Hi there.. I had cingular for 2 yrs and the service in my home was great. Last yr, our office moved to verizon and the service has been crap at my house. since my office pays for it, i wanted to use it and get rid of long distance last week i moved back to cingular and have already used the phone over 3 hrs! ALSO nokia phones are the best and verizon only offers one and its not the newest one. i say go with cingular and get the nokia 6340.. you will love it!
Get the one that has the best coverage and prices/service plan for your area - it can vary greatly between markets. i have verizon and had cingular - we canceled cingular because 'nationwide coverage' was only where they have GSM coverage, which isn't nationwide, even though the map says it's nationwide. They didn't tell us that when we changed plans, we found out we didn't have 'nationwide' service only after we left on a trip. i do have a problem with verizon and i hope they see things my way. <g> We have nationwide coverage, 300 min a month. The phone was used a lot in another verizon market area and has many calls on the last bill that were made in the previous billing period - 10 days worth to be exact. So instead of having 300 min for 30 days, the bill covers 40 days and is way over as a result. i'm hoping they'll prorate by day and give me 400 min allowance... i have to remember to call monday about it.
I had the best luck with Sprint PCS but I canceled that account for $$$ reasons (couldn't afford it anymore). Verizon (formerly PrimeCo) Sux in my humble opinion. Don't use Voicestream either, they have serious billing issues.
GSM is a cellular signal type - CDMA and analog are the others. GSM defination and links to other wireless terms are here: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/G/GSM.html
I've had service with Verizon, Alltel and Cingular. I know from experience that they all have billing and customer service issues. Choose the carrier that has best coverage and pricing for the area you need it in - you'll use the phone daily but may never need to call CS. (I need to call maybe once or twice a year.) Talk to the users in your area to see who has the best coverage, clearest signal and fewest dropped calls. It varies greatly by location and a company that's bad in one region can be great in another. Think about your usage and look for the best plan for your needs.
dont forget that cingular gives you 14 day full refund trial and verizon gives 30 days... so you can test them out yourself and then make an educated decision
I just got ATT wireless, with a Nokia 3360 phone, and I really like it!! They're having specials on the phones too. I qualified for 2 free ones, so you can't beat that!!
I felt I should clarify. Voicestream has serious billing issues. I have had to call twice a month for the last 4-5 months because every month I get a bill for around $400.00 for a cell phone that is hardly used at all. I generally use about 150-200 minutes on a 600 minute plan that supposedly includes all long distance and roaming charges for free. Every few weeks I am forced to call because their billing system reinstates charges that were credited in my last call to them. They are usually (but not always) friendly and unhelpful when I call. Verizon has serious quality issues. Verizon use to be PrimeCo and PrimeCo was by far the worst cell phone carrier on the planet (in my experience) as far as quality of calls. Most of the time the phone would never ring and I would get a voicemail indicator the next day. I was constantly checking my voicemail to try and figure out who called me in the last hour or so because the phone would never ring (I had serveral different handsets so it wasn't my handset). On the rare occasions when the calls did get through they were garbled (like an alien conversation) and I usually ended up trying to find a landline to call the person back. AT&T Wireless. I had severe issues with AT&T Wireless. They charge me $50 on my cell pone bill for changing my HOME phone number. Read that again. AT&T Wireless was not my local (home) phone provider, nor did they offer local residential service in my area. when I called them they stated that I signed a contract that allowed them to do this, I asked for but never received a copy of alleged contract but they proceeded to send my account to a CA which I promptly disputed. Every six months or so I get a CA attempting to collect this and I dispute it and they disappear for another six month until another CA attempts to collect (this is not illegal appearantly). Nextel. Nextel is very expensive for the plans that you get. Their service is almost as poor as primeco's was. Nextel is the only carrier (that I'm aware of) that uses outdate TDMA technology. They have the neat walkie talkie feature but half the time the conversation is too garble (alien like) to be usefull. I have Nextel because my work provides it for me, I cannot complete a call when driving because the signal fades in and out so often. If I find a good spot however, the call sounds fine. Sprint. The only issue I ever had with sprint was that they charged me full price for a replacement handset when my original broke (dropped). oh, and they are very expensive for what you get (why I cancelled that service). I've never used cingular or alltel so I don't have any opinion of them. Just My Humble Opinion. PAE
