Cell Phone Providers for Travel Across the US

[Nathan Parker]

Now that I've finished my PhD program, I'm probably going to be doing some more travel across the US (plus I am headed to Israel next year).

Since storm chasers cover a lot of ground across the US, I'm curious as to the current state of the cell phone providers in the US.

Right now, I'm on T-Mobile sharing a Magenta Max 55+ plan with my mother, two lines for $90. T-Mobile has pretty fast 5G UC speeds around town, and only one dead zone inside a rural grocery store.

We'll keep T-Mobile at least through our Israel trip since I've heard T-Mobile has seamless international roaming, plus the in-flight Wi-Fi might be a good perk (unless there are more cost-effective international roaming options, I do have $50 credit at ALOSIM).

When we get back, if we don't need the "Max" perks, we could drop down to Magenta 55+ for two lines for $70.

However, after I get back from Israel, if I do any traveling across the US, I wonder if T-Mobile has beefed up their nationwide coverage, or if Verizon or AT&T is still better (would I hit a lot of dead zones with T-Mobile?).

We're AMAC members, so we could do an MVNO such as PureTalk pretty affordable which uses AT&T's towers.

I was using about 20GB per month, but lately I'm averaging under 2GB/month. Mother was on a flip phone and I just now moved her to an iPhone. Even then she's averaging less than 2GB/month. When I'm on my iPhone off of Wi-Fi, I'm mainly checking emails or a couple of work sites or a couple of weather apps, nothing too data-intensive. Now that I have better home Internet, my need for mobile hotspot hasn't been quite as used as much either.

In your travels across the US during storm chases, which carriers have you found to be the most overall reliable, and which cell phone plans have you found to be cost-effective for US travel and storm chasing?

Thanks!

 

[Todd Lemery]

I have both an ATT account and a Verizon Account. As a general rule, I’ve had better coverage with Verizon overall, but NE New Mexico and SE Colorado are notable exceptions where ATT vastly outperforms Verizon

 

[Nathan Parker]

Good to know. Thanks! Seems Verizon is still king, although some of my travels will take me to CO, so an ATT MVNO might be a good option for me.

 

[Randy Jennings]

Between my chase partner and myself, we have been chasing with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile for many years now. We are almost entirely TX and OK chasers. In the old days Verizon had the best coverage, with AT&T a close second and T-Mobile a very distant third. That has changed. Verizon now has the worst coverage in the areas we chase. T-Mobile has improved a lot in coverage. It got so bad, I dropped Verizon this chase season and we only chased with AT&T and T-Mobile. With the exception of chasing the Pecos River valley in far southwest Texas (where neither of us had anything), we usually had good coverage on both and them and it was rare to have coverage on neither).

 

[Nathan Parker]

Sounds good! Between T-Mobile and AT&T, which one has the better overall coverage? I'm either going to stay on T-Mobile or move to an AT&T MVNO long-term.

 

[Randy Jennings]

I would say AT&T has the better coverage in the areas I chase (TX and OK) still. But it also costs more.

 

[Nathan Parker]

Thanks! If I moved to AT&T towers, I'd end up moving to an MVNO that'd cost less than what I'm paying to T-Mobile now.

 

[Nathan Parker]

I moved to the AT&T MNVO (PureTalk). Due to my low data usage, my bill dropped down to $40/month for two lines. While T-Mobile had overall faster speeds, AT&T's towers has had better overall coverage around town.

For Israel, I'm just going to do ALOSIM or a local SIM plus probably get a MagicJack or Skype number for US calls.

 

[Drew Terril]

I was OTR trucking for several years, and it's pretty much a wash in the big picture between Verizon and AT&T. I have Verizon myself, but my co-driver at the time had AT&T and while there were a few instances where one had signal and the other didn't, it really wasn't a huge difference. I'd say AT&T probably has a slight advantage in OK/TX going back to the Southern Bell days (that later became Cingular, then AT&T), and Verizon probably still has a slight edge in the Northern Plains, going back to their acquisition of Alltel. Fun fact, I remember when that merger went down because I had Verizon back then too, and my gf at the time was from Nebraska and had Alltel. So after a certain point, they treated it like we were on the same network for the purposes of mobile to mobile minutes and in network texts.

As far as traveling internationally, I'd say it's better just to get a SIM locally wherever you are. Or possibly just buy a burner cell over there (or bring an older phone to use with the local SIM). Traveling to Canada is a bit different, as Verizon and AT&T have agreements set up with Bell and Rogers, so it's not billed any differently. I'm less than 3 hours from the Detroit-Windsor tunnel, so I pop into Ontario from time to time.

 

[Nathan Parker]

I remember the Southwestern Bell to Cingular to AT&T days, and the Alltel to Verizon days. In the past, I used Alltel, Southwestern Bell, and Cingular.

So far I'm pretty happy with my AT&T MVNO (PureTalk). Since I use very little cellular data around town (just checking emails, Apple Pay, and a couple of minor apps), I can get by on a super-low data package and keep my bill cheap. On the months where I'd be on the road more and use more data, I can either bump up my plan or purchase a one-time data pass for the month. Even if I cranked up my plan to their highest tier for a month, my bill would still be cheaper than I had with T-Mobile, and the broader coverage as well. I also like the US-based customer service. It helps when needing to explain a complicated technical question.

For international traveling, I'll definitely use a local SIM. My iPhone is SIM unlocked and supports dual SIM, so I can easily throw in a local SIM (my PureTalk SIM is eSIM, so I'm not even using the physical SIM slot at the moment). I looked up the pricing, and I can get way more "bang for my buck" with a local SIM vs what I would have paid for T-Mobile for an international roaming data pass, and the international roaming included in my bill was pretty weak for what I was paying per month anyway.

Quick question. Are there any apps that one can use to report dead zones to wireless carriers? Since I'm on a MVNO, I'm not sure how I'd report dead zones to AT&T. If I encounter one when traveling, I'd like to be able to report it just so they're aware.

 

[Nathan Parker]

PureTalk just added International calling to all their plans free of charge tonight. It covers most landlines and mobiles I call, plus the countries with mobiles it doesn't cover yet, they give me enough credit in my account that should cover those calls. Another perk that I'm glad I made the switch.