Opinions on cell phone companies/plans.

[Flugmaschine]

For those of you who do a lot of cross-country work, which company seems to offer the best rates, cheapest roaming, and fewest black holes? Any one I should avoid like the plague? I'm trying to narrow the field down a little. Feel free to PM me if you feel like you'd be giving free advertising away by posting in the open. I appreciate any inputs. Thanks.

-John W.

 

[EatSleepFly]

I use the Verizon America's Choice plan. Works almost every place I've been, except for a few that are really out in the middle of nowhere. Price is usually what it should be, customer service is usually helpful, and I usually have no problems overall. Of course, there are exceptions.

 

[RiddlePilot]

I'll tell you who NOT to get. AT&T Wireless. Even if the phone says that it's not roaming, I've often been charged with huge charges because of AT&T's terrible system coverage. Plus, they told me that my phone would get reception in Prescott, but that's just bull.

 

[Eagle]

Verizon.

their customer service BLOWS but I have never had a problem.

 

[Cosmo1999]

I second the post on AT&. Horrible service in my experience. I always seem to have trouble with them but verizon works much better

 

[CAFFEINE]

I have had both ATT and Verizon and I have been a lot happier with the call quality of Verizon. Their customer service has also been a lot better than ATT's, in my experience. Just my $.02...

 

[N519AT]

My sister has a Virgin Mobile Phone. There are a lot of advantages about this.
•Named after a airline

•No plan to sign up for
•YOu can pick a phone up at Best Buy, without having to go to a dealer
•You pre pay for your minutes and when you run out you simply just head over to the Virgin Mobile Website and get more.
•There are many more advantages just check them out at http://www.virgin.com/gateways/mobile/
Of course I cant give you a full list of details because my sister RARELY ever lets me touch her phone....Any of her stuff for that matter

 

[Mongoose]

I've been a Verizon (on the America's choice network) customer for about 4 years now, and despite the odd customer service issue, it's going to stay that way. By far the best coverage, and call quality. Customer service is the usual game of roulette, but it can be lived with. I travel ALL over, and there are obviously the odd spot where coverage is less than perfect, but there don't seem to be many huge gaps.

My only gripe is that the are obsessed with having me under contract (currently I'm not), but they'll do anything to entice me onto another two year agreement. Even though I'm not going to buy a new handset (don't need one), and so they haven't got any upfront costs to recoup (the usual excuse for the contract).

So as long as you're prepared to commit to the first year, and then put up with people telling you that they can "save you money, if you'll just sign this shiny new two year agreement" after that. I'd say go for Verizon.

Recently looked at the Virgin service, which I really like (it's certainly the best no-contract service in the UK). Unfortunately they use the Sprint PCS network for coverage here, which is less than perfect.

Hopefully one day we'll all be able to focus on something more meaningful than coverage to select our networks of choice!

 

[jtrain609]

Heya,


I use Sprint, and my service has not been amazing. I get dropped calls, though not as frequently as I used to. The real problem I think is my phone, which is about the cheapest phone you can get. Whatever you do when you get a wireless plan, get a decent phone. It might cost you a little more up front, but you'll be really angry when your phone never works correctly and drops calls all the time.

Skibum just dropped AT&T like a bad habit. Their customer service was horrible, her reception was HORRIBLE, and they had that crazy roaming but not roaming but roaming dealie, and she got charged way more than she should have because they could not be clear with where their areas of coverage were. I'd stay away from AT&T if at all possible.

Cheers


John Herreshoff

 

[JDMcFly]

We have two virgin mobile phones, just because they are easy- but they can get expensive at .25 cent a minute for the first 10 minutes of any particular day you use it.

The good thing is that you just purchase cards and/or time online and there is nothing keeping you from just not using the phone and then reactivating a few months later.

 

[Flugmaschine]

Yeah, we had some family trying to sell us on the TracFone idea, which is the same concept as Virgin. I've never had a cell phone in my life (yes there are still some of us left...like the African missionaries who never bought The Joshua Tree record!), so I'm rather new to the whole thing. Thanks for the information, everyone. I ever mention how much I love this site?

 

[JDMcFly]

My mother used to have a tracfone as well, but several years ago...

 

[Sprint100]

I use Sprint and the service/customer service has been great. Like mentioned before it does depend on the phone, the smaller phones on the sprint network seem to have more problems.

 

[mtsu_av8er]

I've had a Sprint phone for years, and it it works great!! Lot's of minutes, and great service. Sprint2XC is right, though...get the tiny, "cute" phones, and you're in trouble....

 

[tonyw]

I've had Sprint forever and see no reason to switch. One of the things is that I've got a PDA/phone combo so that means that I'd have to get a new phone if I switched from Sprint. Forget it!

Besides that, Sprint has done just fine for me since I've had it so I have no desire to switch.

 

[CaptainMatt]

I have AT&T and its horrible. The service in SoCal is awful. I do have a really nice phone...but Im sick of it...I can barely use it with all the crappy reception...I'm seriously considering Verizon. They have some cool phones and everybody I have talked to says the service in SoCal alone is worth it...

 

[John_Jones]

I used Sprint for about a year and I didnt like it. Service was no good, embarising because calls would be dropped (especially on long distance) and I never really used Customer Service other than ordering and activating the phone, so nothing to comment on that. I since have switched to Cingular Wireless and its so-so. I havent had much service difficulty and dont get to many dropped calls.

 

[davetheflyer]

I use Cingular. I get good, no roaming coverage and dropped calls havn't been a problem. With new plans, you call also use your night/weekend minutes starting at 7pm.

 

[Sprint100]

Yeah sprint sucked at first since they had almost no cell sites. I had them at first then dropped them, then decided to give them another chance last year. Now, I get calls everywhere and some places most people can't even get a signal.

 

[sigmanu499]

The only thing good about ATT and it might be the other conpaies too, is that if you have the right phone you can use it in other countries(expensive) but good for emergenies. I cant wait until my ATT contract is up. Oh, ya they tried to screw me when my phone broke and I got a new phone. Not to get into details but after they gave me the runaround on the phone. I wrote a letter and then they quickly reversed the charges. I guess they figured I was one of the people who would cause problems if they didnt fix the problem.