Cell Phone Networks/Texting

[ctinct]

Probably a dumb question, but I need a little guidance. I am eliminating my daughter's ATT phone now that the contract is up. Paying $60+ monthly because she has calling plus unlimited texting, but really all she does is text. I have found a Virgin Mobile texting only plan for $20 which uses the Sprint/Nextel network, and Straight Talk from Walmart, which includes calling, for $45 on the Verizon network. Walmart's lower tier plan does not have unlimited texting, so that wouldn't work for us. I researched a bit and have found that most people seem to prefer Verizon for reliability and coverage. There were very few people who had positive experiences with Sprint. My question-does the network matter as much for texting?

Both plans would save me money, but the Virgin plan would obviously save me way more---if it works as well as ATT.

 

[powellrj]

Why not just use her phone and stay with AT&T and use the Go Phone plan. Thats what my kids use is Go Phone texting plans. I forget how much it costs, but I want to say around $20 a month for texting. The $1 a day useage doesn't apply to the texting plans and with unlimited, even if they are out of minutes with the go plan, they can still text.

 

[ctinct]

Hmmm, I will have to look into that. I checked it out quickly before, and I thought she would have to pay the daily fee even when she texts---which is definitely daily, in which case there would have been not much savings for us. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Sparx]

here's another perspective:

what network does her friends have? they probably only have unlimited texting to their same network, and won't text her as much when it costs them to do so (if you change networks.)

i know i don't text anyone who isn't verizon. so this switch might not even be worth it, if she can't text those she normally does becuase it costs them.