Cell Phone Service

[thiggy]

My parents are going to have to change their cell phone contract because their old phones are not compatable with the new GSW service. I was shopping around for the best deal for them. They live in the B'ham Al. area. I called a # for Verizon and didn't care for what the representative offered. I said "that's too much" and he quoted a lower rate for a different plan, and indicated it was with Sprint. He said that Sprint had better coverage in Birmingham, anyway. I was surprised that the same outfit was selling for both Verizon and Sprint, but that is not the reason for my post at this time. My question is how do I determine which of the various cell services have the best coverage in my area? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Alex Franke]

I asked neighbors and coworkers. I'm in the middle of making the same switch. If you actually get better coverage with Sprint, try giving them a call anyway.

When I called to cancel Sprint, they pulled out all the stops and threw a lot of loot on the table to keep me (they beat Verizon's rate, minutes, new phones, etc, and they even threw in some txt messages). Too bad the Sprint coverage actually isn't as good or I would have taken it...

[parnelli]

My question is how do I determine which of the various cell services have the best coverage in my area?

T-mobile has street level maps on their homepage, but I think the only reliable way is to ask around.

[Slik Geek]

Asking about cell phone providers is like asking woodworkers about how to sharpen tools. You'll get opposing, passionate opinions!

Do your own survey - every time you see someone with a cell phone, check how many bars they have for signal strength. (You can ask their opinion too, but I have found surprisingly subjective responses - I'd trust the signal strength data more).

Part of the dynamic, though, is the telephone. The same provider can work great with one phone and have poor results with another.

Here in northern Illinois, I've had very good success with Cingular (hopefully At&T won't destroy them). I've been comparing the performance of my Nokia phones (3 different ones) on Cingular with other folks for the past several years. Without exception, I've had equal or better signal strength and frequently I can make calls when others on other carriers cannot. I've traveled to New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, and Texas with Cingular and had excellent success in those places as well.

I previously had Verizon with two different Motorola phones. "Can you hear me now?" was frequently heard while we had that service. (The answer wasn't "yes"). A co-worker just switched from Verizon to Cingular last week. He loves the fact that he can now use his cell phone at home without hugging a window. He doesn't miss his previous service provider.

Your results may be different.

[Cheeky]

do they have a good plan now (pricewise and service)?

if yes, couldn't you just get a new gsw unlocked phone and keep the existing plan?

[LarryG]

Good coverage is obviously important (I'm with Verizon; coverage in my area is excellent, equal to or better than all the others; as Slik says, it can and will vary), but also consider what providers the people your parents will mostly be calling are with. I chose Verizon in large part because we have several family members both here and out-of-state who are all with Verizon. Perhaps 70 to 80 percent of our calls are in-network, which doesn't count against the monthly allotment of minutes.

[scorrpio]

Ditto for Verizon. When someone visits our area with a phone other than Verizon, their reception is crappy to none, my phone is always full signal. Plus, my entire family and most friends use it, so about 90% of my call volume is in-network.
I frankly can't recall when I had a dropped call or anything like that.

[germdoc]

As always, YMMV.

Each phone service has maps of coverage on their websites. First question--do you just want good local coverage, or nationwide non-roaming coverage? I have great local coverage with current carrier US Cellular, but coverage is lousy when driving into MN.

I'm planning to switch. Consumer Reports recently evaluated major carriers--winners, as I recall, were Alltel and Verizon. T-Mobile and Sprint were not highly rated--more dropped calls. Service plans are about the same, but Alltel has better national coverage with a lot less chance of roaming.

One other issue is phones--not that important to me, but it is to my kids! ("Dad, I've got to have a Chocolate phone! Or an Envy!") Right. I'm not thrilled with Alltel's local phone offerings (Motorola Razor is $50 with plan, Krazer costs $100 more), but the important issue for me is coverage.

I wish Apple had picked another carrier to pair with than Cingular, which doesn't even have an office in La Crosse. I'd love to get an iPhone when it becomes available (though $500 price tag is steep).

[Mrs. Wallnut]

Thiggy, a couple of questions....First off do your parents like their current service? And if they do normally you can renew the contract and upgrade phones.

If they are not happy with the service they are getting then the choice on my list is Cingular, I like the coverage they have and you get mobile to mobile which there is no charge to do that if the calling plan that you get is the one that starts offering that. I also like the fact that around our area there are few dropped calls and roaming charges.

For example, while traveling to a car show with my parents they had US Cellular and were roaming and didn't want to make any calls, now my phone wasn't roaming and was able tomake phone calls and not be charged a lot. And for Cingular I just renewed my contract and got a new Nokia flip phone that has a lot of features that I may not use but the phone was free. There is a lot of good phones on their site that are very inexpensive or free.

IMO the thing that should be done is to check with other people who have different phone service in the area and see which one they like and see how many people have that phone company.

[thiggy]

In reply to questions - My folks neither like or dislike their service. They use it very infrequently. My dad didn't know what cell plan he had, so I called their provider, Cingular. The rep. had to go back to March of '06 to find the most recent time my dad had used the phone. Mother uses hers a little more frequently, but not much. They have a real old plan which cannot be retained, $14.99 per mo per phone with no minutes. They are charged $.49 per minute for each call!! It is fortunate that they don't use them much. They are really only for emergency use. The rest of the family is on cingular. (This is partially because I carry my own phones, my son, daughter and grandson on my account.) So it would probably be advantageous to remain with Cingular. I may just add them to my plan @$9.99 additional per month, as that would be cheaper than a separate plan for them alone. The price will be about the same with any company, and my question was really just to see if there was any concrete method to determine which firm had the best coverage for my area. Thanks for all the comments.

[ragswl4]

Cellular Phone Service

Based on usage you may want to consider the prepaid phones. My mother needed one for emergencys (she's 80 and still drives, very independent and youthful for her age). I got her a regular phone which she never used so went the prepaid route. I think most of the carriers offer this. Just a thought.

[TJG]

There are two primary factors I use to consider cell providers - Service and Customer Service. Service is how strong and reliable the signal is in the places I plan to use it. Customer Service is how well the company provides assistance if you need to call them.

In determining service, go to the places you expect to use the phone most, and ask around. Most people will be glad to tell you what they use and whether they like it. If you move around a lot during the day, and need overall coverage, ask the people in the various regions - at restaurants, gas stations, businesses you are visiting. Most people can look at their phone and tell you how strong the signal is, so it's easy to determine which providers cover the area you need.

Customer Service is also important. When I was on Verizon, any time I called customer service to ask a question, or resolve a problem, it was one call. The person answered question, or resolved problem while I was on the phone. Excellent service. When I was on Cingular, I overpaid a bill - missed a decimal point, so it was a substantial overpayment. When I discovered the problem, I called them. There response was they would expedite the return, I should have it in 2 weeks. Now, to me 2 weeks isn't expedited especially when it involves thousands of dollars. Seven phone calls and six weeks later, they finally wrote the check and it took another 3 days to arrive in the mail. Needless to say, I then paid the early termination penalty, and have left Cingular, and will never consider them again.

Even if the plans cost a little more, I would pay it to get the better customer service. Consumer Reports does evaluate cell phone customer service, and Verizon is always high on the list. I believe most of the evaluation is based on consumers reporting their experiences.

Thats my 2 cents - hope it helps someone.
Tom

[Hoover]

Based on usage you may want to consider the prepaid phones. My mother needed one for emergencys (she's 80 and still drives, very independent and youthful for her age). I got her a regular phone which she never used so went the prepaid route. I think most of the carriers offer this. Just a thought.

We used to have Verizon wireless for years, but never used that many minutes to justify having the service. We now have a prepaid phone and like the service. Check out prepaid phones, that may be a good alternative. We bought a Virgin Mobile cell phone for $20.00 at Radio Shack and 90 minutes prepaid cos $20.00 and the minutes are good for 90 days.

[gerti]

Switched to Virgin Mobile as well. That $20 phone is surprisingly good, and it is the Sprint network so it has decent coverage. We don't use the phone much, and usually pay less than $7 per month.

[Ed62]

We have a Verizon phone. Pretty good service with no dropped calls, as least so far.

Sprint, IMHO, has the worst customer service imaginable. We have a son who is disabled. I handle all of his affairs, and we got a cell phone for him for emergencies. It is a Sprint phone. All extra options, such as text messages, internet, etc. were to be blocked so the bill would be the same from month to month. No additional charge services were to be available. Beginning with the first bill he received, there were charges in addition to the base contract, and they were in the neighborhood of $20 - $50 per month. I spent hours and hours and hours on the phone with someone from India, trying to get things straightened out. Every month was the same thing, and every month I was assured it would not happen again...........until the next bill. I finally sat down to figure what the state sales tax should be. The amount they were charging was in excess of what our sales tax was. Federal taxes were more difficult to get a handle on. Eventually, I decided to send the payment called for in the contract, including my best guess on total taxes (I was very very close). I sent this amount in every month, but the additional charges just kept coming, and mounting up. Eventually, Sprint threatened to cut off phone service if we didn't pay the amount they said we owed. They did cut it off. When they did not get any more money from us, someone called in hopes of getting things straightened out. I refused to pay, and told them to take me to court. Only then did I get someone to talk to who actually wanted to help. It took about 9 months to get things straightened out. Service has been restored, and the bills are now accurate. But you shouldn't have to spend a short lifetime talking to someone from India, who either doesn't want to help, or is unable. When the contract runs out, I'll seriously consider changing to another carrier.

Sorry for the loooooong rant.

Ed