Help Deciding on Which Network to Use and Other ?'s

[Ira]

I live an hour from a large city in northeastern TN and job takes me as far 100 miles up into KY. I have had an AT&T plan for the last 5 years. Couple phones on my family plan have been out for over a year now and the last one is up next month. Up until the last year, I was fairly happy with ATT coverage, but it seems that areas of my travel that used to have coverage now drop the call and many have no coverage.

My son got a 4S on ATT thru his girlfriend's (now ex) plan. He was somewhat happy with it. He first asked me to add him to my plan but I explained the last phone is nearly out and I didn't want to sign another contract. A couple months later, they broke up and she wanted him to move his phone to my plan, which I didn't. She then reported the phone as stolen so she could have service turned off and he kept the phone since he paid for it anyway. He then sold the phone and got another on his friend's Verizon plan. He loves it and said it has better coverage than ATT had. When I mentioned ST, he told me of friends he had on ST who were not happy with the service they have in our area. Not sure which carrier side of the fence they are on. I want to get a smartphone and am leaning toward the Verizon side of the fence.

My understanding is that the only way I can get on the Verizon side of ST is by buying a phone from ST that is assigned to their network (CDMA). Is there any way I can get a used phone that was on a Verizon plan and get it done thru ST? I think the answer is no, but just wondered.

Also, I know 3G is available in most areas, but 4G is emerging and so is 4G lte. I was under the impression that I could get a 4G lte phone from ATT, get sim from ST and use it. I thought that if I was in an area where the 4G lte was available, the phone would automatically switch from 3G to it. I just read a thread saying you couldn't get 4G or lte on ST. Is that true?

Lastly, if I did have a 4G lte phone, is it backward compatable to 3G? Son's 4s is only 3G but he was with a friend who also had a Verizon contract phone but it was 4G. He said his friend had trouble getting a data signal, but son picked up 3G without a problem.

[october262]

you cannot bring your own verizon phone to straight talk, straight talk just released the The Samsung Galaxy Proclaim android phone, it is on the verizon network. 4G lte does not work with straight talk

[mpitts18]

You can however bring your own phone to Page Plus if you have a Verizon phone. All except for Blackberry's.

[ThaKizzle]

You can however bring your own phone to Page Plus if you have a Verizon phone. All except for Blackberry's.

You can bring ALL Verizon 3G android phones, NO 4g lte Verizon phones on pageplus! And also no iPhones