Not Familiar with Carriers, Phones this Gen

[ScottALot]

Hey Y'all,

So I'm not really a phone enthusiast except for once every ~2 years when my upgrade comes around.
We've been on an AT&T family plan sharing data and enjoying unlimited data, texts. However, we're seeing the benefits of other carriers now.
There are going to be (at least) 3 people needing phones and coverage with data/text/voice. The only real caveat is that my dad travels overseas a *lot* and would like it if he could get text/voice overseas without penalty. I think he found out that T-Mobile does that, but I don't know if it's limited to just them.
Also, a coworker told me that doing a month-to-month plan and buying a phone is cheaper than doing a #-year contract and buying a contract-discounted phone. Is that generally true?

Outside of the contracts, I have zero idea what phones are good right now. I have a Lumia 920 (I really think Windows phones deserve more credit outside of the barren app store), so I've been outside of the Android/iPhone buzz. Does anyone have recommendations on which phones are truly excellent this generation?

Extra Credit: My grandparents use TracFones with just voice/text right now. They're wondering if TracFone is a good plan still and also looking for a simple phone to replace their aging Blackberry. Not sure if anyone is familiar with TracFone.

Thanks a ton!

 

[DMGrier]

I use to have At&t, it was a shared plan for me and the wife of unlimited text and talk with 3GB of data shared came to $160 a month. That was just too high for us but we loved the At&t service in our area. So we went to cricket which is the exact same towers. For $90 a month I get unlimited talk and text with 5 GB per phone of data. Cricket has a decent phone selection to include the Microsoft (no longer nokia) Lumia 640 (est $120), Android Moto E (est $80) and Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (est $180) all of which are outside of contract.

They also carry other brands from ZTE, LG nd HTC. They do have some of the higher end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6, however my rebuttal to most people is what do you do on your phone as you have to buy these phones out right and often I find people do nothing more then web browsing, mini games and Facebook. This is like buying an Alienware for web browsing and word processing, it is a waste.

The other thing I like about cricket is that if I don't like a phone through them I can go into At&t and buy a phone out right and just plug my cricket sim into the phone and now I have cricket service.

Hopefully that answers your question.

EDIT: Also to answer your question as I am prior Navy and have spent s great deal of time overseas my recommendation is to use there phone system. Mind you this was 8 years ago but with something like cricket you can kill and start the line anytime and when I was over there I would just buy a cheap flip phone and place minutes on there to call. It was relatively cheap. If memory serves me right it was minute to minute and the only large cost was 50 minutes to connect the call. If he gets hotels with wifi then save some serious money by using skype of google hangouts.

Also I am not sure about this but I believe google hangouts allows you to call mobile phone numbers for free some way or another. I was watching a video on how this is a built in function that can be used over wifi and the only downside is the phone number it shows on the other end is a different number but who cares.

 

[ScottALot]

I use to have At&t, it was a shared plan for me and the wife of unlimited text and talk with 3GB of data shared came to $160 a month. That was just too high for us but we loved the At&t service in our area. So we went to cricket which is the exact same towers. For $90 a month I get unlimited talk and text with 5 GB per phone of data. Cricket has a decent phone selection to include the Microsoft (no longer nokia) Lumia 640 (est $120), Android Moto E (est $80) and Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (est $180) all of which are outside of contract.

They also carry other brands from ZTE, LG nd HTC. They do have some of the higher end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6, however my rebuttal to most people is what do you do on your phone as you have to buy these phones out right and often I find people do nothing more then web browsing, mini games and Facebook. This is like buying an Alienware for web browsing and word processing, it is a waste.

The other thing I like about cricket is that if I don't like a phone through them I can go into At&t and buy a phone out right and just plug my cricket sim into the phone and now I have cricket service.

Hopefully that answers your question.

EDIT: Also to answer your question as I am prior Navy and have spent s great deal of time overseas my recommendation is to use there phone system. Mind you this was 8 years ago but with something like cricket you can kill and start the line anytime and when I was over there I would just buy a cheap flip phone and place minutes on there to call. It was relatively cheap. If memory serves me right it was minute to minute and the only large cost was 50 minutes to connect the call. If he gets hotels with wifi then save some serious money by using skype of google hangouts.

Also I am not sure about this but I believe google hangouts allows you to call mobile phone numbers for free some way or another. I was watching a video on how this is a built in function that can be used over wifi and the only downside is the phone number it shows on the other end is a different number but who cares.

Oh shoot I thought this thread just got swept under the rug. Thanks for replying!

Okay, I'd never considered Cricket. I figured it was like Boost Mobile or something, a discount carrier with discount service. I'll have to look into them.

You're right about getting phones that are out of your usability range. The most power intensive thing I ever do on mine is watch Youtube or Hill Climb Racing.

My dad has used Skype and WhatsApp to talk to everyone while overseas, but he wanted to cut that step out and find out if there's a reputable brand with good pricing that can provide free overseas service so he doesn't have to worry about minutes and opening WiFi apps.

 

[Darren]

It varies from carrier to carrier, but from what I've heard the "budget" providers like Cricket, Boost, Virgin, etc. typically use the same towers and signal as the major providers. You will however be low on the priority list, so if you're tower is overloaded, you'll be at the bottom of the list for getting service. Higher cost providers will of course be higher up. However this seems fairly irrelevant because I'll frequently get absolutely nothing from an AT&T tower with max bars when I'm at a busy event or on campus at certain times. You also have other restrictions as well, but I don't know enough about it to tell you anything else.

Cheaper carriers do have a pretty hit or miss selection of phones though, and you typically have to pay for them outright.

For reference, my family pays 192 a month for 3 smartphones (2 being "leased at 15+ a month each), and a messaging phone. 10GB of data to share and unlimited talk and text. This is AT&T. Service coverage and speed is really pretty good. I'm pretty sure my dad also gets a discount through work though, around 20% I believe.

 

[DMGrier]

Oh shoot I thought this thread just got swept under the rug. Thanks for replying!

Okay, I'd never considered Cricket. I figured it was like Boost Mobile or something, a discount carrier with discount service. I'll have to look into them.

You're right about getting phones that are out of your usability range. The most power intensive thing I ever do on mine is watch Youtube or Hill Climb Racing.

My dad has used Skype and WhatsApp to talk to everyone while overseas, but he wanted to cut that step out and find out if there's a reputable brand with good pricing that can provide free overseas service so he doesn't have to worry about minutes and opening WiFi apps.

I use to think the same about cricket until I walked into a store, the experience is no different then me walking into an At&t store. Was never a fan of phones you buy off the shelves at Walmart or you lcoal gas station.

I do believe Darren has a point at cricket phones may not get the same priority as At&t phones on the same towers, however I have never had an issue streaming Youtube or Pandora on my 4G LTE with cricket.

I have been on a Lumia 640 which has a 1.2 GHz quad core ARM CPU and 1 GB of RAM, honestly there has not been a single app this phone has not handled from simple games like crossy road to the 3D remakes of Final Fanasty to even a newer xbox game called Tentacles (console quality). The camera could be better even though I have no complaints on the quality of pictures takes.

As for your Dad, sorry I wish I had a better solution. I know T-mobile parent company is a German company I believe I could not answer how the service works. I know Cricket will not cover you overseas.

 

[Geoff]

Cricket uses AT&T and is a great plan for single users, T-Mobile has excellent family plans.

Windows Phones are really poor right now, there haven't been any new high end phones for a couple years now, plus the app ecosystem is awful. Your best bet is Android or iPhone. The new iPhone 6S will be out in a couple weeks. For Android, the S6, G4, Moto X Pure, are the ones to choose. The new Nexus(s) are also being announced later this month.