Warning to US Cell users who plan on getting a new phone

My wife and I have been with US Cell for 12 years...about a year and a half ago we each got the HTC Merge and loved it.... especially (since I travel so much) the ability to use the "HOT SPOT" option and use the phone as a WiFi source for our laptops.

Two months ago we took advantage of their 15 months to upgrade option to each get the new Samsung Galaxy S 3.

We asked them before we signed repeatedly if our rates would go up, they said no...we asked repeatedly if we could still get the HOT SPOT service, they said yes.

Once we signed and played with our phones (incidentally Samsung has the worst owners manual on the planet) we could not get the HOT SPOT to work....

I went to US Cell and they said to get the HOT SPOT we now have to pay $25 a month, PER PHONE!

Apparently, the reason US Cellular has been promoting that you can upgrade with them sooner than other cell phone companies is so they can change (and increase) your bill payments faster.

We checked with Verizon and they will offer us the same service with UNLIMITED HOT SPOT service for $80 a month less than what US Cell is now wanting to bill us.

My advice for those on US Cell who are contemplating a phone upgrade...Don't do it!

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That sucks, but Verizon doesn't have unlimited data anymore. The pricing depends on how much data you'd use a month, which can be shared between phones. Verizon was charging extra for mobile hot spot service until the fcc said they couldn't do it anymore.