Best Cell Phone Service

[natgun]

i travel all over the country to install a/v and multimedia systems in museums.. i have NEVER had my signal drop out with verizon, nor have i ever incured roaming charges. some of the museums have been in pretty out of the way places.

[Timelessblur]

I used to say verson was great but then I starting going to Texas Tech. they have next to 0 coverage here. Almost everyone here who has verson is just waiting for there contracts to expire so they can switch over to Sprint or cingelur

[GenoG]

Originally posted by Timelessblur
I used to say verson was great but then I starting going to Texas Tech. they have next to 0 coverage here. Almost everyone here who has verson is just waiting for there contracts to expire so they can switch over to Sprint or cingelur

wow, you certainly spell differently down there in Texas jk its all in good fun. By the way, my stinkin buckeyes play your Red Raiders on Thursday! Go easy on us!

[coolqf]

I live in NYC/Manhattan and attend school in the DC area.
I use SprintPCS.
The service works extremely well. For the majority of places where I travel to Verizon and Sprint have great coverage in these two cities. Now, in areas where one of them would falrer, it would be Sprint more times than Verizon. Verizon is also iffy in some areas of NYC and DC, and the best way to decide on your provider is by trying them both out or get recommendations from people you know in your area.

ATT, even after the Cingular merger I still dislike their call qualities. My mother has an ATT phone and about once every 3wks when I call her, the calls must be remade...

Nextel, well, 75% of their customers are business oriented (primary through the walkie-talkie service) and they are merging with Sprint PCS soon, but the complete merger wont affect Sprint customers for another 2-3 yrs.

[MooNTanG]

As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing.I work for a company that offers all the carriers and everyone has problems with each individual service in some way. It could be billing or coverage or phone or firmware issues. The list is never ending. I don't think there is one service out there that provides absolute 100% customer satisfaction. So, whic ever service you chose make sure it is right one that fits your needs first -MooN-

[Kris5.0]

Where I live, I only have two real options (Sprint and Verison claim that they have service, but anyone that ever uses them in our area is **** out of luck, I've seen it many times with people from out of the area)...

Cellular One and Alltel. Both are comparable service wide, there are some areas that get reception from one and not the other though. For instance, Alltel phones get reception from our camp (which is why alot of my relatives use Alltel) and Cellular One phones do not. Alltel has a better nationwide plan, which I got since I do travel a good deal.

Our area as a whole is terrible for cell reception. If I go outside of a major city, my phone is pretty much useless. And even in alot of cities, the reception is bad (3 bars out of 6 is pretty normal, if I go to a big city like Chicago I get all 6). These companies all claim nationwide service with no holes in their coverage, but there are tons of spots where I get 'No service'.

[ua549]

I just picked up a Motorola V635 (not available in North America) and switched from ATTWS to Cingular. the phone is great with a flash memory card, MP3 player, 1.2M camera, 4 band worldwide use, etc. We'll see how Cingular towers (orange network) compare to the ATTWS towers (blue network).

[xrax]

I have Sprint PCS and plan on switching to Cingular when my contract expires. their customer service is bad and all my friends are switching

[GenoG]

Has anyone tried taking a US cell phone (verizon, spring, tmo, cingular) to Europe? Just wondering what kind of service you might get when traveling.

[ua549]

The only US cell phones that will work in Europe are GSM based phones because Europe does not use CDMA technology. Even then you'll want a 3 or 4 band phone because the US uses 2 bands and Europe uses 2 different bands.

The primary GSM players in the US are Cingular and T-Mobile.

I have a 4 band Motorola V635 GSM phone (not readily available in the US). I can use it virtually anywhere in Europe. By purchasing a prepaid SIM I can even have a local number as I travel. You must have an unlocked phone to use "foreign" SIMs.

I have Cingular service and they have an ~$25/mo unlimited plan for internet access from your phone with no roaming charges. It is a great way to get your email, etc. when traveling around Europe.

Here are a couple of links for more information. The phone finder tool on Phone Scoop is especially helpful.

Howard Forums

Phone Scoop

[gloombah]

Well, although Nextel was not listed in the poll. I feel that I should express my opinion for my cell phone company: Nextel. Besides the expensive monthly bill that I dread to pay... the actual service in my area is fairly good. With Nextel, there are two different possibilities of usage. You can use the cellphone, just like a normal cellphone... dial the number, and talk. And you can also use the Walkie-Talkie(aka Two-Way) type usage. This feature is just like any walkie-talkie anyone would use, except it is built into Nextel phones. I really enjoy using my walkie-talkie, it enables to me to look through my phonebook, find the contact, and... BEEP! Im connected. It makes contact with business partners/friends/family fairly easy.

I was drawn to Nextel mainly because of the walkie-talkie feature. And I find that it is quite an asset to making contact with people, and its ease of use.

Pros: Walkie-talkie features, chicks dig Nextel(honestly), good durable phones, fairly good service.

Cons: Expensive, two-way service tends to decline at times.

[war_criminal]

here, they closed my last topic about Texting too but i did find this for the one up there ^^^ that mentioned this, just dont be the dork and send you girlfriend Valentines day txts here is the article http://www.nbc24.com/Global/story.asp?S=4316008

[Z3R0C00L]

I happen to find my V pretty good. Cingular, before it, was not great. But I honestly think that might have been an issue of phones more than anything else. I just like free in system calling from V.

[Soul Assassin]

According to Consumer Reports, Verizon is the best in every part of the US, save for Chicago where it comes in #2 behind some local company. I use them but I'm not overly happy. I think every cellular service is far from perfect.

[Spartacus]

Good service depends somewhat on what part of the country you are in. Recently Consumer Reports did a article on this. Verizon scored number one in the Northern VA area, so switched from Sprint and have been happier for it. I got to keep my original numbers, have better reception and no longer have roaming charges. I also got 200 more minutes for $10 less a month.

On another note, I must say I find walkie-talkie phones to be the most annoying. Few things are worse than sitting in restaurant, the bus or subway having to listen to the BLEEP BLEEP and 2 way conversation of these phones.