Verizon vs Spectrum

**wrkalot** · 01-24-2021, 07:26 AM

My boss is looking at Spectrum as an option. He is currently on Verizon on a plan with his girl friend and a few others and is going to move to a new account under the business. His biggest concern is service/reception when he's in the middle of nowhere hunting. He gets service when people on TM or ATT can't.

Spectrum claims to have the same exact service as Verizon, Verizon claims that their customers are prioritized and others like Spectrum and Visible are further down the list. Can anyone clarify if Spectrum would be worse in areas of heavy congestion or weak service areas?

**fgpalm** · 01-24-2021, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by wrkalot

My boss is looking at Spectrum as an option. He is currently on Verizon on a plan with his girl friend and a few others and is going to move to a new account under the business. His biggest concern is service/reception when he's in the middle of nowhere hunting. He gets service when people on TM or ATT can't.

Spectrum claims to have the same exact service as Verizon, Verizon claims that their customers are prioritized and others like Spectrum and Visible are further down the list. Can anyone clarify if Spectrum would be worse in areas of heavy congestion or weak service areas?

Well my biggest thing is spectrums “unlimited” plan is 22GB and then it’s ALWAYS SLOWED to 0.90 mbps. That’s not unlimited and very misleading. Verizon‘s post paid unlimited plans only slow down after your plan allowance during congestion.

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**wrkalot** · 01-24-2021, 08:57 AM

Data isn't really a concern for most of the phones that will be on the account. I use less than 1gig a month for example. Spectrum's $14 month plan is attractive.

**@TheRealDanny** · 01-24-2021, 11:27 AM

Where I live here in SoCal I’ve been hearing radio ads from Spectrum where they are directly going after and poaching Verizon customers.

I know they are a Verizon wholesale customer but that’s got to piss off corporate.

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**SoNic67** · 01-24-2021, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by fgpalm

Well my biggest thing is spectrums “unlimited” plan is 22GB and then it’s ALWAYS SLOWED to 0.90 mbps. That’s not unlimited and very misleading.

It's misleading only because you assumed that "data" means "high speed data".
1Mbps is still plenty for navigation, streaming music...

**fgpalm** · 01-24-2021, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by SoNic67

It's misleading only because you assumed that "data" means "high speed data".
1Mbps is still plenty for navigation, streaming music...

It’s not what I assume… It’s what the general public who is uninformed assumes

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**techguru30** · 01-25-2021, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by fgpalm

Well my biggest thing is spectrums “unlimited” plan is 22GB and then it’s ALWAYS SLOWED to 0.90 mbps. That’s not unlimited and very misleading. Verizon‘s post paid unlimited plans only slow down after your plan allowance during congestion.

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The soft cap on Spectrum Mobile's unlimited plan is 20GB and on their Unlimited Plus plan it is 30GB. I have only hit the cap once and the service was still useable but it was noticeably slower. I would recommend Spectrum Mobile over Verizon Wireless since the pricing is cheaper and you still have access to the Verizon Wireless towers.

**Jack Hagar** · 01-25-2021, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by fgpalm

Well my biggest thing is spectrums “unlimited” plan is 22GB and then it’s ALWAYS SLOWED to 0.90 mbps. That’s not unlimited and very misleading. Verizon‘s post paid unlimited plans only slow down after your plan allowance during congestion.

Technically it's unlimited because you are not charge once you go over nor is your service stopped. If Verizon's hotspot can be called unlimited at 600 kbps then non hotspot is unlimited at 1 Mbps

Where are you getting 22 GB from? It's 20 GB on the $45 plan and 30 GB on the $55 plan. If it's an issue go with Verizon prepaid or Visible or any of the other MNVOs that use Verizon's network

**dnoonan** · 01-25-2021, 10:11 AM

The other thing to consider is roaming. I'm not sure if Spectrum has the same roaming agreements as brand name Verizon. Not saying they don't, but I'd check. In my area, there's a large area that is only covered by roaming agreemenst.

**october262** · 01-25-2021, 11:43 AM

here's some more info about spectrum - https://clark.com/technology/charter...phone-service/

**hwertz** · 01-25-2021, 10:37 PM

I looked at Spectrums map, looked at one of the Verizon maps that shows Verizon native (dark red) and extended network (light pink) (Verizon postpaid gets access to both, some MVNOs are Verizon native only and some include the roaming). It looks like Spectrum includes the roaming (the spectrum map shows "no coverage" in one area of Montana along Canadian border that shows roaming on Verizon... don't know if that's a mistake, or if that one carrier is just enough costlier that Spectrum said "no thanks".. but it looked like the "light pink" is covered on Spectrum's map everywhere else.). So, you should get exactly the same coverage on Spectrum vs. Verizon, since you'll have both native and "extended network".

As for speed? I think it's possible for an MVNO to have full Verizon priority, but they pay more for it, otherwise they're probably at the lower MVNO priority. I don't know which they have. The price seems too good for full-priority, but

...

Do you get below like 6-10mbps service in your area? Verizon's deprio is mainly to maintain that 6-12mbps speed. If you don't see below 10mbps or so speeds, you will probably not be affected by deprio anyway. When I tested with a "deprioritized over 22GB" line and one that wasn't, speed tests side-by-side, if the non-deprio line got 12+mbps, so did the derpio'ed line, they'd get virtually identical speeds.. 10mbps non-deprio got about 8mbps on the deprio'ed.. by the time the normal line was 6mps, the deprio got about 3mbps... by the time the non-deprio was down to 3mbps the deprio did about 1mbps, below 3mbps the deprio line got troublingly slow.

Based on my personal experience, I would not sweat at all having a deprio'ed line, I only got to test these slower speeds (last year, pre-Covid) when basketball and football games were bringing like 80,000 extra people into town. If you see sluggish speeds in your area (.. with a decent signal, slow speed in some basement or something with "0 bar" signal doesn't count..), deprio could be bad, otherwise probably no affect at all.

**zapjb** · 01-25-2021, 11:57 PM

In case some don't know Spectrum Internet required to get wireless.

**Jack Hagar** · 01-26-2021, 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by zapjb

In case some don't know Spectrum Internet required to get wireless.

Initially yes, but if you leave Spectrum afterwards it $20 a month extra. Spectrum might be ok if you have Spectrum internet and plan to keep it. Also taxes and fees are included.

**fgpalm** · 01-26-2021, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by techguru30

The soft cap on Spectrum Mobile's unlimited plan is 20GB and on their Unlimited Plus plan it is 30GB. I have only hit the cap once and the service was still useable but it was noticeably slower. I would recommend Spectrum Mobile over Verizon Wireless since the pricing is cheaper and you still have access to the Verizon Wireless towers.

I wouldnt call 0.90 mbps a “soft” cap.

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**cali_stud** · 02-14-2021, 01:51 PM

i tried spectrum mobile the data is throttled down as i was getting faster speeds in LTE with verizon. you need spectrum internet also if you cancel that the bill climbs up 20 bucks if you cancel it. spectrum phones do not roam on extended networks where verizon has roaming agreements with other carriers. i also found the CSR'S to be pretty clueless as well.. spectrum phones are locked to them as well and they won't unlock em until there paid off..