Why Verizon?

I believe the best answer is how long they have been around & their coverage, as well as reputation.

Cingular was a smaller National company prior to the merger with AT&T Wireless, and their coverage was not as extensive as Verizon's, as for Sprint they are still smaller coverage wise to Verizon & Cingular, but with their roaming agreements they do have a large coverage area.
T-Mobile has to keep building their network out to give the coverage most people need/want.

I would say it's a combination of factors, that slowly are changing to make the other carriers more competetive, like Cingular has done with their merger & continuous build out of their network.
I am sure their are other reason's that I didn't include & others will probably add to this thread.

 

For me, I had VZW's prepaid service and I just liked them; I ditched the prepay and signed a contract. I have had Alltel, Sprint, and Cingular, and they didnt impress me much (in terms of sound quality, network, and CS). I know people with Nextel and Tmobile in my area and they complain about the coverage in my area. Also, not having to shell out a huge deposit was a big motivation for me to go contract w/ VZW. I would get much more bang out of my buck with Sprint/Nextel (or MetroPCS, but they arent available in Tallahassee) but the previous issues I mentioned prevents me from switching. Besides, why should I leave if I'm happy with their service (although they could give me more for my money or lower the price points).

I have to admit, I do envy my family and friends; they have MetroPCS and most of my VZW minutes are used on them (or Sprint)-- but I dont envy their service issues

 

While it may be true that Cingular has better coverage in your area, that is not true everwhere. Verizon's coverage/roaming agreements give Verizon generally excellent coverage throughout the country. You say that Cingular is less expensive...let's see. Their voice plans are the exact same, other than Cingular has rollover and early nights, for which you pay $9 for(and to me...that price makes it rather unappealing). Texting wise, Verizon beats Cingular hands down so it's a trade off.

 

Verizon's trump card is their network. It's probably the most reliable network of any network. They know this and because it's better than just about everyone else they can charge a premium for their service. T-Mobile's network thought it's better than it used to be is not nearly as robust as the Verizon network. With that said people should choose what works for them. If you're going into remote rural areas T-Mobile is probably not a good choice. If on the other hand you're going to be doing most everything in the city probably any of the major services will work well for you whether it's cingular, VeriZon, T-Mobile or SpriNexTel. And you've found a good reason to go with VeriZon since they have "In" calling and if the majority of the people you know use it it's a good way to stay in touch with people without draining your regular minutes.

 

Even though Cingular is big in our area also, we went with Verizon for the better service, better reception and we have had less "dropped calls".

 

I wish Verizon & Cingular would lower their prices, as has been discussed here before, once the market becomes saturated (very few new customers to get) prices & Coverage are going to be the main selling points and that may be when we seem some better deals.
Hopefully they do this before the market saturation point, but they want to keep the ARPU up for the investors & don't care about the customer's pocketbook/wallet.

As others have said, Verizon has the network right now that all other carriers want to have, Cingular is working on this & once Analog & TDMA are turned off, they may be in a better position.

If Cingular is working good for you, then sit back & wait to see what happens by the end of your contract. I don't think I am going to switch, since the network is good where I live & use the phone, but I always watch for any deals Verizon may come out with by the time my contract ends.

 

That would be logical and some of the things that VZW just does not seem logical. But then, they are making a ton of money off of their users, so....

 

I can say that I believe that overall, Verizon's network is more reliable. What I mean is that overall you will get the same experience on Verizon Wireless whether you are using their NY network or their Hawaii network. Of course there are areas where this definitely does not hold true, but overall that has been my experience. Also, Verizon's network has outperformed the competition during natural disasters or even power outages, by far.

 

Everybody wants everyone to lower prices. That sounds great from a consumer only perspective!

However, what is not spoken much is that, athough inevetible, this concept terrifies the industry.

Once you low-ball your prices, you'll be labeled as the bad guy the moment you bring your prices back up to what's normal.

Data revenues are going up, but it is still voice that remains the bread and butter for our wireless providers. They need to squeeze as much money out of us now while the market is hot. If wireless VOIP is indeed what we can look foward to, then consumers will quickly press the network operators to justify why they keep charging for minutes in blocks as opposed to unlimited options that we see with current day DSL or Cable Internet services.

Verizon Wireless is in a very enviable position today with the highest margins of any national US carrier with the lowest postpaid churn rates to boot. They even claim to have the highest retail percentage in the US industry. They are going to ride their "It's The Network," campaign as long as they can.

An obvious benefit to their success is the return in their network. They continue to invest between $5 and $6 billion annually in network upgrades and improvements. That alone tells you, the consumer, that the money you put in when you pay your monthly bill automatically becomes a smart investment back to the network you use everyday.

 

Coverage is why Verizon can charge a premium.

 

With the exception of alltel during katrina. 1st carrier in NOLA to have the netowork on and running

 

You can easily block incoming SMS from getting to your phone, no problem.

Check Cingular again- unless you had an Old AT&T plan, there's no such thing as free incoming SMS.

 

Correction,
perception of Great Coverage.
Supported with TV ADS that
other Carrier w/ 58 Million Customer Phones
Does NOT Work.

 

amen to that, Brother Andy!!!

 

The Carrier that can Project
the Most Perception,
will Feed on the Ignorance of
New Users.
One of My Relative Does Not Have
Reception Inside His Home
and He Still Thinks it's
the Best even when Another Cell Carrier Has
a Cell Site a Block Away from His House.
That's What Perception of Good Coverage Can Do.

 

Well, tests seem to point to Verizon having the best network as far as coverage and as far as customer care. Reality may be different for different people, but that can be said for just about any carrier.

 

Exactly. Just like Cingular and their "Fewest Dropped Calls" claim.

 

Whether it's "perception", or just good marketing. Verizon has managed to forge a reputation of reliability. Of course not everyone will agree, but most people don't really care about who claims they're the best. They want service that works when they need it. It's that simple. The way Verizon and Cingular have been adding customers lately, they both must be doing something right.

 

My Family and Friends with the exception of 1 person(Cingular) all have Verizon and they are all very happy with the service. I have thought of venturing over myself to get "IN" calling but port out costs (somewhere around $400) and phone replacement stops me.

 

This is very important on the preception of who is better in different areas & to people. Word of mouth is still the most powerful "advertising" for any company & if you go with a carrier and their coverage/service works for you then that's who you feel is the better carrier.
People have had bad experiences with every carrier & eventually they end up with one that works for them.

The carriers will keep hammering out that they have the best network (mainly the top 3) and it ends up the customer makes the final decision, based on their experience, especially if they try different carriers till they find the one that works for them.

 

I have to agree... for instance, my friends in Tallahassee mostly have Alltel and Sprint because they like them the best and the recent addees went to them b/c their friends have it. My family has MetroPCS or Sprint because of the same reason. I had to be the rebel because I didn't care for Metro, Alltel, or Sprint and also I liked Verizon Wireless.

 

Not necessarily true. Verizon allows you to block incoming messages. Goto

www.vtext.com -> mytext

Enter the number of the person want to block and you will no longer receive messages.

Also, with some Motorola phones, I have the V3m, you can SEEM the phone and it will block ANYONE who is not in your phonebook.

 

Block calls or texts? I gave my mom the Moto V325 and she can block people from calling without SEEMing the phone... blocking calls for the V325 is in the security settings... I wish my a930 had this feature (this is what I get for choosing style over function lol). It's hard to believe that an advanced phone like the RAZR has to be seemed to allow call block

 

Blocks text IF sent from a phone. They cannot block you from getting text messages when sent from a email account.

VZW told me a couple of years ago that they could NOT block incoming calls. They said something about "not being equipped to handle that", or some nosense like that.

 

Sorry, forgot.

VZW took it upon themselves to block a lot features off of the phones. So You have to SEEM it to get some of the features put back on OR pay them $20-$25 for their techies to do it for you.

My daughter wants to go to the CHOCOLATE. VZW said that she would not be able to block callers, like she can with the V3m, if she did.

 

Whatever works good for you is a good option. If I lived and travelled in a place where the competition also had good service, I'd probably switch.

Each carrier has a package of services which include the quality of service, pricing, phone selection, quality of customer service, etc. You simply pick the one that works best for you.

For me, where I live, Verizon is absolutely the best-- to the point where it's a total no-contest situation. On the other hand, all of the carriers do "OK" for basic service, so you can make a choice based on other factors (i.e. price). Sprint gives me unlimited free data (SERO) and good pricing generally. Despite their failings in some areas, the free data is very appealing to me.

-Dan

PS: SERO rate plans are for friends of Sprint employees so they are not generally available. If I had to pay full-retail, there's no question I'd be back on Verizon.