Carolina West Wireless

I looked for reviews on Carolina West and couldn’t find any, so I thought I would post this to help other consumers. I left Verizon and signed up for CW because they offered a $ 50/​mo unlimited voice, text and data plan. That’s a great price, but I ended up canceling because of some short comings.
Pros:
–great price for an unlimited plan
–great coverage in the high country of NC
–good local, english speaking customer service
–some new decent smart phones
Cons:
–they roam primarily on Sprint first and if it’s not available, then on Verizon. I had trouble with dropped calls and bad coverage when traveling. The phone would hold onto a weak Sprint signal and wouldn’t switch to a strong closer Verizon signal. My other Verizon phone I carry ALWAYS had better coverage.
–the phones are all 1 to 2 generations old, even the newest smart phones they offer. Their newest phone, the Razr Maxx, has been out on verizon for over a year.
–They do not offer 4G, which is 10 to 20 times faster than 3G.
–They advertise 4−600kbps upload and 6−1200kbps download speeds, but in 50 speed tests I conducted, not one even reached the minimum and most were in the 200kbps download range. The internet was slow and youtube took FOREVER to load.
–They are a small company, so they don’t do much with timely android updates and the technical support is minimal.
–You can’t tether or use your smart phone as a hot spot outside of the 5 county CW tower area. If you travel and want to tether your laptop to your cell you can’t do it, as you can on other carriers.
–The unlimited plan throttles your data speeds even lower after 3 GB of data usage.
–And finally, your used smart phone has very little residual value on ebay or craigslist, unlike Verizon or ATT phones, because there is a very limited market for a used CW smart phone.
All in all, Carolina West is a decent company with decent plans and prices. But if you are techy or want the better smart phone features, you will be disappointed.
Hope this helps somebody. It took me a while to figure all this out. I’ve decided to go with a pay as you go service provider on the Verizon network. Cheers.

They are HORRIBLE!!! Customer service does not exist with the main office. The sales folks were really nice. The service was spotty and the bill continued to go up even though I had unlimited minutes and unlimited free roaming. Hum?
The company shut my phone off-​saying I had not paid my bill. In fact, I had paid 2 months in advance. The main office turned my phone on, but still tried to keep my money. I closed my account and switched to Sprint that same day. After porting my number to Sprint, Carolina West still continues to bill me and send me customer service surveys. Harassment in the 3^rd degree.
DO NOT use this provider. They are useless!