Verizon contract/ home internet questions? School me.

[Gravy]

I've been using our Verizon phones as a wireless hotspot for our home internet we have an old Unlimited Data Plan with Verizon.
Our latest 2 year contract was up some months ago and my wife wants a new phone and we can't re-up our contract and get new phones without losing unlimited data.

(unless someone knows a way around this).


So while I don't really want to lose this benefit, I don't really want to shell out $900 retail for 2 new phones.
The solution seems to be re-up with Verizon at a lower rate and get home internet service. (Hopefully the combined costs will be a wash).


What are the costs involved in home internet and what will I really pay?

What service is the fastest for the least dollars? or what is the happy medium?

I know very little in this area.
But here is what I know:
I don't want cable and I'd shy away from contracts.

 

[Kevin B.]

I'm relatively certain that you can buy a new phone and continue your current contract, you just have to pay up front for the phone. Did you ask about that?

 

[Gravy]

Correct Kevin, but

, I don't really want to shell out $900 retail for 2 new phones.

 

[spencurai]

I never pay full retail as there are plenty of places to get good deals on barely used phones. If you have your eye on a phone, chances are it's on KSL at a steeply discounted price. A lot of people use their upgrades to buy new phones only to keep their old phones and sell the new phone at a profit. I have bought my last 3 phones from people on KSL and I've had great success. Make sure to do some research as there are knock-offs for some phones and you have to be careful...hit the internet!

 

[Kevin B.]

Correct Kevin, but

Sorry, I missed that part.

 

[Gravy]

Who knows about home internet?

 

[sLcREX]

I used to have comcast for home internet but I was paying like $50-60 a month for their service. Eventually I have disconnected that and now I use my mobile hotspot as well. But the guys are right, of you just buy a phone on ksl and activate it on your account then you shouldn't lose your unlimited data. Just make sure you're staying within the same family of network, as in if you currently have a 3G phone then if you try activating a 4G you will lose your unlimited I am pretty sure. But if you're already using a 4G then you can activate another 4G and keep your unlimited.

Just as long as you are providing your own equipment and not buying it from the company.

 

[Tonkaman]

Who knows about home internet?

I use comcast blast service. It expensive but I never ever have issues with it and it's plenty fast for my needs. I tried to switch to Century link a few months back when the salesman came to my house offering fiber. Within 3 days I canceled the account. I fought for a month with them over ridiculous charges and them bullying me for canceling even though I had paperwork stating a free disconnect within 30 days.

If you prefer quality and reliability over cost then comcast is the right choice.

 

[gijohn40]

I do data work for many different companies and from what I see there are a few options... I personally use Digis and love it. its a 15mbps service which is plenty fast enough for most people. My son is a big time gamer and never complains about slow speeds. It costs me $54 a month but thats about the going rate for similar speeds.

If you can get utopia fiber I would recommend that! My boss has it at the office and gets 100mbps speeds and never has problems. Fiber is the future and is going to be the way to go but I think century link has a problem with theirs that they have not figured out yet. I have heard many say they couldn't even hook up at times. I have hooked up a few major companies to century links fiber and not see the problem but then I only was there for a few hours configuring their system.

If you have any questions feel free to call me or pm me..
John
8oh1 sixseveneight 6968

 

[Gravy]

Thanks Jon. That helps give me a baseline.

 

[rockreligious]

I just decided to go prepay cellular after more than a decade with verizon, bought two android phones from walmart $400 and its going to be unlimited data, calls, texting for around $100 per month. ..... NO CONTRACT......half what I had to pay with verizon. Last time a renewed my contract with verizon I still had to pay $400 for phones.
I have a few friends that have done this for over a year and love it.

 

[I Lean]

I just decided to go prepay cellular after more than a decade with verizon, bought two android phones from walmart $400 and its going to be unlimited data, calls, texting for around $100 per month. ..... NO CONTRACT......half what I had to pay with verizon. Last time a renewed my contract with verizon I still had to pay $400 for phones.
I have a few friends that have done this for over a year and love it.

What carrier? I might need to look into doing something similar.

 

[nnnnnate]

I do prepaid with T-Mobile for my wife and I. $30 each for 100 talk minutes, 5 GB data, and unlimited texting. For $45 (I think) we could do unlimited talk, text and 5 GB data. We both have Google Nexus phones which we bought outright from the google play store. It has worked well for us. When we go over talk minutes (wife) we pay ten cents a minute. It has still been cheaper to pay for the extra minutes than bump to the bigger plan so far. I've been doing this for about 18 months and had the wife on it for about 6, since he iPhone 4 died.

With a little tinkering we can tether from our phones to laptops but its kind of a hassle at times.

I am about to drop century link after being with them for 8 months due to speed and price complaints. I don't think internet should cost more than $35 a month, for any reason.

 

[Cascadia]

I'm not sure what we pay. My wife does all the bills and it's joined with our directv. We have century link and have never had a problem. Speeds are never slow and the service is never interrupted. If anything has happened it has been our boy playing with the router. If we need help with anything century link has helped us out. I'll find out what we pay though Stratton.

 

[MattL]

What carrier? I might need to look into doing something similar.

I too am interested in this.

 

[rockreligious]

What carrier? I might need to look into doing something similar.

Straight Talk.

you can either buy your monthly time at walmart, or just do like we did and give them a credit card number to bill every month. we did that anyway with verizon, only difference is its half the cost for unlimited usage.

and we also was able to keep the phone numbers we have had for years.