Truth Or Dare — What Is the Best US Cell Company? 395
Epsilon Eridani writes "I am returning to the US after an extended time overseas and upon my return I need to jump head first into the data enabled phone bandwagon. I have to admit ... I am lost as to what is the best company to choose. Before I left the US I used a Sprint HTC phone running Windows with the 'simply everything' plan to communicate and stay organized and a Sprint Wireless Card to connect my laptop to the world. Coming back several generations of technology later, what is the best set up technology-wise to link phone and laptop or two to the Internet? (Open source solutions accepted too!) Can the Slashdot community verify some of the claims on quality of service before I give my first born up when I sign a service contract?"
slashdot poll? (Score:5, Funny)
wouldn't this be best done as a slashdot poll?
.
.
(the correct answer, by the way, is Cowboy Neal Mobile)
Re:slashdot poll? no. (Score:3, Insightful)
Polls are to get very general opinions, choices.
This is about discussing the options. And since the vast majority of cell phone service providers are considered evil somewhere around that of Lord Sidius with their locked phones, deplorable customer service, and preposterous early termination fees, I expect there to be a great deal of negative comments relative to a very few positive ones.
There is no "good" cell phone service provider - we're here to work out the "lesser of the evils" question.
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True, you are in a situation similar to choosing something to watch on TV late at night on Saturday. (Who, Me? a Life?). Its the old "least horseshit selection process".
But Features and Capabilities do matter to anyone who wants to do anything other than make phone calls.
Since TFA mentioned "data enabled phone" you now have to consider coverage area, bandwidth, multi-tasking, data-caps, and a few other things.
The device becomes more important than the carrier. Once you pick your device, your carrier choi
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[ ] ATT
[ ] Verizon
[ ] Sprint
[ ] Tmobile
[ x ] cowboyneal communications
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I don't think anybody's really interested in getting their phone service from CowboyNeal!
Re:slashdot poll? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd get serviced by cowboyneal any time!
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Agree. I have been with them for nearly 15 years and a couple times when I was tempted to try someone else, I promptly returned.
Service is reliable and consistent, call quality is very good, data service is fast and they treat long term customers very well. I pay nothing for phones, I get new phones after only 10 months and I never pay upgrade/activation fees. I also get to talk to a human when I call support and I NEVER have to get managers or higher-ups to get my issues handled.
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If my Droid wasn't a Verizon exclusive, I probably would have gone with Sprint for the awesome pricing and good coverage. Hell, after years of AT&T's abysmal service quality, almost anything would have been an improvement in that area, but Verizon's pricing REALLY leaves something to be desired, so Sprint definitely dominates in that area.
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really? ive had the service for nearly 4 years now, and had very little issue with them customer service wise. ive called about several billing issues and theyve always been corrected completely and promptly.
yea its a cellphone company, and in general they are evil and such, but ive gotten much better service from them than att/cingular, who removed a frequency my phone was using at the time, and denied it until they suggested i purchase a new phone and 'maybe it will work better'.
biggest issue i have wit
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I was a customer with sprint for 4 years. I left them specifically due to how awful their customer service is. It's like wrestling a... very difficult thing to wrestle with every time you need a small thing changed or adjusted. And there's usually a fee for that small adjustment. T-mobile has bent over backwards to help me out in every situation, and has never charged me an additional fee for something. I won't go into details here but here's what I wrote about them last week [slashdot.org].
Re:slashdot poll? (Score:4, Informative)
I was a customer with sprint for 4 years. I left them specifically due to how awful their customer service is. It's like wrestling a... very difficult thing to wrestle with every time you need a small thing changed or adjusted. And there's usually a fee for that small adjustment. T-mobile has bent over backwards to help me out in every situation, and has never charged me an additional fee for something. I won't go into details here but here's what I wrote about them last week [slashdot.org].
I agree one hundred percent, and I went over to T-Mobile at the recommendation of some of my coworkers. I haven't looked back. To be fair, I never had a problem with Sprint's phone service ... their customer service however, was another issue entirely.
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T-Mobile is very much inverse. Not-so-great coverage and actual service, but customer service itself has been nothing but great.
Re:slashdot poll? (Score:5, Informative)
ive had the service for nearly 4 years now, and had very little issue with them customer service wise. ive called about several billing issues and theyve always been corrected completely and promptly.
When I was a Sprint customer, I also called them about several billing issues, and they were also corrected completely and promptly.
Then I got tired of having to correct my bill every month, so I switched to another carrier and didn't have any more billing issues to call about. First Verizon and now T-Mobile have always managed to charge me the correct amount every month.
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I still have Sprint sort of indirectly because of all the billing issues. They kept messing up my bill and I kept calling to correct it right up until they got fed up with me calling in and changed my plan so that though I still have the same benefits, I pay far less than I could with any other carrier (and less than any of their advertised plans). Sure the coverage is rather poor compared to other carriers, but it is effectively a discount carrier in my case, where I get what I pay for.
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Anybody have experience with ALLTEL wireless and internet access?
Alltel was acquired by Verizon Wireless in 2008.
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sprint are bastards. never ever go for sprint. they change the plan under you if the feel youre making too many calls and getting too much free service. they are absolute dicks with roaming charges. they suck balls.
Sprint plans that include data (e.g. "Simply Everything Data"), which is what the original poster was asking about since he said he needed data, have no roaming charges in the US. None. Zero. This may be different from when you had Sprint, Sprint has changed a lot since Dan Hesse took over. That having been said, all carriers suck. Sprint doesn't suck especially bad anymore though, they are more of an average level of carrier evil now. ;-)
The statistics repeatedly say (Score:3, Funny)
It's AT&T.
With that in mind, I fully expect nothing but a torrent of complaints about them.
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I moved to a more rural area where other networks have much better support. I
Having used T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T, (Score:4, Interesting)
I've settled on AT&T. I've spent a lot of time on the road and have been to nearly every state, and AT&T has been generally okay for me (certainly not good, but okay). But with that said, Verizon and T-Mobile both sucked for me, with both coverage issues and serious billing issues (the kind that get you red in the face and ruin your day, then your week, then your month, until you're telling people how ridiculous it's getting).
So I've been with AT&T several years now and am uninterested in switching at this point (and I live in NYC, where people [usually not AT&T customers] are sure AT&T is at its worst).
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Actually.. I think the best coverage might be WiFi + Skype. Not any cell provider. The speed is a heck of a lot better, and you are pretty much guaranteed to be able to find WiFi coverage in almost any coffee shop, even in fairly small cities that have very poor or non-existent 3G coverage from major providers.
Also, the price is less.. usually a $3 cup of coffee you would buy anyways, and no per-kilobyte billing -- you may be able to get it less-expensively also. At home, you don't have to pay any mon
T-Mobile (Score:2, Insightful)
Unfortunately, I need to use AT&T for the iPhone's 3G.
Re:T-Mobile (Score:4, Informative)
I was with AT&T for over 10 years then switched to T-Mobile because AT&T had no signal in my new house. T-Mobile and Verizon stores let me borrow a phone and bring it home, which was really cool of them I think. I went with T-Mobile because I could get 2-3 bars at home my old GSM phones would work.
Anyway I am 100% happy with T-Mobile. Their 3g service is NOT oversubscribed and will go to 21mbps (HSPA+) in 2010, everywhere. The price is lower and their customer service is far better, hands down.
AT&T has better coverage in remote areas. Their 2g signal is pretty much everywhere, while T-Mobile is in the metro areas and along the highways only.
I am envious of the Droid, which makes my Cliq look like a toy, but Android phones seem to be falling from the sky these days. One equal to the Droid should come around this year.
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No, they don't. AT&T's 3G network is on a different frequency than T-Mobile's, and the iPhones only support the AT&T 3G band. You can use unlocked (a step beyond jailbroken) iPhones on T-Mobile, but only with Edge support.
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I jailbroke my iphone on ATT to use tethering. The process is very simple, you just have to hope they don't stick you with a mammoth bill a year from now. You're looking for a piece of software called blackrain.
ATT service sucks ass, btw. I don't know if Tmobile is any better.
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Is T-Mobile's service really enough better than AT&T's to warrant buying an iPhone and jailbreaking it? If so, how so?
My impression is that when people complain about the iPhone being stuck on AT&T, they would rather move it to Verizon because their data network is more robust and has better coverage. (I don't actually know that Verizon has better service, but that seems to be the consensus.)
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depends what plan you're on. i pay $60 a month for unlimited data (and SMS, and 1000 minutes a month)with tmobile through an old blackberry cell plan with tmobile but i get 3g speeds on any phone i've plugged my sim card into. i don't know what an iphone plan costs but i'm guessing it's more than that. also tmobile allows tethering, be it officially or unofficially. an AT&T serviced iphone would have to do my laundry and clean my bathroom twice weekly for me to switch away from my current plan.
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The phone and plan are cheap enough that even on a minimalist budget, I can have a
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Yeah, I think unlimited data and SMS and the cheapest talk plan for the iPhone is about $90, and that doesn't allow tethering.
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No, they work with T-Mobile's EDGE coverage in the US. AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequencies for 3G, and the iPhone is not capable of using the 3G frequency T-Mobile uses.
And now (Score:5, Funny)
For a list of entirely subjective replies.
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"Subjective" doesn't necessarily mean "worthless" or "unhelpful". Even anecdotal evidence is evidence, and the submitter may prefer making his decisions based on the experiences of like-minded individuals to making his decisions based on nothing.
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This is the internet. There is no such thing as "like-minded individuals".
Re:And now (Score:5, Informative)
The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted person you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.' - Richard Jeni
Related question (Score:2)
What are the best options in the US & Canada for somebody who visits and wants just a prepaid deal? (just voice & sms or also one with data). With an option of getting only starter SIM card (some phones cover also US frequencies)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
i have t-mobile pre-paid. if you do $100 refills the minutes don't expire for a year and you get 1000 minutes for your $100. texts are 10c I think.
The 7-eleven speakout was the only sim card I could find in canada that didn't expire your unused minutes every 30 days or require you to add more minutes every month.
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http://www.ecallplus.com/cellular/o2-gsm.html
Verizon has best coverage... but it's verizon. (Score:5, Informative)
From a pure technical perspective, Verizon will get you the best coverage. But the sales people are vicious.
AT&T has iPhone obviously, but shitty coverage. I lend my phone to friends on AT&T in a couple different cities.
T-Mobile is worse coverage then AT&T. But has more open phones.
If you've got nothing right now, I'd go Droid on Verizon, pay 40 bucks for the unlimited data and use Google Voice for routing of your calls and LD service.
Re:Verizon has best coverage... but it's verizon. (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Verizon has best coverage... but it's verizon. (Score:4, Interesting)
Define coverage though... I have AT&T and a friend has Verizon.. I get a lot more coverage in areas than he does, but he gets more 3G coverage.. but since I use my phone for... *gasp* calls.. 3G is a moot point.
It all depends on what you want to do... I still keep AT&T mainly because of the rollover minutes. I have some months where I may only use half my minutes.. then there are months I use well over my minutes.
comparing costs... they are all pretty much the same... over priced.
Re:Verizon has best coverage... but it's verizon. (Score:5, Insightful)
Among the high quality comments you will find on these websites are things like this gem: "[carrier] had reeeeeally been bothering me lately! They think they're so cool, but if I could, I would DESTROY [carrier]!!" So now you know everything you know.
Seriously though, the 'best' carrier depends on your needs and your area. In this story you will have posts from people who say "X carrier has horrible coverage" and others who say the same carrier has awesome coverage. It really depends on where you live.
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We also have a sprint phone because it provides some options that are useful. I have a cricket data device because they have a very reasonable no contract plan for data. Speeds are very good but coverage is not. I can use it in 90% of the time.
The other issue is that Verizon is not GSM, which makes it incompatible with most of
huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
T-Mobile (Score:5, Informative)
Agreed (Score:5, Informative)
I've been w/T-Mobile since they started in the US. Here's why I like them:
* Avid supporter of Android. First one to introduce the G1, and now the first partner w/the Nexus One.
* Support advanced android features like visual voice mail for free and auto-notification when you near your minutes limit
* Reasonably priced, as cell phone companies go.
* Customer service has been shockingly fast/friendly whenever I've needed them (which admittedly, hasn't been often)
* Great coverage in US. Every city I've been to has had solid coverage. I've only been to fairly large cities though.
* After 3 months of service, they give you unlock codes for your phone.
* GSM network so most phones can be used overseas-- successfully used my US G1 in US, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, etc. T-Mobile's parent company is Deutsche Telekom.
* They are not AT&T.
* As far as I know, they did not spy on Americans when Bush asked them to.
And no, I don't work for them.
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Uhm...UMTS, WCDMA is very firmly in GSM family, being in 3GPP which builds upon GSM. You simply display a confusion stemming from the thing that one standard was often called not by its name (IS-95), but by the tech it used (CDMA); which stuck to such a degree that next version was simply called CDMA2000 (which is in 3GPP2 family)
GSM is very fine, it wouldn't be behind of 80+ % of global subscribers otherwise. Often in places with much lower population density than the US, where funds for infrastructure are
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My experience is that AT$T has pretty good coverage & service, but I was forever getting different extra unexplained charges that would never stop month after month. These were significant charges in the $100 range. And then there was the time that they tried to charge me $899 for long
Sprint (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sprint (Score:5, Informative)
It depends on where you are (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
By price and customer service:
-T-Mobile (followed by Sprint)
By 3G Coverage:
-Verizon
NOTE: though Verizon has the best 3G coverage, do NOT rely on their "lying" maps for it. They are wrong, and show 3G coverage in areas that dont even have voice (where they never plan on having coverage no less... such as Ticonderoga, NY). So regardless of them having more 3G coverage in more areas, their maps cannot be believed... thus, dont expect you will get 3G coverage in areas where they claim you will.
By phone:
-W
Your location may vary... (Score:3, Insightful)
Friends and family (Score:2)
then the question is which network are your friends and family using?
Land lines from the phone company or the cable company, in my case. If you're in the same situation, "friends and family" [verizonwireless.com] may be more apropos than you may have thought.
Re:Friends and family (Score:4, Informative)
T-Mobile, UMA, and $0.10 per minute (Score:4, Interesting)
UMA is basically "GSM over IP over 802.11g", and it allows you to make GSM cellphone calls [billed at a standard $0.10 per minute] from any publically accessible WiFi hotspot.
I'd buy an older UMA phone [umatoday.com] off of eBay, and purchase a $50 [$0.125] or $100 [$0.10] prepaid plan [t-mobile.com] from T-Mobile, and say goodbye to monthly fees forever.
Re:T-Mobile, UMA, and $0.10 per minute (Score:4, Insightful)
I have a blackberry flip that does UMA. I've found the call quality to be bad over my time warner cable connection, which is generally good.
why use UMA over 802.11 for .10 a minute when you can use GSM for .10 a minute?
The UMA calls should be free or really cheap since you are not using their network or are likely in a place where they don't even have coverage!
It is funny that they charge you 10 cents a minute when you are effectively providing your own network. You could just as easily be using skype at that point.
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When you live out in the boonies and you have spotty cell tower coverage but excellent broadband coverage.
When you are travelling on the interstate, and there are no cell towers for miles, but the Rest Stop has WiFi.
When you are visiting a state park/national forest/national park with no cell tower coverage, but which has a WiFi hotspot in the Visitor's Center or the Ranger's Station.
When you are deep in the bowels of a l
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'when you are out of GSM coverage' would have done it
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A slightly clarification here:
UMA service with T-mobile is basically a way to use 802.11 access points as an alternative "cell phone tower" with T-mobile. Nothing stops you from using a UMA-capable phone with standard GSM cell phone towers (unless you tell the phone not to).
In general, T-mobile bills UMA calls *the same* as calls started on the cell phone network. So if you have a post-paid plan, UMA usage typically comes out of your normal minute bucket(s); if you are using a $0.10/minute pre-paid pl
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I used UMA calling in south america to "phone home" to Dallas and use my regular bucket of minutes. Great deal. Most hotels/hostels have wifi availble, which is where you're going to make a long personal call anyways.
Wrong payment type (Score:5, Funny)
... before I give my first born up when I sign a service contract?
You are not ready for the US American cell phone companies. Packets are transported by the souls of the damned who sign service contracts. Your firstborn is not payment enough; you must provide the souls of all your friends and family.
It depends (Score:2, Insightful)
One thing none of the big boys want you to know is that almost all of them have a 30 day escape clause in their contracts. If you are not satisfied, you can cancel (you'd have to give back the shiny phone or whatever they subsidize) and you won't even have to give up your firstborn to do it.
Just read the contract and ask the salesman to get
Re:It depends (Score:4, Informative)
all of them have a 30 day escape clause in their contracts.
That clause didn't show up there by accident. In the US, it's the law.
I haven't tried this out yet, but it could work (Score:2, Troll)
Then buy trakphone minutes to use your phone when you're not home.
This will easily save you hundreds of dollars a year... Unless you make a large number of calls on the road.
Sprint - Meh (Score:2)
I've been a Sprint customer for quite a few years. My family has three phones on a family plan w. "unlimited" texts and data. I'd rate Sprint as follows:
Pros
1) Price - best pricing for the family plan of the major wireless carriers.
2) Network coverage - good. Good coverage everywhere I need it (home, work, daughter at university). Gotten coverage in some surprising places - like camping and hiking many miles from a major highway.
Cons
1) Customer service - horrible, truly horrible. Any time I have a prob
None. (Score:2)
There’s your answer. ^^
Sorry, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been back and forth for the last decade, and it is always a disappointment coming back into the US and trying to get decent cellphone service. The US is a backwater of customer abuse and services gone wanting.
When living/working in Japan, South Korea and China, I learned not to discuss one countries offerings versus the US unless I was looking for laughs...
I worked for Samsung in SK and for a major domestic telecom in China, so I had ample opportunity to see things from both the corporate and consumer sides.
These days in the US I carry a cellphone only for emergencies. I don't text, don't use mobile banking, internet, etc. I make maybe one call every month or two, and those are usually from my car where the phone is coupled via Bluetooth to the head unit and everything is hands free. I can't bring myself to accept a locked in contract and the high fees are best spent elsewhere... For me, the whole cell phone experience in the US is a bust.
Cell phones I brought back from Asia are going on 2 years old now and still have features that were ubiquitous there that aren't yet common here.
The other one... (Score:2)
From listening to everyone complain, the grass is always greener elsewhere.
Simple truth is, all of them seem to do some things better and some things worse than others. It's more about figuring out which things you actually care about and which ones you don't. Then find the provider that does what you care about and fails at the things you don't care about anyway.
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a complex question with no single correct answer (Score:5, Informative)
"It's complicated."
Signal quality and coverage depend on multiple things - the carrier's infrastructure vs your (common) locations, and your phone. Verizon's coverage, say, in one city, can be completely different than in another city. There is also the difference between voice quality and data, and then there's data SPEEDS to consider. You also want to look at future upgrades. Verizon will be the first one going to LTE (the next big jump in data connection speeds), though Sprint has already rolled out WiMax in some cities (a competing 4th gen spec), noone is likely to be coming out with any WiMax smartphones until the second half of the year, by which time, Verizon will be on the verge of their LTE rollout. You can get WiMax cards for your laptop now, though, if you just can't wait.
There's also the issues of phone selection and plan pricing to consider, and whether you're going contract-free or not. We're in a period of transition this year on more than one front - the impending switch to LTE in the second half of the year, and the decimation of Windows Mobile-based phones by Android-based phones, oh, and the now 'superphone' type phones - ones with 1ghz-class processors and WVGA screens (like the Nexus one and HTC Bravo).
So, I guess I would start by thinking about finances. Can you afford to outright buy a phone? If you can, I'd suggest that so you can go contract-free and increase your choices for switching in a year if you need to based on how the industry shakes out this year. The beginning of 2011 is going to look VERY different from what it looks like now. Android will be matured, LTE will be available in most major cities by Verizon at the very least, Sprint's WiMax infrastructure will possibly be starting to switch over to LTE if it is, indeed, as simple as upgrading network tower software, and we'll see how mature Android is, how much Microsoft bribes the cellphone companies to put out WinMo 7-based phones, and whether the iPhone finally upgrades to 'superphone' status and becomes available on networks other than AT&T.
If you can't afford to outright buy your phone, then go with Verizon or Sprint for the 3G coverage (for now), assuming 3G is a big concern. Verizon vs Sprint is a matter of network quality/phone selection vs price. Verizon (currently) has the better phone selection and network quality over Sprint, but Sprint has those Simply Everything plans (I'm on the Simply Everything 450). Verizon is officially going to be carrying the Google Nexus One phone later this year. Sprint was completely silent during CES on what phones it's going to be carrying. If they get the HTC Bravo (the hardware that is essentially the Nexus One), I may stay with Sprint, especially if it has the Sense UI on it, which the Nexus One does not. Verizon seems to have made the biggest official commitment to the Android platform of any of the major US carriers. I just wish they'd match prices with Sprint. If I could get an HTC Bravo on Verizon at Sprint's prices, I wouldn't hesitate to sign a two-year contract.
I wouldn't consider AT&T or T-Mobile because of their 3G coverage and network reliability issues at this time, but those AREN'T issues for many people in many locations. You'll want to find out from people where you live what those networks are like there.
Variables (Score:2)
coverage varies dude. (Score:2)
Negociate the contract (Score:2)
If you are willing to put a bit of time into talking to their sales people, you can bargain your contract terms and prices a bit more than they would have you believe. I have personally done this a lot with sprint. For instance I have never signed a 2 year contract, and refuse to. I can usually talk down the price a bit and get a 1 year contract rather than 2. It just takes a little persistence. (not the annoying bitch at them til you get your way kind either). People are more willing to work with you when
Sprint SERO, hands down (Score:2)
Can't address your data card question as I have no experience, but I can address your phone.
Go online, and buy a Sprint SERO plan transferred from one of the fools selling theirs online. Nothing beats it.
Use your old HTC phone, or get a new HTC WinMo phone (unfortunately Palms and Android phones are blocked from SERO since it's too good a deal).
Enjoy your unlimited data, texts, nights and weekends from 7, and 500 voice minutes for 30 a month. All on what is widely perceived to be the fastest 3G network, a
Location and resource dependent. (Score:2)
Really. I am not joking. It really depends on where you live, work and play and what your budget and credit is like.
Sprint service is non-existent where my family lives, but several other providers have good service there. I use T-mobile because I don't have a contract, so any phone I buy I can get unlocked and I am not paying extra money for not having a contract. And, they have decent service where my family is.
If people don't mind... (Score:2)
I'd like to take this opportunity to steer the conversation towards discussing some phones in general, regardless of the provider (So some of us non-us folk can have a bit of a discussion).
Mainly because it's somewhat related and because I, personally, lost interest in the mobile device market some years ago (Around 2003 or 2004) and am quite out of touch. There's been many big changes, devices like the iPhone have changed the game and now Google has Android I feel I'm even more misinformed.
I was thinking o
Depends on where you are going to be... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm up in Alaska and no national carrier works outside the three major cities. Up here AT&T is the only national carrier that works at all. The question asker needs to look at where they are going to be and research locally what is right for them.
I had T-Mobile in Portland and it worked great, in Seattle/Everett it had meh coverage and sucked down by Tacoma/SeaTac.
They all suck. (Score:2)
They all suck.
major important thing I forgot to mention! (Score:2)
Don't buy your phone or plan straight from the carrier unless you absolutely have to. I've had great luck saving as much as $150 off buying a new phone/plan combo from Amazon or Fry's. Try Fry's first if you have one in your area. If you can't save $100 from the carrier's price, you're not trying. Also, Sears Wireless seems to be the place to buy Verizon Droid and Droid Eris phones. Much less money, with no MIR needed. FYI.
Avoid CDMA (Score:2)
If you've been living overseas, then you may need your fancy new phone when you visit friends or coworkers overseas. If so, Sprint and Verizon are NOT options. T-mobile and AT&T offer GSM coverage, but you'd need a tri-band phone.
p.s. AT&T are more evil than T-mobile. Sprint is probably less evil than Verizon too.
Sprint or Verizon (Score:2, Insightful)
Well if you Slashdot daily you will have heard GSM encryption has been hacked and the code is in the wild. The fact that the major GSM providers continue to downplay this is a good reason to steer clear. That leaves you with Sprint, Verizon or a local carrier.
Both Sprint and Verizon have good deals on plans and they have decent phones. I am an unrepentant crackberry addict and will tell you why. It lasts more than 5 hours on push an
T-Mobile in Urban Areas (Score:2)
T-mobile is the only option for urban areas. If you're not in an urban area, Verizon has the best coverage, but it's CDMA format, so if you plan to go back overseas or travel frequently, you'll need to keep your old phone for swapping SIM cards.
Also, if you switch to a CDMA carrier, you'll need to buy a new phone. I would recommend T-mobile for the reason you can just swap out the SIM card, but if you're not in an urban area, ATT is the only other GSM carrier, and they are only slightly better than two ca
a lot like asking ... (Score:3, Funny)
What's the best kind of attack to have, heart attack, or stroke?
Sprint (Score:2)
Sprint, for sure:
Almost the coverage of Verizon, but cheaper plans. World phones available, and great smartphones with WebOS or Android (I've become a huge Pre fan after having tried out a Droid and Droid Eris on Verizon).
Let's look at the competition:
Verizon:
Best network, by far. But screws you up the ass, sorry, nickles and dimes you whenever they can.
AT&T:
OK network if you happen to live in a Top 50 metropolis with Senators that can make your life miserable (I'm looking at you, awesome AT&T cover
Sprint (Score:3, Informative)
Sprint. Seriously.
If you were happy with Sprint before you still will be. Your hardest decision will be choosing between Web OS (Palm) and Android (Google/HTC) phones.
For the record, I chose the Pre and am very, very happy. Especially after having all but stolen my brothers Verizon Motorola Droid and Mom's Verizon HTC Droid Eris.
Sprint (Score:3, Informative)
I switched from AT&T to Sprint in 2004 because of coverage, and recently switched to Tmobile to get GSM and the Cliq. Now I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to get a Sprint backup phone so I can at least have phone service at home (the cellular repeater I got isn't working out too well, though a directional antennae may help).
I like Tmobile as a company, and Sprint was fine too, but I've heard too many horror stories with Verizon and AT&T to even consider either.
Ask one question, get several in return... (Score:3, Interesting)
When it comes to which company is the BEST, there are several things you need to look at:
For the area you live in or spend the most time in, how is the coverage map? I am not talking about 2G vs. 3G or anything like that, but more, do you have dead spots on the various networks?
How much traveling do you do? The more you travel, the more important the overall service coverage area is. Also, 3G, while it speeds things up quite a bit, it may not really matter to you as long as you have data service that works.
Do you want to TRUST your cell phone service provider? Verizon is probably the company I would trust the least when it comes to a bill(land line or cell phone). Will there be a random $10 that they will take off if you complain, meaning you MUST check your bill in detail each month for "strange" fees? This is what I hate about Verizon, they have a long track record of just throwing random fees at customers, knowing that a very low percentage will be checking their bill and catch it. How about the sudden bump in early termination fees that Verizon just put out there that doesn't specify which phone you have? So, a cheap $50 phone could hold the same early termination fee as a $400 Blackberry(unless the new fees specify based on phone what the termination fee will be).
Now, with those questions in mind, AT&T for overall areas of service may be just a little smaller than Verizon. In general, for overall quality of service, Verizon is probably the best. Keep in mind that the AT&T commercials are correct, the data service will generally not work while talking on the phone. With a speaker phone, this IS a key weakness for Verizon. At the same time, Verizon service does tend to be a bit better in many or possibly most areas. Considering they are also the local phone company for many on the east coast of the USA, this makes some sense since they have local crews everywhere for servicing the normal land lines. Third is Sprint, and their coverage area as a whole is a lot worse. They are good in many places, but in rural areas, it is hit or miss how good or bad the service will be. T-mobile is also short on coverage area, with many areas not able to get T-mobile service, and I am not just talking about little towns in the mountains, but in areas with over 10,000 people living in it.
If you travel overseas, GSM is pretty dominant, so AT&T and T-mobile phones can easily just have a sim chip put into them to let you use a local carrier while you are there. If you have a locked phone(which most are), regulations in the USA require that the provider provide an unlock code so you can use it while traveling.
When it comes to 3G coverage, Verizon clearly has the better network, but as I mentioned, for most people, 3G is nice but isn't necessary for most things. I use my phone to get traffic updates for my GPS, and others use their phone as a cellular modem(bluetooth connection on their laptop). Just keep in mind that not all phones will let you use them as a way to get data for other devices, and it can also cost more per month from your cell provider(they give you unlimited bandwidth on the phone, but if you use tethering to use that phone as a modem, you have to pay for bandwidth usage).
Blackberry services...they are different from your average smartphone service when it comes to data. As a result, you get some benefits from a Blackberry, but you may run into other headaches with that Blackberry service.
So, consider, but just keep in mind you will probably be stuck in a 2 year contract or subject to an early termination fee.
On a related note, the iPhone for all its functionality and apps and such is very much locked into AT&T(with a Verizon version due in the next few weeks from what I have read). With all the hype, I have not heard enough about comparisons of how it is as a phone compared to other phones on AT&T. The dropped call issues on the iPhone COULD be service related, but it could also jus
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I believe it also depends on EXACTLY where you want to use the phone, particularly where you regularly want to use it.
You can look at the carriers web site and it can clearly show you are right in the middle of their coverage area, but get no signal, or only an intermittent signal, or only 2G instead of 3G.
I would suggest going and signing up for service by a major carrier and trying it out in the area's where you primarily will use it, and if it doesn't work well, return the equipment and cancel the servic
N900 or Moto Droid or Nexus One (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is clear and other people's answers appear to have the same problem I do -- namely that it's unclear WHAT kind of service you want (good voice quality, good data quality, good SMS, pricing, etc.) and no criteria for "Best."
At this point I could stop having criticized the question, but instead let me offer you some answers, and you can pick and choose.
I have a Nokia N900 on a T-Mobile "all you can eat" plan. The plan is great. The phone is great. In my area T-Mobile can't hold a call.
I have a Motorola Droid on a Verizon "don't eat very much but enjoy your meal" plan. The plan is so so. The phone is almost great. Verizon coverage for voice and data is awesome here.
I have a Treo 700wx running Windows Mobile 5. I believe it's three years old. It was my Verizon phone prior to the Droid, and while it was annoying in requiring reboots and factory defaults, it was reliable. I did not love it very much tho, as I'm not a big fan of Windows Mobile. Here it works on SPRINT or Verizon, which are good.
If you go 1 hour north, there are totally different carrier coverages. However, on their respective maps they all appear to have equally good coverage here or there.
SO: When asking what is the best US Cell company, realize that
1. There are different companies throughout different parts, regions, and even cities in the same country.
2. Some companies (e.g. Cricket) resell limited services of some other companies (e.g. SPRINT or Qwest or Verizon within a limited geo. area where I am)
3. Some companies (e.g. Verizon) are an amalgamation of other companies, and their services vary greatly. (Verizon *in this area* formerly Cellular One formerly Bell Atlantic)
4. Data services and voice services are a function of many different things including how they provision service to the cell sites. Literally moving two miles away may get you 700Kbps on 3G data and good phone service, but the other way no data and decent phone service.
5. SMS is something I consider critical. Others do not.
So, in sum, to wind up this post, Voice Coverage, Data Coverage, SMS Coverage, and availability of phones are what can be used to judge the best US Cell company -- in my little neighborhood. Your conclusions 5 miles away will vary.
Good luck with your quest.
E
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Good question. Regulatory powers in the non-US countries start from the Government, and then the PTTs and then carriers.
In the US the carriers are treated as regulated entities ONLY insofar as the tariff services [basically there is a core set of service that they say they will provide, and there is a tariff rate for it, but anything else isn't evaluated].
The second part of the problem is it takes 2-3 years for a consumer complaint [if not summarily dismissed] to get to the point where a regulatory agency
Re:N900 or Moto Droid or Nexus One (Score:4, Interesting)
Most people have no idea how cell service works. They complain that they have no service at home, not looking at the coverage map that shows a poor spot. The hilly country, distance from freeways and high-density residential don't figure into their assessments of capability.
When I lived in Maine, I suffered from multiple problems. Several spots where reception was poor to nonexistant, all due to topology - hills, trees, you name it. On the coast, it took 2 years and many calls to diagnose a roaming problem, and when I finally got through to a diligent tech, presto! Roaming along a 35 mile section of US Route One worked! I know I wasn't the only one calling, but 2 days after my best session with a Cingular tech, magic!
In Maine, and a lot of other states, topolgy is important. I imagine an Francisco is tough. Tulsa, not so much?
Now I live in the Phoenix area. Flat as a pancake, relatively speaking. Two spots along the Pima and Red Mountain freeways I drop calls, due to some tower handoff problem. But I'm complaining about afternoon rush hour, and I bet this is a capacity issue. So do I complain about being able to keep a call for the busiest 3 hours of the day? Well, sometimes I do.
I also had a hard time getting 3G at home, so I located the tower with a tech and sat a quarter mile from it. No 3G. He got me into the phone setup screen on my G1 (*#*#4636#*#*, from memory) and found my phone was set to GSM only. It was a small miracle I got any 3G at all. Fixed that. Only 7 months after getting my phone, and 4 calls to TMO service. No other tech even dreamed of checking that setting.
How many phones are set up wrong? Who knows? Are all equally capable? Who knows.
But I've NEVER had a billing issue in 4 years with TMobile, nor in 7 years before that with AT&T/Cingular. Go figure.
It is not so simple as people think. Of course, they largely don't care until it impacts them, of course.
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Minor nitpick: topology != topography
I doubt you're trying to use your cell phone on a doughnut-shaped surface, a Moebius strip or a Klein bottle.
Re:N900 or Moto Droid or Nexus One (Score:4, Informative)
I live in the state of Colorado. This State is about half sparsely populated flatland, and about half sparsely populated Mountains, with a thin strip of quite dense population running down the middle where the two sides meet. (The I-25 Corridor). In the city of Denver coverage is just fine but up in the mountains, trying to cover every single little town with a population 100, and occasional family cabin would not just be incredibly expensive. It would be such a large construction effort that it would ruin the wilderness which is why people live in those parts of the mountains in the first place. This doesn't even get into the fact that Americans generally avoid robust government regulation, insted hoping that the "free" market will save us all and be more efficient. America also made a heavy early investment in copper telephone lines, so we never had an actual need for wireless service like a lot of developing nations without legacy infrastructure to depend on. Despite all this, when you compare us to other large Countries with uneven population distribution like Canada, Russia, China, I think cell coverage is actually probably not too terribly bad in comparison.
The technical, political, financial, and ecological difficulties of trying to have 100% coverage just in this one state make it basically impossible to seriously consider. The idea of a single mobile network operator actually having 100% coverage in America just isn't seriously considered.
Re:Frist tsop (Score:4, Funny)