Madoc Owain wrote on Jan 24, 2025, 09:12:The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 14:06:
I really need to move the wife to T-Mobile, but I can't move Dad. He has an old Verizon locked contractor's flip phone, and he's age 101 and doesn't adapt to changes in tech very well. What REALLY annoys me is that Verizon used to sell me a cheaper non-data plan for his line, but now the bastards make you pay for a full unlimited data plan... for a phone that has zero data capabilities. Grrrr
In 2018 I had a flip-phone through Consumer Cellular, very reasonable rates, easy to deal with and use at the time. Maybe that would be a viable avenue for your dad?
The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 14:06:
I really need to move the wife to T-Mobile, but I can't move Dad. He has an old Verizon locked contractor's flip phone, and he's age 101 and doesn't adapt to changes in tech very well. What REALLY annoys me is that Verizon used to sell me a cheaper non-data plan for his line, but now the bastards make you pay for a full unlimited data plan... for a phone that has zero data capabilities. Grrrr
chickenboo wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 17:31:5GB works perfectly for me since I’m near Wi-Fi about 90% of the time. I don’t need a lot of data—I don’t even use a full GB per month, let alone 5.Kxmode wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 17:08:$200/year = $16/month? That's super good! 5gb data? Not so good.
I switched to Mint Mobile a while back, which operates on T-Mobile's network and is now owned by T-Mobile. It costs me just over $200 a year for 5GB/month—a huge difference compared to the $750+ I used to spend annually with AT&T. Plus Ryan Reynolds puts out funny commercials for Mint Mobile including one where he brought Rick Moranis out of retirement (Rick Moranis y'all!)!![]()
chickenboo wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 17:31:If you’re around Wi-Fi a lot, you could definitely lower your costs by going with a smaller data plan!
My wife and I switched to Virgin Mobile during boxing week here in Canada where we get much, much worse phone deals/plans, anyway it's $29/month (but $19/month for first 6 months with a discount) for 20gb data each. So that's $288/yr for each of us, or $576 total in year one.
Our old provider kept increasing our data limit but refusing to offer us anything less than like $45/month, and we had been on $50 and $60/m plans, respectively (but "with 120gb data" which we didn't use). Telecoms in Canada need to learn that we want low-data, low-price plans. Ideally want to pay $10-$20 per month for 10gb of data.
Kxmode wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 17:08:$200/year = $16/month? That's super good! 5gb data? Not so good.
I switched to Mint Mobile a while back, which operates on T-Mobile's network and is now owned by T-Mobile. It costs me just over $200 a year for 5GB/month—a huge difference compared to the $750+ I used to spend annually with AT&T. Plus Ryan Reynolds puts out funny commercials for Mint Mobile including one where he brought Rick Moranis out of retirement (Rick Moranis y'all!)!![]()
The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 16:22:It's built-into google's phone app and is called Visual Voicemail.
What I really like about T-Mobile is their voicemail transcription service. It's surprisingly good. If someone leaves me a message, within a minute I get an SMS that's from their number with a transcription of the voice mail.
The Flying Penguin wrote on Jan 23, 2025, 14:06:
I have 2 phones on Verizon (wife's and Dad's flip phone), I moved my two phones to T-Mobile a couple of years ago. For comparison, I pay $170 for 2 lines at Verizon, while paying $100 for 2 lines at T-Mobile. To top that off, Verizon's 5G deployment here has been a disaster. The reason I moved my two phones is because Verizon's network was so over extended, that data rates tanked.
I really need to move the wife to T-Mobile, but I can't move Dad. He has an old Verizon locked contractor's flip phone, and he's age 101 and doesn't adapt to changes in tech very well. What REALLY annoys me is that Verizon used to sell me a cheaper non-data plan for his line, but now the bastards make you pay for a full unlimited data plan... for a phone that has zero data capabilities. Grrrr