Verizon is something like 20 or 30 days. Last year, after hurricanes Frances and Jeane, the main Nextel tower on the island inVero Beach got knocked out. When nextel decided they weren't going to do anything about it (still haven't!!!), I decide to try Verizon.

I went to a real verizon store, not a mall kiosk! I bought a phone and a good sized plan; then, I proceeded to try it everywhere for the next 20 days. I was shocked at how wll it worked. Places where Nextel would always drop a call(even before the tower went down), Verizon never failed me. At the end of my "trial" period, we switched 5 phones over to Verizon and cancelled our Nextel contracts.

I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REGRETS ON SWITCHING OVER. In fact, I think I am going to get the new Wondows Mobole Treo 700 as soon as it comes out. Finally, Verizon gets a cool phone that no one else will have for quite some time. Also, if you like the Moto Razr, it should be available on Verizon by X-mas.

 

Nextel really did well at two radio service and had to go and ruin it by enter the cellular arena. Motorola is a good provider of radio equipment and I guees they mistook that as an indicator to start a cellphone company.

I think I usd Nextel for about a year but it was an employers phone. In most cases I had to use my personal cell if I need to make a call.

I may defect for Verizo after the new windows modile phones hit.

 

Cingular offers 30 days also.

I have cingular and I love it. I don't have any problems with calls dropping, but I never buy the cheap phones either. Most the time when calls drop it is cause of the cheapy phone. My sister and mother both have Metro PCS (****ty cell phone provider). My sister's calls drop all the time, but my Mom's don't. My mom has a more expensive phone that what my sister bought.

As far as cingular, I have a family national plan. I pay $185 a month and I get like 5K minutes or some chit like that. I don't even have a home phone, my cell phone is my home, work, everything phone. Everything is free.....long distance, no roaming, calls to other cingular subscribers, nights and weekends, and nights start at 7pm.

One plus about Cingular is during Wilma when a lot of phones were not working........I had service with Cingular. It pays to be part of the largest network.

 

I have had cingular for 10 years now and the only complaint I have is about the network busy I get near Waterford Lakes every now and then and a spot on I-4 near Par and another on 408 near Primrose where coverage gets a little spotty. I haven't had any customer service problems with Cingular at all. In fact, they have canceled at least two contracts for me and waived the termination fees both times, they have waived charges for going over my plan (saved me a couple of hundred bucks just one time alone) and have helped out a lot when my brother used to be on my plan and went waaaay over minutes. As long as I called Cingular before the next billing cycle, if my brother went over on minutes, I could change plans to the next level so all the extra minutes would be within the plan. Sure, I had to pay the extra for the next plan level, but I didn't have to pay the outrageous per minute charge. Also, Cingular is the only plan with rollover minutes.

That's my take on it.

 

T-mobile here for me. Never had one issue in 3 years. Ask Sean about Verizon and I dont think you will get kind words

 

It all depends on ur area, they all suck and they are all great...

Iv had Sprint for almost 9yrs now and until this Aug when I moved into the new development with no towers I had full bars everywhere even when no one else did. Granted 4yrs of that was spent in KC where Sprint World Head Quarters is located but the service is great everywhere except my new development.

As for Sean hating Verizon, he drives on 520 for 2hrs/day and 520 sucks for almost everyone. But I get service on it.

 

cell companies haveavery short list of frequencies at their disposal and it takes a lot of planning to get proper coverage and meet capaicity.

TDMA, CDMA and GSM techologies as well as antenna sectoing have helped the carriers cram more calls in to the spectrum they hold.

the big problem for them has always been no one has wanted antennas in their neighborhoods and it gets a little costly trying to procure locatios and then find clever ways to cloak the sites.

The result will vary on any carrier sp if you travel a lot in to area where urban sprawl has yet to take hold.

My recommendation would be to shop for a phone based on xmit power, watts, and antenna gain. you might have to stand in the phone store reading a few owners manuals or you could try searching google.

 

I hear ya. There are almost no towers in the Dr Phillips area in SW Orange County, and there is almost no hope of any cell company getting reception indoors. If youre not by a window or outside, forget it!

 

I miss analog! Man the brick phones were big but they had the juice to reach out and touch someone.

Unless they get a lot of complaints in at their tech services the engineering team will rarely drive the area to test. Problem is it that it take so darn long to get a person on the phone to log the complaint. Who whants to sit on hold radiating their brain for 5, 10 or 15 minutes. They really shold give subscribers a web page to log connection complaints. It is int heir best interest after all.... the more airtime they log the more they bill.

 

Sprint is awesome here in Tally, been with them for 4 years and never had a problem with my bill. Using the Treo 650 and lovin it.

 

i'm w/ sprint also. they are much better than cingular which i used to have. the only prob right now is my POS phone which i need to replace cause i've dropped it way too many times

 

+1
plus my battery clip is broke so it turns off all the time when the battery slips off

 

I have Cingular GSM and love it. I always get good reception and have never had trouble making calls.

I originally had AT&T GSM before Cingular took them over. Like Gman, I usually buy a better phone than those that are free on the give-aways. I currently have a Nokia 6200 and pay $29 per month for a National plan.

I have resisted changing over to Cingular's plans because they are more expensive. My current plan would go to $39 a month and all I would get is rollover minutes. Rollover minutes are meaningless to me.

 

I would say it depends on your primary area of usage and then your hardware (phone) the 69.00 phone will not be as good as the higher end models. I have had Cingular (Formerly AT&T) Business Account for the last 7 years. They have served me well across North America and anytime I travelled internationally. I don't have dead spots like CDMA Networks (Sprint and Verizon - I can take you to two spots in my office and one in my parking lot where neither of these carriers get a singal) and I have been pleased with the hardware and service. But I am a business customer who is getting a new phone every 6 months (Currently on the Razr V3 moving to the RazrBerry or CrackBerry in January -yeah I need mobile email). I know that at times I pay for service premiumn (roaming internationaly, Oversea calls) but I know that everytime I have called Cingular and said "hey T-mobile offers ..." They have done their best to match or compensate to keep me as a happy customer ... So see who is good in your area, who has the equiptment you like, and who gives you the best service and go for it. Personally I like Cingular - but to each thier own

 

I had verizon until a little over a year ago then switched to cingular because of problems with reception. Now I just have a lot more problems. Can't complain about the reception with cingular and I have benefitted from the rollover minutes but otherwise the service (or lack thereof) stinks. My voicemail goes away periodically and often people call me and just get a busy signal or some other strange noise. This has been going on since I've had the phone. Customer service with cingular is nonexistant. I've spent hours on the phone with them only to be told to take the phone into the store. When I take it in they either refused to work on it b/c I didn't purchase it there or they said they couldn't fix it and tried to sell me a new phone, with a new contract of course. I've filed a complaint with the BBB and spoken with their head office in Atlanta to no avail. The problems usually resolve themselves eventually but always come back in some form. The minute my contract is up I will be switching to a new carrier, probably back to verizon.