NEED EXPERT ADVICE

[DREX]

From a newbie in Santa Monica...

I'm looking at the various plans offered by the major carriers and am having a problem sorting out which of the free phones offered are best. Some seem to be older models. I'd like to be able to check my email but that's my only concern other than voice/connect quality. Oh yeah, and vibrating ring.


So here are the models I see offered. Which ones are the best and which should I avoid like the plague?

Thanks.


Sony Ericsson T306

Siemens S46 Phone
Siemens C56 Phone

Motorola C333
Motorola 120T
Motorola T722i
Motorola V60i
" i60c
" i550 plus
" i509SX
" i30SX

Nokia 8265
Nokia 6200
Nokia 3560
Nokia 3650
Nokia 1260
Nokia 3595

Sony Ericsson T68is
Sony Ericsson T306
" " T61LX

Siemens S46
Siemens C56
Siemens A56

Kyocera 2325

Panasonic Versio TX320

[budney]

One Important piece of advice I will give you is, "Never pick a phone before you pick a provider". With that said if you could tell us which cities you visit often (local or out of state), it would reallt help us? I don't normally go to Santa Monica, but I would say your best bets for providers from what I have read would be Verizon, Sprint, AT&T TDMA, then Cingular/T-Mobile. For inexpensive phones with Verizon I would choose the LG VX2000 or the Kyocera 2325. For Sprint the Sanyo 4900 or the 6400, or the Hitachi P300. I am not that familiar with TDMA phones or GSM phones, however I did use a Nokia 3390. It was a nice phone for how cheap it was. BTW, welcome to WA. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[DREX]

>"Never pick a phone before you pick a provider". <


Thanks. I'm leaning towards Cingular because of their Rollover minutes. But I've been to one of their distributors, Affordable Portables, twice and have been lied to and BSed until my eyeballs are rolling around in my head.

For example in the first store I visited the guy offered me a Nokia 6100 which he said was tri-band which meant that if I was roaming in the boonies it would be able to connect with one of the other carrier's systems. I guess he meant analogue but I'm not sure. Then yesterday I went to a different Affordable Portable store which happened to be closer to sign up. But the guy tells me this tri-band business is BS.

Fine. Next I ask him about the free phones. They're running an ad with the Motorola V60i, the Seimens A56 and the Sony Ericsson T306 in it. We talk about them, then I ask him about the 6100. Sure they have that one too. So we go through the entire signup process, he activates two phones, and then tells me he's going to put $600 on my credit card. I look at him as if he just broke wind. Do I have to send in a rebate form for the phones? No, he says, they cost $299 each. So I canceled the order. How we went from talking about free phones to $600 without a word about cost is beyond me.

As you may be able to tell by now, I am not a happy camper dealing with Affordable Portables.

But back to your question about how and where I will use the phone. Primarily in the LA area but I also want to be able to use it when traveling. I go to NY quite often, Seattle, and occasionally my son and I will take a cross country drive when he's going back to school. And I visit Toronto at least once a year. I'd like to be able to use the phone during these trips -- especially if we happen to be driving through the boonies and the car breaks down. That's why the tri-mode thing was of interest.

But I've read so many comments about how some phones drop signals in places where other phones on the same carrier are okay. So that was the purpose of posting that list. To see which ones had the best rep for reception and voice quality.

Thanks.

[ZaphodB]

Originally posted by: DREX
Thanks. I'm leaning towards Cingular because of their Rollover minutes. But I've been to one of their distributors, Affordable Portables, twice and have been lied to and BSed until my eyeballs are rolling around in my head.

Don't go to Affordable Portables. They exist mostly to screw UCLA students... this is why they have five stores within walking distance of UCLA. If you want Cingular, go to the Cingular store on Lincoln and Wilshire. It won't be as cheap but they're not quite as slimy. (For your info, there is a Sprint PCS store at 5th and Wilshire, an AT&T store at Lincoln and Wilshire, a T-Mobile store at 7th and Wilshire, and a Verizon store at 26th and Wilshire.)

For no-BS facts about the phones, go to http://www.phonescoop.com -- they are a very good repository of information about phones. Click on "Phones" in the left-hand navigation to get a list of all the phones about which they have information.

For example in the first store I visited the guy offered me a Nokia 6100 which he said was tri-band which meant that if I was roaming in the boonies it would be able to connect with one of the other carrier's systems. I guess he meant analogue but I'm not sure. Then yesterday I went to a different Affordable Portable store which happened to be closer to sign up. But the guy tells me this tri-band business is BS.

Cingular-CA is a GSM provider. Tri-band means 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. The GSM network in California is 1900 MHz only. 900 and 1800 MHz are the European and Asian bands, which means your phone will work outside the country. There are also some places in the US where 800 (sometimes called 850) MHz is being used. There is only one quad-band (800-900-1800-1900) phone. Your choices are usually 800-1900 or 900-1800-1900. If you are in the boonies, you will roam on T-Mobile, AT&T, or Western Wireless -- whether it COUNTS as roaming depends on your plan.

GSM handsets do not have analog fallback. If you require analog fallback (for example, when you're REALLY in the boonies and not even close to a highway), you will need to go with Verizon or AT&T TDMA (don't let them fool you into getting AT&T GSM if you want analog!).

Fine. Next I ask him about the free phones. They're running an ad with the Motorola V60i, the Seimens A56 and the Sony Ericsson T306 in it. We talk about them, then I ask him about the 6100. Sure they have that one too. So we go through the entire signup process, he activates two phones, and then tells me he's going to put $600 on my credit card. I look at him as if he just broke wind. Do I have to send in a rebate form for the phones? No, he says, they cost $299 each. So I canceled the order. How we went from talking about free phones to $600 without a word about cost is beyond me.

Be very careful when dealing with the non-corporate stores. A lot of times they will give you a phone for free that you wouldn't get elsewhere for free, but you have to sign a separate contract with the store that says if you cancel your service within X amount of time (anywhere from a month to six months, usually), you will have to pay them N dollars (anywhere from $60 to $600 per phone). I would not expect to get the 6100 for free... it is $269.99 on Cingular's website.

But back to your question about how and where I will use the phone. Primarily in the LA area but I also want to be able to use it when traveling. I go to NY quite often, Seattle, and occasionally my son and I will take a cross country drive when he's going back to school. And I visit Toronto at least once a year. I'd like to be able to use the phone during these trips -- especially if we happen to be driving through the boonies and the car breaks down. That's why the tri-mode thing was of interest.

If you choose Cingular, your phone will work in LA and New York (I assume you mean the city), and in Seattle. Whether it will work on a cross country drive depends on where you're going. Coverage is fairly good along interstates, with the one notable exception of I-40 between Barstow and Albuquerque (they may have fixed this by now). If you're really concerned, you might want to check into getting an 800/1900 MHz phone, which will allow you to use all of Cingular's GSM coverage. When you go to Toronto, no matter which plan you're on, you will be roaming on Fido. I have been told that Fido have good coverage in Toronto (the last time I went to GTA I had a NYNEX Mobile phone, that tells you how long it's been).

The law states that if a network that is compatible with your phone is available, they must complete a 911 call free of charge, within 17 seconds. So you wouldn't be able to use an analog network, but if you happened to be in an AT&T area where Cingular doesn't have an agreement, and you dialled 911, AT&T would connect you.

But I've read so many comments about how some phones drop signals in places where other phones on the same carrier are okay. So that was the purpose of posting that list. To see which ones had the best rep for reception and voice quality.

I'll let someone else with more recent handset experience handle that... but as for dropping signal, you should avail yourself of the 14-day trial period on a few carriers, see which works best for you, and then return the others.

Which provider works where in Santa Monica is all a matter of where you live. I used to live near 14th and Wilshire and Cingular/T-Mobile was just OK (didn't work in the back bedrooms)... Verizon was good but AT&T had a huge dead spot centred on the hospital. But if you went up to, say, Lincoln and Montana, Cingular and T-Mo were great, AT&T was good, but Verizon was analog-only... and if you're down south, near Ashland and 23rd and that enormous hill by the airport, they're all pretty bad.

[DREX]

Thanks for that wealth of information. It helped a lot.

I just finished doing the deal with Cingular over the phone. I'm getting a Motorola V60gi Worldphone which will be free if I can find an old cell phone that still works and send it in. Otherwise it's $50. And I got a free Nokia 3595 for my wife.

It seems like a good deal. 750 anytime minutes with free LD and roaming (on the Cingular network) for $50 a month with rollover minutes. And I can change the plan without extending the contract.

And I've got two weeks to make sure we like the coverage.