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

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.