Day: June 24, 2024

Thus far at least.

After I got the initial eSim glitch taken care of everything has worked like a champ.

I like saving $50 a month on service. Rather, I think I’m going to like that.

I did notice a bit of a data slowdown in one place I happened to be. However, that was only one spot and the issue seemed to resolve itself as I made it further down the road. I wonder if it was simple network congestion. AT&T is the underlying carrier for this particular company. I know in some areas they are a little more saturated than others.

There’s another 2nd tier company that is more expensive, but they buy blocks of data or cellular service from the big three. It looks as though they’ve figured out some balancing system that puts you on the least congested of the three carriers or perhaps the carrier with the best coverage in the area you’re in.

I didn’t go with them because they weren’t much less expensive than T-Mobile and honestly aside from T-Mobile’s customer service getting shitty and the cost of service going up… I was happy with T-Mobile. As I stated before, Their pricing and their Customer Service drove me away.

The new guys, will have me as a customer for as long as they treat me well. I’m probably never going to have “Loyalty” to a cellular provider again. 

I know it’s a hassle but I’d really suggest reviewing your cellular plan and doing some price comparisons. Especially if your phone is not under some contract.

Here’s a list of the folks I checked out.

Mint Mobile – T-Mobile’s Network
Consumer Cellular – Verizon (I think)
Patriot Mobile – All three Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T
PureTalk Mobile – AT&T’s network

What’s really strange is that going through these folks is cheaper than going through the big three Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T. I still have no clue how that works.

These companies typically have US based Customer service. I don’t know how long that’s likely to remain the case, but for the time being it’s nice to talk to someone stateside.

That being said, several have “business hours” so if you’ve got a problem, you’ll have to handle it during normal business hours extant wherever they happen to be.

I settled on PureTalk because they were the cheapest. I don’t use a lot of data so their 3GB plan with unlimited talk and text serves my purposes very well and cost $20 a month.

There is one thing that is, or can be misleading.

If you’re using an iPhone and their iMessage app. Sending text messages may not count in the unlimited text message column.

Unless specifically set to be otherwise, iMessage uses data not SMS/MMS (Cellular Text).

So yes, the SMS/MMS part of the cellular service is unlimited, but iPhone to iPhone will use your data plan by default.

I haven’t felt like forcing my phone to use SMS. As it stands, with me using my phone as normal I’ve still got 88% of my 3 GB data available. If It becomes a problem or concern, I’ll change to the $25 plan and have 5GB which is the same as I had on the T-Mobile Plan.

I’m really curious about how the new Google RCS standard fits. Does it use SMS or is it too data?

Oh, if you do the comparison and decide to switch to PureTalk, kindly use this link.

https://puretalk.com/r/5fe72606

They do a pretty nice referral bonus. 

Yes! I’m becoming a cheap bastard in my old age.

Fingers crossed that I continue to be pleased. If not, there are other options to choose.

Have a great day.