Heading down the Verizon path...

[Kenny]

Well I have taken advantage of AT&T's "out clause" and have cancelled them. I'm now on Verizon's America's Choice plan. Although AT&T's One Rate plan offered good nationwide coverage with "no roaming", the plans were just too expensive. My company used to pay $75/mo towards cellular usage but no more. The National plan wasn't suitable for me due to my extensive travel (AT&T's digital footprint was just too small) and moreover none of AT&T's nationwide plans allow for "family-share" type plans...only local.

Due to the fact that I can squeeze in a more cost-effective share-plan at $60 for:
- 300 peak minutes
- 250 mobile-to-mobile minutes (each phone)
- Unlimited N/W + Mobile Web.

If I want the 550 peak minutes package then that would be $80 -- not bad for a shared-plan between 2 phones.

I believe that Verizon AC's plan will be adequate for now as I have heard good things about it in general around the country and so far it's been pretty decent. Although I did find that in a couple of in-building penetration areas in Chicago that AT&T had slightly better signal. But Verizon actually did connect successfully and quite good whenever I had only 1 signal bar. I think it'll suit me just fine for my travel needs.

Moreover, AT&T's Multi-band (tdma/gsm) One Rate plan didn't even offer nights & weekends package as an option to buy! So that turned me off, in addition to the fact that none of their national plans have some type of "shared-plan." I must say that I am impressed with the GSM voice quality -- I have read many reports from users that GSM has the best and most natural landline-like quality. I would probably agree -- but then again, GSM is a circuit-switched technology and CDMA is a packet-based technology and more suitable to handle both voice & data.

Well, we'll see what happens in a year or two -- if there is some type of GSM carrier consolidation and they have expanded nationwide coverage to equal Verizon then I would seriously consider jumping back. I'm still very interested in possibly re-joining AT&T in the future and the GSM camp. Now mind you, I do know that CDMA has the edge for data speeds and near-future developments but that will only be a niche market for the business professionals with deeper pockets. Nobody is going to be surfing on their phone even at 1 Mbps speeds - but perhaps the business travel professional will need a wireless linkup for their laptops.

Will CDMA carriers become the faster and higher speed data service provider of the future? In other words, are they going to become the Mactinosh computers of today? 10% user base versus 90% user base? I don't know and I'll see what happens in a couple of years. One of the things that concerns me are the cost of CDMA phones -- I don't see how they will be able to compete with the huge GSM/W-CDMA providers down the road in terms of prices? The lifting of the sprectrum cap early in the new year will be interesting and can be a huge foward thrust for AT&T/Cingular/Voicestream looking for some much needed spectrum -- and an opportunity for mergers. Yes it would be awesome to see an expansive 850mhz/1900mhz GSM coverage throughout the nation but I won't even consider it till 2 years from now.

Oh well, just my thoughts...

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Don't forgot to take AT&T Wireless off your profile for providers [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Jodi]

kenny...

Like you said, the packages aren't anything like what Verizon AC offers @ this place & time. I only contract for 1 year at a time, in case better deals come out...and...like you...if ATT join the bandwagon of better priced packages ... there's a good chance I may return...but for now, Verizon may be stealing me away come September.