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I just switched to T-Mobile from a 16-year-old Verizon account, and at the beginning of October. We didn't get charged any activation fees for our 3 lines, but we did get charged $15 per line to port our numbers over from Verizon.

As with the OP, the last 3-ish years, Verizon service in our area dropped from being the best service available to the worst I've experienced in the 16 years. I couldn't make phone calls reliably; data rates were abysmal to the point that streaming podcasts was generally not an option. I correlate the dismal drop in service to the rollout of 5G back in late 2019/early 2020. We tried moving around Verizon's data plans to see if paying for "Premium Data" made a difference, and we saw no improvements.

Sucking up the porting fees and paying partial monthly bills for 2 different carriers, was simply worth it. T-Mobile in our area, gives us actual cell coverage so we can make phone calls again, and even on a lower tier data plan, our data speeds are MAJORLY improved over Verizon. It's a bit shocking how much of a difference there is. Plus, we went from almost $50/line to $35/line on T-Mobile, for unlimited data.

One thing that made our switch super easy is the fact that all 3 of our phones were bought unlocked from the manufacturer instead of via a carrier, and no one owed any $$$ for hardware installments.

The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference.

> The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference.

I'm also in the Colorado front range. Maybe there's a geographical correlation to the service quality issues with Verizon.

Are you experiencing service issues then too?

Yes, I dropped Verizon for T-Mobile partly due to issues. I also think this is related to 5G rollout, because on both providers I get better service quality by disabling 5G on my phone and reverting to LTE.

Very interesting. I am relieved to hear I'm not alone in these issues. So far, 5G on T-Mobile has actually worked and given me improved speeds but I have disabled it too for battery life purposes.

I've seen significant degradation in connection quality since the 5G rollout, but I'm on t mobile, and in the PNW.

Same. I'm in Oregon and the Verizon quality is absolutely horrendous. They still have the best coverage for rural and mountainous areas imo, but the degradation has been severe for sure.

I assume this is more due to the removal of 3G than anything. Edge is so slow it's worthless, and 4G coverage is spotty at best. 5G is, as far as I can tell, a stupid gimmick almost nobody will get great use out of on their phones.

> T-Mobile is the only US based carrier that has reasonable international roaming for data and non-stupid policies.

I find ATT pricing to be okay. I get Canada/Mexico/US for one price, and then if I use my phone internationally, it automatically starts and stops charging $10 per day, up to $100 max per month. If you are just stepping out of North America for a week, the convenience of not having to bother with another SIM or eSIM is not that expensive. I guess the most convenient part is not having to do anything, and just being able to continue using my phone.

I spent a good chunk of my life spending 1-2 weeks/month every month traveling internationally for work. AT&T has historically been insanely expensive for roaming data. The max is per-country I believe, and it is common for me to be in 2-3 countries in a trip, but even assuming this is truly a max, you just basically said T-Mobile saves me $100/month at minimum with their roaming policies.

https://www.att.com/international/day-pass/

> You will only be charged one daily fee per 24-hour period for International Day Pass, even if you travel to multiple included destinations in the same 24-hour period.

T-Mobile’s max plan does include 5GB international, so that is neat. If I was frequently traveling internationally, I would consider it over ATT.

That's much better than I expected from AT&T. That's great news, actually, and makes it a better offer than the equivalent from Verizon (Travel Pass).

This is why I stick with T-Mobile. When I go abroad, it just works and is just included in my regular plan. I haven't been charged extra to use my phone abroad in years. And it isn't even shite service anymore, I can typically use 5G/LTE just fine.

Even $10 a day can be STEEP when you're gone for >2 weeks at a time.

> And it isn't even shite service anymore, I can typically use 5G/LTE just fine.

I had T-Mobile before switching to Verizon and am now back on T-Mobile. Ironically, my experience has been my service quality on T-Mobile is better when roaming in Europe than it is when at home in the US. I believe this is because T-Mobile is an off-shoot of Deutsch Telekom, and therefore makes use of DT and partner towers in Europe which have exceptionally good coverage. Verizon used to have a similar relationship to Vodafone, but when I recently roamed on Verizon in Europe, I was no longer on Vodafone towers and got shoddy service at a higher cost (and with issues upon returning to the US).

I primarily ditched T-Mobile due to service quality / coverage in the US, but I've decided to put up with it because they were the first to adopt Wi-Fi calling in the US, and all of their services work perfectly over Wi-Fi and I pretty much always have Wi-Fi in the US.

Same with Verizon: $10/day.

But.... Story Time: I recently switched to Mint, and there is no international (outside of Canada and Mexico, I think?). So had to find a phone store when I recently went to Ireland, and they are a lot less ubiquitous than in their neighbor to the north and east (UK). I had to take a 10 minute walk down to the town centre where I expected the little grocer to have some sim cards, but he directed me down the road to a larger chain grocery. When they didn't have them, I was directed to another town, so then I had to hop on bus for a few kilometers to the next town that had an indoor shopping mall where there was a Vodafone store. All of this with no network connection because I had no sim card.

I forgot how hard travel used to be.

> Same with Verizon: $10/day.

Verizon's Travel Pass is $10 per instance, which can be more than once per day. A Travel Pass is active for up to 24 hours, but includes a limited amount of data, at which point you must purchase another one. Verizon Travel Pass also does not have a monthly maximum. Based on the link provided in the parallel thread, the AT&T offer is better than the Verizon Travel Pass.

I had Verizon during a recent family vacation and ran into issues with this, which was one motivating factor for switching back to T-Mobile.

GF and I went to Iceland in June. She's on Verizon, I am on T-Mobile.

We entered Iceland airspace and I got a nice text from T-Mobile "Welcome to Iceland, enjoy your trip here's unlimited talk, text and data"

My GF got "You are out of the US to use your device it's $20/day for talk, text and 1GB of data"

By the end of the week trip, my cellphone bill was $10 more than normal. Her's was an additional $200.

I just spent half a year in Canada, and my T-Mobile bill was no different. I was limited to 5GB/data/month, but other than that it was just like being in the US.

Agreed. I've been a TMobile fan for a good many years now, which is why this worries me. We'll see how TMobile officially responds, but the especially worrisome part for me is how they messaged it. I know it happens all the time, but it makes my blood boil when companies try to sugarcoat blatant money grabs with the "it's good for the consumer" nonsense. It's like they not only want more money, but they are also going to show you how much of an idiot they think you are.