[Hidden-tech] Verizon contract v. pre-pay v. MVNO

Jonathon Podolsky producer at wholehealthexpo.com
Mon Dec 22 18:53:24 EST 2014


Dear HT,
Another person on this list just emailed me to find out what I had heard
back in response to my original posting, so I am posting the replies below.
I'll leave out the people's names in case they had wanted to be anonymous.
Best,
Jonathon

reply 1: I use the Sprint MVNO Ting.com. I have recommended them many
times. Tethering is included. They have a pay for what you use method. My
two phones total about $55/mo. Up to $65 on a high data month.  My parents
phones total less. Their customer service  is #1. They are no-contract. I
follow this industry as a hobby interest and have never heard of the
prioritization you mention. I don't think it would work.

reply 2: Have not used Straight Talk but do use PagePlus, which is another
Verizon
MVNO.    We used to use family plan at $12 / line with 300 minutes. 255
texts, and 10 megs of data per line; have upgrade to 3000, 3000, and 500megs
at $29.95 per line now.  For four lines that is now not that much different
from what ATT and VZ are offering, but we're happy with the service and
seldom approach the limits. I have never known of issues with lower quality
of connections compared with Verizon.  They do block tethering, but there
are a couple apps that purport to allow tethering.  They do restrict
international calls and data,  so you should check the specific
international locales you are interested in.
Puerto Rico and USVI will cost around 60 cents / minute, I believe.



On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 9:05 PM, Jonathon Podolsky <
producer at wholehealthexpo.com> wrote:

> Dear HT,
>
> I have heard from salespeople at three different stores that cell phone
> companies give top priority for calls on their towers to their own contract
> customers first, then to pay as you go customers that pay through them, and
> lastly to pay as you go customers who go through third parties (MVNO) like
> Straight Talk etc. Some of the Straight Talk phones use the Verizon network
> (it states this on the package) so it might be a good deal, but I want to
> make sure it doesn't get a lower level of service if the tower is busy.
> (Also apparently Straight Talk doesn't allow tethering nor international
> roaming but can switch sim cards to use foreign carries I believe). A
> friend of mind in the industry thinks it is not legal to give access
> priority to different levels of customers (pre-pay vs post-pay, or MVNO),
> and government preemption is generally in time of crisis only. Does anyone
> have further knowledge on whether or not cell phone carriers can provide
> different levels of priority for use of their towers?
>
> Best,
> Jonathon
>
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