Phone Service

[cancidas]

i'm looking for feedback from everyone in NYC here, so i'm expecting everyone to chime in.

this coming august my nextel contract is up and i want to switch my cell phone providers. i love everythign about nextel... the phones, the two-way walkie-talkie service is the best but i'm very dissatisfied with thier phone network coverage ever since the sprint merger. that being said, i am also losing the amount of people that i use the two-way with. it was great for me when i was on the ramp as a supervisor, i was able to keep tabs on people and they were able to get in touch with me when they needed me. now, i really don't need it anymore. aside from my brother and nick i don't use the feature regularly.

now, i hardly use my cell anyway. part of that was because i had a limited amount of minutes per month and i could use the phones at work to take care of business. so the time has come to change providers. i've been looking at cingular and t-mobile a lot, mainly because they offer blackberry service. i'm open to whever has the best deal and the service that best fits my needs. what i want is a data plan so that i can get to my email whenever i need it. email and AIM are the two ways for me to keep in touch with most people, especially those from college. now, i do text also, but not nearly as much as i email. i don't like using the regular phone keyboard to type something out, hence the desire for a blackberry. i'm not about having what everyone else has ad doing as everyone else does, i do my own thing and that works for me... also, i want to be able to have my own ringtones, preferably mp3s. and bottom line, the phone has to look good!

what i'm looking to find out from you all is the quality of service of both t-mobile and cingular. the TV hype aside, are they really as good as they say they are? how is the service out on long island, or up in CT? i know that both sprint and verizon have great service at LGA, what about JFK?

[GrummanFan]

As a cingular customer, I have never had a problem regarding service reception. Everywhere I have been on the island I get good quality reception, and often have service where my other friends with different networks do not.

[PhilDernerJr]

Ihave TMobiel and have been pretty pleased with their service and customer support.

[hiss srq]

Well I am suddenly pleased personally with Sprint because I now have a kick arse phone deal with 550 min 300 text and because I am employed by a leaading member of Star Alliance I get a 25% discount! Sprint it is for me even with this 250 dollar bill for this cycle but fortuneately this is the last time that probl,em will be taking place I spent an hour on the phone wit h them today. Mention USAirways 7% mention Star Alliance 25%

[T-Bird76]

I've had Verizon for almost 10 years. They were great for the first 8 but the last two years their customer service went down the drain.

[moose135]

I use Cingular (old AT&T customer since 2001) and I have no complaints about their service. Coverage has been good throughout NYC & LI. Our Blackberrys at work are also on the Cingular network and I've never had any problems with that either.

[RDU-JFK]

I have Verizon cell service and am pleased with them.

My BlackBerry is T-Mobile, which isn't that great. In the 53rd floor of my building it does not work, yet other people here with Verizon black berry's get full bars. I am not impressed with T-mobile.

[yaas]

Oops, didn't see this when I responded to the other cell phone thread. I'll just copy and paste what I said there to save you the trouble of looking for it:

I recently did some research and found out about Sprint's SERO plan. It's a friends and family thing for Sprint employees but they had a holiday special opening it up for the public- you just had to know how to enter the site. Go here for details: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread ... 0&t=385350

I ended up getting a Moto KRZR for only $197. After a $75 and $150 mail-in rebate, I'll get an extra $28 back plus the phone will be free. Unfortunately I found out how sh*tty razr/krzr phones are and I'm going to call Sprint to exchange it for a Treo 700wx. Of all the years I've been with Sprint I've loved the service and my phones. This is the first time I've been this unsatisfied with a new phone purchase.

As for my plan, it couldn't get any sweeter. I have 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights & weekends starting at 7pm, unlimited sprint mobile to mobile calling, roaming included, unlimited power vision access (mobile web), unlimited picture mail, aaaand 500 free text messages per month. Guess how much I pay pre-tax...


...$30! For all of that. It was the best deal of the year Everything was included in the $30 plan except for the texting. I got the free texting just for being nice to the account services rep I spoke to. I was talking to one guy and asked if texting was included and he said no and gave me the price plans for texting. I said alright and told him to add the $5 for 300 texts to my plan. After the call I checked out my plan online and didn't see anything abou texting so I called back and spoke to another guy. I asked him if the previous guy added texting and he said "no he didn't, but I'll give you 500 free a month... just because I'm in a giving mood". That was pretty awesome of him.

Also, what's the point of a blackberry when you have to pay something like a $40 fee to use the blackberry service? That's why I'm going to go with the Treo.

[cancidas]

went to t-mobile yesterday only because it was by my post office and talked to them for a little while. ran the numbers, the plan would have 300 (i hardly use more than 200) anytime minutes with free nights and weekends for 29,99 a month. unlimited internet on the blackberry would be 19,99 a month. all in all, it still comes out cheaper than my nextel and i get more out of it. don't know if that who i'm going with yet, but i'm only in the research stage for now.

[yaas]

Don't forget to ask companies how long you have to try out the service and return it if you don't like it. That could make a big difference because you don't want to get stuck with someone that wont refund you money. Some places give you 30 days, others give you 2 weeks.

Oh, and research prices on phones at amazon too. Sometimes amazon offers rebates not available at regular cell stores.