Submitted by Reasonable-Sock9551 t3_10t3vg2 in vermont
Currently on Verizon but looking around at alternatives to save on plan and to get a deal on new hardware. Curious what experiences any Vermonters have had with Google Fi. How does it compare to other carriers, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T in Vermont? Thanks.
Edit: I live in Waterbury, but commute to Essex but also spend a lot of time in Stowe and Morrisville, if anyone has experience in this area.
That's not true at all.t mobile has better covg then Verizon in a lot of parts. In northern VT I have 5g in most parts
I'm in northern VT as well and I have one phone with ATT and one phone on Mint. Both have dead zones in my area, but Mint had vastly more.
I concur, non-5G phone on T-Mobile and my partner has a non-5G phone on Verizon. Sometimes her phone gets coverage when I don't... but I'm much more likely to have some coverage when we travel around.
I've had it while living in Burlington and Montpelier and it's been great service the whole time. Drops out while driving through more rural places going to and from NY. I'd recommend it
I tried it a year or two ago and the reception was terrible around Brattleboro. I could use it in Keene fine, but it was basically useless in town.
I get 5 bars 5G in downtown Bratt on Fi.
That's cool, it was about 2 years ago that I had it, so they must have improved since then. Good to know!
I recommend visible (owned by Verizon so on the Verizon network). They’re running a promo right now for a $15 monthly unlimited plan for one year (will go up to $30 per year afterwards).
I just switched and it’s been working fine.
Agreed. If you want to save money switch to Visible. I have had Visible for a couple of years and have been paying $30/ month including service for my Apple Watch too. No contract either.
We live in Barre and have great reception w/ google fi here
I love it in Chittenden County. IMO If you mainly move between places with wifi, Fi is really in its own class as a product.
I wouldn't doubt what people say about it being less reliable in rural areas, but I used to support 100 mobile phones at work on 2 carriers across northern vt and they all had dead zones in the same places.
I live in Chittenden County and have found my coverage on Fi to be as good or better than when I was on Verizon or AT&T. It's been 5 years now and I wouldn't go back.
I’ve got google fi in Burlington and don’t have any trouble. Definitely loose it in rural areas and some parts of cholchester but not many. Really nice to be able to go back and forth to Canada and still have data.
I don't live in Vermont but have family and visit frequently, have been up to Burlington but mostly in southern Vermont and never had any issues. Explored some of the trails by camel's hump and had signal the whole time.
Works fine for me. I've had it for 5+ years and yes, there are dead spots, but all cell coverage has dead spots. My Verizon friends have dead zones, sometimes in the same places and there are times where my coverage is great and Verizon is weak or dead. Likewise, I've had the complete opposite, so it depends where you are and need it the most.
I have no plans on leaving Fi, is cheap and works for my needs in the NEK.
I have Fi, works great and lighting fast in chit county. Works great in central VT where I grew up as well (Randolph area). My GF has VZW and I have consistently better and faster coverage, pretty much anywhere except the NEK.
I live in the NEK and have had Fi for about 3 years. Works great for me.
Yeah I mean I have coverage, just was saying hey coverage seems to be a little better and faster in that part of the state. Everywhere else Fi is as good or better in our experience.
I'm in southern VT and service is great down here. Better than my Verizon work phone. I get coverage on Fi all the way up route 30, Verizon drops off before you hit Dummerston.
If you already have Verizon just get visible. You will not regret it
It was great in Burlington but absolute garbage outside of Chittenden County. Dropped it because the coverage was too inconsistent and they nuked my number on the way out for some reason, so now I have a new phone number too.
If you're going to stay around Burlington go for it. If you travel around the state at all I'd avoid it.
I had fi for a while. I could deal with the limited coverage but the trouble I had was that it would often say I had service when I didn't.
Pretty bad especially if you do any sort of driving to other areas around the state. I got no service around Essex/Essex Junction in some areas. I switched to Xfinity and it’s been better and the same price if not cheaper since it was 10 per gig I went over on Fi.
I'm not sure how the coverage is, but I wouldn't recommend Google Fi because it's on TMO's network and TMO just got breached, resulting in Fi customer data being exfiltrated by the hackers. Conversely, Verizon has much better security practices (though they are expensive and I wish I could leave them too).
Good to know, thanks
please read into the details of the security incident before taking this random user's stance at face value btw :)
People got SIM swapped as a result of this breach. Google itself was not breached, but TMO was, and Google rides TMO's network. Yes, no personal information was taken, but a phone number and SIM pairing is enough to swap a high profile target (and TMO's previous breaches have resulted in PII getting exfil'd). Verizon is also generally known as the hardest carrier to SIM swap (though not infallible). This probably doesn't matter for the average person, but if you have a job that grants you access to valuable information, or are another juicy target (journalist, lawyer, activist), you don't want to get swapped. Verizon got breached last year too, but they also have swapping protections built into their account security options.
Curious for your take on the breach though, since you didn't actually share any information. Let me know if I got anything wrong.
Cool, you're probably right here :) The first post in this thread just felt kinda FUD-y to me, but seems I was wrong. Thanks for the link, I'll read this in the evening!
I work in the infosec space and we have tier-1 mobile carriers as clients, no FUD here. As much as I hate the huge carriers for their shitty business practices, I do want their users to be secure! I tried to package the information for the layman in my first comment, but I should've at least included a source, you're right.
Exactly this. :)
mekissab t1_j757olq wrote
Bad. Not nearly enough towers here. That goes for everything on TMobile, including Mint. Look for a carrier that uses Verizon or ATT.