National Cell Phone Plan

[Iced Up]

I need opinions on what the best nation-wide cell phone plan/company is? Any takers??

 

[Iced Up]

Hey, anybody have an opinion on what the best nation-wide cell phone plan/company is??

 

[wheelsup]

verizon on their america's choice national plan. you get coverage where most people have to pay roaming.

excellent service, i signed up for a 1 year agreement and when that ran up it went to month to month with no service fees or anything. pretty cool...$39.99 + up.

otherwise you get get their national one rate thing, or with any carrier for that matter. but if you don't want to get a plan that has roaming included (those are expensive) check out verizon, i've never been in a roaming area and I travel a lot.

~wheelsup

 

[Benny Hill]

I've had the Verizon plan for 3+ years now and have never had an issue with their billing or service.

I used to fly for a small telecom company that competed with the Bells/Verizon and I was the only one that kept my Verizon service when hired- I was the only one that would have service on the road at times, I was the only one that was happy with service and billing.

Good luck

 

[I Hate Freight]

Verizon

Verizon has the best coverage bar none. You can use your phone in nearly 100% of the country with no roaming charges. If you're flying to smaller cities a lot then Verizon is the way to go. The others cannot even come close. AT&T, T-Mobile and Cingular all provide good service but their coverage outside of the big cities or big metro areas is nil.

IHF

 

[English]

Switched two months ago from AT&T to Verizon. Haven't had a single dropped call, reception is great, bill is 50% less. I've used the phone in HI, CA, FL, TX with no problems. Works great on the beach in Kailua

 

[blahshmah]

I switched to Verizon from Sprint a few years ago... it was a great move. Great service, fair pricing and plenty of phones to choose from.

 

[Rick1128]

It depends on where you fly. I switched from Verison to ATT. I was happy with Verison, but they don't offer service outside of North America. I go all over the world. Have been reasonably happy with the GSM from ATT.

 

[BoilerUP]

I don't personally know a single person who has Verizon service who likes it; most are stuck because of contracts.

I have the Cingular GSM nationwide plan and I like it. Coverage was MUCH better a year ago when everything was still TMDA, but I've been happy with the growth in Cingular's GSM coverage since October 03 when I upgraded my phone. We have a family farm in the KY boonies and I now have three bars of reception there, better than with TMDA. I think this might be because they merged with AT&T Wireless.

Your mileage might vary...

 

[I Hate Freight]

I don't personally know a single person who has Verizon service who likes itB]

Well, there's at least 8 here

 

[rettofly]

Well, there's at least 8 here

Umm....make that 9!

 

[Fly2Scuba]

Had Verizon, just switched to Sprint

I had Verizon for almost 4 years up until just 2 weeks ago. My Audivox phone was malfunctioning big time, yet the first customer service person at Verizon told me I'd be out of luck for the new every 2 program unless I waited 2 more months for my contract to come up. Another CS person told me over the phone otherwise, yet I decided to shop around.
Almost all my friends have Sprint and the nail in the coffin to switch was at Radio Shack. They sell both Sprint and Verizon and the manager heavily advised going with Sprint; perhaps RS gets a bigger chunk from Sprint? Anyways so far so good with Sprint; much cheaper plans and add on options then Verizon and I get better coverage in certain areas like my house and in my crewroom. For instance, adding unlimited Sprint to Sprint is $5 a month, changing nighttime minutes to begin at 7 PM is a $5 a month option, having unlimited Roaming calls an additional $5 a month a option.
By the way Sprint gives a $150 rebate every 18 months towards a new phone if you sign 2 year contract, Verizon $100 credit every 2 years if you sign up for a new 2 year contract. This is all coming from a former pro Verizon person for a number of years.

 

[whitey]

ATT

Had nextel when I was in the lower 48 and the service was expensive but o.k. The service people didn't know their @ss from a hole in the ground and were really rude. Switched to AT&T right before I moved to Alaska and the service has been really good and I don't roam up here in Anchorage. AT&T is a little expensive though.

 

[avbug]

I've had AT&T, QWest, Sprint, and Verizon. The best advice and information I ever received from this site was to go to Verizon.

AT&T used filthy business practices, had terrible service, below-bottom customer service, and their equipment kept failing. Qwest was a nightmare, dropped calls constantly, had poor connectivity, couldn't get their billing straight (something in common with AT&T), and continued to bill me for a year after I had dropped their service and closed the account. Sprint made all sorts of wonderful promises, including the advent of free roaming...but didn't bother to tell me until after the first bill that it was only free if at least half my calling was in a sprint area.

I do a lot of remote calling, and my first bill was hundreds of dollars, even though I'd only used a few of the minutes.

Verizon, using one of their least expensive phones, has been phenomenol. Their service is good, even in remote locations...forgetting to turn my phone off, I've had calls come through inadvertantly at very high altitudes, too.

The equipment is tougher than nails. The qualcom phone (LGT or LGB or something like that) was on my hip this new-year's when I was struck in the driver's door by several cars. The phone was crushed against my hip, and the top part shattered, including the outside screen. It still worked like a charm for a few months until I could get to a place where I could replace it. I couldn't walk...but the phone was up and running. Can't complain about that (as far as the phone goes, anyway).

I'm very pleased with Verizon.

I'm pissed enough with AT&T that I gave the phone to someone else, quit paying the bills in order to let the service lap, and decided that they can go to hell for all I care. They extended the contract repeatedly without authorization, changed rates, switched to roaming during calls and charged me for it...and hit me with eight hundred dollar a month bills for making calls within my published service areas and during the allotted hours, within my allotted minutes. Let them take their payment in blood, because they're not getting it from my wallet.

I'm quick to pay Verizon on time. I like their program.

 

[Fokkerflyer]

Domestic- gotta go with Verizon. I've used them a while now, can't beat the coverage. My company just switched to TMobile's network for the international coverage, so I'm carrying two phones around since I am very reluctant to give up my Verizon.

TMobile is OK, but lotsa dropped calls, spotty coverage.

FF

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

I'm a switcher to Verizon from Cingular. Lousy coverage from Cingular, questionable billing practices as well. The advice I had received from a friend when dealing with Cingular was to keep the original contract and know it!! It helped because when I tried to cancel the contract, the company claimed it was a two year deal, not one year. Showed the contract to a representative and it was on to Verizon.

With Verizon I'm much happier but I'd add one point about their national coverage plan. Although the glossy pamphlet you'll receive shows coverage over 80% of the U.S., there are quite a few pockets in the U.S.(in that supposed 80%+ coverage) that you'll end up with roaming charges even though the literature says otherwise. Just something to keep in mind even though I'm sticking with Verizon.


Mr. I.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Verizon Domestic

Tmobile International.

 

[flx757]

Everybody likes to bad-mouth Sprint, and I do my fair share of it from time to time...but when it all boils down, we get far more for what we pay with Sprint than what any other provider can come close to.

We have 2 phones...2 separtate numbers; 2000 anytime minutes to share, unlimited PCS to PCS (anyone else on the Sprint network...not just to the other phone), unlimited nights and weekend (nights now begin at 7pm) and unlimited roaming (no roaming charges ever)...plus we have replacement phone insurance. Our total bill, including all fees, taxes, etc. for BOTH phones...not per phone...is $93.20. For this cost, we live with the occasional dropped call and the p!ss poor customer service (which seems rampant in this industry, anyway...and is not exclusive to Spriint).


We were/are hoping that when the legislation passed that allows you to take your mobile number with you when/if you change providers, the pricing of the other providers would become more competitive. So far, that has not been the case. At least from this point of view. As soon as Verizon can come close to giving us what we get with Sprint for under $100/mo...we'll be there. But..........
...It ain't happend so far. Hopefully, someone out there can prove me wrong.

 

[Q200_FO]

Switched to AT&T right before I moved to Alaska and the service has been really good and I don't roam up here in Anchorage.

You do now. ATT sold their entire Alaska operation to Cellular One last year.