And here comes 5G

I still got a flip phone.

 

I finally got rid of mine last winter. I had 3 or 4 of these "smart phones" and not one made it past the 6 month mark. I had the flip phone for over 2 years before it died.

 

Sounds like you need a Nokia...

I'll leave this here for you:

http://www.brobible.com/gear/article/nokia-is-bringing-back-brick/

 

I did too, up until last week. The flip part of it failed, (which is pretty much standard for the failure of those phones.) Hell, I'd only had it for 9 years. Was happy as could be, wasn't on contract, had a decent (for me anyway,) plan.

Then it died. My kid talked me into upgrading to a "smart phone." OK, I'll admit that so far, I LOVE it. But I hate being back on contract again. . .OTOH, I didn't want to fork out the cash all at once to buy a good one to use prepaid. I'm still with Verizon, as they are just all around better for this area.

My wife has a prepaid AT&T, and it just doesn't get the coverage that I've always had with Verizon. . .

 

Big Don, I thought verizon is doing away with 2 year contracts?

 

Apparently not, because that is what I have. Don't know if perhaps they have different contracts in different parts of the country?

 

existing customers, even those of us that have completed our 2 year commitment (even years ago) are still able to get the subsidized pricing, if they choose.

I say bring on 5G. The increased speed (which will be a bigger jump than going from 1x to 4G LTE) will help alleviate congestion because of increased bandwidth...as a 100+ gig per month user, I won't feel so guilty hogging all that data.

They've had 5G in Samsung-land (a.k.a. South Korea) for a while...and it is screaming fast...were talking an entire HD movie downloads in less time than the old 3g song download. The only problem with deployment in the US...This is a huge freekin' country to cover.

 

Verizon probably does care about their customers, but the CEO has publicly stated that they will NOT compete on price. Verizon considers themselves a premium brand of mobile service, and they charge a premium price at that. They have absolutely zero problem being considered the most expensive mobile carrier in North America.

Verizon has publicly stated that if you are concerned about the cost of their services, then maybe your not the customer for them.

That said, if your OTR, you can't beat their coverage, for both data and voice. I've found AT&T to be better in more rural settings and of course major cities.

unloader

 

I am still grandfathered onto the unlimited plan for $50 a month so I know how good their coverage is; the point being is that they are getting very overpowered compared to other carriers & taking advantage of the fact they do have the best coverage & service - even going so far as publicly stating something like what you posted is incredibly arrogarnt & just foreshadows how they will be behaving if they ever do get to a near monopoly state.

It's bad enough they gouge per gig data plans & have exclusive network technology (CMDA band 13 700mhz) vs the standards of most the rest of the world (GSM) forcing you to buy their versions of products even though in some cases (Samsung) you don't even get the benefits of manufacturer optimization:
(Samsung's superior Exynos processor, Mali graphics, & Wolfson audio DAC are swapped for inferior Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC comparative crap)

Who's to say they will even (be able or want) to support 'legacy' devices when 5g comes fully online? It might be so much more efficient for them that they kill off support for more overhead intensive services forcing upgrades.

Verizon obviously thinks they are above the technology trickle down effect & wants to continue raping consumers for a pretty much modern day essential we have come to rely on without any concessions to even trying to be affordable because they know certain consumers (those that travel as you stated including us) do not have viable alternative options.)

Dirtbag business strategy, which sadly is why it works so well.

 

Uh-huh, just like satellite and cable TV outfits. And they all have shell games that would put used car salesmen to shame!