Cell Phone Madness

Picking a cell phone provider can be difficult. Many of them are all the same and it will depend on what is available. I went with voicestream/tmobile since they are GSM and are the lesser of all evils in this neck of the woods. Good service, both customer and telephone. Re: phones… I have a Samsung phone which has been great. Motorola's power tended to wane just too easily for me on the one phone of theirs I have had.

Does it have BIG BUTTONS? :o)
I agree with Bruce. I do have the occasional problem with my Motorola…but for some reason, I still use it. Its not bad, but there is room for improvement.

I had Verizon, and hated every second of it. I switched to Voicestream (now TMobile) and I've LOVED it. It's great for those of you who have a ton of friends with TMobile, because cell-to-cell within their service is free, including long distance. I've been able to stay in touch with my girlfriend quite cheaply this way.

I'm with Cingular but you're right Chirs, you need to find the lesser of the evils for where you're located. Look at when their night and weekends start, some at 7 pm, most at 9 pm. Who gives you the most anytime minutes? Do they allow free long distance? Serivce in areas you travel like Iowa? Do they allow free mobile to mobile for their other customers (A big plus) It took me a long time to get who I have and rightlfully so. These contracts seem to get longer and longer.

And yes…I do know how to spell your name! Sheesh I type too fast.

I've been with Verizon before and had lots of trouble with both phone and customer service. When I switched to Nextel everything was great. Only thing is you have to get two phone to have the Direct Connect feature. Both customer service and phone service has been great, but no GSM just yet.

Verzion? I LOVE THEM! At least they are awesome in our area…Suncom, AT&T, Nextel, Ntelos, all the other ones out here are pretty bad. I love Verizon so far. I was just looking at the T720 yesterday as a matter of fact, Chris. I'm thinking of getting it this weekend. Great phone from what I hear right now.

Chris, I have the Motorola V60i and love it. Verizon has been great in service, amenities, and offers. Get the national plan if you can since you travel. You can use your phone just about anywhere in the country with no extra charges. I went to Vegas, turned on the phone and the time automatically changed to the local time. Have fun and let us know what you end up getting.–Thom

Uhm, sorry. I'm a little off topic here, but this was my last resort. Do any of you remember seeing a picture of Chris's fine computer desk setup? That desk rocks, I want one (or something similar, heck, I might make one). Anyway, if somebody remembers that site that had Gretchen's desk, Furo's desk, and so on, send it my way. I'll check back in this comments section for any replies. Thank you Chris, and your followers. =]

This is the phone I want. But “Sprint” is the only one who carries it. And the phone model isn't available in Canada. Bummer. Here's a link http://www.cnet.com/wireless/0-1923403-8-20405994-1.html?tag=txt

I've so many services, Verizon is the worst by far. I now have T-mobile (from Voicestream which was Omnipoint) and I like the service, only place I didn't have service was in the backwoods of NC. I'm looking forward to the Sidekick (formerly known as the Danger Device). Remember Chris if you travel make sure you're carrier has either service to the most traveled places or a good plan to make up for it;)

I don't know how good your Radio Shack is, but I'd make sure they knew their cell phone stuff. We have a Radio Shack in our small town (5k pop.) and it took them 3 or 4 tries to program our cell phones correctly. It's a real hassle. I'd just recommend talking to other people who got their phones there and what they had to say about it.

Hi Chris. I may be a little late but I wanted to add my 2 cents. I've been a Verizon Wireless customer for many years how. (I live in Philly.) I've never had a problem with my cell. The network is great (doesn't drop out like most of the other services.) I had two Startaks (analog and digital) and now I have a digital nokia. I also have what I think is a great plan. (I don't use my cell a lot) My plan is $35.00 a month and I get 300 free peak minutes and 4l000 night and weekend minutes. I use my digital cell to access the net with my laptop and the data transfer time is used from my regular account. So when on vacation on the weekend I had the 4000 minutes to use to surf.
All that said, I do recommend Verizon. I've also purchased phones and contracts from Radio Shack as well as Verizon.
Good luck with your new phonel

Chris, I have Nextel and love it. I have the Motorola i90c. If you get Gretchen on Nextel also, you can use Direct connect all the time. The speakerphones on these things are awesome. If you want color, get the i95c.
I used my Nextel phone and service while I was down in San Jose recently and it worked great. You should have no problems with it in San Fran whatsoever.
My wife and I don't even have home phone service anymore, we use our cell phones for everything.
I highly recommed them based on my experience. Since you live in a major city, they will work fine. You might want to check coverage for Iowa on their website though. They do not have analog roaming. I would think that the larger cities in Iowa would be covered.

No comments on any of the cell phone service providers since none of them are available in my area but as for Radio Shack goes and the local stores in my small town, I'm going to agree with Russ, I dont' think I would ever buy a big priced item from the shops around here..

Stay away from Motorola's 120c. First week the antenna fell off and then some how I lost my number nine. So emergency calls are out of the question.
I am on Verizon and I would have to say its ok. Nothing too great in this area anyway.

The first thing to decide is what you need from the service. For me, coverage is the most important (I'm in Sacramento). I had Verizon, switched to AT&T for a better plan, hated the constant dropouts and dropped calls, and just switched back to Verizon and already like the coverage better.
Second, getconnected.com carries Verizon and has a rebate–I took the $50 offer, but I think they just raised it to $100. I got the new V60i for $149 after rebate.

I understand Samsung phones are nifty. However, the one i like is offered through Cingular.
http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/nabc/prod/hhcommerce/telecommunications/prod_tel_subcategory_1.jsp
for verizon samsung models:
http://www.samsungtelecom.com/recommend/by_provider.asp?pid=2

I just picked up a Motorola T720 and I love it! I've had it about a week now and I only have one complaint and that's the relatively short battery life but what do ya expect considering the color screen. Just shut off a few things you may not need to save juice and have that charger with you in the car. If you use the phone alot, maybe consider a second backup battery or just wait till a higher-capacity battery comes out, which should be soon. The sound is clear and crisp and connection-loss is minimal. Bottom line is this phone rocks, and with the $100 trade-in rebate it's worth every penny and more. It's also currently the best phone Verizon has to offer. Avoid the Z-800 and the LX series as Verizon had horrible problems with the LX-1, the LX-10 is available now but could you trust it? Maybe, maybe not. The only other phone I'd consider from Verizon is the Samsung A310, it's not color but it's a quality piece. Of course the Motorola V60i is nice and still extremely popular but it's becoming dated feature-wise. So anyone considering the T720 shouldn't think twice about it and pick one up, ya won't regret it.

A friend has that phone without any problems. I use voicestreem myself and have had no problems.
Stay away from Cingular

Stay away from SprintPCS at all costs. If you were to get a VZW phone then go to a VZW store, don't go to a Radio Shack. In my experience they will rape, maim, screw you over for a buck. I would go with T-Mobile. T-Mobile uses Cingular's towers in cali but they use their own switches/equipment so you won't get tons of dropped calls like you do with Cingular. T-Mo all the way!

verizon sucks .. mom had it .. a friend having it right now .. they both having problem with not receiving phone calls. T-mobile uses the same tower as Cingular and they also sucks .. drop calls all the time. the best provider is att and that's what i am on.

Don't do it man. I had Verizon for a year, and when my phone finally up and quit, reciving no calls or anything, they refused to replace it, even though it was their promo phone. They said I had to wait another year to have them replace it, since I was on a two year plan. I love sprint so much better. I get reception absolutly everywhere, and I live in Sacramento, CA.

As far as carriers go, for every horrible review there's a good review, so basically it just gets down to luck of the draw. There's a few bad reviews of Verizon on this thread, but I'm one that hasn't had any problems with Verizon. In many cases it just gets down to the service in a particular area or a particular phone that's not working well with the network.

I used my Nextel i90 @ Gnomedex2 without a singe problem. In fact, I had better coverage all through Iowa than I did in Michigan. I was able to use my phone for the entire drive, and everywhere that I went while I was in Iowa.
The biggest drawback to Nextel is the high up front cost for the phone.
Paying your bill could not be easier though. You can do it online, over the phone, or through the mail. My plan gives me free nights and weekends, unlimited direct connect, free instate long distance, and 1000 anytime minutes for about $60.00 a month. Plus, your long distance is based on what state you are in at the moment. So all local calls that I made in Iowa were LOCAL. I was only charged long distance for the calls that I made to Michigan. I don't have a regular phone. Why would I.

I also have the T720. My mom and I each got one two weeks ago. And we LOVE it! It does everything except wash the dishes. Great little phone. And it has a high coolness factor, every time I open it up, people say “Ooooh, is that a COLOR screen?” and then they try to rip it out of my hands.

Chris,
I have been analyzing wireless since 1978. I am very familiar with cellular. I subscribe to both Verizon (best coverage in the U.S.) and T-Mobile (best for using overseas because it's GSM). The Motorola T720 is a good phone.
However, if you don't need a phone immediately, I would suggest you wait until mid-December to make a choice. The reason is there should be two or more new phones — all with color and many with polyphonic ringtones — introduced for Verizon.
I have seen these phones. The T720 has a large screen, decent color and okay navigational menus. A couple of the other phones have smaller screens, but with better color. Motorola isn't known for good interfaces, but it improves every year to the point where it's now possible to use the phone without a manual.
So, if you need/want a phone immediately, the new Motorola unit is a good one. But if you wait for a couple of months, you will have a larger selection from Verizon.