I'm looking to get a cell phone however I'm not quite sure which cell phone company to get. I was leaning toward Cingular but changed my mind when I found out my aunt hated the service so much she's going to get out of the contract. Some background info, I live in Philadelphia so coverage is not an issue. Thank you for any help in this matter.
Posted by Allegra (Member # 6773) on :
I personally like cingular. Posted by NinjaBirdman (Member # 7114) on :
I like Verizon because a lot of my friends have it and it's free to call them.
Posted by Judas (Member # 7355) on :
I got this cool cell phone that is actually a calculator- and when you press the big obvious button a sucker pops up from behind it!
Cool, neh?
Judas Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Not sprint.
I'm a very happy verizon wireless customer though.
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Should look to see who has the most coverage in the areas you are in the most.
Then again I guess this isn’t a problem for big city people. Just us Yahoos in little places like WV
Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
Since you live in an urban area where coverage may not (shouldn't be) be an issue, I'd suggest going with the company who has a plan that best meets your realistic usage of the phone (and budget).
Posted by Ben (Member # 6117) on :
Cingular treats me pretty well.
Posted by J T Stryker (Member # 6300) on :
I have yet to see a "no signal" symbol on my verizon phone. and I tend to travel around a lot.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I'm very happy with Verizon.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
We've been thrilled with T-mobile's family plan, especially since my whole family uses T-mobile and we all get free minutes to each other.
Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :
maybe I should modify the question. Is anyone unhappy with their cell phone service?
Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :
When we investigated cell phones recently, T-Mobile and Verizon had the best rates, but Verizon had better coverage for us. We like the free calling between other Verizon users, too - almost everyone in the family has Verizon now, so we can call each other anytime for free.
I suggest you shop around for features, price, and coverage, what kind of phone you want and can get for a reasonable price, and then decide.
Oh, another thing we did was take advantage of free trial periods on our top two choices - we signed up for two phone services, and tried them out in the locations we would be making and receiving calls. Then we cancelled the service we decided not to take before the trial period ran out.
[ February 03, 2005, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: Ela ]
Posted by Nato (Member # 1448) on :
Verizon doesn't use GSM. They use a network that will eventually be obsolete, and you can't just go off and roam in Europe with it. (That probably won't affect you much.)
That said, Verizon does tend to have good coverage. It's better than the competitors where I live for coverage at least.
I did just have a conflict with their billing yesterday that took a couple hours to get sorted out, but generally if you ask a LOT of questions and get EVERYTHING straight about what phone calls you will be billed for when you sign up, you're okay.
(And the cool part about having a conflict with them yesterday meant that I got switched to a plan that will have 100 more minutes per month, add mobile-to-mobile free calling to the secondary lines, AND will cost $10 less overall per month.)
When you are deciding, the most important thing to do is think about who you would call the most. Are you going to be making most of your calls to local area numbers? Other mobiles? I got Verizon primarily because most of the people I would call have Verizon cell phones. Other than that, it's just people in my coverage area.
Posted by Rappin' Ronnie Reagan (Member # 5626) on :
quote: Verizon doesn't use GSM. They use a network that will eventually be obsolete, and you can't just go off and roam in Europe with it. (That probably won't affect you much.)
I use Verizon, and this is the only thing I've seen that's bad about it. Otherwise, it's great, and I haven't had any problems.
Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :
We actually preferred T-Mobile in terms of price and service, but they didn't have good reception in the locations we would be using the phone - they don't have as many towers as Verizon, though they say they are working on it.
And, yeah, we thought about GSM, but it wasn't really a consideration for use within the US.
When we did go overseas, we actually rented a cellphone at a very reasonable rate, and used it only for our trip. It also had the advantage of giving us local phone rates in the country we were visiting.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Sprint is the devil. I get cut off all the time and, never get a signal in my house, and it refuses to ring half the time when people call.
Posted by peterh (Member # 5208) on :
Amen to Verizon!!!
BTW, I work for a company that sells Cingular, Nextel, and US Cellular.
Posted by urbanX (Member # 1450) on :
I haven't heard good things about Nextel service. And this was coming from a good rying to sell me a nextel phone!!!
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
I do NOT like my US Cellular. I've had this phone for almost 5 years, when the carrier was still PrimeCo, but they were bought out and the service - especially customer service - has steadily gone downhill. Fortunately my contract is over and I'm on month-to-month, so as soon as my tax refund comes in, I'm switching to Cingular (my entire family has the same so we'll all get free calling to each other, plus they currently have the best deal for what I would use.)
Posted by IdemosthenesI (Member # 862) on :
No offense to the happy Cingular customers...
I would recommend putting a nail through your left thumb before signing up with Cingular. Maybe that's just my bad billing experiences talking. At one point, their automatic draft didn't take money out of my account, and then with no notification at all, my service was cut off for nonpayment. Posted by RackhamsRazor (Member # 5254) on :
well-i liked sprint and it worked just fine till i came to WV and now i cant get a signal very well in my apt or along the road home...kinda defeated the purpose i guess. Could be my old phone though...ill be getting a new one this month-hopefully it works better
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
I have Sprint, and have had for two years. I get great coverage even in areas where my friends with other carriers do not. Their rates have come down considerably since I first signed up. Calls are free to other sprint customers (on my plan at least) and since most of my family has sprint, I can talk to them for hours and it doesn't affect my plan minutes at all.
I don't have a landline and rely on sprint for all my phone calling. I have no complaints. YMMV
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