What Cell Phone Provider Do You Have?

[fsubelch]

The iPhone thread got me thinking...What is the most popular/best cell phone provider in our area. My personal phone is Cingular, and my work phone is Verizon. I can't say that one is better then the other, but I do know my verizon phone works in my basement office downtown whereas my cingular does not....

[poonther]

Verizon here now and happy w/it.

I get exceptional coverage w/Verizon, I even get coverage in the very rural areas between Tally and Mexico Beach/Port St. Joe which is extremely important to me since I travel that way a lot to visit the parental units.

Before we were on Nextel.............UGH! Poor poor coverage and it would drop my call always on I-95 between Boca and Lauderdale which isn't exactly in the middle of nowhere.

[Glenn]

^ "best cell phone provider" is sort of a misnomer because it's different for everyone depending on where they live, work, travel, their personal usage trends, etc. I hear people swear that so & so is the best carrier & later that day someone else is dog cussing the same carrier. It all comes down to what works best for you personally. Because of my usage patterns, primary areas of travel around our area, my home, where I work & the building I'm in, etc. I personally use Alltel & have for many years. When I'm out of range of an Alltel site or travelling elsewhere around the Country I'm on Verizons network. Alltel & Verizon have a reciprocal roaming agreement with one another nationwide. I've been very pleased with my setup. There are many other good carriers out there, I'm not saying these are the "best", they just happen to be the best for me. By the way, Alltel Wireless is in the process of being bought by a private equity group. The deal should close by 4th Qtr. Alltel spun off their wireline business last year to concentrate solely on growing their wireless business.

edited to add: Poonther's example given above is a perfect example of how well the reciprocal roaming site sharing agreement between Verizon & Alltel works for us in North Florida, especially some of the more rural, remote areas like going from Tally to Mexico Beach. I bet Poonther is probably getting ready to head down there today or tomorrow.

[Olebiker]

Alltel spun off their wireline business last year to concentrate solely on growing their wireless business.

[TD]

I use T-mobile, Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon.... Hehe im a cell fanatic, if you want to know anything about cell phones, plans etc ask me... Plus i worked for sprint before

[Go Gators]

I too, am a NEXTEL convert. I will never recommend them to anyone, for any reason. T-Mobile is fine as far as service, although currently I am in a bit of a quarrel with their customer service department.

[fsubelch]

I had nextel when I first go to Tallahassee about 5 years ago. The coverage was decent, but the price was so expensive!

[Beukeboom]

I have Alltell and a very early plan that gives me unlimited hours at any time for free. They've long stopped offering that plan but we got locked in well over a decade ago and they still honor it.

[Monticello-1827]

i have sprint and am reasonable happy with it. i had t-mobile but when i moved to monticello they lacked the coverage i needed... i couldn't use my phone unless i was headed towards I-10!

i do wish sprint phones had that little chip you could take out, put in a new phone and have all your #'s etc. on it... AT&T has that correct? maybe i'll change...

[Rachiroo]

Yeah Cingular/AT&T has the smart chip, but depending on the type of phone and the type of chip, your info doesn't necessarily transfer, but it does allow you to switch from phone to phone easily.

I also have Cingular/AT&T for personal cell and Verizon for work, I've found that one will work when the other won't. My Verizon phone has a strange tendancy to start roaming and kill its own battery in strange places.

[Florida]

With Sprint all one needs to do is take the old phone in with the new phone and they'll transfer the information for you... free of charge. Takes 5-10 minutes.

[AlaninTally]

I have Verizon and couldn't be more happy with it. Never once had a major problem and seem to be able to make and take calls anywhere.

[gatoremt]

I have used Alltel for several years now. I have use them since they were 360 communication and Centel Cellular. I have taken my Alltell phone all over and have never had any problems with it. My Alltel plan for what I have can not be beat by any of the other major 4. Plus I have no CONTRACT with Alltel because I buy my phones used and Alltel does not require you to have a contract to do it that way.

[CapeFish]

AT&T (the artist formerly known as Cingular) is my wireless phone provider. Happy with them...always seem to drop calls on Apalachee Parkway past the light for Conner Blvd. in between those rolling hills...but my new G3 phone (LG CU400) seems to take the signal better and the dropped calls are down big time.

Got a 25% discount from AT&T/Cingular for being an FSU student: http://www.wireless.att.com/businesscenter/ (type in your FSU e-mail account and they will send you an e-mail with the info needed....you may have to call them and ask for it)

BTW, I would rather send letters in the mail than NEXTEL. They are rude and the product is inferior. Sprint, IMO, doesn't cover my home in Tally or even down south well enough. Only AT&T, Alltel and Verizon seem to be consistent.

I still keep my EMBARQ landline for home use and my DSL connection.

[Gearhart~]

I have Alltel, couldn't be happier with the service.

[AlaninTally]

Since this thread was originally created because of the debut of the iPhone....

So definitely even after this brief amount of time, the iPhone has been very influential on the cell phone market in general.

You now see touch screens as the next big must have for phones (see the LG Venus and LG Voyager from Verizon).

The iPhone opened up the discussions on the rights of cell phone users and the ability to go to the carrier of their choice with the phone of their choice. I suppose this was a result of iPhone envy by people without AT&T, but wanted the iPhone and not be saddled with AT&T's slower network. Also, I think that the price of the iPhone "got" to people because if you are paying that much money for something, you ought to be able to have more control over what you do with that item.

Draconian as they tend to be, Verizon Wireless is in discussions to open their network to 3rd party devices and apps. Again, I think because of what happened with the iPhone. They even have their own iPhone competitor, the LG Voyager, which CNET jsut compared to the iPhone and the Voyager won.

[Florida]

Since this thread was originally created because of the debut of the iPhone....

So definitely even after this brief amount of time, the iPhone has been very influential on the cell phone market in general.

You now see touch screens as the next big must have for phones (see the LG Venus and LG Voyager from Verizon).

The iPhone opened up the discussions on the rights of cell phone users and the ability to go to the carrier of their choice with the phone of their choice. I suppose this was a result of iPhone envy by people without AT&T, but wanted the iPhone and not be saddled with AT&T's slower network. Also, I think that the price of the iPhone "got" to people because if you are paying that much money for something, you ought to be able to have more control over what you do with that item.

Draconian as they tend to be, Verizon Wireless is in discussions to open their network to 3rd party devices and apps. Again, I think because of what happened with the iPhone. They even have their own iPhone competitor, the LG Voyager, which CNET just compared to the iPhone and the Voyager won.

[poonther]

I'll be the bad cop for the sake of conversation!

A phone should be small, fit snug to my ear and get good reception! Not do all the music listening/movie watching/web surfing! That's what's wrong with America today, everybody wants to be a "007".

[Florida]

I do not plan to get an iPhone or the first release from Verizon (my carrier) that will compete against the iPhone, but I do like the idea of an all-in-one phone. Not so much from the stand-point of my daily life here in Tally, but when I travel. I travel a lot and often for a week or more at a time. It would be nice to just carry small iPhone type device for travel and not have to lug my laptop, iPod and cell phone w/me. That is the main reason this type of device (not the iPhone) interests me.

[Rachiroo]

Poonther: I say you get a neat little carry-all bag that has neat compartments for your laptop (well how big is this thing?), ipod, and cell. If they don't make bags such as this, there's your next BIG idea! We could start a company making neat ol' bags for trips such as this. Down with the all-in-ones!! First those TV/VCR combos that I hated, now this!! Spread that money around I say!!!

[Florida]

I agree with Poonther, FL. It isn't the bag that is a problem. My backback will easily carry the laptop, cell phone(s), ipod, but it's a lot of expensive equipment to keep track of. Being able to merge phone and ipod into one device means one less item to keep track of, one less cord to carry. May not seem like much, but when you have to pack up and move your whole life around for months on end (in my case), that one extra device and cord could be the breaking point!

[TD]

You've been doing it all these years, it hasn't killed ya! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[Rachiroo]

You've been doing it all these years, it hasn't killed ya! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[poonther]

Hey Grand-Master, if Verizon is on your worst list (and I understand it's subjective) then Nextel has got to be there too. I think my like for Verizon stems from my hatred of Nextel while under their contract for two years.

Two tin cans connected by string are more reliable and have better quality IMHO than Nextel.....and oh how I loathe to hear folks in public having a long conversation on their walkie-talkie function.

And Rachiroo I'm happy to see you understand about traveling w/tons of electronic devices and especially their cords/headphones etc. I too have a nifty lap-top bag and a messenger bag I carry on travels w/me, so there is enough room for all this stuff. It's just a hassle to keep up w/all of them and their accessories. I'm always in fear of leaving my lap-top cord or cell phone charger behind in a hotel room.

On Edit: I would never tell anyone to go out and get Verizon b/c my like for them isn't that strong, but I would recommend strongly to folks to not get Nextel. Our bill w/two phones actually has gone down w/Verizon over the same plan we had w/Nextel. I'm not sure if that would be the case for everyone. We don't have a home phone, so I'm on the ton-o-minutes plan.

[Florida]

Ahh the Cell Phone grand master myself, gets to chime in this topic.... Some of the posts make me laugh, especially Verizon, which is bar none the worst carrier...

Best

Sprint

At&T

Now, I purposefully didnt go into detail because i look forward to the responses, especially people defending their trash carriers. haha