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They've already been doing this, just switched back to T-Mobile recently and it was $35/line for activation, and then afterwards we had an issue with the unlock

They've already been doing this, just switched back to T-Mobile recently and it was $35/line for activation, and then afterwards we had an issue with the unlocked Verizon S22 Ultra because Verizon's firmware on the device was (intentionally?) broken, so we "upgraded" that line to purchase a new device and it required a manager to waive the $35 upgrade fee for the line. That said, I'll take it, I was only on Verizon for 6 months and had nothing but issues, especially issues that just straight out shouldn't happen (phone got stuck thinking it was in Italy after our summer vacation after we returned to the US). I was a happy Verizon customer more than a decade ago and thought going back would be a good plan, but it turned out to be a nightmare that ended up costing me over $1000 for no reason, and the Verizon policies and customer service are horrible. T-Mobile is the only US based carrier that has reasonable international roaming for data and non-stupid policies. If they go evil after merging with Sprint (Sprint is horrid), then we'll have nobody left, just like most other industries in the US that have become multi-headed monopolies.

fetus8 4y ago
I just switched to T-Mobile from a 16-year-old Verizon account, and at the beginning of October. We didn't get charged any activation fees for our 3 lines, but we did get charged $15 per line to port our numbers over from Verizon. As with the OP, the last 3-ish years, Verizon service in our area dropped from being the best service available to the worst I've experienced in the 16 years. I couldn't make phone calls reliably; data rates were abysmal to the point that streaming podcasts was generally not an option. I correlate the dismal drop in service to the rollout of 5G back in late 2019/early 2020. We tried moving around Verizon's data plans to see if paying for "Premium Data" made a difference, and we saw no improvements. Sucking up the porting fees and paying partial monthly bills for 2 different carriers, was simply worth it. T-Mobile in our area, gives us actual cell coverage so we can make phone calls again, and even on a lower tier data plan, our data speeds are MAJORLY improved over Verizon. It's a bit shocking how much of a difference there is. Plus, we went from almost $50/line to $35/line on T-Mobile, for unlimited data. One thing that made our switch super easy is the fact that all 3 of our phones were bought unlocked from the manufacturer instead of via a carrier, and no one owed any $$$ for hardware installments. The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference.
- tristor 4y ago
  > The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference. I'm also in the Colorado front range. Maybe there's a geographical correlation to the service quality issues with Verizon.
  - fetus8 4y ago
    Are you experiencing service issues then too?
    - tristor 4y ago
      Yes, I dropped Verizon for T-Mobile partly due to issues. I also think this is related to 5G rollout, because on both providers I get better service quality by disabling 5G on my phone and reverting to LTE.
      - fetus8 4y ago
        Very interesting. I am relieved to hear I'm not alone in these issues. So far, 5G on T-Mobile has actually worked and given me improved speeds but I have disabled it too for battery life purposes.
- trefoiled 4y ago
  I've seen significant degradation in connection quality since the 5G rollout, but I'm on t mobile, and in the PNW.
  - y-c-o-m-b 4y ago
    Same. I'm in Oregon and the Verizon quality is absolutely horrendous. They still have the best coverage for rural and mountainous areas imo, but the degradation has been severe for sure.
  - kulahan 4y ago
    I assume this is more due to the removal of 3G than anything. Edge is so slow it's worthless, and 4G coverage is spotty at best. 5G is, as far as I can tell, a stupid gimmick almost nobody will get great use out of on their phones.
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
Agreed. I've been a TMobile fan for a good many years now, which is why this worries me. We'll see how TMobile officially responds, but the especially worrisome part for me is how they messaged it. I know it happens all the time, but it makes my blood boil when companies try to sugarcoat blatant money grabs with the "it's good for the consumer" nonsense. It's like they not only want more money, but they are also going to show you how much of an idiot they think you are.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
> T-Mobile is the only US based carrier that has reasonable international roaming for data and non-stupid policies. I find ATT pricing to be okay. I get Canada/Mexico/US for one price, and then if I use my phone internationally, it automatically starts and stops charging $10 per day, up to $100 max per month. If you are just stepping out of North America for a week, the convenience of not having to bother with another SIM or eSIM is not that expensive. I guess the most convenient part is not having to do anything, and just being able to continue using my phone.
- jermaustin1 4y ago
  Same with Verizon: $10/day. But.... Story Time: I recently switched to Mint, and there is no international (outside of Canada and Mexico, I think?). So had to find a phone store when I recently went to Ireland, and they are a lot less ubiquitous than in their neighbor to the north and east (UK). I had to take a 10 minute walk down to the town centre where I expected the little grocer to have some sim cards, but he directed me down the road to a larger chain grocery. When they didn't have them, I was directed to another town, so then I had to hop on bus for a few kilometers to the next town that had an indoor shopping mall where there was a Vodafone store. All of this with no network connection because I had no sim card. I forgot how hard travel used to be.
  - tristor 4y ago
    > Same with Verizon: $10/day. Verizon's Travel Pass is $10 per instance, which can be more than once per day. A Travel Pass is active for up to 24 hours, but includes a limited amount of data, at which point you must purchase another one. Verizon Travel Pass also does not have a monthly maximum. Based on the link provided in the parallel thread, the AT&T offer is better than the Verizon Travel Pass. I had Verizon during a recent family vacation and ran into issues with this, which was one motivating factor for switching back to T-Mobile.
    - joshmanders 4y ago
      GF and I went to Iceland in June. She's on Verizon, I am on T-Mobile. We entered Iceland airspace and I got a nice text from T-Mobile "Welcome to Iceland, enjoy your trip here's unlimited talk, text and data" My GF got "You are out of the US to use your device it's $20/day for talk, text and 1GB of data" By the end of the week trip, my cellphone bill was $10 more than normal. Her's was an additional $200.

fetus8 4y ago

I just switched to T-Mobile from a 16-year-old Verizon account, and at the beginning of October. We didn't get charged any activation fees for our 3 lines, but we did get charged $15 per line to port our numbers over from Verizon. As with the OP, the last 3-ish years, Verizon service in our area dropped from being the best service available to the worst I've experienced in the 16 years. I couldn't make phone calls reliably; data rates were abysmal to the point that streaming podcasts was generally not an option. I correlate the dismal drop in service to the rollout of 5G back in late 2019/early 2020. We tried moving around Verizon's data plans to see if paying for "Premium Data" made a difference, and we saw no improvements. Sucking up the porting fees and paying partial monthly bills for 2 different carriers, was simply worth it. T-Mobile in our area, gives us actual cell coverage so we can make phone calls again, and even on a lower tier data plan, our data speeds are MAJORLY improved over Verizon. It's a bit shocking how much of a difference there is. Plus, we went from almost $50/line to $35/line on T-Mobile, for unlimited data. One thing that made our switch super easy is the fact that all 3 of our phones were bought unlocked from the manufacturer instead of via a carrier, and no one owed any $$$ for hardware installments. The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference.

tristor 4y ago
> The 3 lines on my account are used extensively all along the front range area of Colorado, for a point of reference. I'm also in the Colorado front range. Maybe there's a geographical correlation to the service quality issues with Verizon.
- fetus8 4y ago
  Are you experiencing service issues then too?
  - tristor 4y ago
    Yes, I dropped Verizon for T-Mobile partly due to issues. I also think this is related to 5G rollout, because on both providers I get better service quality by disabling 5G on my phone and reverting to LTE.
    - fetus8 4y ago
      Very interesting. I am relieved to hear I'm not alone in these issues. So far, 5G on T-Mobile has actually worked and given me improved speeds but I have disabled it too for battery life purposes.
trefoiled 4y ago
I've seen significant degradation in connection quality since the 5G rollout, but I'm on t mobile, and in the PNW.
- y-c-o-m-b 4y ago
  Same. I'm in Oregon and the Verizon quality is absolutely horrendous. They still have the best coverage for rural and mountainous areas imo, but the degradation has been severe for sure.
- kulahan 4y ago
  I assume this is more due to the removal of 3G than anything. Edge is so slow it's worthless, and 4G coverage is spotty at best. 5G is, as far as I can tell, a stupid gimmick almost nobody will get great use out of on their phones.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

Agreed. I've been a TMobile fan for a good many years now, which is why this worries me. We'll see how TMobile officially responds, but the especially worrisome part for me is how they messaged it. I know it happens all the time, but it makes my blood boil when companies try to sugarcoat blatant money grabs with the "it's good for the consumer" nonsense. It's like they not only want more money, but they are also going to show you how much of an idiot they think you are.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

> T-Mobile is the only US based carrier that has reasonable international roaming for data and non-stupid policies. I find ATT pricing to be okay. I get Canada/Mexico/US for one price, and then if I use my phone internationally, it automatically starts and stops charging $10 per day, up to $100 max per month. If you are just stepping out of North America for a week, the convenience of not having to bother with another SIM or eSIM is not that expensive. I guess the most convenient part is not having to do anything, and just being able to continue using my phone.

jermaustin1 4y ago
Same with Verizon: $10/day. But.... Story Time: I recently switched to Mint, and there is no international (outside of Canada and Mexico, I think?). So had to find a phone store when I recently went to Ireland, and they are a lot less ubiquitous than in their neighbor to the north and east (UK). I had to take a 10 minute walk down to the town centre where I expected the little grocer to have some sim cards, but he directed me down the road to a larger chain grocery. When they didn't have them, I was directed to another town, so then I had to hop on bus for a few kilometers to the next town that had an indoor shopping mall where there was a Vodafone store. All of this with no network connection because I had no sim card. I forgot how hard travel used to be.
- tristor 4y ago
  > Same with Verizon: $10/day. Verizon's Travel Pass is $10 per instance, which can be more than once per day. A Travel Pass is active for up to 24 hours, but includes a limited amount of data, at which point you must purchase another one. Verizon Travel Pass also does not have a monthly maximum. Based on the link provided in the parallel thread, the AT&T offer is better than the Verizon Travel Pass. I had Verizon during a recent family vacation and ran into issues with this, which was one motivating factor for switching back to T-Mobile.
  - joshmanders 4y ago
    GF and I went to Iceland in June. She's on Verizon, I am on T-Mobile. We entered Iceland airspace and I got a nice text from T-Mobile "Welcome to Iceland, enjoy your trip here's unlimited talk, text and data" My GF got "You are out of the US to use your device it's $20/day for talk, text and 1GB of data" By the end of the week trip, my cellphone bill was $10 more than normal. Her's was an additional $200.