A Key part of your long-term happiness with Smartphones is the Cell Phone Carriers and which one you pick.
There are several methods to go when picking your preferred method and in truth each has merits and reasons for following it.
Picking Cell Phone Carriers
One of the most commonly used thoughts is to use the carrier who has the biggest customer base.
They have lots of programs in place to handle customer service issues.
The company must have strong and competitive pricing as well as good to great customer service.
New Player in the Game: Straighttalk Wireless
In 2012 we had a new player come into the market who saw an opportunity.
That opportunity was to provide equally great service with 99.6% coverage across the continental United States but at up to Half Off !
Who are They ?
Straight Talk
Straighttalk Wireless does this b/c they have jumped into a Market that has mature competition, mature Technology, and they do not need to charge the consumers for R&D Costs nor to provide mega-buck profits per quarter.
They are very similar to one of the economy Airlines in that smarttalk has entered a mature market and can offer 80% of the services that the giants like tmobile, verizon, at&t can offer but at a much reduced rate.
Even if you are with Verizon or AT&T it is well worth your time to look into Straighttalk Wireless and get an idea of how much you could save.
Who is the Biggest Cell Phone Carriers?
Today the largest Carrier is Verizon Phone and they are the largest by a long shot.
Today Verizon has over 140 million users on their network, and along with this will be a huge coverage range for their Cell phones as well. All good things when it comes to who you want to deal with.
Here is the Kicker tho, what this really means is that Verizon Phone HAS been the best. Past Tense.
If Verizon Phone has had recent business policy changes and people are now getting more and more dissatisfied with their services and Customer Relations this will take months to several years before its reflected in these numbers.
Keep in mind that many people sign up for a multi-year Verizon phone package Contract and it takes time and or money to get out of these.
If you decide that Verizon is the Carrier for you it is also highly advised that you search online for CURRENT review statistics and see if more recently people are becoming unsatisfied with Verizon.
Alternatives
The next biggest Carrier is AT&T and while Verizon is quite a bit bigger in terms of customer Base, AT&T has an International Advantage because they use the GSM International Standard for the Cell phone signal method.
This means that if you are a World Traveler that AT&T may in fact work everywhere you travel to while a Verizon phone may not work at all.
The next group of Cell Carriers are the thick of the pack.
We have used several in here and our satisfaction is about what we expected going with the Average or Middle of the Road carrier.
We had some issues that essentially were around specific things we needed and wanted to do that the smaller companies had trouble providing.
When I say have trouble I really mean they save money by Not providing all the glitzy services we wanted.
Pick your Phone First
So this brings us to the Second most common method people use to pick their prefered Carrier.
They start by picking the Phone they want, nothing wrong with that, and then find who in their area carries it.
In truth I believe this is the most common method used and it has a lot of advantages in that if you acquire the phone of your dreams then you can forgive many shortfalls in carrier performance and perks.
Generally speaking there are two main ‘types’ of phones people are looking for. Apple Brand or Non-Apple Brand and in truth we are fiercely loyal to the brand of choice.
This gives a lot of power to the manufacturer’s in so much as they can charge more money for the product and we are willing to shop around for the best deal so long as we still get their product.
Its a trade off.
Are you a Geek Head or are you willing to trade down if needed to have a better package and save some casholla ?
This is the Question you need to be asking yourself!
