This is the big reason why I switched to T-Mobile. Yes, the coverage is limited outside of urban and suburban areas. I live in a major city so it works for me. My AT&T Wireless bill had crept up to about $280 and that's with one line "grandfathered" onto their smartphone data block. (AT&T started requiring that smartphones have a data package or be blocked entirely from data if the smartphone was already on the account. This one already was so the block was put in place. Six months later, AT&T declined to exempt MMS "data" from the data block, so the user's picture and group messages died. Tech support said I could put a $30 data feature on there to restore MMS.)
Now, for ~90% of the coverage I had with AT&T, I pay $179 and that's with interest-free financing of my wife's new mobile phone. Once that is paid off in a year, the bill drops to $160. That's seven SIMs, or five mobile phones and two data-capable tablets, and now the smartphone user who couldn't have MMS on AT&T has it, just like all five lines have 1GB of high speed data (going over is free, but rate-limited).
If I wanted to go cheaper, there's Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, Red Pocket Mobile, Harbor Mobile, Page Plus, or any number of MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) and resellers that have popped up in the past year or so. Heck, Cricket could drop my bill to $100, though I'd lose the tablet data. Family plans have never felt so inexpensive.
I'm in a very similar situation that you were in: I'm on Verizon with 3 lines, 1 of them grandfathered into unlimited data. Over several years the monthly bill has crept up to $230-$250.
Since it went up slowly I never thought much about it, until I reviewed last year's finances and realized what had happened.
Do it. T-Mobile is great. And they will pay your ETFs.
Customer service is great. I recently had a billing mishap (their end, ended up $30 over) and to make it up to me, they discounted my account by $30/month for a yr. This is magical compared to the shitty customer service with Sprint and Version.
Now, for ~90% of the coverage I had with AT&T, I pay $179 and that's with interest-free financing of my wife's new mobile phone. Once that is paid off in a year, the bill drops to $160. That's seven SIMs, or five mobile phones and two data-capable tablets, and now the smartphone user who couldn't have MMS on AT&T has it, just like all five lines have 1GB of high speed data (going over is free, but rate-limited).
If I wanted to go cheaper, there's Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, Red Pocket Mobile, Harbor Mobile, Page Plus, or any number of MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) and resellers that have popped up in the past year or so. Heck, Cricket could drop my bill to $100, though I'd lose the tablet data. Family plans have never felt so inexpensive.