Comment by apitman
6 hours ago
I got sniped away from Visible (Verizon MVNO) by US Mobile (multi-carrier MVNO) during a Black Friday sale. USM has an interesting thing where you can actually get a separate eSIM for each of the major carriers, and switch between them. I was curious so I signed up for all 3. It's been interesting to see how the signals vary from location to location, and at least a couple times I've been able to get significantly better signal by switching.
The main downside is that you have different numbers for each eSIM, but that doesn't really affect me because I use Google Voice for SMS.
I switched to US Mobile a long time ago just due to pricing. I was WFH most days of the week (before Covid) so I could do minimal data and pay around $100/yr for unlimited talk/text. Now, I do unlimited everything as I commute 5 days each week, but it's only $200/yr. Still significant savings.
Unfortunately GV has been having a ~week outage of outgoing MMS group messages. Well, let's say a brownout – many messages make it through to some recipients.
https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/incidents/THtvkD...
Looks like they fixed it today.
But yeah I probably should have clarified that Google Voice has been a pretty terrible UX and quality overall for years. I really need to just bite the bullet and port my number out.
I really love US Mobile. I was a flagship postpaid $90/mo VZW customer for a decade and was so hesitant to switch. It's been 4 years now, and all I can say is that I can't believe I waited so long.
Ive had many issues where services can't verify the GV phone number - cause they know it's GV. Does this still happen?
Yup! Tip: lock em in and verify a regular cell phone number and then port it. They can probably make it work for you if it’s like a bank, otherwise yolo.
Used to happen more for me. Very rare now.
I'm considering switching to US Mobile from Verizon-- it seems way cheaper, and you can still use the Verizon network. Any downsides I should know?
I started mid last year and haven't run into any problems. Haven't needed to switch off of Dark Star yet.
I was previously on Google Fi, and MVNO roaming is bloody fantastic - I always had reception.
One tradeoff with MVNOs is you're generally lower priority on the network.
The only time that's going to matter is during a high usage event, like sports or perhaps a mass casualty. At that point, the network is overloaded for the primary users anyway.