Clark Howard Article - "Struggling to Pay Your Cell Phone Bill?"

[SaraJayne]

And you base this on what???

I've used Virgin Mobile for 10+ years, never had a significant problem with coverage, dropped calls or lost texts. Either here in our home area, or while travelling. My daughter has been on PlatinumTel for almost a year now and has never had a problem either.

But now for those poor soles (sic) on AT&T plans around my area, well, you can hear them swearing daily in the hallways here at work about not being able to get a signal, dropped calls, etc.

Discount carriers are no better or worse than the big boys. It just all depends on whose network you are on, and how good the coverage is in the area you are in.

I'm basing it on personal experience, in my geographic area, just like everyone else.

I've never heard of PlatinumTel.

 

[Kies99]

How do you get the free wifi hotspot? Ive got VM and have never seen that as an option.

It's not an "option" on Virgin Mobile. It is an option with Android 2.2. I picked up an app called "Quick Settings" which allowed me to then adjust settings on my Optimus V to turn on Wi-Fi. You just have to be aware that VM doesn't "allow" this so could become an issue if they catch you (throttling, etc...).

I agree with other posters in that my wife and I have been on Virgin Mobile for 10 years or so now and we've never had any real issues and actually the customer service has been fantastic the couple of times I called with questions.

 

[JB2K]

Discount carriers are no better or worse than the big boys. It just all depends on whose network you are on, and how good the coverage is in the area you are in.

You are absolutely correct -- it's all about the network and where you call home -- not the logo on the handset that will cost a user a couple thousand over a 2-year period.

 

[JB2K]

I've never heard of PlatinumTel.

PlatinumTel isn't as widely-known as some of the rest, but they are a legit carrier which has been around 11-12 years and uses the Sprint network.

 

[MomToOne]

PlatinumTel isn't as widely-known as some of the rest, but they are a legit carrier which has been around 11-12 years and uses the Sprint network.

I found PlantinumTel when I was looking for a pay-as-you-go plan for DD12. I had certain criteria (cheap, online call log I could monitor, phones with certain features like a way to prevent accidental connections to the Internet) and they were the only plan that checked all of the boxes. I've been very happy with their service, and DD hasn't had any complaints. As JB2K said, they use the Sprint network, which is the stronger network in my area (which was also one of my criteria when looking for a plan).

I'm even debating switching myself over to them, but I have a few diffferent considerations for my plan, and so far I think my Virgin Mobile plan fits me just a tad better. But I have a feeling Virgin Mobile is going to discontinue my ancient, grandfathered rate plan in the near future, and at that point it will probably make sense for me to switch.

If you do your research, there are lots of "lesser known" options out there. Just because they aren't widely know doesn't mean they can't be the right choice for you.