<p>My D will be off to Reed College in a few weeks, & needs to update her phone plan. She currently uses a pre-paid Verizon. We’re not sure if we should upgrade that to the $39.99/mo plan (450 min, no roaming/ld) or if we should stay with a pre-paid. If she does that, it would be either “T*Mobile To Go” or “Net10”. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with these 3 plans in the Portland area? She won’t be driving this year, but eventually will be going up I-5 from N CA to Portland, so that’s a consideration also. </p>
<p>Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>We also use Verizon–we live in the Portland area, and it seems to work well. We have the family plan and have found it quite handy to have at times.</p>
<p>We have also travelled I-5 to California several times, and Verizon works along most of the drive. We had some problems in southern Oregon last trip–roaming area–but were able to call from Ashland and other areas.</p>
<p>Agree with Susantm - Verizon works just fine on almost all of the I-5 corridor. No cell coverage for any company in the Siskiyous approaching/leaving the stateline, around Mt. Shasta, and around Shasta Lake. But everywhere else is covered great.</p>
<p>I share Verizon family plan with D who attends college in MN. We’ve never come close to the limit of 500 shared peak minutes.</p>
<p>D has Cellular One at Reed. Works fine all up at down the west coast. </p>
<p>But the Reed dorms have not-so-good cellular receptions, because they’re big old buildings with lots of rock. D has had to go out on the lawn to call us back most times.</p>
<p>my daughter has Verizon in POrtland too- its one of the better ones for the northwest I-5 corridor. I even had (spotty) reception out at Illwaco last month( mouth of the Columbia)-
Several of her friends also have Verizon- so she can call them anytime and it doesn’t count against minutes- her roommate has something different so that he can call his brother in Ohio.
But we don’t come close to shared minutes, I have to encourage everyone to use their phone!</p>
<p>Another happy Verizon NW customer here! We share 500 minutes among 3 of us and will see how that goes once S gets to college. We checked into reception and coverage (ie., wanted no roaming) in both where we live and where S will go to school and Verizon won.</p>
<p>I think that upgrading to a plan would probably be more cost effective. Before heading off to college, I did not use my cell phone nearly as often as I do now, but walk on to any college campus and you’ll see every other student with a phone in their hand. </p>
<p>As far as service, I use T-mobile, and it’s always worked well for me in the Portland area.</p>
<p>As much as I hate Verizon, they would prob. be better than Cingular at Reed. When I was in Oregon using Cingular, my phone conversations would always die.</p>