Any experience with tmobile & verizon in the Cleveland area?

[noire]

I'm looking to get on a family plan (2-line) soon. We're trying to keep the cost at ~$60/mo.

After looking at Alltel, Cingular, Sprint, T-mobile, and Verizon I think I have it narrowed down to T-mobile or Verizon. Unfortunately I'm having a problem narrowing these 2 down to 1.

T-mobile
Pros:
800 anytime minutes (compared to 400 via verizon)
unlimited calls to each other (compared to 1000minutes from verizon)
better phone selection
Clearer reception (or so I've been told)

Cons:
no free weekends
Phone is useless outside of coverage area

Verizon
Pros:
Unlimited Nights (not available on t-mobile's family plan)
huge coverage area
better indoor reception (from what I've read)

Cons:
heard the voice quality is pretty poor
would have to sign a 2-year contract to get the deal I want (2 t720's for $100 if I remember correctly and free activation)

My head is still kinda spinning from the cell phone info overload that I've gone through this weekend, so please forgive any errors I may have made.

I think if t-mobile had unlimited nights on their family plan the choice would be a bit easier. We don't travel a lot, and if we do it will more than likely be to a larger city...the only exception being Athens, OH which is covered by both according to their maps at Unlimited wireless)

someone make up my mind for me [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] And any phone reccomendations are appreciated.

[DemoMan]

Couldn't you get the Local Freedom 700 with Alltel ($39.99), add on a second line for like $15 a month.....You would have 700 anytime, unlimited night and weekend, and add on like a package $3.99 and get all of your features.

I recommend you do the trials. Get Verizon and try it for a while. Get T-Mobile and try it. Get Alltel or whatever other you want and try them. I believe they all have a 15 day trial period before you are locked into your contract.

I can tell you Alltel will be better indoors because they use 800 mhz rather than the 1900 mhz used by T-Mobile....I'm not sure what Verizon uses in this area.


Brad

[AnthroMatt]

Didn't T-Mobile just bring back their $2.99 Night minutes add-on? Or did they take it away already or only make it available in certain areas?

[Jack]

I will 2nd Brads recommendation for Alltel. I have used there service for a few years In the Cleveland Area and always have good service. As far as phones I would consider the V60i, T720, and the Toshiba 9500.

If you could be more specific as to where you will be using the phones I might be able to helpo you further.

Thanks

Jack

[Jack]

Matt

The $2.99 Is on there single line plans and not on their family plan

Jack

[Codepyro]

avoid the t720...get teh lg vx400 even though it costs more you'll be happier in the long run...

[budney]

The T720 for Verizon dose have its share of problems, but the GSM T-Mobile version is much better.

[noire]

the Tmobile version is the 720i from what I've read...I remember reading that the battery life was improved.

These will be used inbetween Cleveland & Vermillion (Westlake, Lakewood, Elyria, Lorain) and on occasion in Athens. Like I said, we don't travel too far away very often. My girlfriend will be going to Florida this week, but that's really the first time either of us has been out of state in awhile. And even in Florida (where her sister lives) and Arizona (where my mom lives) if we ever decide to visit, those area are covered by both plans.

One thing I worry about with the T-mobile is that there have been a few times where I've wanted to call from a store...I don't know if that would be a problem with the higher frequency phone... or if it'd be anyworse than the lower freq. ones... Neither one of us should have problems using them at work as our offices aren't in big buildings.

I looked at the alltel pamphlet that we have, and the lowest priced plan I saw was $35 (plus the $20 for the 2nd line) and that only includes 300 anytime minutes... I was told however that adding voicemail for $4 per phone/mo. would get us all the features (caller ID etc.)

[DemoMan]

Look at the alltel website and look at the plans. You can put in your zip code and see the service area.

[noire]

yeah, this is alltel's plan:

Plans $35.00
Included Anytime Minutes 300
Night and Weekend Minutes unlimited
Add'l Minute Rate 45¢

then I'd have to pay the $4 on top of that for the features.... price breaks out even with Verizon's.

verizon's dealie:

Promotional
America's Choicesm Family Share
Plansm 300 -

Primary Line $39.99
300 Shared Anytime Minutes
100 Bonus Anytime,
1000 National Mobile to Mobile,
Unlimited Shared Night & Weekend

2nd Line $20
Shared & 250 National Mobile to Mobile Minutes $0.45
Shared Bonus Anytime and Night & Weekend

The bad part: those 1000 mobile to mobile minutes are for the primary line only.

[Jack]

Norie,

With Verizon the America Choice and Alltel's National Freedom (really the same plan) cover most of the 50 states. if you Do not travel out of Ohio then I would consider going with a Alltel Local Freedom Plan. This plan will cover ALL of ohio and a little bit into west virginina. Go to WWW. Alltel.com and look for local freedom.

Local Freedom Promotion.

700 anytime
Unlimited Night and Weekend Minutes
$39.99

(This plan includes toll free calling anywhere in the local area)

The 2nd phone is $20
If you need Long Distance to ALL 50 states it is an extra $5
IF you need voicemail it is $4

Your other choice with t-mobile would be to get 2 seperate plans $39.99 and get 600 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes. This would be $79.98 but would give you more anytime minutes and give you unlimited night minutes. THe only advantage to the family plan is that if you plan on talking to eachother ALOT because of the unlimited mobile to mobile. THis is also a feature that you can add to the single lines for an extra $10 a month. IT is called buddy time and gives you unlimited mobile to mobile and sms.

IN cleveland Alltel has better coverage in cleveland then verizon.

Anymore questions just ask!

Jack

[VTEC01EX]

I actually got my Verizon phone because I worked out on the west side, where Sprint's coverage was awful. I can tell you that from Chagrin Falls all the way west to Avon, I never once had a problem. The entire Cleveland area seems to be totally blanketed. Even the southern suburbs down near the Summit county line enjoy flawless coverage. If you're in Cleveland, GET VERIZON! On the other hand, my buddy who works for T-Mo did some informal testing up in Cleveland this weekend, and was very disappointed with coverage, particularly the building penetration.

[Matt]

Just an FYI, T-Mobile has replaced the 720i with the 722i. Not sure it's very different though. amazon has great deals on phones now - s105 for $50 after rebate!!! ($250 in TMobile stores)

[noire]

Originally posted by: VTEC01EX
I actually got my Verizon phone because I worked out on the west side, where Sprint's coverage was awful. I can tell you that from Chagrin Falls all the way west to Avon, I never once had a problem. The entire Cleveland area seems to be totally blanketed. Even the southern suburbs down near the Summit county line enjoy flawless coverage. If you're in Cleveland, GET VERIZON! On the other hand, my buddy who works for T-Mo did some informal testing up in Cleveland this weekend, and was very disappointed with coverage, particularly the building penetration.

That could be the nail in the coffin.... I just talked to my friend (who uses verizon) to see how the quality was... I never really payed attention before. It sounded fine to me, and he has no complaints with Verizon. He lives about 30 miles west of cleveland (Amherst) and was in his room which he says is the worst place in the house and it sounded fine. He's using the kyocera 2235. If I sign the 2 year contract I can get the LG 4400 for $99...I'm not sure how that would effect the quality for me (as opposed to the kyocera.)

I think verizon's 1000 mobile to mobile will be plenty for us. T-mobile's SMS is a nice feature, but with verizon's $10/mo. price advantage I could add it on to my plan. the 3 hour time difference means I can call my mom in arizona at 9+ without problems...and I don't think my gf's sister would mind getting called that late.

I've got everything here side by side on a paper in front of me, and verizon is looking really good. So now I'm leaning towards them again. Anyone wanna talk bets on how long until I flip flop to another choice? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Jack]

norie,

From the users on this board the lg 4400 is one of the top phones that verizon sells.

Jack

[VTEC01EX]

The 2235 was one of Verizon's low end phones. The 4400 surely isn't, and a lot of people are really impressed by it's capabilities. You should be in even better shape than your friend. Their Cleveland market really is great - I've never dropped a call. I just wish I could say the same for their Columbus network!!

[noire]

well, I've slept on it, and still think verizon is the best choice. Now it's a matter of me spending the cash now that I have all those numbers in front of me [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I'm surprised that the service in columbus is worse, with the bigger population and I believe more big businesses you'd think verizon would be all over making that market happy.

Ah well, it sounds like they handle wireless just like they handle DSL. I worked at an ISP that was a verizon reseller, we had so many outages due to verizon overselling their bandwidth. We had to fight for months to get them to acknowledge the outage, then we kept getting these phantom ETAs on repair. The problem had started in Dec-01 or Jan-02; when I left in June-02 it was still unresolved.

[VTEC01EX]

Yeah, you think their coverage would be great on the campus of the 2nd largest university in the country, where 9/10 people you see walking down the street has a cell phone glued to their ear. Unfortunately, no. We're also about 10 minutes from their Dublin call center/office, and we still get the shaft. Now I know why about half of the cell phones I see around here are Sprint's, they actually offer good campus coverage.

...and I do believe Cleveland is bigger. Columbus's population is spread out across a larger area, but even considering that I believe Cleveland is larger, and Cuyahoga county has much higher population than Franklin. But still, I just want my damn phone to work at my house!

[AnthroMatt]

I'm not over near OSU very often...don't they have antennas all over the press box at the 'Shoe? I know on the UF campus in Gainesville just about every cell provider has an antenna array somewhere on the press box at the football stadium. The UF student union has them too...you think maybe the Ohio Union could put some on their building right on High St...that might help things a bit.

[VTEC01EX]

Matt, we actually do have some antennas on campus. Cingular has a site on top of Jones Tower, a big dorm on north campus. It would basically be line of sight to my bedroom at my house, but that would involve signing up with Cingular. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] There isn't a whole lot going on down at the stadium. The antennas on top of the Towers down there run the unversity wide radio system. Which works wonderfully, I might add. PTT at its finest. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Anyways, I just got an e-mail back from the level 2 rep I was talking to last week. He mentioned that while he hasn't heard anything about my trouble ticket yet, he is aware of Verizon's plans to expand in Columbus using the newly acquired PCS licenses from Northcoast. So, I guess we'll see. I only paid $10 for last months service, and I went over minutes big time, so as long as this keeps up I'm a happy camper.

[AnthroMatt]

Cool, glad to hear it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] I am waiting to hear back from Verizon's Executive Services, I sent a letter today detailing my cancellation experience. I am curious what they have to say about the whole thing.

[Jack]

Did you pick a service yet?

Jack

[noire]

No, my girlfriend actually went down to visit her sister in Florida today, so it won't happen until next week at the earliest. I think my mind is made up on Verizon though.

[Jack]

Good

Let us know if you have any more questions

Jack

[GoodmanR]

Verizon has by far the best coverage anywhere in Ohio. If you never leave the Cleveland Metro area, you are fine with T-Mobile, its cheaper, more choice in phones and I love GSM. But outside of the city, Verizon is the onyl thing that will work. They have the best coverage in Ohio, and if you dont have Verizon, you will roam on their network. But not even with T-Mobile, youll just be S.O.L.

I had T-Mobile in Minnesota where the coverage is pretty good and was happy with it. They just cant compare to Verizon in terms of how wide their coverage area is. Verizon has the best coverage in OH, hands down.