Cell Phones

[Veloise]

Just remembered...on my T-Mobile gig my boss would call me from I-94. With AT&T I had to go stand in the front window and hold very still (living in Westland at the time) and his message would be "call me back." He looooved T-M because it was 600 minutes for dirt cheap, but it only worked well on major interstates. So his cheap minutes cost me three times over: the initial call, my picking up the voicemail, and my returning his call.

My sibs all have Cingular/whatever, and we all went wireless right after our first parental illness issues. (Why drive home from Beaumont to pick up your messages on a land line?) We all ended up with Cingular due to geography (Houston, Dayton, St Louis/Chicago/Lansing) and we can talk to each other for free. The concept of text messaging (and sending the same message to multiple phones) is extremely helpful from the standpoint of a hospital waiting room.

And, during the big blackout of 03 (which hit Detroit, not here), texting continued to work, while voice calls did not. Something to remember should you ever need it.

[Kayak1]

I have Nextel with the Blackberry myself but it is because I am in the construction industry and is basically a requirement. My wife has Trac-Phone which works for her because she doesn't use many minutes. We have only spent $40 in minutes since the first of November.

[6th Gen local]

Oh the days of calling from a pay phone to the office for messages. Even better was that first pager, now I could be reached anytime. Of course pay phones weren't always available so now we have cell phones. Available anywhere anytime for everyone.

I have some Verizon all-everything demo plan for work. I travel the State and it works for me. Some of my co-workers in Northern Michigan use Alltel and love it. Co-workers in the SW corner of the State love Centennial.

I can't wait until they have cell phone brain implants given what I've seen.

[DwntwnGeo]

My wife and I have cingular and we have absolutely great service throughout the state. They have great customer service too and a very nice pay as you go plan

[Veloise]

Oh the days of calling from a pay phone to the office for messages. Even better was that first pager, now I could be reached anytime. Of course pay phones weren't always available so now we have cell phones. Available anywhere anytime for everyone.

...

[Allison Slater]

One thing I've found interesting about text messages is a lot of companies seem to charge you based on how many you receive. So all it takes is one jerk to send you a bunch and give you a big bill. T-Mobile always charged me for messages I sent, putting me in control of how much I pay for that. On prepay, 1 text message would consume 1 minute. With carefully worded messages, I could say more in one message than I could in 1 minute voice. (I had a phone with a fold-out keyboard, so the messages were easy for me to word carefully. ^^)

Another thing I just remembered is that T-Mobile's coverage map only shows their towers, but in reality they have wider coverage through roaming, and I believe I was not charged extra for roaming on the pre-pay plan.

And actually yeah I do remember Alltel having a very cheap pre-pay plan.. in fact I think it was originally my first choice over T-Mobile, however for some reason they required a credit check and initial deposit for pre-pay, which completely defeated the purpose of me ever getting pre-pay in the first place, so I went with T-Mobile and am glad I did.

[Rhino6885]

I'm surprised to hear so many good things about T-Mobile. I couldn't get reception in my living room, and I live seconds from Cherry/Diamond/Lake. I also dropped calls driving down Fuller between 196 and Plainfield, and even along 96, 69, and parts of I-75. I know there were many more bad spots, but Verizon made me forget about those days...go with Verizon!

To be fair, I was using a Motorola Razor...one of the first that was released, which may be partially guilty. They may have a more recent version that has addressed the connectivity issues, but I wouldn't chance it.

[michguy582]

Work pays for my nextel, and I hate it. I wish that being in the construction field that everyone would switch to a different system. Nextel does not have a good selection of phones, i just recently bought the i930, which is a fun phone, but i wish that there were more phones to select, that were smaller.

[PR-15]

I'm surprised to hear so many good things about T-Mobile. I couldn't get reception in my living room, and I live seconds from Cherry/Diamond/Lake. I also dropped calls driving down Fuller between 196 and Plainfield, and even along 96, 69, and parts of I-75. I know there were many more bad spots, but Verizon made me forget about those days...go with Verizon!

To be fair, I was using a Motorola Razor...one of the first that was released, which may be partially guilty. They may have a more recent version that has addressed the connectivity issues, but I wouldn't chance it.

[Nitro]

I've used T-Mobile for 4 years and they are fantastic. I travel all over the state/country and the only trouble spots are where there is no civilization/major highway...you'd need a satellite phone to do better. Their customer service is the best I have experienced. I think it's an extremely efficient company and the rates are excellent.

[rallymatt]

To be fair, I was using a Motorola Razor...one of the first that was released, which may be partially guilty. They may have a more recent version that has addressed the connectivity issues, but I wouldn't chance it.

[Allison Slater]

A LOT of signal strength issues are related to the phone, not always the provider. I know I had trouble maintaining signal in my bedroom with my old Nokia on T-Mobile (I expected it.. I'm in the exurbs outside Wayland.) Now I have a Sidekick 3, and I rarely lose signal in my bedroom.

Make sure you're getting good phones as well.

[tamias6]

My cell phone's antennae is all internal. But I saw a Motorola flip phone compatible with my provider that had an external antennae, i.e. the little nub sticking out from near the hinge. As funny as this may sound I wonder if that makes any difference.

[Phizzy]

My wife and I also have Verizon with zero problems. Verizon seems to have great coverage for Michigan (except remote parts of northern Michigan).

[BGIII]

I wish that being in the construction field that everyone would switch to a different system.

[rallymatt]

And everyone in the choir yelled "AMEN"

I was just thinking about this thread and how much I hate Nextel as I was driving home last night and I had no service for about 5 minutes of my drive. Junk, nothing but crappy service, expensive phones and excuses.

[Timize]

Skip the sales guys. My wife and I went through lowermybills.com to the cell phone section. You can compare a ton of different phones, different rate plans, and different service providers. We both got Razr phones with Cingular Wireless and only paid $30 for one phone and like $70 for the second (after rebate of course), and we pay $60 or $70/month for service for two of us. We haven't had any problems with coverage or the provider.

Just read the instructions for the rebates very carefully. There's only a certain window of opportunity to send them in, like between 120 - 150 days after service starts.

I just looked and they have a free Razr phone with Cingular. Grrr.