Your Preferred Carrier?

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I'm still on a grandfathered AT&T Wireless plan. I have yet to find a plan that fits my needs better and I have no complaints about the coverage. It certainly doesn't hurt to have a cell tower in the backyard.

The down side is that I have to provide my own phones (although there are plenty of choices for unlocked phones) and limited technical support (not that I really need to use it).

 

My choice is Verizon, as I've had them for nearly 15 years and they've worked very well for me. Their service works everywhere I've needed them too and I haven't had any billing or CS issues...

 

I'm partial to AT&T. Been with them through all their mergers. I was initially a CellularONE customer when I first signed up for cellular service in June of 2000. Then they merged when Cingular was formed, then changed to AT&T. Been very happy with my phone choices, coverage, and plan choices throughout the years. I now have 3 lines through them, all sharing 550 anytime minutes, but that's ok because most of the usage is M2M because almost all my friends & family are AT&T. Plus having unlimited data on my Tilt for $20/mo is fantastic. They should have kept that plan. They'd snatch a lot more data customers from other carriers if they still had a $20 unlimited data plan for PDA's and smartphones.

-Jay

 

I can't really pick one. I guess I would say Sprint since I have them and now I have a mini Sprint cell site in my house.

The only ones I would for sure not get are Alltel and AT&T because they have poor/no service at my office. VZW, Sprint/Nextel, and T-mobile all work fine in the places I go to most.

 

With Sprint's new Airave they work perfectly for me everywhere I need it to. So Sprint is my choice.

 

I love the simplicity and ease of use that GSM offers. T-Mobile coverage in my area leaves a lot to be desired and the best carrier coverage-wise (VZW) is CDMA. That leaves AT&T as the only reasonable choice for me. And just as Blue4Life I'm on an old AT&T Wireless plan that nobody can touch

 

My choice would have to be AT&T. I've tried tmobile but they had poor coverage in more than half of my town. I don't know about now and the other CDMA carriers have decent coverage and had somewhat decent coverage. But their data was and still is 1X. I've been with AT&T or more like Cingular since 02 or 03. I've had excellent coverage, very rare incidents with billing. I have their cheapest plan, which i think is the 700 minute plan and i have 5,000 minutes saved up, lol. AT&T's finally putting 3G here in my town, and its about time. haha. I'm like Jay, I use M2M and have free calls to landlines. I hate their blackberry plans though, there too expensive lol.

 

att is my fav. its worked for me since cingular first came to my area. there are companys that have been here longer, but for where i work, live and play it does the trick. very rarely have i had a problem with coverage and the 3G coverage and network is great.

i dont plan to have anyone else, all my needs are met.

 

I've been with Verizon for the last 3 years, when I ran from AT&T Wireless GoPhone because of a billing snafu. I tried Verizon's now defunct EasyPay plan. Their prepaid customer service was better than Blue's and their monthly prepaid plans didn't require autopay. I have since moved on to a family plan. I like Verizon because I have had clear calls that almost never drop. The PCS network is rock solid in Tallahassee... I often experience better call quality than the 850mhz providers in my area... And Verizon beats the pants off Sprint and T-Mobile in quality as well... Verizon is getting better all the time. I found out the Florida network is ALL EVDO, per their press release!!! CS is great and billing is not an issue with me. My complaints are the high prices... 1400 minutes, a BlackBerry, insurance, 250 messages (on 1 line only) and 2 additional lines cost me $145 after tax and discount. I wish Verizon had some add ons like earlier nights or My Circle. I wouldn't mind if data was optional on the BlackBerry. If Verizon had one or 2 more locations in my city, that would be great! Either I'm abnormal, or I'm going thru too many phones...

 

I've chosen T-Mobile because they have service where I live/work/travel. While their phone selection isn't the best, they are a GSM carrier so I can use my T-Mo SIM in any GSM 1900 compatible phone. They have some neat features too, like MyFaves, and their no-cost (use minutes) UMA calling feature. And in my opinion, their GSM network seems to have better voice quality than at&ts.

 

I would say Verizon is the best carrier by far in my area. Sprint and Nextel would be a second and third, and AT&T fourth (even though I have them now). AT&T's coverage is absolutely horrible in my area, areas I go to frequently (school, shopping), and areas I travel to (most recently Chicago). Verizon covered all of these areas flawlessly, while AT&T has very poor signal, lots of distortion, and many dropped calls.

 

In my area it is Sprint.

Pros: Best coverage, data speeds, pricing

Cons: The same as another carrier I have had, billing & CS

 

I work for Tmobile but even if I didn't I would choose them in my area they have the best coverage and obviously have the best plans. I have had sprint, ATT and Cricket never have had VZW so I don't know about them but the other three sprint was the worst, att was cingular at the time and there coverage sucked in my area and Cricket was nice because it was cheap but service was local only and phone selection was about three phones only at the time.

 

My favorite is AT&T/Cingular/Cellular One. I've been through all those names for about 10 years now. Reason is simple: coverage. I can't get this kind of coverage with Sprint/Nextel or T-Mobile. However, Verizon does have the coverage but nothing excites me about them. Their communist UI and inability to share ringtones or graphics via Bluetooth is a major turn off for me. Plus no SIM cards which limits my ability to use other devices on demand.

Besides coverage, AT&T CS has always been good to me, plus they have the iPhone.

The only cons of AT&T is a network that occasionally has problems and 3G that is behind times. But those are issues that rarely affect what I pay for so I can't complain there.

 

I like big red the best. In this part of the country if you want good rural coverage you have to go CDMA, and I just preferred them over Sprint, who I used to be with.

 

I don't .

The "evil red" does not work in our rural town. I have been with AT&T/Cingular/Ameritech Cingular/Ameritech because they provide the best coverage for me.

 

I voted for AT&T. We recently switched from Verizon (we had them since January of 2005) to AT&T due to Verizon degrading and calls not ringing to our phones. Since we need to make and receive calls for business at home, we switched to a provider that works. AT&T now gives us a full signal at our house due to the tower being .25 miles to the SE and we also receive a full signal around town.

Here are our carriers since 1999:

Cellular One (1999-2000)--->AT&T TDMA (2000-2001) (they bought out Cell One so our contract was carried out for another year)--->Cingular TDMA (2001-2003)--->Verizon (November 2003) (only for 3 days due to coverage being weak)--->Sprint (November 2003 to January 2005) (for 14 months and then we had to switch due to degrading signal)--->Verizon (January 2005 to July 2008)--->AT&T GSM (July 2008 to present)

 

This is a loaded question that does not have a "One answer fits all" response. Everyone's opinion will be based on their personal preference and experience.

Check the wireless call quality award from J.D. Powers and Associates.
Ratings | J.D. Power)

Also check the wireless customer care performance award from J.D. Powers and Associates.
2008 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study?Volume 2 | J.D. Power and Associates

OK, so you asked which company I like the best. The answer would have to be Verizon Wireless. Used LA Cellular for 4 years (gone now). Then used Cingular for less than 1 year. Used AT&T for 8 years. Had billing & account issues, and many dropped calls the last couple of years until I was forced to leave. Just couldn't stand it any longer.
Currently using Verizon Wireless for more than 3 years. No issues. Very few dropped calls, even during busy commute times. Call quality is high. I can drive from Southern California to Northern California while the kids access the Internet via aircard. Love it!

 

(( I guess I would say Sprint since I have them and now I have a mini Sprint cell site in my house.))
Please tell us about this as I need help with the signal in my House?/
DougM

 

US Cellular for 2 years. I have had no billing errors and fantastic business support. Works great were they said it would.

Had Alltel before and had bills with wrong charges over half the time and useless customer service.

 

I chose T-Mobile this time around. My reasons?

I don't buy into the whole; "I need coverage in every little corner of every little town even though I may never visit that place," sort of mentality. If I ever moved to Montana or Maine I'd likely choose another carrier for obvious reasons.

I use what works for me where I need it at an affordable price and a great value. CS is decent when I've needed them and I don't have any issues with voice quality or dropped calls like users of the biggest national provider complain of.

The HotsSpot @ Home feature rocks. As long as there is an open network or one that I can securely connect to I'm in business even when outside of the carrier's PCS reach. I'm not forced to pay anything for the ability to use this feature.

I've ditched my aircards and like to tether with the handheld I'm using. T-Mobile allows me to tether for no additional charge since I subscribe to the BIS. Where else can I do that? I save $ 60 per month on this alone.

Verizon Wireless would be my second choice domestically. But since nobody's asking why I'll spare everyone the boring details! :wink:

 

So you got an Airave huh? Has it worked well for you? Mine sure has. I no longer have to worry about failed incoming calls due to a network ID switching issue.

 

Larry, I think he was trying to quote someone who has it and asking about it.

 

Currently T-Mobile is my choice of carrier. I have been very happy with their level of customer service, not only in the stores, but their customer service reps at the call centers too. I've never had a dropped call or service issue here in the Bay Area, CA. I was with Verizon for 7-years before, (who would be my 2nd choice), but left over customer service issues at the time and the fact I was saving about $25 a month over the plan I had with VZW.

Though recently it seems with some of their bundled plans for smart phones, e-mail, etc., they are getting a bit more competitive. I have considered recently going back to Verizon due to 2 more family members have signed on to VZW, and other friend's/family with Verizon have asked me to come back for the mobile to mobile savings (for them). I'm still under contract w/T-Mobile...but Verizon offered me a free Blackberry Pearl if I came back. Still would have to pay the $200 ETF w/T-Mobile...but tempting! :hmm: :browani: :dunno:

But for now it's T-Mobile! :biggrin:

 

Having been in the wireless industry for over 24 years and experiencing the advent of digital, I would say that Verizon Wireless has excellant coverage and CDMA is a cleaner and quieter technology over GSM. I have AT&T Wireless now and like the features of GSM handsets and the ease of changing devices is really cool but overall I was much happier with Verizon Wireless.

 

AT&T<Cingular<Cell One has always been solid, in my area. I also like the freedom of switching SIMs and phones. My plan and rollover works for me, the selection of devices is good, and I have always had good experiences with customer service.

 

AT&T serves me well and I am still on the same plan for quite some time now:
$59.99 plan with a AAA discount it is only $52.99
900 anytime minutes
and the Media Max plan which gives me unlimited web and text.

 

<flame>

I think most people here know the general pluses and minuses of the major carriers. Personally, I dislike them all because they try to lock you into expensive monthly charges, lock you into proprietary user interfaces and services, and prevent you from using the full capabilities of the device in order to make a buck.

Even the iPhone, probably still the device to beat in terms of innovation and all-around user experience (yes, I know you BB, Treo and HTC users love your phones), did not escape the evil carrier lock-in.

I am lucky in that I have a Verizon phone paid for by my work, which gives me Verizon's excellent national and (with it's partners) international coverage. Because I have that phone, I have a fairly cheap T-Mobile plan for my personal phone. It gives me good coverage in most places I go, simple Web browsing without high data charges, and it's a back-up.

Although all the carriers are starting to talk about "openness", I think only T-Mobile has really made a step in that direction with the new G1 Google/Android phone. Finally something that can challenge the iPhone in reality, not just superficial similarity. If its more open nature makes it successful, the grip of the carriers may finally be loosened. My Internet service provider doesn't control what computer I buy or what I can do on it, why should my wireless provider?

</flame>


SW