Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Cell Phone with cable company
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Old 03-14-2025, 03:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianL99 View Post
Not exactly.

Verizon does not have access to Xfinity Hot Spots, of which there are over a million.

Service for service, Xfinity seems to always have the best pricing, especially when you consider the perk of access to their Hot Spots.

Curiously, Xfinity Customer Satisfaction Index is higher than Verizon by a a percentage point.

Here's a fairly complete comparison of everything the 2 providers offer.


Just a moment...
Thats great except you have to pay Xfinities inflated prices for internet at home. I moved from Xfinity to Quantum fiber for $35 a month with speeds 4 times as fast (you don't really need it, but its fun to measure). I was paying double that for Xfinity 200 MBPS. BTW, Quantum fiber pricing includes no increases for life (they can raise the equipment price though, just not the service). It does work extremely well.

We have 3 lines between my wife and I. I like electronics and move sims around between phones too. Have multiple phones, its like an addiction.
Here are my rules -
1. No Iphones - Got rid of my last iphone last year. They haven't really advanced in like 4 years, and Android is miles ahead, and way cheaper. Apple locks you in with percieved values that are not. Imessage and Facetime are the worst. There are people who won't leave apple because of those, and there are better options for both. Even 3 or 4 year old iphones are crazy prices.
Note I said MY RULES. This is no slight on anyone with an iphone. Just not for me and realize you pay a huge premium.

2. I normally buy my phones ebay refurbished the previous years models for half price. If you buy very good or excellent they look new and act new when they arrive. So you today I would be buying Samsung S24, Pixel 8, or oneplus 12. Phones are like computers now, they don't advance that much. Of course I have imported two phones you can't get in the US but thats another story. You can buy Tablets and computers this way too. I got a Galaxy Tab S8 for $300 and it looked new when I got it (highly recommend Galaxy S series tablets, they are excellent).

3. Churn the lines to get best pricing. I usually jump around with each line and pay yearly. Right now have one line on Tello I pay $9.00 a month for(only 1 gb of data, but its a second line). 2 lines on mint mobile, one we paid $180 the other $165, unlimited data for a year. You have to be a new customer(off at least 6 months) and catch the sales correctly. We like Tello and mint because both are great for international travel, but I have also used XMobile, US Mobile and Google Fi also at times depending when. My wife's Mint runs out in May and will look for who is having the best special to port her number to. My goal is to keep each line at $15 a month with as much data as possible. We need to keep at least one line with a carrier with good international roaming rates because we are overseas a lot. Tello is probably the best for that, but Mint is not bad.
4. Have run phones on all 3 networks, I measure speeds regularly. T-Mobile is definitly my favorite for speed and coverage - I like 5G rocket fast. Second is Verizon. AT&T stinks. Even prioritized they slow down in crowds. They are all good if you are just in The Villages.

All that said if you want no hassles, go to a place that has brick and mortar stores like Boost Mobile, consumer cellular, or even T-Mobile to get your phone and service so you have someone to help you. Mint, Tello, US Mobile and the like are great and cheap, but there are no stores, its dealing with them over chat.

For our next lesson, I will tell you how I bought my childhood phone number (with the villages area code of 352) on numberbarn and ported it to a new line..... Bet you didn't know you can buy a phone number. Amazing what you can do these days. They have 352-352-WEED for sale for $7999 for example... I paid $19.

BTW- need to change that at the bottom, sold the place in Oak Creek and moving now!
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