After years of cell phone contracts that tie you to a particular provider, many people are used to treating that relationship like marriage. But just because a particular carrier worked for you 10 years ago doesn’t mean it’s the best for you today. Different providers excel at different things as new technologies such as 5G emerge, and if you move to a new city, the provider with the “best” signal can be completely different from where you previously lived. If you’re tired of getting a terrible signal in your own home, or if you’re constantly getting slow speeds when you’re on the road, it might be time to look to some other carriers – there are more great options than you might realizes.
Don’t just look at coverage maps, dig deep
Transporters love their coverage maps, covered with red, blue or purple dots to show you how many cities they serve. But the carriers themselves are hardly unbiased, reliable sources, and coverage isn’t something binary – just because your city has a red or blue dot doesn’t mean service will be optimal.
So if you are looking for a new carrier, get as much independent information as possible. For example, Opensignal is an app that allows users to submit speed and signal tests from around the country, so you can see on a map how the four major carriers are doing. (You can also run a quick speed test yourself to see how your connection compares and feed the data pool for others).
Keep in mind that coverage is only part of the equation. Signal strength, speed and latency are also very important. Opensignal will cover those bases when you tap Network Stats and swipe through the results for a particular location, but you can also look at things like PCMagannual coverage of the fastest cellular networks to get a sense of how speeds can differ from city to city.
However, if you really want to drill deeply, you have to ask around for some old fashion. See which provider your friends are using, ask nearby Facebook groups, and see if your town or town has a dedicated subreddit with experiences you might be able to dig. I’ve been to major US cities where my wife’s phone on one provider would have full signal strength, where my identical phone on another provider would rock wildly around town – coverage maps and crowdsourced tools can’t always tell you things like Which.
And remember, a carrier’s coverage can change over time, so if someone tells you there’s a terrible one in that area, ask when they last used it. (My family is still married to Verizon based on the poor coverage of AT&T in rural areas a decade ago, although AT & T’s signal in northern Michigan has improved dramatically since then.) It can also be affected by the phone they use so try to look for bigger trends. than focusing too hard on a single opinion.
Look beyond the big three carriers
If you haven’t gotten on the MVNO train yet, it’s time to look past Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile and try all the other great carriers out there. While most of the US cell phone coverage uses these three networks, there are dozens of mobile virtual network operators – or MVNOs – using the same towers while offering plans with cheaper or more unique pricing structures. You’ve heard their names before – Cricket Wireless, Republic Wireless, Ting, Straight Talk, and others have been around for a number of years. But if you write them off as cheap carriers with poor service, you might be missing out.