Right now Adam and I have Cingular for our wireless service. Originally it was AT&T Wireless before the merger and I loved them, great plans and good service. Cingular is not so good.
My contract is up with Cingular and Adam’s is up soon so we’re looking to switch. The most likely contender at the moment would be T-Mobile. Anyone have them? What’s your experience been like?
I too was on Cingular, I couldn’t stand them anymore. Switched to Verizon 3 years ago. Best decision I’ve ever made.
T-Mobile is pretty good as well, but Verizon is consistently tops across the country. Here’s a service summary from Consumer Reports if you’re interested:
http://homepage.mac.com/armen/Cellular.png
I love having Cingular because the coverage is good here, and I get free mobile to mobile minutes and rollover, all of which I make great use of. So I am a bad person to ask.
I have and like T-Mobile. Great phones, great pricing on plans. Its website is kinda disorganized and has a history of not being secure, but I rarely visit it. The only disadvantage to T-Mobile is spotty coverage when I go to Lynchburg.
More about cell phone plans
Been Stalking the site for a couple of days and figured I would lend an opinion here.
First - I work for a cell company supporting the IT infrastructure so I won’t recomend anything (kinda biased)
Over all however you need to clasify out your requirements for your cell phone. Most folks now a days live and die by the Cell (heck - I don’t use my land line only have it for 911). So - if you plan on using it all the time reviewing the network coverage maps for your area, and the area’s you travel to is the first point you need to consider. To this end T-Mobile is known in the Biz to have spotty area’s. If you are looking for reliability of the network (no holes) look to some folks that partner up and have No cost share agreements across networks.
Some companies will even give you a 2-10 day satisfaction test (out of contract w/ only paying your used time). Also as a hint most retail stores won’t let you out of your contact you have to call (what they call) a disconnect line. This groups real name is “Customer Retention” and they’re the people who will try to talk you into staying, offering savings to your plan if you stay some times. So if your current service is acceptable if you were paying less, maybe you might want to try this route.
Really not much here - most folks do research - I just wanted to find a way in to the site and say “HI” and this seemed like my best option so far.
TJ
I enjoy Verizon myself, but I don’t know anyone with T-mobile that hates it. My only problem is that Verizon has dead spots, and they happen to be in places I enjoy studying/hanging out in, i.e. a few Starbucks locations around Case’s campus.
Bryan,
I once participated with you in a detailed discussion about T-Mobile on Jeremiah’s blog. Please see http://jeremiahlee.com/blog/2005/02/19/t-mobile/ for the details.
My feelings about T-Mobile remain the same: They are the low price leader. They also don’t pull all of the sneaky tricks that Cingular pulls to cram additional charges into your bill.
I recommend that you and Adam consider getting a family plan from T-Mobile, but get your phones from Amazon.com since they have additional discounts and rebates. I have a family plan with my boyfriend, and, since I talk to him more than anybody else (besides my mother, of course!), it’s nice that those minutes don’t count.
T-Mobile doesn’t offer “rollover” like Cingular does, but they make up for it by giving you a lot more minutes each month, and they don’t eat up your minutes by charging from “send” to “end” the way Cingular does. For example, a $70 / month family plan from Cingular comes with 700 minutes and rollover. T-Mobile doesn’t have the rollover, but they give you 1000 minutes to share…that’s 5 hours more per month.
Cingular also stands alone as being the only carrier that doesn’t have 24/7 customer care. They’re closed evenings and all day on Sunday. When you disconnect with Cingular, they’re going to charge you through the end of your invoice date. It’s another “gotcha” with Cingular. That won’t happen if you ever decide to leave T-Mobile. They’ll stop charging you on the day you call them up and say “disconnect me”.
Get your old phones “unlocked” so that you can put your T-Mobile SIM card into them if you ever need to change phones for any reason. I found it helpful because my new phone has a built-in camera. Since cameras are forbidden in federal buildings, I like to put my SIM card into my old camera-less Cingular phone on days that I need to go to a government office.
Verizon is definitely the high price leader, but they do have the advantage of blanketing the USA with more complete coverage. Day-to-day, I hardly find it worth the cost. Also, Verizon is known to alter the firmware of their Bluetooth phones which prevent them from using any of the Bluetooth’s great protocols except for a handsfree headset. I recommend that you stay away from Verizon. They’re also not a GSM provider, so you cannot switch handsets on a whim.
I also like it when I travel…such as to Mexico or Nicaragua to have an unlocked GSM phone. I can buy a pre-paid card from a local carrier, and then I instantaly become a local call for all of my Mexican or Nicaraguan friends. If you ever plan to travel internationally, this might come in handy.
I’m not sure if you like to access the internet while you’re away from home, but right now, for a limited time, T-Mobile Hotspots are free on weekends to existing T-Mobile customers. I don’t hang out in FedEx Kinko’s, Starbucks or the Burbank Airport a whole lot, so this doesn’t really interest me.
However, I do commute to work on a train and appreciate that I can use by Bluetooth phone as a modem. The price for this is $29.99 a month, but it includes unlimited WAP access with your phone (they call it T-Mobile Web) and unlimited T-Mobile Hotspot access.
If you and Adam are big users of text messaging, then you might be interested in a current T-Mobile promotion just for family plans: For $9.99 per month, all phones on your account can make unlimited text, picture and video messages to any domestic cell phone regardless of carrier. You need to sign up for this promotion before May, or the price will go up to $19.99.
My phone is the Motorola V360. It has some features that I love and it has some other features that I detest. You didn’t ask about phones choices, so I’ll end this long post here.
Best of luck to you.
Bryan J. Blumberg
Don’t go T-mobile.. I just PAID to end my contract with them; and I actually signed with Cingular (and I’m loving it).
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your comments on this. As you probably read Adam and I ended up switching to T-Mobile about a week ago and we’ve been very happy with it. Customer service there is just so far above Cingular.
I still miss by old AT&T Wireless, it just was never the same after Cingular took over.