What cell phone has been a good provider for you?

[plugnickel]

Please let me know what has been a good cell phone provider for you. I would rate a good one as one that had few dropped calls, access without roaming on trips, good reception, good rates, good phones, etc.

[BigGreenUGA]

At&t/Cingular works well for me, works pretty much everywhere I've been in Georgia except a small part of town in Milledgeville. Verizon tried to screw us over when we had it - someone stole our # and made a lot of calls in New York and other countries (we've never been to New York and we don't really know anyone there) and it took forever for them to cover the costs.

But for phones, don't get the Razr or Slvr - they both crapped out on me. But the iTunes on the Slvr was cool

[rambrush]

Well
I have Nextel/Sprint it has worked great here, just back from a 2700 mile road trip to Montana. Had coverage from Az to the Idaho border then nothing. Zippo coverage in Montana
So I am considering sprint or there hybrid next just need to go look at coverage maps again.

[DanMittaul]

at&t cingular here. No long distance charges and all kinds of roll over min w/current plan. No signal issues from Oklahoma to Orlando, Fl. No hidden "gotcha" charges... to date.

Dan

[ma717mgte]

i work for sprint/nextel and there are employee specials (SERO)

honestly still wish i had Alltel

[mungo]

Good post.

I'm switching to Verizon in October. I'm glad to see the votes for Verizon. I have Nextel currently, and hardly ever have a signal when I'm out riding on my Harleys. Everyone I speak to about Verizon hasn't regretted it.

[ThirdHorseman]

I've had almost all of them except for AT&T. Did Sprint, Nextel, U.S. Cellular, T-Mobile, Cellular One...the only one that worked well for me in the New Jersey area is Verizon.

I paid three termination fees just to get away from Nextel...worst company ever, IMO.

[dibble9012]

I have an iPhone with ATT, excellent phone! Also excellent service, I get 4 bars where Verizon's coverage was horrible.

[OntheRox]

I had ATT for years and then switched to Verizon because a friend was the manager. IMO ATT has the absolute best coverage...crappy customer service. Verizon has no so good coverage but awsome customer service

[Simias]

i've been with a few carriers over the years (like 14+) and i must say Verizon has had the best coverage, customer service and plans (i have 5 phones on my plan). i almost went back to AT&T because of the iPhone, but Verizon's service and plans were better. the only thing that sucks about Verizon is they don't have the best phones. i have a motorola Q now (SUCKS!), but will be getting my blackberry curve next week.

also, i've never had a dropped call and i used to travel a lot.

[OntheRox]

Originally Posted by Simias

i've been with a few carriers over the years (like 14+) and i must say Verizon has had the best coverage, customer service and plans (i have 5 phones on my plan). i almost went back to AT&T because of the iPhone, but Verizon's service and plans were better. the only thing that sucks about Verizon is they don't have the best phones. i have a motorola Q now (SUCKS!), but will be getting my blackberry curve next week.

also, i've never had a dropped call and i used to travel a lot.

The phone thing is a problem for sure...I had the Q..went thru 3 in a year (went internally bad) rotten little monster of a "phone". Next had the Palm treo (palm base) because the Q turned me off of the windows based "phones". Had 3 Treo in 6 months---liked the phone options but it never ever worked, shut down like a computer every ten minutes. Got my Curve about 5 weeks ago (when it first hit the shelves) and I love it!

[akauth]

Coverage is highly localized in nature. I deal with that for a living (mobile smartphones) and you really need to talk to people that are local to the areas that you will be in.

Verizon/Sprint have the best call quality but ATT is catching up with their UMTS/HSDPA service. The problem with UMTS/HSDPA devices is battery life. But the call quality is 95% of Verizon or Sprint.

If you in were in New York, for example, ATT is just plain awful or non-existent. Verizon works well in tunnels and deeper in building due to the frequency they operate at. Sprint will have slightly better phone quality but not penetrate so well into the tunnels, subways, etc due to the higher frequencey. Sort of like comparing AM to FM. FM sounds better but doesn't travel as far or as deep.

Verizon has more POPs in the ground than anyone so you're on their network most of the time vs roaming on a partner network.

In the long run Verizon is moving to LTE so they will be more compible worldwide - especially with Vodaphone, one of their investor partners. Vodaphone is the largest carrier in the world but I'm sure that will surpassed by some carrier in China or India before too long since those two countries have such enormous populations.

But in the end, you need to look to your local experience. Someone in another state my or my not have the same experience with coverage or usage. Bad customer service transends boundaries though!!!!


Alan

[JohnLee1988]

Wierd I tried At&t, t-mobile, and Verizon and none of them work well at my house but if I walk down the street it works perfectly. I guess it depends on your area. But I like Verzon overall, pretty pricey though.

[akauth]

That illustrates my point. It's highly localized and "good" depends on where you're are and travel. Customers service is the same anywhere.

I'm in the same situation. I work with a lot of phone/PDAs with work and i'm in doughnut shaped dead zone (with me in the middle!) Neither Verizon, ATT, or Sprint work well at my house. The voice works, but I need high speed data for what I do.

Overall Sprint has the best voice quality provided you have coverage (that's their weakness), Verizon has 98% the same with much better coverage. ATT's voice is 93% as good, sometimes less but they are getting much better with UMTS/HSDPA at the cost of battery life.

But if you don't have coverage where you are, the point is moot as to what service you use.

It helps to open cases and complain though. Then they'll know they need to tweak the towers (if they can) and the will do that if enough people complain.

Sprint is coming with a service where you can put up a local radio in your house connected over you r internet and for $15 a month you'll be able to have great coverage at home even if there is NO SERVICE otherwise. *If* you can get an internet connection to the house. So you could put it in a cabin in the middle of nowhere if you can get an internet line to the building.

It also give you the advantage of unlimited calls at the house for your Sprint cell phones. I think you can register up to 4 devices. It's cheaper than a dedicated hard line. The downside is that you can't put in multiple phones all over the house like a land line. Though there is a way around that too with technology.

I'm going to light up on that in about a month. It's only voice though, no data over the local cell. I take that back. 1xrtt will work over that service but not EVDO, not yet. But I get it through work and I'll still have my VOIP phone line over my cable provider (so I can keep multiple phones around the house).


Alan

Originally Posted by JohnLee1988

Wierd I tried At&t, t-mobile, and Verizon and none of them work well at my house but if I walk down the street it works perfectly. I guess it depends on your area. But I like Verzon overall, pretty pricey though.

[kaleo]

I had t-mobile first then got switched over to verizon. So far verizon has been suitable for my needs, though as someone has already mentioned their plans are pretty pricey. As far as phones go, i'm not into that iphone hype as I don't need that much extra foofoo stuff on there. Though I did upgrade from the LG V to the Voyager which I am extremely happy with

Coverage here in Hawai'i is good. I don't get to travel outside of the state so I can't say how it works outside from here.