Total Wireless / Verizon MVNO

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JGoodish

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JGoodish
Does anyone use Total Wireless? I *think* they're a Verizon MVNO. They appear to have some fairly decent plans, as we are looking to escape ATT post-paid due to escalating cost and the kids getting older and needing active mobile service on their phones.

I use my line primarily for business, I travel a bit (including to rural areas), and I need reliable hotspot tethering for my work PC (though unlikely to hit the 10GB/month limit of Total Wireless). I also need reliably decent data speeds.

Also looking for other things to watch out for with Total Wireless in particular. For example, I know that some MVNOs don't support WiFi calling, visual voicemail (iPhone), etc.

I briefly tried Mint Mobile and liked their operation, but they have some pretty large holes in my area due to their use of the T-Mobile network. I expect those holes to be mostly filled in once they integrate the Shentel wireless network, but I have no idea when that will happen.

We've been with AT&T post-paid for about 20 years. In the old days, I would talk with the retentions department and they'd incentivize me to stay. That doesn't appear to be the case any more at AT&T. Perhaps there is enough MVNO revenue now that the major carriers are less concerned about retaining post-paid subscribers.
 
denverpilot said:
They are VZ. Same people own it that own TracFone.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just learned of the TracFone ownership. I had one experience with TracFone a couple years ago, and it wasn't good. However, AT&T's post-paid customer service has really gone downhill.

I am nervous about service quality from MVNOs, as well as the fact that some appear to throttle and perhaps even have different levels of network prioritization. I will say that I was fairly impressed with Mint Mobile, and I'm hoping that T-Mobile can get more spectrum deployed sooner rather than later. We have 600/700MHz capable phones, which should help. Data speeds on Mint weren't as good as AT&T post-paid, but they were probably more consistent when I tested across a multi-state area recently.
 
I have no idea where you are and if the coverage will be good there, but the VZ map will show whether or not coverage is expected in your area. I had Total Wireless for almost three years, and it was very good. Very reliable, no throttling as far as I could tell, and quick speeds. I didn't use the hotspot or visual voicemail, so can't speak to that, but even in the rural Midwest, the coverage was good.

My only complaint is how hard it is to port your number if you decide to switch carriers!
 
JGoodish said:
Does anyone use Total Wireless? I *think* they're a Verizon MVNO. They appear to have some fairly decent plans, as we are looking to escape ATT post-paid due to escalating cost and the kids getting older and needing active mobile service on their phones.

I use my line primarily for business, I travel a bit (including to rural areas), and I need reliable hotspot tethering for my work PC (though unlikely to hit the 10GB/month limit of Total Wireless). I also need reliably decent data speeds.

Also looking for other things to watch out for with Total Wireless in particular. For example, I know that some MVNOs don't support WiFi calling, visual voicemail (iPhone), etc.

I briefly tried Mint Mobile and liked their operation, but they have some pretty large holes in my area due to their use of the T-Mobile network. I expect those holes to be mostly filled in once they integrate the Shentel wireless network, but I have no idea when that will happen.

We've been with AT&T post-paid for about 20 years. In the old days, I would talk with the retentions department and they'd incentivize me to stay. That doesn't appear to be the case any more at AT&T. Perhaps there is enough MVNO revenue now that the major carriers are less concerned about retaining post-paid subscribers.
Click to expand...

My wife has an old flip phone on Page Plus - which uses Verizon's Network. It is used only for voice and texts (don't care about Data). It only costs about $12 per month, and is entirely sufficient for her needs. she has no complaints
about the service.

Dave
 
SkyChaser said:
I have no idea where you are and if the coverage will be good there, but the VZ map will show whether or not coverage is expected in your area. I had Total Wireless for almost three years, and it was very good. Very reliable, no throttling as far as I could tell, and quick speeds. I didn't use the hotspot or visual voicemail, so can't speak to that, but even in the rural Midwest, the coverage was good.

My only complaint is how hard it is to port your number if you decide to switch carriers!
Click to expand...

Any particular reason why you left them? And was it a pain to port your number in to Total Wireless, or port out?
 
JGoodish said:
Any particular reason why you left them? And was it a pain to port your number in to Total Wireless, or port out?
Click to expand...

No reason, except my mom asked if I would be on her US Mobile account so she'd get a discount. :) The pain was porting out. Total Wireless doesn't provide an account number, which US Mobile requires to verify your phone number. The number was supposed to be one of the phone's "internal" numbers (IMED), but mine didn't work. We finally got in touch with a CS rep that could help - turns out the number associated with my account was from my first phone and we were using my new phone's IMED instead. Once we figured that out, it was fine, though.
 
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