STARS: 1
Read through your post. I’m doing an online chat with Total Wireless support now. Maybe there’s something they can do on their end. But it might be something to do with Verizon placing restrictions on MVNOs that AT&T doesn’t. I can recommend Straight Talk. I was hoping with Total Wireless I would have a similar experience but with the better Verizon coverage.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
06/13/2017 at 15:57, STARS: 0
I have been using T-mobile prepaid for the last 2 years now and have been nothing but happy about it. I was cross-shopping Straight Talk, Metro PCS, Cricket, T-Mo and a variety of others. My previous provider was Virgin Mobile.
I pay $32 and change for 5GB of LTE data, unlimited texting, and 100 minutes per month. I use google voice for all calls over LTE or wifi. For the rare times that I am somewhere without data connection but still have cell service (generally while roaming in rural areas), those 100 minutes are plenty, plus its just 10 cents per minute after that if I REALLY need more.
My main reason, other than the cost, for picking that plan was just because getting the full T-mobile plan was way better than any of the MNVO options just because of restrictions like you detailed. Both Cricket and Metro PCS were top contenders for a while until I read about so many problems faced with subpar data speeds, despite advertised claims.
EDIT: after reading your other replies, I see you need much more data than that. I bet its still cheaper if you bought two of these plans to get 10GB haha. Just depends on coverage in your area. I know T-mo is “expanding” but they also generally operate roaming on most AT&T towers to cover gaps.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 0
Hmm, their 2017 year-end projection shows a ton of network growth in Wisconsin but I don’t know how much of that has happened already. The problem is the 2016 map has huge gaps of no coverage at all, not very far west of Madison, and those are some of my favorite country back roads. Can’t be out there bombing around with no cell coverage ;)
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
06/13/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 1
Dang, your gym needs a wifi hotspot!
"random001" (random001)
06/13/2017 at 16:02, STARS: 0
Project Fi?
"TheD0k_2many toys 2little time" (thed0ck)
06/13/2017 at 16:11, STARS: 0
i use virgin mobile. Never had an issue and alway pretty good speeds on LTE. $35 a month for 5gb isnt bad either. Also Streaming music doesnt go against your monthly allotment
"E92M3" (E46M3)
06/13/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 0
TBH it has a lot of holes in Atlanta too. I could deal with a couple dropped calls a week if I was saving considerable money, but their pricing structure only beats Verizon if you have multiple lines. For a single line I would actually have to pay $10 more, but it it would be unlimited compared to the 5gb I get now.
"suba-wagen" (suba-wagen)
06/13/2017 at 16:19, STARS: 0
Verizon prepaid? I just found out they updated their prepaid plans and living in Northeast Iowa near the Minnesota border I can attest to spotty (nonexistent) coverage from anyone other than US Cell or Verizon. Personally I’ve had no issues and even if you do hit a data limit I’ve found always on data is enough to stream pandora
"mazda616" (mazda616)
06/13/2017 at 16:20, STARS: 0
I’d investigate Verizon more.
My wife and I share 20 GB with Verizon (16 GB plan plus 2 GB bonus data on each line) for $138 every month including tax. My work discount saves me about $15.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 16:43, STARS: 0
Straight Talk was totally fine for my wife. There are certain small coverage gaps on AT&T on the path from Madison to my mother-in-law in Burlington. There’s a decent size gap of coverage for like 45 minutes of the drive from Madison to Minneapolis. The in-building coverage in my favorite supermarket was nonexistant and while that supermarket does have wifi it sucks and constantly drops. My wife works 2nd shift and I do most of the grocery shopping so there’s often a “hey can you buy this thing while you’re there” text bouncing back and forth between us.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/13/2017 at 16:45, STARS: 0
I’ve been using Straight Talk since the whole MetroPCS fiasco. I’m generally happy with them! I tend to have little or no coverage in extremely rural areas in Indiana (we’re talking where the roads turn into dirt roads without warning) and random tiny swaths of Kenosha/Racine. Then again, my current phone may be the cause of some of that.
Ironically, my service quality with ST is better than my parents’ experience with Sprint, so I’m satisfied. :)
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 0
I just switched off of Verizon. I was on an 8 GB single line plan for $85 after employee discount.
They no longer offer the 12 or 16 GB plans. It’s 8 GB or unlimited and no more bonus data. Unlimited is ineligible for employee discount. Unlimited would be $145-150 after taxes for the 2 of us.
We’re at $95 for 15 GB on Total Wireless. If I can’t get the data speeds sorted and we switch back to Straight Talk it would be $88 if we each did 8 GB or $98 if I went for 12 GB for myself.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 16:54, STARS: 1
Yes, that would solve a lot of my data usage. The last time I looked for available networks in there I didn’t see any.
One of the guys who works at the desk is also a photographer, and sometimes he’s editing photos on his laptop while watching youtube on his phone. I need to ask him if there’s some network I can hop on to.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 16:55, STARS: 0
As far as I know neither my Moto X Pure nor my wife’s Moto G5 Plus are compatible.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
06/13/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 0
I’ve never quite understood the differences of in-building coverage. On Virgin Mobile, I had absolutely no service in like any buildings anywhere. Now with T-Mo it works fine in most buildings. I had considered Straight Talk but the pricing just didnt make sense for me. I was previously paying $37 for 2.5GB and unlimited talk/text.
It seems crazy to me how much post-paid verizon or AT&T cost.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 17:00, STARS: 0
Unfortunately their coverage in Wisconsin is terrible.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 17:04, STARS: 0
Depending on what frequencies a network uses, it’s better or worse at passing through buildings. Generally higher frequencies do it better. Depending on carrier and where you’re located, the typical frequencies in the US are 700, 800, 850, 1700, 1900 and 2100 MHz. The three upper ones are better at passing through buildings. Also, many larger buildings have in-building repeater antenna networks that may or may not support every carrier.
Straight Talk like just changed up their plans within the last week or so. Until very recently it was 2 GB for $34, 5 GB for $44, 10 GB for $54 after auto-pay. But they just changed the $44 and $54 plans to 8 and 12 GB.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 17:15, STARS: 1
The only solution offered by Total Wireless customer service was for me to do a factory reset on my phone. They claimed there could be some kind of leftover carrier setting that might be cleared out by a factory reset. I didn’t have time to screw around with that while at work. It’s equally as likely that their online chat tech support script has a “do a factory reset on phone” step and they can’t skip that step to escalate to a trouble ticket without the customer doing the factory reset.
My wife’s Moto G5 Plus is brand new and never active on any other network so I’m going to see what kind of speed test results she gets.
I’ll try the reset at home so I can re-download all my apps on my wifi and not be stuck with these slow-ass download speeds.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 17:20, STARS: 0
Checked the MetroPCS coverage map which is kinda different from the T-Mobile coverage map. Lots of grey here. The circle on the zoomed out map is Madison. The dead spots on the zoomed in map are places I go not super often, but sometimes.
In theory this will improve by the end of 2017 if the coverage map on T-Mobile’s site is to be believed.
That’s the thing with coverage maps, they’re questionable. This is the Straight Talk coverage map:
If you see that white gap between La Crosse and Eau Claire, that doesn’t look like it’s anywhere near I-94 which is the highway to the east of it. But last fall we went to Minneapolis, and there was a good maybe 30-45 minute period where we were on I-94 and had zero coverage. Her phone was on Straight Talk and mine on Cricket, both of which use the AT&T network.
"random001" (random001)
06/13/2017 at 17:25, STARS: 0
Well, they’d likely work, but not with network switching.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/13/2017 at 17:28, STARS: 0
Yeah, they gave you the typical “we’re not trained in IT, but we have a script!” response.
They claimed there could be some kind of leftover carrier setting that might be cleared out by a factory reset.
It’s possible, though I wouldn’t hold my breath for that. Normally those are APNs, and those can be deleted easily without a factory reset. On a modern unlocked phone there shouldn’t be any lingering “carrier setting”, you should be able to hot swap SIMs without issue. Even better if the phone is both CDMA/GSM too. But, I guess it’s worth a shot for the sake of trying.
"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
06/13/2017 at 17:32, STARS: 0
If they go anywhere near Southeast Wisconsin or Waukegan, MetroPCS won’t do them any good. MetroPCS and T-Mobile both have dozens of stores in this area despite the entire area itself being one huge dead zone for T-Mo. It’s even worse because T-Mo also prioritizes their customers over Metro’s in this area too...so even if you do get some coverage, expect internet speeds so slow you’ll have a quicker time walking up to the server you’re trying to connect to.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 18:01, STARS: 0
I asked them for APN settings and they told me, “that’s only for GSM phones and not CDMA.” Which is really stupid, because the Total Wireless FAQ page has a section about APN settings. Although the instructions there are tailored to iPhones.
Then I pulled up the APN settings menu on my phone and listed all of the available ones. It’s already set to Verizon Internet (TRACFONE.VZWENTP). They basically said the only other solutions was to do a factory reset.
Just for kicks, now I went in to the APN settings again and did ‘reset to default APN settings’ which didn’t at first glance looked like it changed anything, but it replaced that Tracfone Verizon APN with a regular Verizon one, which I only realized after rebooting a few times haha. It killed my data entirely. I was able to recreate the APN with these settings but my speeds aren’t any better.
"Quadradeuce" (quadradeuce)
06/13/2017 at 19:55, STARS: 0
Too bad TMobile has such crap coverage in WI. I can live with it since I mostly stay in metro areas, but it’s annoying when I’m in the boonies. Wisconsin is 95% boonies.
But speeds are great, Netflix and other media streaming doesn’t count against data, and customer service has been responsive. We stream Netflix all the way to Maine, using my phone as a hotspot. Life changing.
"dogisbadob" (dogisbadob)
06/13/2017 at 20:43, STARS: 0
I didn’t even know Verizon let any other carriers use their network! I know of the ones on ATT/Sprint/TMobile
All of them prirotize their own brand customers over the discount services. T-Mobile prioritizes T-Mobile-brand customers over MetroPCS, ATT over Cricket, etc.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 21:07, STARS: 1
Cricket and Metro are owned by the networks they run on though, they’re like the in-house second tier version. Sprint is the same with both Virgin and Boost.
Tracfone is a separate company with different brands that run on either AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
"dogisbadob" (dogisbadob)
06/13/2017 at 21:14, STARS: 0
But still, even though Tracfone is a separate company, the respective carriers might still prioritize their own over Tracfone, depending on how much Tracfone pays them. But I’m guessing Tracfone doesn’t pay them enough for the networks to consider them equal to their own.
In fact, the networks might even place Tracfone in a tier below the networks’ own discount carriers.
For example, T-Mobile > Metro > Tracfone
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
06/13/2017 at 21:17, STARS: 1
Straight Talk gets largely un-throttled data and no-charge tethering on AT&T whereas Cricket is capped at 8 Mbps and no tethering for BYOD customers.
Total Wireless appears not to be throttled either but they don’t get the LTE Advanced features like HD voice and some of the speed-boosting tricks.
"TheD0k_2many toys 2little time" (thed0ck)
06/13/2017 at 21:33, STARS: 0
yea that looks pretty bad. Here in MI its great haha
"mazda616" (mazda616)
06/14/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 0
I didn’t realize that. Lame! I’m glad I still have my plan, then.