Can I Take AT&T Phones to Xfinity Mobile?

[Boris]

Hi,

My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice. They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.

They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.

Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60. They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.

(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269. Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)

Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers. I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.

Their AT&T phones are:
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A

Anyone know? It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.

TIA

[Big Al]

Post by Boris
Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice. They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60. They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269. Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers. I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know? It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/byod/compatibility/device

[Boris]

Post by Big Al
https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/byod/compatibility/device

Many thanks. I forwarded the link on to my cousins.

Just for fun, I entered my phone's IMEI, and my phone is not compatible.

[Boris]

Post by Boris

Post by Big Al
https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/byod/compatibility/device

Many thanks. I forwarded the link on to my cousins.
Just for fun, I entered my phone's IMEI, and my phone is not compatible.

My wife just bought a new Galaxy A25 5G, unlocked, to replace her old AT&T
Gaaxy J7 (2017). She simply moved her old SIM to the new phone, and
transferred all data and configurations using SmartSwitch. All went fine.

I entered her new A25 5G's IMEI number into the field, and it came back not
compatible.

If the link returns not compatible, it provides another link where one can
choose a phone that's compatible with Xfinity Mobile. What's interesting is
that one of the compatible phones that Xfinity offers is the Galaxy A25 5G.

Go figure.

[Frank]

Post by Boris
Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice. They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60. They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269. Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers. I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know? It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year. Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like I
do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over. To be same I do not do online banking and
the like on the phone.

[Big Al]

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar more, I use my Tracfone for a
year.  Of course you need to buy a phone and get limited voice, text and data but with only
occasional use like I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi which is
available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month. Granted I think the data might throttle
after a gig or so, but I use it for text and talk and limited data. I use my laptop for the
massive data searches and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but then I'm retired and not
quite as active as the younger crowd.

[Frank]

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

[Big Al]

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar more, I use my Tracfone for
a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone and get limited voice, text and data but with only
occasional use like I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi which
is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think the data might throttle
after a gig or so, but I use it for text and talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the
massive data searches and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but then I'm retired and not
quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop.  I know there are folks using their
phone for everything. I only use mine when out of the house.

There's a plan for almost any need and any person.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

[Frank]

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.

A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.
A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

Back in the 3G days, I used a "candy bar" type dumb cell phone with a pay
as you go plan. That was before the era of 2 factor authentication. I
had the carrier turn off receipt of text messages because each one cost
me a dime and 100% of them were spam. I don't think I could manage
today without the ability to receive text messages. When 3G was
discontinued a few years ago, that phone became a paperweight. Of
course, instead of paying $10/year to keep my account open (not a typo),
I now pay much more than that each month for unlimited talk, text, and
data. And this is progress I "need"??

[Frank]

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.
A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

Back in the 3G days, I used a "candy bar" type dumb cell phone with a pay
as you go plan. That was before the era of 2 factor authentication. I
had the carrier turn off receipt of text messages because each one cost
me a dime and 100% of them were spam. I don't think I could manage
today without the ability to receive text messages. When 3G was
discontinued a few years ago, that phone became a paperweight. Of
course, instead of paying $10/year to keep my account open (not a typo),
I now pay much more than that each month for unlimited talk, text, and
data. And this is progress I "need"??

Same here. My wife got the Tracfone years ago and after a couple of
years gave it to me as a son put her on his plan. I have only had the
smart phone a couple of year when flip phone would not handle 4G. With
all the roll over, I have over 10,000 minutes talk, 12,000 text and 8
gigs data with 313 days.

So I had to get pushed into it and my wife now has Tracfone as her phone
with son became antiquated and he would had to pick up the cost.

I guess if you live on your phone like many young people do, you have to
spend the big bucks. Comcast triple play with bell and whistles is our
big expense.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels, reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity, would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.
A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

Back in the 3G days, I used a "candy bar" type dumb cell phone with a pay
as you go plan. That was before the era of 2 factor authentication. I
had the carrier turn off receipt of text messages because each one cost
me a dime and 100% of them were spam. I don't think I could manage
today without the ability to receive text messages. When 3G was
discontinued a few years ago, that phone became a paperweight. Of
course, instead of paying $10/year to keep my account open (not a typo),
I now pay much more than that each month for unlimited talk, text, and
data. And this is progress I "need"??

Same here. My wife got the Tracfone years ago and after a couple of
years gave it to me as a son put her on his plan. I have only had the
smart phone a couple of year when flip phone would not handle 4G. With
all the roll over, I have over 10,000 minutes talk, 12,000 text and 8
gigs data with 313 days.
So I had to get pushed into it and my wife now has Tracfone as her phone
with son became antiquated and he would had to pick up the cost.
I guess if you live on your phone like many young people do, you have to
spend the big bucks. Comcast triple play with bell and whistles is our
big expense.

Fortunately for us, we live in a high rise condo and the building has a
"bulk" contract with Comcast for a triple play. Our cost per
residential unit is less than half of what nearby people living in
single family homes pay for the same package with Comcast. As reliable
as Verizon's fios service? No; we had that before we moved here. It
was better, but much more expensive. And, since we don't have either a
business or students living in our unit, the occasional, but relatively
rare short outages are frustrating but not devastating. Never had a
single outage with Verizon in more than 4 years of service experience.

[Big Al]

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels,
reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity,
would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones
as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.
A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

Back in the 3G days, I used a "candy bar" type dumb cell phone with a pay
as you go plan. That was before the era of 2 factor authentication. I
had the carrier turn off receipt of text messages because each one cost
me a dime and 100% of them were spam. I don't think I could manage
today without the ability to receive text messages. When 3G was
discontinued a few years ago, that phone became a paperweight. Of
course, instead of paying $10/year to keep my account open (not a typo),
I now pay much more than that each month for unlimited talk, text, and
data. And this is progress I "need"??

Same here. My wife got the Tracfone years ago and after a couple of
years gave it to me as a son put her on his plan. I have only had the
smart phone a couple of year when flip phone would not handle 4G. With
all the roll over, I have over 10,000 minutes talk, 12,000 text and 8
gigs data with 313 days.
So I had to get pushed into it and my wife now has Tracfone as her phone
with son became antiquated and he would had to pick up the cost.
I guess if you live on your phone like many young people do, you have to
spend the big bucks. Comcast triple play with bell and whistles is our
big expense.

Fortunately for us, we live in a high rise condo and the building has a
"bulk" contract with Comcast for a triple play. Our cost per
residential unit is less than half of what nearby people living in
single family homes pay for the same package with Comcast. As reliable
as Verizon's fios service? No; we had that before we moved here. It
was better, but much more expensive. And, since we don't have either a
business or students living in our unit, the occasional, but relatively
rare short outages are frustrating but not devastating. Never had a
single outage with Verizon in more than 4 years of service experience.

We were with Verizon Fiber when at our single family home, so when we moved to our new Condo we
naturally got Verizon. However the signal came in on bare copper wires. It needed a splitter to
separate the phone from the other 2 signals (internet & TV). Piss poor service.

6 years later and everyone dropping Verizon lately, Verizon is now putting in fiber into each unit.
Just had ours installed today. Now the question is, if I want to change. I have Comcast 1G service
now, and it's way too much since I'm wifi not Ethernet inside. Best I get is 320Mb down and 120 up.
But that's way more than 2 old retired folks need. I do like the DVR and the fact the we can record
something like 5 shows all at once. Verizon back 7 years ago at the house was only 2 shows at a
time. Very limiting.

Of course who knows what is being sold now. Oh, and Comcast doesn't use a DVR hard drive as
Verizon did, they store it on the cloud, so if the set top box goes, I lose nothing.

But we use Roku so much, it's internet that useful.

[Retirednoguilt]

Post by Big Al

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Retirednoguilt

Post by Frank

Post by Frank

Hi,
My cousins in Illinois have Xfinity internet, TV, and Voice.  They
want to
lower their current monthly bill of $293.
They have AT&T for cellular, costing $124 per month.
Xfinity's solution is to reduce their TV lineup to 120 channels,
reducing the
bill to $250, eliminating Voice, further dropping the bill to $209, and
having them sign up for 24 months for Xfinity Mobile for $60.  They
would
then, of course, drop the $124 AT&T cellular bill.
(Their total cost for internet, TV, and cellular, all with Xfinity,
would be
$209 + $60 = $269.  Current cost for all three is $293 + $124 = $417.)
Xfinity said they could bring their phones with them and keep their phone
numbers.  I questioned if Xfinity meant that my cousins could bring
their
current AT&T phones, or simply that they could bring their own phones
as long
as they were compatible with Xfinity mobile, which uses Verison towers.
Samsung S21FE
Samsung SMJ727A
Anyone know?  It's easier asking here than calling back to Xfinity.
TIA

What they are paying for cell phone service for a month, for a dollar
more, I use my Tracfone for a year.  Of course you need to buy a phone
and get limited voice, text and data but with only occasional use like
I do it all rolls over and most of the time when I use data I use wifi
which is available all over.  To be same I do not do online banking
and the like on the phone.

I have unlimited (all 3) from T-Mobile for 25$ a month.  Granted I think
the data might throttle after a gig or so, but I use it for text and
talk and limited data.   I use my laptop for the massive data searches
and newspaper reading etc.
Unlike some people that live on their phones, I live on my laptop, but
then I'm retired and not quite as active as the younger crowd.

That is essentially my situation too and I mostly use desktop. I know
there are folks using their phone for everything. I only use mine when
out of the house.

The primary use of my cell phone when I'm home is to receive two factor
authentication codes by text. I find many of the sites that offer a
voice call to provide the code use a computer voice that is muffled or
speaks the numbers too fast to give me confidence that I've heard them
correctly. Then, when I'm into the site, I delete the text msg and
clear the "trash".

I have had to put up with that annoyance too. Just got it straightened
out with one site that was trying to text message my home phone. Took
over a month to change to cell.
A fellow Tracfone user had to buy extra text minutes with all the crap
texts he gets like every time he uses his credit card.

Back in the 3G days, I used a "candy bar" type dumb cell phone with a pay
as you go plan. That was before the era of 2 factor authentication. I
had the carrier turn off receipt of text messages because each one cost
me a dime and 100% of them were spam. I don't think I could manage
today without the ability to receive text messages. When 3G was
discontinued a few years ago, that phone became a paperweight. Of
course, instead of paying $10/year to keep my account open (not a typo),
I now pay much more than that each month for unlimited talk, text, and
data. And this is progress I "need"??

Same here. My wife got the Tracfone years ago and after a couple of
years gave it to me as a son put her on his plan. I have only had the
smart phone a couple of year when flip phone would not handle 4G. With
all the roll over, I have over 10,000 minutes talk, 12,000 text and 8
gigs data with 313 days.
So I had to get pushed into it and my wife now has Tracfone as her phone
with son became antiquated and he would had to pick up the cost.
I guess if you live on your phone like many young people do, you have to
spend the big bucks. Comcast triple play with bell and whistles is our
big expense.

Fortunately for us, we live in a high rise condo and the building has a
"bulk" contract with Comcast for a triple play. Our cost per
residential unit is less than half of what nearby people living in
single family homes pay for the same package with Comcast. As reliable
as Verizon's fios service? No; we had that before we moved here. It
was better, but much more expensive. And, since we don't have either a
business or students living in our unit, the occasional, but relatively
rare short outages are frustrating but not devastating. Never had a
single outage with Verizon in more than 4 years of service experience.

We were with Verizon Fiber when at our single family home, so when we moved to our new Condo we
naturally got Verizon. However the signal came in on bare copper wires. It needed a splitter to
separate the phone from the other 2 signals (internet & TV). Piss poor service.
6 years later and everyone dropping Verizon lately, Verizon is now putting in fiber into each unit.
Just had ours installed today. Now the question is, if I want to change. I have Comcast 1G service
now, and it's way too much since I'm wifi not Ethernet inside. Best I get is 320Mb down and 120 up.
But that's way more than 2 old retired folks need. I do like the DVR and the fact the we can record
something like 5 shows all at once. Verizon back 7 years ago at the house was only 2 shows at a
time. Very limiting.
Of course who knows what is being sold now. Oh, and Comcast doesn't use a DVR hard drive as
Verizon did, they store it on the cloud, so if the set top box goes, I lose nothing.
But we use Roku so much, it's internet that useful.

We make good use of all three services in the triple play. As far as
our internet service, we get 200 Mb/s down but only 10 Mb/s up
apparently due to something about the limitations of the coax wiring in
the condo's walls. We use hard-wired ethernet, ethernet via power
adapters, and wifi connections supplemented with a wifi extender,
depending upon which device in which room requires an internet
connection. We also use Roku a lot in addition to what the xfinity 4K
DVR cable box provides. No problem with buffering or watching 4K
quality signals with either the roku or the cable box.

[Char Jackson]

On Wed, 6 Mar 2024 11:05:15 -0500, Retirednoguilt

Post by Retirednoguilt
We make good use of all three services in the triple play. As far as
our internet service, we get 200 Mb/s down but only 10 Mb/s up
apparently due to something about the limitations of the coax wiring in
the condo's walls.

Two main factors in play, AFAIK.
First, coax has only so much total bandwidth available, roughly limited by the
number of 'channels' the ISP is willing to carve out. Video (TV) delivery has
historically taken precedence. Since the typical residential Internet usage
pattern results in much more downstream traffic than upstream traffic, it makes
sense to divide the total available bandwidth like they do.
Second, the cable plant, as it's called, was originally designed and built to
deliver TV signals, which means that almost all of the signal is moving in the
'down' direction. Cable ISPs have struggled to move away from that paradigm,
claiming that it would be too expensive to replace equipment in their network.
It looks like we're finally seeing some movement in the right direction.

Many years ago, on the DOCSIS website where cable standards are hashed out and
eventually formalized, there was a proposal to reduce the downstream video
channels to less than about 10, IIRC, (the idea being to provide just one
channel per TV) and shifting the entire video delivery scheme to SDV, Switched
Digital Video. With SDV, the 'cable box' becomes just a streaming adapter, with
no internal hard drive, and regardless of which channel you want to watch, you
only need the bandwidth of a single channel. The actual tuner and DVR are on
their premises, not yours. That would leave a ton of bandwidth available for
Internet traffic.

My AT&T service currently works like that, giving me unlimited simultaneous
recordings and unlimited storage space, at least in theory. The reality is that
recordings expire and auto-delete in 9 months. That hasn't been a problem.

Post by Retirednoguilt
We use hard-wired ethernet, ethernet via power
adapters, and wifi connections supplemented with a wifi extender,
depending upon which device in which room requires an internet
connection. We also use Roku a lot in addition to what the xfinity 4K
DVR cable box provides. No problem with buffering or watching 4K
quality signals with either the roku or the cable box.

If you ever do start having problems, take a look at the current product
offerings for MoCA adapters. Simi liar to your powerline adapters, they use the
TV coax to make Ethernet available throughout the living space. Unlike powerline
adapters, though, MoCA adapters can get you some seriously high speeds.
Powerline tends to get you about 10-40 Mbps while MoCA can get you 600-850 Mbps.