Recommendation for cell phone/plan?

[DH106]

After being furloughed for 1.5 years, I am fortunate to be on-reserve with a new company.

Gotta get a cell phone --- looking for cheap, best coverage, don't need fancy features.

Can anyone recommend a good phone/plan? Thanks!

 

[SWA GUY]

Having had T-Mobile and Sprint, I would have to say Verizon has the best service. I have the Single-Rate plan, 900 weekday mins and 3,000 weekend mins for $100.00/month.

Verizon may be slightly more money, but you get what you pay for. No dropped calls, no messages 3 days after they were left! Clear signal anywhere I go.

Hope this helps,

HC

 

[GCD]

I swear at and swear by Cingular.

250 weekday minutes
5,000 night & weekend
$29.95.

I had an Erikson phone the first year, and never a problem. This year I have a Nokia. It took two months for them to get it programmed right. I think it's OK, now.

 

[banned username 2]

I would recommend Verizon with a Motorola v60 or T720 phone. Good coverage, resonable price and good quality product.

Second choice would be Cingular with a Motorola v60 phone.

 

[H25BCPTN]

Sprint hands down. $34.99 500 anytime, 3000 nights and weekends which if you work it right they will start it at 8:00 instead of 9:00 and 500 Sprint to Sprint minutes. But do not buy the Samsung phones but Sanyo. They work so much better.

Fly Safe

 

[greyhound]

Check out Nextel!

I got the deal worth 59.99/month.

Free incoming and nation wide long distance,no roaming.
Unlimited nights, weekends, direct connect(walkie talk)
It offers 400 anytime minutes per month.
I'm on the road alot as most on this board are, so I needed the long distance (free), and I work mainly at night and weekends anyway.

Check them out, they have more plans that are cheaper and not all plans are available everywhere. Hope it helps!

 

[H25BCPTN]

Yes, Sprint long distance is free also and no roaming in network. Flying corporate and chater we go alot of different places and I am in network over 99% of the time. Once in about every two years we might go to a small town in TN that is not in network.

Fly Safe.

 

[Airbus300]

How's $7 a month sound? Virgin wireless, sold at circuit city, is the cheapest. It uses the sprint network. Buy a $20 pre-paid phone card, and it will not expire for 90 days. If you use the phone, it is 25 cents per minute for the first 10 minutes, then 10 cents per minute thereafter....per day. It works for me in Cincinnati; Madison, Wisconsin, and in the wisconsin dells area. Haven't been flying much lately, so I do not know how it works in other places. So far I am very happy with it. The phone costs $80. There are no activation fees. It comes with a $10 worth of prepaid airtime, which so far has lasted me 2 months.

 

[metrodriver]

Verizon Nationwide plan for 35.00. 250 anytime, 3000 night and weekends. big coverage area. Sprint seems to have a lot of problems in big cities. A lot of times calls get cut off by the switchboard because of high demand or you're not able to even make a call. This I've noticed with friends trying to call me from Miami and Detroit

 

[wingnutt]

$35 a month with AT&T...500 anytime, free nights and weekends. no roaming or long distance in any major citiy served.

...of course, the wife has the grandaddy of all plans. AT&T= unlimited usage anytime, anywhere in the country, no long distance for $99 a month

 

[jetdriven]

...of course, the e wife has the grandaddy of all plans. AT&T= unlimited usage anytime, anywhere in the country, no long distance for $99 a month

but the coverage on that plan is GSM, which is about 1/10th the area of the sprint home coverage. Sprint just blew the bottom out of the competition, free nationwide analog roaming on new plans. about 110$ for 2 phones and 2000 minutes nationwide, unlimited nights, weekends, sprint-to-sprint, text messaging, etc.

hell of a plan, no one else can come close.

 

[46Driver]

I've got one of those Samsung phones from Sprint - they are beyond horrible - thinking about trading it in on a homing pigeon....

 

[wingnutt]

yea, the "best plan" changes every few weeks from company to company...hence the reason they make you sign a freakin contract



and i agree on the GSM thing, but weve had no problems, as it covers most (if not all) of the DFW metroplex

 

[Full of LUV]

Try Verizon

Have had Sprint, Verizon, and Nextel.

Liked Nextel, just can be expensive.

Love Verizon with a motorola phone.

Avoid Sprint like a V.D. Coverage and SERVICE leaves a large pain in one's tush!

 

[dondk]

I worked for one of those big phone companies before changing career's..

Sprint has problems, albeit they "can" be cheaper than most and you can get an airline deal that cannot be beat.

Verizon has gone out and bought everyone they can buy and ran those out of business they could'nt. Coverage is unsurpassed, price is still up there. No deals for the airlines that I know of.. Heck, they did not even give us employee's good deals.

AT&T.. cannot get the price down enough to complete with Verizon and Sprint but they alslo have airline deals that can be good.

all of the other brands are pretty good, but the coverage can be challenging if you need coast to coast and need to go into some of those smaller area's regional pilots go to....

Nextel.. this is the one I have used for years. The nationwide radio for $10 a month will change the market and the free incoming is cool too... They have some plans that can be found that are less than $30 a month with all of the bells and whistles, but you have to find them and a dealer who will give it to you.
Downfalls.. phones are expensive, if you have a sig. other she/he need the phone for the radio too, no phone upgrades.

 

[PTWOB]

I've had AT&T and Verizon. Verizon has the best nationwide coverage, IMO. You need to research the providers based on their service where you will be needing to use it . Not all companies are equal in all places. Seems to me that all the plans are comparable over a period of time, and the best at the particular moment that you "get onboard" will not be the best plan next month.

Cheers

 

[furlough-boy]

I have to agree with the warnings regarding Sprint. I had Sprint service for three years and their service is crap. You might get the most minutes for the least amount, but it's not worth the dropped calls, the missed calls, and the voicemails from scheduling that show up three days after they were left. Plus, if you think Spint call clarity it bad, just try getting a problem resolved with their customer service.

My wife has ATT and it works pretty well, but Verizon whips ATT and Sprint hands down. I've been to podunk airports all over the country and it's always worked. Connection is clear and voicemails show up when they're supposed to. I've also been impressed with their customer service. Go Verizon.

I looked at www.epinions.com when I decided to go with Verizon. People all over the country rate Cingular and Sprint very poorly. Worth checking out as you can see what people in your home city think of each service. Good Luck

 

[furloboy]

I like cingular. I get more minutes than I can ever use, nationwide coverage (no roaming), and good quality. They must be in bed with Verizon somehow as Verizon often shows up on the screen when I travel.

The only place I've not been able to get a signal is Louisiana. Literally drops coverage as I cross the border and comes back up when I leave.

Furloboy

 

[AFcitrus]

You might try the January '03 (I think) issue of Consumer Reports. They had a big article on all the services. They ranked all the carriers in several areas (dropped calls, static, price, etc). They had five or six regions all around the country as I recall. Verizon was 1st or 2nd in every region. Cingular also did pretty well as I recall. Sprint was middle of the pack or dead last in just about every region of the country.

On a related note I have Sprint and I have had many dropped calls in Raleigh and Atlanta. Static has been aweful in a lot of places. I do have a samsung phone, however. I was told that if you ever get a dropped call, immediately push *2 and when prompted say "dropped call" and you will receive a $.50 credit per dropped call on your bill. Haven't tried this yet.

I have a friend who was fed up with sprint and all the dropped calls. He called to cancel his service and before he could cancel his service he had two calls with customer service that were dropped. When the Sprint guy called him back he was laughing and saying he'd be sure to cancel my friends service right away.

I do think the area of the country a phone is predominently used in and the type of phone one has plays a big role in how good one's sprint service will be.

 

[H25BCPTN]

The problem with Sprint is the Samsung phone not the network. I can tell you this based on over 5 years with the company. My wife has had two Samsung and both dropped call, cut in and out, and have been junk. While I was talking on a sanyo or motorola, when they used to have them, and have very little to no problems. Being a corporate pilot I have been to Miami, Chicago, Dallas and all over and have only had great service with little price. I have copilots that have switch and they have not gotten any better service just paying more for what they have. I will say it one more time DON'T BUY SAMSUNG PRODUCTS! It will save you time and money.


Fly Safe

 

[AJWick]

sprint rocks! price is right and service is adequate and you cant beat the airline discount. I've had sprint over 4 years now and its just getting better and better. But I live in FL so the coverage is excellent.

i agree with the dropped calls but i know first hand that the dropped calls and intermittent service happen at att cingular and verizon as well.

good luck with whichever one you chose.

aj