Best Cell Phone Service

[drnkbudweiser]

What do you think is the best cell phone provider. I am going to have to go with Nextel cause I know so many people with the Direct Connect it saves me money being able to use the two-way more than the actual cell.

[cjules13]

The walkie-talkie feature is awesome... I use that more than the cell phone part of it! And now you can walkie-talkie someone nationwide...

[drnkbudweiser]

yeah dude but i think it costs like ten bucks a month for that option. Which phone do you like the best?

[ASUmusicMAN]

isn't the largest cell phone provider Verizon...and its not even up there????? I love my verizon phone...unlimited freakin' everything on nights and weekends and so many daytime minutes its pretty much unlimited. and its nationwide...i called my friends when i was in hawaii and just counted in my reg. minutes...I love Verizon.

[MusikBeatz23]

Cingular
Sprint PCS
Verizon
Nextel
T-Mobile

They are pretty good, I'm currently with cingular since my parents have the family plan I only pay $10 a month plus my text message package of $3 so I only pay $13 a month...

[Potato]

I wanted to try cingular until I found out they don't provide in this area.

So t-mobile it is. $39.99/mo unlimited nights and weekends, 1000 anytime.

[Jorge]

Verizon is the best service.

[ROMANTICGUY50]

When I look at the list it is missing other services. You forget Verizon Wireless. They are a major wireless service. I am sure there are others not mentioned. I live in the Pittsburg area. I had T-Mobile. Their service leaves alot to be desired. I had it for a year for personal resons. Even in different area's I would lose signal. Plus when I went to canced my service after My first year. I did renew my serivce in August. When I wife passed on I no longer needed their serice They were not very polite about it. I told them I could not their service in my apt.
So I vote NO for them. I NOW HAVE VERIZON WIRELESS

[Mr. Mainstream]

VODAFONE Or Telecom. Vodafone rules

[ROMANTICGUY50]

VODAFONE Or Telecom. Vodafone rules

The problem with those two is they are not national. Most of the one's mentioned are. Verizon on is the largest wireless service and has the largest coverage area.

[origin]

well because I live in the sf/bay area I say metroPCS ownz because it is unlimited text and calls ANYTIME of the day for about 43 bucks a month. It pleases me because when I had at&t I was getting killed because I used to use too many minutes and the bills would come 100+ dollars a month. So now I am cured ;)

metroPCS (http://www.metropcs.com) the service is only available in northern california, some of FL and atl, GA.

l8

[isus]

most of my friends use verizon, and they have those flip phones. god i am getting sick of looking at them. i would go with nextel (i use cellularone, they have good service plans and good phones and good coverage).

sprint is pretty good too, they have all that pcs stuff like internet, pictures, etc which is nice.

[drnkbudweiser]

yeah dudes I realize that after I posted it I did leave out a couple of the major ones, like verizon and AT&T.

[j4403]

What do you think is the best cell phone provider. I am going to have to go with Nextel cause I know so many people with the Direct Connect it saves me money being able to use the two-way more than the actual cell.


Well, I have had Sprint for 3 years, and they SUCK big time

[ROMANTICGUY50]

Well, I have had Sprint for 3 years, and they SUCK big time

I have tried Sprint, Cricket. T-Moble and AT&T. All of them suck for different reasons. With Sprint it you want unlimited roaming your pay for it Criclet has only a local copverage area. T-Mobile(GSM) I had them too and certain area;s of town, No signal. Rude CA's. Went to verizon and have had no problem's at all. Si I will stick with them.

[ThePillarOfAutumn]

CIngular Bites - Verizon is cool - Nextel rules -

I currently use NExtel and i have never been happier - verizon was good for a year - and cingular sucked so much donkey caca - they are the worst when it comes to cell phones - had cingular as my first cell for 2 years and it sucked chocolate salty balls. seriously - sorry azz phones.

[Black Beard]

Man this post makes me sad. I live in the suckiest country for telecomunications! we don't get free or unlimited squat! 0.20c + tax to send a freakin SMS (thats like 0.30c american). I've heard you guys only pay a couple of cents for em? And walkie talkie phones!! i've never heard of that before but it sounds wicked - do you have to push a button when you want to talk?? (jokes)

anyway..... of all the cr*ppy phone companies we have, i'm gonna have to say vodafone is the least cr*ppiest.

[CompuGeek]

What holds me back from getting a cell phone is the difference between the rate plan you pick and your actual bill.

My brothers cell plan with Verizon is $30/month but his bill is almost $60 after all the taxes and fees are added on.

My damn Verizon landline without any long distance is $8 a month but after all the taxes and fees I actually have to pay $26 a month.

:finger

[ROMANTICGUY50]

What do you think is the best cell phone provider. I am going to have to go with Nextel cause I know so many people with the Direct Connect it saves me money being able to use the two-way more than the actual cell.

One Major Problem With Your Survey. You Do Not Include Verizon Wireless In Your Survey. It Is The Largest Provider In The US..I had T-Mobile and had major porblems with their sevice. I would go out of town and guess what No sevice SO O told them about it and they said sorry u still have to keep their service whether or no I went into an area with local to me without service. SO I SAID SCREW U and cancelled my service. Their reps were rude to me about it. I got hit with the cnacellation fee. Basically they can go to HELL along with their company and their reps. I won't pay it. I know have Verizon Wireless which sound quality wise i much better, reception and coverage is 100% better to. So that's my opinion According to Let's Talk. Com Verizon Rates as the hightest and my daughter and I both like their service the best. We both thied T-Moble and both had trouble with it. Verizon has the largest amount of towers at this tume.


PEACE AND HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY

[tamarisk]

USA mobile telephony is backward compared to Europe and Japan.

Can anybody tell me why?

[cjules13]

USA mobile telephony is backward compared to Europe and Japan.

Can anybody tell me why?

I know Europe is big on GSM, which allows a lot of phone portability between providers. In USA, we have CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN, blah, blah that makes a new phone purchase nearly inevitable when you switch providers.

In Japan they have GSM and CDMA, and have the most advanced techology. Japanese customers are more willing to spend big bucks on new and fancy phones, so in Japan there are much better phones that you can't get in the USA. They've got a fatty 3G system that kick butt over there too, where USA barely has rolled out GPRS (2.5G).

I'm still fanboying Nextel in the USA though - the coast to coast walkie-talkie womps over any video phone service or whatever in terms of usability and efficiency...

But I bet there's a simpler explanation you were looking for...

[tlogank]

I have had AT&T for a year, Cingular for a year, Verizon for a year, and currently have T-Mobile. All in all, the best experience I have had is T-Mobile by far. Reasons are as follows:
1=Customer service is by far the best. AT&T & Verizon customer service sucked. Cingular was okay, but not as good as T-mo. I think AT&T and Verizon are so big that they don't really care if they lost a customer here and there.
2=Phone choices. T-Mobile has had camera phones far longer than most other carriers in the US. Also, go to amazon.com and you can get almost any T-Mobile phone for free (with cameras and all) after rebate. They are fast with their rebates and they also have the best choice. Verizon wants you to sign a 2-year agreement for a descent deal on a phone, while T-Mobile lets you have them for free for a one-year, and on some you can make up to $100 profit after rebate.
3=Return policy. With Verizon, had a phone that screwed up after 3 months, they wouldn't swap it out. With T-mo, I had a $200 Samsung V205 and after 6 months, it had a problem. They sent me a new one within 2 days, and gave me 45 days to send my old one back. Also, Verizon gives you like 11 or 12 days to try out their service, T-Mobile through Amazon gives you 37 days to see if you like it or not.
4=Rate plans. Compare any T-mo plan to any other carrier and you will find they usually beat their rate plans in both cost and minutes given categories.
5=There is no reason if you live in the southeast to have service with Cingular or AT&T. T-mo has free roaming on both services. So if you are ever out of a t-mo coverage area, it automatically picks up the next best available signal from either of the 2 other carriers. I know this agreement is only in the southeast right now, but they are eventually expanding it further north.
6-Technology. Verizon was made big about 5-8 years ago. They were also built on the CDMA technology, which I feel will eventually become outdated, @least a lot sooner before the others. T-mo is on the GSM and works also on GPRS, networks which has a better sound quality as well as compaitibility in Europe and other countries. Don't bet on your Verizon phone picking up in Europe.

Ok, that's my quick reasons on why I think T-mobile is better. And for all you out there wanting the 'walki-talkie' setup with Nextel. Their coverage is bad and the walkie-talkie thing is not that cool. I have it on my work cell phone with Verizon and trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

[tamarisk]

In Europe GPRS is popular. GSM is a bit outdated. All new models now support GPRS.

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabled networks offer 'always-on', higher capacity, Internet-based content and packet-based data services. This enables services such as colour Internet browsing, e-mail on the move, powerful visual communications, multimedia messages and location-based services.

[cjules13]

I have had AT&T for a year, Cingular for a year, Verizon for a year, and currently have T-Mobile. All in all, the best experience I have had is T-Mobile by far.

Ok, that's my quick reasons on why I think T-mobile is better. And for all you out there wanting the 'walki-talkie' setup with Nextel. Their coverage is bad and the walkie-talkie thing is not that cool. I have it on my work cell phone with Verizon and trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

You haven't tried Nextel, and you say their coverage is bad. Then you compare Verizon's WEAK half-hearted attempt at CDMA PTT (push-to-talk) with Nextel? I'm not sure you're qualified to diss Nextel.

Verizon's PTT is horrid crap compared to Nextel - all they're doing is giving PPT a bad name in an attempt to steal market share from Nextel. It takes up to 3 sec to initiate the call, and then there's over a 1 sec lag between communications. Nextel is so fast there are nearly no perceptible delays.

I only recommend Nextel for people who know a lot of others who have it too... It's like having the right IM client. Otherwise it's just a regular cell phone like all the others.

[tlogank]

You haven't tried Nextel, and you say their coverage is bad. Then you compare Verizon's WEAK half-hearted attempt at CDMA PTT (push-to-talk) with Nextel? I'm not sure you're qualified to diss Nextel.

As stated in my earlier opinion, for me in the southeast, Nextel does not have good coverage. I have 3-4 friends on the carrier, and they are not that satisfied.
True, I am basing the PTT service on Verizon, so maybe Nextel's method is a bit better, so let me rephrase my comment....if you don't have many friends or good coverage isn't offered in your area by Nextel, then the PTT option is not what it's cracked up to be. Regardless in my opinion, I don't want to push a button to talk to someone, I prefer using the Bluetooth headset that T-mo gives free with a lot of their phones.

[ROMANTICGUY50]

I know Europe is big on GSM, which allows a lot of phone portability between providers. In USA, we have CDMA, TDMA, GSM, iDEN, blah, blah that makes a new phone purchase nearly inevitable when you switch providers.

In Japan they have GSM and CDMA, and have the most advanced techology. Japanese customers are more willing to spend big bucks on new and fancy phones, so in Japan there are much better phones that you can't get in the USA. They've got a fatty 3G system that kick butt over there too, where USA barely has rolled out GPRS (2.5G).

I'm still fanboying Nextel in the USA though - the coast to coast walkie-talkie womps over any video phone service or whatever in terms of usability and efficiency...

But I bet there's a simpler explanation you were looking for...

From What i read and heard GSM tech. is what is being usied over seas T-Mobile and AT&T have it here and there may be other carriers that have it as well. Those are the two I am aware of. The problem with them in the US is that they don't have as many towers as Verizon and the others I liked T-Mobile when I had it but I had a hell of a lot of dead spots when I traveled. I know that the T-Molbile folks hope to cover alot of the US with in the next 3-5 yrs. But in the mean time U go with the best carrier u can get here. According to Lets Talk.com Verizon has the largest coverage area for the US, That. is the reason I switched. Verizon now has the Walkie Talkie Phones as well. I will stay with what I got. I like it and my daughter likes Verizon. They hope to be all Digital by the end of this year. Lets hope they make it.

[N[E]rD]

First off I live in the SE. I had Verizon for a little over 5 years, it was good the first two years or so. Coverage was unheard of, great customer support, and no missed calls. When they were going through there tower upgrades I almost never had good service, but once that slowed down service got moderatly better though never as good as it was. I moved to Pensacola for 1year to pursue school at UWF, and from then on it sucked, when I was in Pensacola, calls would get missed (and I had a nationwide plan, and were talking less than six months ago.), then when I did get a call talk about less than Analog quality. Nobody could figure out why, they said it was my phone so I was given an upgrade for free. Talk about further screw ups. At one point if you dialed my number you just had to know you were going to get my VoiceMail, I just got no calls whatsoever. And when I made outgoing calls it would call wierd numbers. Finally, that phone broke (samsung something or other) then they wouldn't fix it cause it was outside the three month warranty, and told me to screw my self basically.

So i quit and went to Nextel. The coverage is amazing, if you know people who have it. The PTT feature you can use almost anywhere, though admittedly the Cell sometimes gets a little crappy in those same areas. And for those of you who don't like the big fones Nextel has, they are starting to come down in size. I know that was a big turn off for me I went from this tiny samsung, to this huge(by comparison) Motorola i90c though this June when my contract is up I want to up to the i530 that is a bad ass looking phone.

[muffenme]

:fire

None because you must pay to use them. I rather a FRS or a CB, no mothly service and no bills

:hole

[crackerjacker]

i have used t- mobile and they are pretty good.
i will be switching over to sprint :)

[thewhitrbbit]

verizon sucks, they have a weak signal were i live, they refuse to build a new tower or hook up to one of the many towers we have around here, and they can't activate my phone right so i get 400 dollar bills because they dont give me unlimited nights/weekends because they r to dumb to push the right buttons during activation and they F'ing lie about fixing it, been having this problem for 3 months. If it keeps up, gonna complain to the FCC.

[Omyn]

Cell phones are lame.

I hate people calling me anyway, nothing to me is that important that someone needs to talk to me while I am at the mall or just hanging out outside.

And I hate those god damn people who dont shut off their phones in movie theatres and libraries, or decided to instead of saying hey I cant talk right now let me call you back, they just go through their whole conversation without consideration for others.

Not to mention that people cant fucking drive while talking on cell phones.

I mean sure if your a network admin, expecting a child, or you have a job that your on the road all day, other then that I dont see the big deal.

Dont even get me started on ringtones :]