Thinking of early terminating my ATT 4S and going with Verizon

[pinkoos]

Just thinking about it at this point. Just hear me out:

I have a 64GB 4S with AppleCare +. Contract started in October of 2011. Generally haven't had any *major* issues with ATT save a dropped call here and there (I live in Houston). We travel to the SF Bay Area for family reasons and the coverage there is a bit iffy, though. Also, when I'm out and about in Houston, I do find that I can't access data in many places. So, there are definitely data coverage issues in Houston.

I'm on the 450 min/unlimited text/unlimited mobile/2GB data plan. I pay about $76/month b/c I get a 25% discount through my work. I don't come anywhere close to using my minutes, so I have more than 3000 rollover minutes to date.

My wife is currently on a factory unlocked iPhone 4 with a prepaid TMo plan...$50/per month unlimited everything (though data is edge, of course).

Some of you may have been following the blogs about when/where to sell your iPhone in preparation for the iPhone 5. Well, I currently have a $500 trade-in quote from Amazon for which I would need to postmark the iPhone 4S by Sept. 18 to keep that $500 locked in. Downside is that Amazon only gives you an Amazon gift card, not actual cash. But, we buy enough from Amazon from time to time that it will eventually serve it's purpose same as cash. Unfortunately, though, Amazon doesn't put any value on the added AppleCare+ that I have on the iPhone 4S. I suppose I could forego the Amazon trade-in deal and try and sell locally for around $500 or so (does that sound realistic?).

I looked at ATT early termination fees and it looks like it's $325 minus $10/month for every month that I've been on contract. So, let's just say that I terminate in October. That would reduce my ETF by $120, bringing it down to $200.

I haven't really looked at the Verizon plans closely b/c I just starting thinking about this this morning. So, I don't know how competitive they are nor do I know if I can get a discount through my work. I will be checking on that directly.

My main reasons to switch would be for better call coverage (here in Houston and in the Bay Area) and the apparently better data coverage and better LTE speed vs. ATT (from everything I've been reading online in the last couple of days). I realize that I won't be able to talk and access data concurrently on Verizon (unless I'm on wifi). Not sure how often I've actually used that feature on ATT in the past year or so that I've had the 4S.

So, crunching the numbers....

$200 ETF + $300 for wife's 32GB iPhone 5 + $400 for my 64GB iPhone 5 = $900 pay out

$500 +/- for selling/trading my 64GB iPhone 4S + maybe $350 for selling my wife's current factory unlocked 32GB iPhone 4 = $850 coming in to me

Net outlay on my part is $900 - $850 = $50. Not bad, but again, I need to check Verizon's plans (particularly family plans) and also check if I can get a discount through work.

Thoughts?

[N-OS X-tasy!]

If LTE is available in the areas where you will use the phone, going Verizon is a no-brainer. If you don't, AT&T may be the better choice, as Verizon's 3G network is much slower than AT&T's.

[Robert M]

Pinkoos,

Let me throw another wrench into the equation. Have you check the cost of an AT&T family plan? You'll have the cost of the base plan (anywhere from $59 and up) plus the cost of data and her phone should cost $$10 for service plus the cost of data. Factor in your discount and you should be saving money. Sure, you'll still have to deal with the sometimes spotty service but if money is a factor, it's definitely worth considering.

Robert

[pinkoos]

Robert M wrote:
Pinkoos,

Let me throw another wrench into the equation. Have you check the cost of an AT&T family plan? You'll have the cost of the base plan (anywhere from $59 and up) plus the cost of data and her phone should cost $$10 for service plus the cost of data. Factor in your discount and you should be saving money. Sure, you'll still have to deal with the sometimes spotty service but if money is a factor, it's definitely worth considering.

Robert

I was trying to do that online yesterday, but ATT took their site offline in order to prepare for the launch. Tried again this morning, but I was getting confused between family plans and mobile share or something like that. Also, it was showing that my 25% discount was valid on some things but not others, so I thought I'd just walk into an ATT store maybe this weekend and see if they can explain it to me. Too complicated!

[NewtonMP2100]

.....so you are a TERMINATOR....but [to quote one]......you'll be back.....???

[davester]

I'm trying to do a similar calc, but we have 4 iPhones on a family plan, 2 in and 2 out of contract. I'm sick and tired of lousy at&t coverage and despite promises it has not gotten any better over the years. The phones just plain don't work in too many places. It's very tricky to calculate how much it'll cost to switch.

BTW, where do you get those high resale prices for your existing phones? I haven't seen anything like that.

[pinkoos]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
If LTE is available in the areas where you will use the phone, going Verizon is a no-brainer. If you don't, AT&T may be the better choice, as Verizon's 3G network is much slower than AT&T's.

I need to check the coverage maps. Thanks.

[pinkoos]

davester wrote:
BTW, where do you get those high resale prices for your existing phones? I haven't seen anything like that.

For my wife's factory unlocked 4, I've just been checking CL to see what they are priced at (knowing that the price may or may not necessarily be what they're selling at).

For my 4S, I got the quote locked-in directly from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_1...B005SSBCDI&keywords=B005SSBCDI&ie=UTF8&qid=1347680963&sr=8-1-ti

Looks like Amazon has already dropped their offer to $450 if you try to lock in that particular model now. I'm locked in at $500, but I'm not sure I'm going to have everything figured out before Sept. 18 which is the day I need to send it in. I do, however, have a spare Android phone laying around to use until I get the 5 if I get into the situation where I have to give up (either to Amazon or sell locally) my 4S before I can take possession of a 5.