i dont get why people want to buy the phone. you still have to pay for service, and they give you the phone if you sign up for a year or two. i have been with att since before it was att, not like you can live without a phone these days

Justin, I like the freedom of being able to cancel service, when you own your phone, you have options, when you are paying the "company store" for the phone- they have you by the shorts.

I switched my wife to Verizon, she has a new Iphone 6. The first bill is on the way, and I received a e-mail yesterday with these exact words "This month'* bill might be a little higher, and we don't want you to be surprised.". WTF- no issue with the bill being higher, but this was not well disclosed when the agreement was signed, and it is not like we can walk away or switch providers as we have a contract and the cost of the phone is hidden in the phone bill.

Once people buy phones outright and can move the phones seamlessly between providers- big savings will happen for the consumer. For now, we are overpaying for smartphones because of the smoke and mirrors of "only $99 for a Iphone 6" deals that the providers are hawking.

It'* been a well know fact that when you contract a phone, your actually LEASING the phone. You think you paid $1 or $99 for that smartphone? Nope. You actually paid FULL retail price by the end of your 2 year contract. This is why the plans for smartphone actually cost more because the phones themselves cost more than your typical flip phone.

And this is where some people think they bypass the big guy with pre-paid phones such as Straighttalk or Pageplus. They are piggybacking off of Verizon'* and AT&T'* prepaid network. Basically, your treated as a 3rd rate customer. VerATTSprint will give priority traffic to its contract customers, then their pre-paid, then the piggybackers. Even the pre-paid smartphones are limited in the software and the capabilities.

all companies do the fees are more and data. verizon and att have been within a few dollars of each other once you add everything up every time i look into it. they charge me 100 bucks total, for two phones with tons of texts and data on each. even if you dont get burnt buying a shady phone, thats 600 plus your service every month. doesnt seem to me much different, except you have a chance of the phone being used broke or stolen.

I'm currently sitting at $92 and change each month for one phone but I'm on an old plan: 450 minutes/unlimited messaging/unlimited data. I've been debating taking my S4 to Verizon prepaid because I can get unlimited talk/text with 1gb for $45 a month. I'd have to cut down my data usage extremely but I'm tired of paying almost $100/month for this damn thing.

edit: also a note, since I'd be on prepaid they can't charge me for data overage; if I hit 1GB, I just simply wouldn't have data service until the reset date or until I purchase a $5 data boost.

i think for 1 person its cheaper on att, they are like 40 for some minutes, i never use because calling my wife is free and my family is att too. and 10 for 2 or 4 gigs, i dont use it that much. when im at home i use wifi. certain companies and govt get discounts too. verizon was way more for 1 person but 2 was the same

I like my 3 year old Samsung strat

Only reason I stick with Verizon is the coverage. Every other carrier has way higher dropped calls.

Need to add- in my situation I have T-mobile, and it barley works in the area I currently live in. I then lost my phone. If I switched to Verizon I was going to have to pay T-mobile $180 balance left on the phone, and over one hundred dollars breaking the contract early fee. Then go to Verizon and pay $200 for a phone, and then have to make 24 months worth of payments. That is a total of over $500 out of my pocket and then be obligated to Verizon for two years likely at a cost of close to $2400. It becomes a lot of money. By BYOD, if I can make T-mobile work, I paid $300 out of pocket for a new phone and negotiate a lower bill. If T-mobile becomes unbearable because of poor coverage, at the end of my T-mobile contract I can move over to AT&T with a BYOD, and not have to buy(lease) a new device as a T-mobile phone will work on ATT. Or I can do a pre-pay plan that has crappy customer service but at a reduced rate.

Complex situation- but that is why I slected to buy a phone cash upfront over lease a phone at full retail. My cash up front price for a unused Galaxy S5 was $300. A Galaxy S5 at Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, or ATT run around $600 (plus tax). If I lose my phone I am out $300. If I lose a phone from a large provider under contract I may owe up to six hundred dollars, I know the debt balance gets reduced every month by 4.2%.

Unfortunately in your case Mike, your best coverage carrier is Verizon. From my experience, they are the best coverage provider in the "stix" in the rural areas compared to the others.