I'm so torn....
 

So here my story. I've been an AT&T customer to Cingular to AT&T and I need to make a choice for my iPhone5.

I've had the worst experience with AT&T with dropped calls, dead coverage areas and poor call quality, but have kept them because

1- they are global
2- simultaneous voice/data (critical for my job)
3- their pricing

Now I'm torn if I'm going to VZ or committing to AT&T for another 2 years of my life.

Pretty much, but I'm looking for substantial hard data rather than opinions. This isn't sport commentary you know.

I have ATT and find their voice and data coverage very weak. Friends that have Verizon don't have the issues I have. But both are expensive and both are moving to a new pricing model that does not appeal to me. Virgin has a a no-contract unlimited data plan for like $30 a month. But they don't subsidize the price of the phone + you can't migrate your existing phone. So I'm still mulling it over. Also considering Android.

What city(s) do you live/work in/ frequent...

My thought on that is unless you have a corporation who is willing to pay your calls while you globally travel, it is too expensive to use the AT&T iPhone internationally. The costs are obscene. You are better off having a pay-as-you go local phone for outside of the US calls and use local wi-fi for internet.

I had been a Verizon customer for years until I switched to AT&T for the iPhone. As soon as Verizon came out with their version, I switched back. Verizon iphone blows the AT&T iphone away in my neck of the woods for coverage.

I have AT&T with the iPhone. Unlimited data, texts and 2,500 minutes for $140 with me and my wife. I've been with the iPhone since the beginning so I got grandfathered in for everything. Too late for me to leave now.

We had AT&T at work and switched to Verizon just before they eliminated the unlimited data plan. I'm grandfathered in and don't plan to switch either.

I lost the unlimited plan because I needed the tethering feature of my phone.

I don't really understand their uimited share plans now so I'm ****3d anyways and if I need a switch now is the time.

Alwaysgreen I live in massapequa work in NYC, freaquent major US cities. I know VZ is light years away in LTE coverage, They also own the last mile here in NYC and can provide much higher bw to their towers.

I hear AT&T LTE isn't bad, but they really don't have the volume of LTE users VZ has, and they just finished acquiring Tmobile spectrum which is better for wireless coverage.

whatever you do DON'T modify your plan IN WAY, SHAPE or FORM - AT&T will yank the rug from under you.

That is why I cannot and will not go to Verizon. I'll deal with the dropped calls once in a while.

How far is your phone from the couch?

I heard the horror stories of AT&T with the iPhone, the 3 and the 3G. I held my nose and took the plunge in 2010 with an iPhone 4 on AT&T and....I've been pleasantly surprised. No real problems and I love being able to use voice and data at the same time.

I'm upgrading to the iPhone 5 on Friday and will stay with AT&T.

EDIT: I use my phone primarily in Phoenix, LA, New York and Washington, DC.

It used to be you can do other things on the iphone (surf the web, go to your email, etc) while talking if you had att. you couldnt do this with the other carriers. i hate att for the reasons you mention, but kept them anyway because of this.

That's a BIG feature for me. May time I need to take conference call and be in webex for my job. I heard this is possible with VZ LTE as voice/data is either on seperate channels or doing VoIP to accomplish this. I have yet seen anyone prove this to me.

I'll test it today while I'm at work, if it works on my VZW Samsung Galaxy S3, it should work with iPhone 5.

WRT simultaneous voice/data I do it all the time via WiFi with a Moto Droid 2 Global on Verizon. So the only time I really can't do it is when I'm in a car.

Good news - made a call, had it on speaker, and while talking, searched the internet for song lyrics to songs I've never heard of on sites I've never been to before (to make sure I wasn't getting cached pages). This while on 4G LTE.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/12/09/13/anava2y5.jpg

Just for kicks, I switched to 3G (via phone info app), and did the same with different sites/songs, and it worked - didn't expect that.

Turned WiFi on and, as expected, could browse/talk at the same time.

Can't imagine why iPhone 5 would be different, but you might ask the question of a VZW data services rep.

It depends where you are. At&t is famous for the dropped calls, lately they have been far less than before. Some of it had to do with the old iphone antenna setup. Will be getting the 5. In south Florida isn't that bad.

Thanks guys, that looks promising, i heard when it flips from LTE to 3G it reverts to Voice only to give it priority. If you were able to browse and talk on 3G that's welcome news to me. Ill hit VZ store today to confirm.

If all goes well would i be able to preorder a VZ iPhone5 on Friday if im currently on ATT month to month?