[Lpierleo]

Curious if anyone in The Villages has used Consumer Cellular for their cell phone provider. They advertise that the AT&T towers are used. It just sounds a bit apppealing to have no contract, prices look reasonable, etc. I know however, sometime you get what you pay for. Any information would be appreicated.

Thank you,

[Hancle704]

We switched to Consumer Cellular over 3 years ago and have never regretted it. Admittedly we don't spend the entire day with the phone glued to our ears. We mainly use it for calls, text messaging, nice camera and occasional web search. Prefer to use home computer for email, videos and internet instead of trying to do things with the small screens found on our Samsung Android phones. Since we are not heavy data users we have the plan that gives us shared 600 minutes of talk timer and 1000 text messages with 100 MB for data per month. Our total bill for the 2 lines runs about $45/month with no contract. On the rare occasion when we have had to contact Consumer Cellular for help with a question about phones or to change phones we have found their US based employees very helpful and patient with seniors who are technologically challenged. Around the Villages and on those occasions when we have traveled, have not had any problems making or receiving calls and yes they do use the AT&T Network. Since they don't lock you in with a contract they do not use gimmicks to get you latest phones. You pay for them upfront and prices can be steep if you want the newest Apple or Android phones. If you are like us you can get by with a smart phone ( older model) for about $150. Could not imagine standing in line at the Apple store to be one of the first to fork over a big pile of bucks for the newest I-Phone.

Several of our neighbors have switched to Consumer Cellular and I have not heard of any of them being dissatisfied or wanting to switch back to another provider.

[ureout]

i dont know about consumer cellular.....but cricket uses at&t towers and i have 2 smart phones with unlimited talk,text and data for $70 a month no contract.....ive had no problems with them

[Avista]

I've had both Consumer Cellular and Cricket. Consumer Cellular was great for a Basic phone. When I got my iPhone, I switched to Cricket Wireless. Both use ATT towers.

[Hancle704]

Consumer Cellular had been offering IPhone 5 and now will be offering the newest IPhone 6 (at a steep price, IMO) but no contract.

[marennorge]

We have used Consumer Cellular for a couple of years. They are great. Zyou can change your plan with them at any timr without a penalty. Highly recommend.

[Steve & Deanna]

We have used Verizon forever (65 plus family plan, 450 minutes, no roaming (if that's even a factor anymore), texting on one phone, VZ to VZ is free only and costs about $75/mo which is absolutely no deal. I was looking at Consumer Cellular and we have friends up north that have it but the coverage seems a bit sketchy. When they are in FL, coverage didn't seem to be a problem.

[TNLAKEPANDA]

If you use data these no contract plans are not very good because they are limited to 3G max. If you are just a phone & text user they are great especially if you do not travel a lot.

[sailor47]

We switched to Consumer Cellular about a year ago. Very Good deal in my opinion. We are not glued to the phone so the 600 minute plan with ?? data and 1000 text is great for us. That plan cost us $44 and change per month for two phones. Calls between our phones are free. I just can't believe what some folks pay for cell service. One carrier is offering a special deal $160.00/mo. Wow!! I don't know what phone tha includes.
Consumer cellular uses At&T lines so you will get good coverage around the country down here in TV no issues for us.
When we started our service we had one old AT&T flip phone that they provided a sim card for N/C. We bought one of there very inexpensive referbished androids, about $65.00 to get started. We may switch up to a higher end phone maybe not. I still just mainly use the phone for talk.
Beauty of the service is no contract. And you can up grade the minutes one month if you have a particularly heavy call volume and then down grade the next month no extra charge. In fact the android has an alarm to let me know if I am about to go over the plan allowances and I can upgrade if need be.
As far as coverage goes I have had AT&T and Verizon. At one time or the other both failed to work in TV because the area is growing so fast and the cell towers were not keeping up. I swithched from AT&T to Verizon and then back again because both companies had issues. Now I think both are good here.

[Dirigo]

Switched from Verizon to CC a few months ago. Costs us $44 a month for two phones. Never use all we pay for but we do use more than the next plan down from our plan. Try to use free wi-fi at businesses when we are not home. 3G is OK for our limited use of data plan. Saves us $50/ month and we have a better package. Have never dropped a call and have had no problem getting service. Love it!

Verizon can KMA...horrible company IMO.

[Lpierleo]

Thank you to all for your responses.

[lamplighter]

We use viatalk in the house (VoIP) $8.95 mo with free equipment and bought a past year iphone cheaply factory unlocked, no contract and got a $100 yr card. Since we only use data near wifi, it suits us perfectly.
If we leave the U.S. on vacation, we just get a local SIM card .
We also recently purchased factory unlocked ipad. T-Mobile offered free 2 MB for life data. It rolls over and accumulates. Since we use the iPad 95 per cent of the time on wifi, it works for us too and when travelling in the car, I can use the data portion including Skype.
We have no monthly fees or contracts! It won't work for heavy users but for many like us, it is a good solution.
Via talk viatalk.com works with our Comcast excellently, just plug it in and go. Reception is clear, never a problem after 8 yrs.

[dbcolli]

We have been on CC for exactly one month now and could not be happier.
I was able to have my wife's AT&T Iphone 4 switched over to CC with the free simm card that was sent to us very quickly. Porting our number over was very fast while I was talking to them .After reviewing our min's used on AT&T, I could see the 200 min plan and text would be fine for us so our bill is now $17 plus tax. I also ditched our land line and switched to Ooma last week. Our monthly bill for landline is now less than $4 a month and the voice quality is the same as before. Wish I had done all of this before now,
And I am retired from Ma Bell after 36 years.

[JourneyOfLife]

I would read the agreement carefully to see what is covered and what is not.

It looks to me like CC has a voice plan but requires a completely separate plan for Text and Data.

I can understand the data plan being seperate... but why would they couple the text messaging with their data plan???


Tmobile has a fairly flexible pre-paid voice/text message plan. For our level of use, and our pattern of use, for both voice and text, it works nicely!