Cell Phone Providers

[coastertux]

What cell phone provider do you use? Do you recommend them or are you stuck with them because of a contract? I am just trying to figure out who to go with because I need to get a cell phone for college. Also, what phone model do you recommend? Thanks in advance!

[SteveO]

Cingular has been great for me everywhere on the West coast... I don't know about the east. It depends a lot on your phone, but dropped calls etc. haven't been a problem for me. The plan is reasonably priced, but they don't give you as good a discount on new phones with a contract like say Sprint or Verizon.

[evulish]

I use verizon. It's the only service available where my family is so I got Verizon so I could call home and friends easily. It's also one of the better providers in NYC.. all my buddies complain about Cingular here. The only bad part about them is that they seriously cripple their phones, which are pretty outdated anyways. I have the Motorola E815, which is, IMO, the best cellphone Verizon offers.. it has basically the same features as the RAZR but is much sturdier (RAZRs break so easily). Cingular probably has the best phone selection out there.

[Katie Reynolds]

I use Alltel. When I first signed up for my plan (in 2003) it was the only provider for Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Since I go to school there, it made sense! I renewed my contract with Alltel last November because I've gotten great service (both with my plan, and customer service) and I got a great deal on a Motorola V710!

[Michelle Celio]

I have cingular. I would say it's "ok". It either works really well for me or doesn't work at all. If you plan on getting cingular, don't get the razor, my father has it and it causes so many problems. It may look cool but it doesn't work as well.

[Tomasz Bania]

OK, I feel sort of offended that you didn't allow multiple selections. I am a cell phone reviewer and I have a phone with every single major cell carrier and several MVNO's, such as amp, boost, and virgin mobile. If your'e looking for a reccomendation, you would have to post what your'e looking for. I personally think Verizon is currently the best, although I've had some issues which are expected with all carriers.

I'll continue when I get back!

Tomasz Bania

[Cuog]

i use cingular for prepaid minutes since i only use it about 10-30 minutes a month, the only problem is that the call counter doesnt always work right and it will sometimes charge me an extra minute(thats a big deal at 25 cents a minute)

[KTorak]

Sprint is pretty good, cheaper than Verizon for the same plan. I just have a crappy phone thats about to break, lol.

[irishninja]

Verizon. It works for me all over the country, in the middle of the woods when I'm camping, etc. It's been tested in Denver and NYC and WI. My phone is old, but a lot better than the new ones so I don't care.

[Conor Ryan]

I have Sprint, which just bought out Nextel. The service is ok, I get a lot of coverage usually, but it's never fantastic.

As for phone choice, I have a Samsung A660 I think, it was the Free phone that came with my plan. The thing gets fanstatic reception, and just on Thursday night I dropped it 8 stories in the Omni, only to pick it up and put the battery back in and have it work just like it did before hand. I don't know too many Razr's that would survive that fall too well.

Personally, I'd go with Cingular and then I'd get a Phone that uses the GSM network, it's a much stronger and clearer network than TDMA which Sprint/Nextel/Verizon run on. According to Consumer reports though, Verizon is your top choice, and it's pretty popular so you may not need that many minutes since in network calls are free. You may want to ask some college students are your school of choice and see what's popular with them.

[KTorak]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

As for phone choice, I have a Samsung A660 I think, it was the Free phone that came with my plan. The thing gets fanstatic reception, and just on Thursday night I dropped it 8 stories in the Omni, only to pick it up and put the battery back in and have it work just like it did before hand. I don't know too many Razr's that would survive that fall too well.

Same phone i have as well. Survives pretty much anything, except lawn mowers as my friend discovered.

[Jeff K.]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

I don't know too many Razr's that would survive that fall too well.

Haha I dropped my Razr just one story, no damage though. It was the perfect fall because it fell flat, so no dents or dings whatsoever.

I have Cingular, and I surprisingly had full reception around Atlanta, unlike back at home.

[MissInformation]

After having Sprint for five years, I just switched to a prepaid phone (T-Mobile). My Sprint plan was 3000 minutes (250 of them anytime minutes) for $30 a month (usually ended up being about $36 a month with taxes and such). But I only use, on average, 35 minutes a month. I'm just not a phone person, so my phone usually only goes on when I need to make a call (and don't think some people don't yell at me for this). I often turn my phone on and find messages a week old... So now I have a thousand minutes that only cost $100 and should last me a year!

Heidi

[Matt Attallah]

DJ Fluck did one of these a few years back...

Nextel here. Love it. had Cingular (Before the ATT merger) and T-Mobile and they both sucked.

Love the Direct Connect feature for my work, haven't had a dropped call yet (have had it for about a year) the phone I have too is the I-860.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

I have Verizon and a Samsung a970 phone.
Cingular used to be terrible around here a few years ago, but it has gotten much better since then.
The only problem I've heard of with Sprint, or digital networks for the matter, is dead spots. Because its digital you either get signal or you don't.