AT&T had the best coverage in the Coast Range (Waldport to Astoria) around 10 years ago, not sure if they still do, but that’s a big part of how I ended up on their network.

 

24 years with AT&T and still love it! I have found a couple of pockets I can't get service in E. Oregon that Verizon customers get. However, I think it is a lot more the other way around. Love Ma' Bell!

 

I feel like att does better central coast, Verizon does better tillamook up to Columbia. I have both (personal is Verizon, work cell is att, I did it that way on purpose so I have better shot at service)

Verizon does better backwoods, that is why I went with them on my perineal. Mountains ranges and over east they are by far the best.

20 years ago t mobile was horrible in Newport/Waldport area, no idea if that has changed, no recent first hand experience


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Im curious how long is the contract?


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I had AT&T for many years. Originally in tri cities WA, then moved to Newport early 2000s had great service for many years, 18-20 miles offshore no problem with old Nokia dumb phones. Service started getting worse early teens, supposedly new towers were put in by Verizon. My good reception went from good to bad, hard to get signal at the Rockpile, buddies with Verizon had signal ~20 miles offshore. I'm a Costco member and got a great deal on Verizon phones and switched. I spend time hunting on the East side and get better service with the V
Phones too. The newer iPhones don't seem to get as good of reception as the older ones. As for other carriers it can be hit or miss but never as consistently good as ATT or V. There aren't towers everywhere so there are still dead spots regardless of your provider.

 

Like you was a verizon customer forever until a year ago. Switched because we felt like you do. We also live in a rural area and verizon service here was spotty. Had to stand in just the right spot to get it!!!! Switched to pure talk. $25 per line, unlimited, no contract. Great reception everywhere. Was surprised the reception for us was better than verizon. Not sure about it off shore but on land it has been better for us and we travel astoria to waldport and through the coast range regularly.

 

Stick with Verizon but buy it through Visible (owned by Verizon). $25 / month unlimited everything. No taxes.

Verizon coverage still way better throughout the country. T-Mobile awful coverage if you travel - you will kick yourself.

Visible is $25 per line even if only one line. Pay attention to taxes when comparing prices since they frequently don't tell you the extra for taxes. Verizon created Visible because MVNO competitors were putting the hurt on Verizon so now they are now competing with themselves to not lose customers. Crazy marketing think.

Visible let's you bring your own phone so save $$$ if you already have paid off phones you like.

I got a killer deal on a new Pixel phone on Black Friday at Amazon, own it myself. Black Friday just around the corner again, always worth looking.

Only downside of visible is the chatbot they make you use to talk to them. But if you just keep responding 'human' to the chatbot enough times, it will eventually let you chat with a human. Since I rarely deal with the carrier, not a big deal.

I like the simplicity of buying and owning the phones myself, and just paying the carrier for the wireless service, nothing else. The other companies' crazy combined phone and service deals make my head swim.

 

Huh. I never heard of that. Looked it up and it’s intriguing. Is the data still pretty fast? Using Onx in the boonies just as good as regular Verizon?

 

Have T mobile and get great coverage better than what Verizon has

 

I agree. I have had all three Verizon was they best but they are pretty close now. I good offshore cellphone booster will get you out on the tuna grounds. I use T moble now.

 

We switched from Verizon to t mobile a year ago. I had been a Verizon customer for many years, and at one point had up to nine lines with them. I’m northern ca they were the preferred carrier. Here in kings valley, we got no reception at all, and I was feeling like the monthly cost for our remaining 3 lines was a bit high.

T-Mobile has a coverage map that showed great 5G coverage all around our house and throughout the coast range. It’s BS. We have no coverage through KV whatsoever. Less than Verizon. I also have dropped calls all over the Willamette valley. There are inexplicable dead zones everywhere. offshore reception is good out to about 10 miles in most areas around Newport. No reception at the Rockpile. I’m extremely unhappy as a T-Mobile customer. It seems like AT&T is the way to go.

 

I HAD AT&T for a very long time. Great service inland but I got tired of my buddies having cell service 40 or so miles off shore when I'd loose service roughly 10-ish miles off shore. They all had Verizon or Xfinity mobile. I run a charter business so having service way off shore was important to me.

I switched from AT&T to Xfinity Mobile 3 years ago and the service has been perfect. Not one issue and I get service all the way to the 125 line on flat days and around the 124°50 on crappy days. I am currently using an iPhone 12. (XFIITY MOBILE uses Verizon towers)

I pay $45 a mo for unlimited everything.

 

I had Sprint for 20+ years and loved it, especially at the coast. Within 6 months of the merge with T-Mobile, my coverage at the coast has been cut in half. They’re cheap but they suck.

 

I have AT&T and both Verizon and T-mobile work better way offshore (Newport).
Was thinking about switching to Consumer Cellular but they use 2 networks, AT&T or T-mobile.
You get 'assigned' to the carrier that is best in your area. How they determine that I don't know.
I have to use wi-fi calling everywhere I go (work & home) because AT&T gives me 1-2 bars.

Anyone switched to Consumer Cellular that knows whether you can select from the 2 networks or if they just put you on one or the other?

 

Used to be that Verizon did well in our canyon.
Lately AT&T and T-Mobile are doing better than Verizon.

Another thing to consider is the quality of the internal antenna in your phone.
My S22 on T-Mobile was beaten by a S23 on T-Mobile.
I had to walk 80 yards to the "phone booth" while my buddy's S23 was working in camp.

More on the MVNO's (like Visible)
These companies don't own any "hardware" (towers) but they have agreements with the various tower operators.
I found the best deal to get on the Verizon network was through Twigby.
Twigby is not for people who use a lot of data and you won't have anyone holding your hand like at the phone store.
I have a Twigby (Verizon) back-up phone.
If interested, search "Clark Howard Twigby" for a review

 

It depends on your coverage needs but Verizon has the best coverage hands down. If you travel at all you will regret switching from Verizon.

 

Our whole fam is on AT&T, but my work phone is Verizon so they both roam w/ me a lot between the Valley and mid-Coast including river fishing and mushroom hunting in the woods, etc; not too much offshore for me, only as a guest/client but not my own boat. Where I mostly go, AT&T is OK, but Verizon is definitely worse. Both our primary residence (Eugene) and vacation home (Waldport) seem to be in kind of a hole or hill 'shadow' where I can get vastly better reception just a short distance away outside into the open, but inside the house can easily go from bad to worse walking around from room to room. So far, I've yet to go anywhere including my brother's place in the Gorge where I do significantly better on Verizon. I know the claim is their nationwide network is still bigger, but maybe that's largely further East? I haven't seen it so myself.

Discovered that brother & sis-in-law's T-Mobile worked better at the Waldport house, so we were able to get their cellular Wi-Fi modem & subscription ($50/mo promo rate which was/is supposedly locked in for life...) in order to do remote work when Covid hit, which we had previously been unwilling to pay for DSL or satellite service when we were only there a fraction of the time. Still not nearly as fast or reliable as our main home cable internet, but 3-4 bars is enough for the VPN to function and stream video meetings or Netflix/Prime, vs only 2-3 bars on personal phone/iPad (AT&T) which is only enough to load static web pages or small video clips but will start buffering out attempting to watch a full live sports or movie stream, vs 1-2 bars on my Verizon work phone which only allows voice calls or basic text but can't even load a full normal web page like ESPN or NOAA. T-Mobile isn't any better overall further around the neighborhood like if we just walk a couple blocks to the beach; it just seems to reach the house better in the shadow of the hill we're on.

So all in all, I'd say none is really great; they all have some spotty patches and holes, but in the aggregate for this part of the world I'd rate them ATT > T-Mobile > Verizon.

 

I have Verizon and a few years ago I was 40 miles from shore on a flat day launched from garibaldi and I was still able to talk to my wife. Phone was a samsung. Launching out of Hammond I think I only got service out to 20 ish miles. My wife and daughters have iPhones and their signal/reception seems to be weaker than mine.

 

I have Spectrum internet service and finally let them talk me into their mobile phone plan. I should have done it sooner. It uses the Verizon network and was $45 per line for unlimited data and personal hotspot so two lines came to $90 a month. Then a year ago they offered a special for signing up a third line giving me three lines at $29.99 a month each with the same unlimited data and service. So I got a third line for my daughter and the monthly went down to $89.97. I could have put on a fourth line free for one year then $29.99 after that (or drop it).

They transferred our own phones from Verizon and had them up and running right away. No contract, either. It is strictly monthly and you can change plans however you like. They will sell you new phones on a no interest monthly payment plan but I don't think they offer discounts.

If you happen to have Spectrum internet and like the Verizon network, you can't go wrong with Spectrum Mobile. They even have limited data plans for as low as fifteen bucks the last time I looked. The kicker is you have to keep the cable internet at $89.99/month to have the phone service. Comcast Cable offers a similar deal if you have their TV I think.

 

Page plus uses Verizon infrastructure. I get calls and texts far offshore and verizon quality cell service. Verizon uses a special format (CDMA) and the phones have to match that. Two phones, I pay $12 a month, no contract for one that I keep an old phone number on. The other is $29 a month, no contract for all the service I need.

Page Plus is an MVNO. I've used them for more than 10 years now and get reliable service. There are many of these now for all carriers. They buy access from At & T, Verizon and others and resell it cheap. You get what you pay for. Page plus has minimal customer service, no billing, no bloatware and you have to renew your phone every month online.

 

I have an Iphone 13 currently...I was an AT&T member for my whole life until a couple years ago...AT&T never did well in EO compared to other providers. Switched over to Verizon and I now have 1-2 bars in places I never had any.

Verizon also might have a slight edge in the central/South Central Oregon costal areas, but not enough time to really tell. I do recall AT&T being better in the northern parts of OR.

Biggest problem with AT&T was the constant dropped calls or ability to not get a call out...

 

Thank you iFish Salty Dog Community for all the feedback and support!

I’m going through with my 4-line switch from Verizon to T-Mobile this evening. We will sign a 2-year contract, get 2 new iPhone 14 Pros for the iPhone 11’s (straight exchange) and they’re giving us 2 new iPhone 13’s for free without having to exchange our iPhone 8’s. Pretty crazy that T-Mobile gave us $3,059.99 in free phones, free Netflix and Apple TV+ for life and $800 in gift cards just for raising my bill $7 per/month or from $141 per/mth (4 lines) with Verizon Wireless Unlimited to $148 with T-Mobile Go5G Plus.

The $800 in pre-paid Visa gift cards are sweet, but I frankly speaking wanted to leave Verizon out of principle. Why they wouldn’t match T-Mobile’s offer is beyond me… What ever happened to it’s cheaper to keep a current customer than to develop a new customer?

P.S. I hope I get to spend a few of the $800 in gift cards on fishing gear (maybe a new Tanacom 750 if I can find one) and everyone on iFish gets better picture and video quality from my new phone! 👌🏻💰📱🎥🛥🐟🦀

 

I switched to Verizon 8 years ago because that's all that worked at my house. Much better coverage than other services in my experience. I'm intrigued by these other less expensive services that use Verizon towers. I might have to check them out.

 

Verizon does better backwoods, that is why I went with them on my perineal. Mountains ranges and over east they are by far the best.

I spend a lot of time in the mountains all over the west for work and fun and nothing comes close to Verizon and non apple phones. But if this is not a priority to then go with the better deal. I see little difference on what is better for the ocean/coast.

 

Quit getting new cell phones through a carrier a few years ago. Far cheaper to get on sale from Ebay or Amazon.

Got tired of Verizon's pricing completely screwing us over having only two lines. With my last new phone's eSIM I was able to test out several other service providers at home, work, beach lot and off shore out of Ilwaco. Ran speed tests as I hotspot a lot when camping. Fastest was tmobile, but only at work. Verizon was fastest in outlying areas. So we wound up getting Visible Wireless and saving a ton from what we were paying for the exact same coverage through Verizon. Yes Visible is an MNVO, but they are owned by Verizon so exact same coverage.

 

Visible (Verizon) is advertising :

• Unlimited Talk, Text, & Data
• 5G & 4G LTE
• $25 mo
• No contracts

 

I’m going through with my 4-line switch from Verizon to T-Mobile this evening.

If you're a veteran, T-Mobile has a great military plan that you can still qualify for.