Spectrum is installing high speed internet in my subdivision. We’re happy about getting high speed internet.

I’ve looked at their “bundled” services and noted that cell phone service is available. Prices are attractive. We’re paying a lot for Verizon. Have been advised that Spectrum leases towers and service from the major providers and have “3rd tier priority” on calls, meaning that their service may be delayed or unavailable during peak times when major providers are at capacity.

Some have suggested that roaming and travel call service may be spotty.

I haven’t heard from anyone who actually has Spectrum cell service.

Does anyone have knowledge or experience with Spectrum cell service? Would appreciate comments or advice.

Thanks!

My father has it, bundled in with his internet and tv and it saves money.

He has never expressed anything being a problem with the service no dropped calls ,internet works fine.

We have been using this for several months. No problems, good service.

Spectrum is a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), service rides on the Verizon network.

They have two pricing models, you are not "stuck" with either one. You can switch back and forth, at will.

1. Flat rate. All you can eat for $45.00 / month / phone.
   
   
2. "By The Gig." $14.00 / Gig of data. My wife and I are on this plan, since we use very little data on the cellular network (wifi data is free), so we pay $28.00 / month total, for service for two phones. This gives us a two Gig pool of shared data. If we go over two Gigs in a month, a third Gig is thrown into the pool for an additional $14.00. This has never happened, we don't even come close.

With either of the plans, you get unlimited voice calls and text.

A Good Thing: All taxes and junk fees are INCLUDED in those prices, so what you see is what you pay.

Customer service, if you need them, seems to be better than most other cell service providers, with the exception of Ting, which is head and shoulders above any other provider in the industry.

One possible "gotcha," those prices require that the primary user on the account (for billing purposes), must have Spectrum internet service. If you were to drop this, there would be an additional $20 / month / phone charge.

Billing requires auto-payment with a credit card, but this is a no-contract service, so you can drop out at any time with no penalty.

Does Spectrum wireless allow tethering?

I love Spectrum's high speed internet and have an internet based landline that works great.

I can't advise on wireless phone but I do advise skipping Spectrum cable tv and getting Youtube tv. Works great with high speed internet and considerably less expensive.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Does Spectrum wireless allow tethering?

I understand it does, just counts toward your data with no other charge but I have not tried it so..

They also have nation wide 500,000 access points in businesses and such on their wired network you can use without counting toward your data. If set up on your phone it connects automatically. Smart I guess because it is bandwidth they don't have to pay Verizon for.

Spectrum doesn't do contracts BUT they do use introductory pricing. Their mobile service in less than a year old and it will be interesting to see if the pricing holds.

I switched to it last fall and no issues so far at all. Im retired and home most of the time now. Along with my home wifi and wifi calling plus spectrum mobile gets me by for the $14 a month so far.

ALSO... originally they were stating (can't find the page now) that multiple family lines with limited data plans shared data. For example if me and my wife both had 1Gb plans I could use 1.5Gb and her .5 and still only pay the $14 each.


Found it...

snip:
With the “By the Gig” data option, you will be charged $14.00 each month in advance for each line of Service (promotional rates may vary). Each line gets one gigabyte (GB) of data that can be shared among all By the Gig lines on the same account.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

Does Spectrum wireless allow tethering?

I believe so. I say that because I see the option in "Settings" on my iPhone, but I have not tried it yet to see if it works.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:

they were stating (can't find the page now) that multiple family lines with limited data plans shared data. For example if me and my wife both had 1Gb plans I could use 1.5Gb and her .5 and still only pay the $14 each.

That is correct.

We (my wife and I) have the Spectrum service, $28.00 / month, total, for two phones, with 2 Gig of data in a shared pool.

In a typical month, my wife might use just a bit over 1 Gig, and I will use a very small amount, much less than 1 Gig.

My wife and I have had it for 6-8 months now, on their “by the gig” plan. The service is just as good, if not better, than my work phone on Verizon. I’m a happy customer.

I tried it for a month and canned it. Voice service is great, basically Verizon towers. No issues there. Data traffic will route to what was it..... Kansas I think. VZ's routers pass off the data traffic to Spectrum's backbone and long haul back to their national routers. So it's a distance thing and distance = latency. I'd rather route locally. If you don't use data services for your work/job and/or you just want to save some money it'll do the job.

I looked into it but they don't support any international roaming so it's a non-starter for me. Otherwise, I might have tried it. Also they started having to buy the phone from them and didn't allow BYOP. They do now I think.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

they started having to buy the phone from them and didn't allow BYOP. They do now I think.

Yes, you can bring your own phone but it has to be on their “approved” list.

iPhones earlier than the 6S are not acceptable, my wife and I had the 6 model so we had to get newer ones.

I was going to buy Apple refurbs, but Spectrum had a killer deal on the iPhone X / 256 GB that was too good to pass.

Thanks V-Tail for the informative answer. Your solution appears to be the best fit for me and wife too. Thanks to all who chimed in.

We love living in the Texas Hill Country but the lack of fiber communication has been a drawback. Current options are expensive and slow.

We hope to have it in a couple of months. It will save a bundle as well as provide faster net service.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

they started having to buy the phone from them and didn't allow BYOP. They do now I think.

Yes, you can bring your own phone but it has to be on their “approved” list.

That's the one thing keeping me from moving my account to Spectrum. I love my current phone (that's not approved for their network) and am not planning on replacing it until late this year (at the earliest).

quote:

Originally posted by maxdog:
Thanks V-Tail for the informative answer. Your solution appears to be the best fit for me and wife too. Thanks to all who chimed in.

We love living in the Texas Hill Country but the lack of fiber communication has been a drawback. Current options are expensive and slow.

We hope to have it in a couple of months. It will save a bundle as well as provide faster net service.

You could do something about this but you'd have to have your neighbors help. Basically get a bunch of neighbors together and go make calls to the LEC (telco) and whatever MSO (cable company) services the area and see if they would do a build. You and your neighbors would have to split the cost.

As I understand it, you can only sign up for Spectrum wireless if you're a cable customer.

Personally, if I were a Spectrum cable customer, I'd be all over this. They use Verizon's towers, and charge a lot less.

Unfortunately, we are about 2 miles from the end of their cable network, with not much hope of it getting extended anytime soon.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

As I understand it, you can only sign up for Spectrum wireless if you're a cable customer.

If you mean cable TV, then no, that is not correct.

The requirement, to get Spectrum wireless at the prices we have been discussing, is that you are a Spectrum internet customer. TV is not a requirement.

However, you can still get Spectrum wireless service even if you are not a customer for any Spectrum services. It will cost twenty dollars a month more, for each phone on the account, at which point it loses its competitive edge.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

As I understand it, you can only sign up for Spectrum wireless if you're a cable customer.

If you mean cable TV, then no, that is not correct.

The requirement, to get Spectrum wireless at the prices we have been discussing, is that you are a Spectrum internet customer. TV is not a requirement.

However, you can still get Spectrum wireless service even if you are not a customer for any Spectrum services. It will cost twenty dollars a month more, for each phone on the account, at which point it loses its competitive edge.

Sorry, cable to me means the actual cable - the wire that carries cable TV/cable internet. If you can't/don't buy something coming over a Spectrum cable, you can't sign up for their wireless phone service.

I'm guessing that may be part of their deal to resell Verizon service, that they can only supply their existing customer base.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

cable to me means the actual cable - the wire that carries cable TV/cable internet. If you can't/don't buy something coming over a Spectrum cable, you can't sign up for their wireless phone service.

I'm guessing that may be part of their deal to resell Verizon service, that they can only supply their existing customer base.

I found it a bit strange, at the time that I signed us up for the service, Spectrum's requirement was internet service, specifically. The "real" monthly cost was twenty dollars / phone higher, but Spectrum internet customers got a twenty dollar discount. If you had Spectrum TV service, but not Spectrum internet, you did not qualify for the discount. That was maybe six months ago, I'm not sure if the details have changed since then.

Regarding an agreement with Verizon to provide the mobile service to consumers who are otherwise part of Spectrum's customer base I suppose that's possible, but it certainly is not a universal requirement by Verizon. Example: Total Wireless is an MVNO (airtime reseller), part of the Tracfone family, sells service on the Verizon network with no requirements other than to buy a SIM for around ten bucks, and then pay for the service monthly, starting at thirty-five dollars / phone for voice, text, and data. They also have a twenty-five dollar offering for voice and text, data can be purchased separately for ten dollars / gig with no expiration (as long as the user has voice and text service). Spectrum's pricing beats that for almost all users, and Spectrum's customer support is way better than Tracfone's (Total Wireless), offshore call centers.

I am not a Spectrum fan, I do not like the company in general, but they are offering the best deal that I can find for wireless service, so I am a customer, despite my dislike of the company. $28.00 / month for two phone family service is hard to beat.

We left Verizon briefly for Spectrums cell service. The allure of a less expensive bill was more than I could refuse. It was a complete comedy of errors for three weeks getting us set up and transferred. The actual service was fine, but if you need CS...God help you. It was bad. We switched back to Verizon after about 4 months. We do use Spectrum at home for internet.