Cell phones, Service Providers, Coverage, Satisfaction

What kind of cell phone(s) do you have?

Who's your Service Provider (what network: TDMA, CDMA, or GSM)?

How's the coverage (local, regional, national)?

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your overall satisfaction?

Me...

1) Nokia 7210 (unlocked) (GSM) on AT&T Wireless, pretty good coverage in urban/built-up areas so far. Rating: 7

and

2) Siemens S46 (TDMA/GSM) on AT&T Wireless, great coverage nationwide on TDMA (with the bonus of being able to take advantage of GPRS features on the GSM nets where available). Rating: 8.5

Let's hear from you folks.

Philips 9@9 (GSM)

500 hours standby.

I have a AT&T Digital, dont have a clue about GSM, etc...Works extremely well, esp. in BART tubes and downtown S.F. Had Cingular, but they have way too many "issues" with VERY poor service, poor customrer service and billing problems.

--dan

Hey! Stay out of my tubes, it tickles...

Had Cingular, 25% of the time I couldn't make or receive calls. Their spotty service helped keep my minutes down so I saved money.

Use Alltel now, no complaints from P-Cola to San Antonio. Very satisfied.

Phone Kyocera 6035 until I broke it a couple of months back. Pros: Built in Palm Pilot lots of great features, battery lasted 4-5 days with light to medium use. Cons: Big

Currently use the Motorola Star-Tac. been around a long time, cheap and fairly durable.

I will get the Kyocera 7135 when the price comes down to $300 with a 1 year contract. Currently $500 with a 2 year contract. Pros: Color, Palm Pilot, 16mb Ram and all the toys. Cons: Larger than a star-tac and cost too much.

I use AT&T Wireless with a Nokia 1260 telephone. Don't know whether it's GSM or digital or analogue or what. So far, my complaints are few & far between. The earpiece maximum volume could be a bit higher, but so far the coverage has been adequate for my needs (it dropped out at the nurse's station and probably inside the elevators at the nursing home I was in), and the battery lasts 4-6 days between charges.

I used to have Singular, Verizon, and GTE cellular service, and each one of them sucked in their own ways. So I think AT&T is the best one I've had to date.

Hi Guys,

Always been with Verizon, For about eight years now. Service has been great and the coverage in this area is outstanding. For now I have a star-tac 7868w. Considering changing phones now but I want to make sure I get one thats at least as good. For what it's worth I found this forum on this very topic:

http://www.wirelessadvisor.com/waforums/index.cfm

Just initiated service with ATT's TDMA on a free Nokia 1260, and it's been working fine so far in NY; I'm on the 500 min peak/ unlimited off peak plan, with the after rebate cost being $12.99 per month ($34.99 base plan), which is pretty nice.

Phone seems rugged enough, having endured two drop tests to pavement so far...

The only thing I would have liked it an autolock and caller ID'd ringtones feature, which this doesn't seem to have. The talk time and standby time seems decent so far-

nokia 5260 with verizon. when i looked around verizon was the only i found that i could check my minute usage from the phone. i use it alot and have to keep track. excellent customer service and coverage as well. thier coverage has expanded and improved signifigantly in the last 2 years.

avoid sprint pcs at all cost! i have yet to meet a sprint user that isn't paying way too much and/or getting screwed on their billing.

does anybody have any feedback on VOICESTREAM ? i'm thinking about switching over cause of their package deals on 2 phones. but i don't want to leave a good thing.

Ericsson T39 with Cingular.
No complaints except that I can't talk to my sister in LA because of lousy coverage in her area.
I've used Ericsson T28, various Nokias and various Sonys and the T39 is my favorite by far.

Motorola V60c CDMA (upgraded firmware)
Verizon Wireless, national, mobile web

I have no complaints. Coverage is very good locally and on the East Coast. Had no problems when I went to Las Vegas.

My cellular history:

Nokia 232 Analog, Bell Atlantic
Nokia 2160 TDMA, AT&T
Nokia 6120 TDMA, AT&T
Motorola Startac 7760 CDMA, MCI Worldcom
Motorola V60c CDMA, Verizon

In my experience, Verizon > AT&T > MCI Worldcom

Cheers.

Skyline, that's exactly what I just ordered from Verizon an hour ago, but no web service.. glad to hear you like it!

http://www.verizonwireless.com/

(Verizon evidently was aware of someone else using my info before to get service, and asked me alot of questions, but eventually they, wisely, passed me on the security test, whew..)

Nokia 3360 (tri-mode???) on Cingular.

I've never even heard of anyone who is as happy with their phone and provider as I am!!!

It worked as long as a couple signal strength bars showed from Houston to South Dakota and from Houston to Chicago. It only roamed in parts of Sioux Falls, SD. It's getting fairly close to new battery time, but car cords are CHEAP!

My Dad has a Kyocera Phone on Verizon. If I had that phone I would already have beaten it to a pulp with a hammer. It works maybe half as many places as mine.

Motorola Startac 7868W with Verizon.

No complaints from Toronto to Mexico City, New York to San Diego.

The Startac isn't the latest technology but it is durable and the buttons aren't tiny like some newer phones.

skyline...I go back further than you....I had a Motorola Bag Phone

I had the brick. Still do.

it's in storage, would it work in todays systems?

Hehehe.. I'm sure some of you guys have more cellular history than me. I only got my first one when I got my first full time job.

The funny thing is that I think my old analog Nokia 232 had better ergonomics than any Nokia phones available today. As the Nokias have gotten smaller and smaller, the ergonomics have sound quality and gotten worse and worse, IMHO.

This is why I switched to Motorola. The Startacs have excellent sound quality, and to this day, my Startac was my favorite phone. The belt holster was an ingenious design that hasn't since been replicated. The things are pretty bulletproof, with one exception: the keypad. The early keypads were crap. The keys on mine kept sticking. I've heard later Startacs licked this problem.

I've been pretty happy with the V60c. The metal case is great, and the phone is small but nicely weighted. The opening and closing is definitive, not cheesy like the 8160/T720. I helped my co-worker get a V60i last week and got to look at it some. Honestly, I like the V60c's fixed front plate better than the V60i's removable plate.

Anyway, I'm pretty picky about cell phones hehe. I like tools, not toys.

hI tED,

A long time ago verizon offered a second line at six dollars a month for two years and then the service only costs you your minutes. If I don't use any minutes that month, it's free. I've had it now for about eight years. The only real problem-it's still analog. I still have the phone(bag phone) that came with this deal and it still works and looks great.

cheers,
kev

Ah, cellular history!

We had bag phones, and I remember big *** brick phones! In a drawer in my room is an older Nokia that is GIANT and HEAVY by todays standards. The battery is toast, but the phone will still power up on a car cord. I'd use it too if I could! It was good in it's day! And it has great ergonomics!

My wife and I were just talking about this.

First I must say that I am not a big cell phone user.

Well, I go in spurts.

There will be a few months where I never use the cell phone, then at other times I am on the phone several times a day.

I looked for a plan that would accommodate my style of usage and the only one that came close was the AT&T pre-paid plan. That's what my wife and I have. The cost/minute is high, but we never seem to use the minutes up.

I have the national (international if you count Canada) plan and my wife has the local plan (and we are allowed to switch between plans). I have had good sucess with coverage (except in wilderness areas).

The only problem with the plan is that you have to add minutes to it every 45 days. I can not keep track of a 45 day schedule, so I add $10 each month. This makes the cost $10/month/phone (although I did buy the phone - Nokia 5160). Unused minutes roll over to the next month as long as you add time before they expire. Once they expire, the are gone.

If you use a cell phone all of the time, this is not the plan you want to use, but if you only use it once in a while, it works well.

Tom

so far I haven't been able to find a way to determine exactly which companies use which cell sites without 'experimenting'..is there a better way to find out?

I figure it's a good idea for the phone to work in your house, in case the hard wires go down..and that's how to choose your server. After seeing what cell phones guests have used here successfully to call in and out - it became apparent that Verizon owned the cell site across the street...
of course I have Sprint pcs and it doesn't work here. I am going to get Verizon. I just hope they will give me service after someone with my ss # opened an account in my name and didn't pay the bills..they turned the bill over to a collection agency who then pooped on my credit report...oh well.