Cell phone plans

[ zombie thread resurrected by canoe. ignore - JoeyM ]

hello all. My wife and I are looking to switch cell plans. We currently have Sprint and no home phone (sorry telemarketers). Sprint has little to offer, no roll-over mins, no "friends and family" or anything like that. Just good coverage. Since we've been with them for almost 7 years we do have some leverage when we tell them we are going to switch (did that once before a few years ago) but they normally just give you a phone with more bling and that isn't what we need.
So, I know cell phone happiness very dependant on geography, but what company do you have now and what are your likes and dislikes? And if I switch to your company can I call you at 3 am on a Wednesday night to ask for the torque specs for the main bearing caps on an RX-7?

I have AT&T now, and I'm not wild about them. I've had some dropped calls, and some of their business practices kinda irk me. I had T-mobile before and they were pretty good.

Tim Baxter wrote: I have AT&T now, and I'm not wild about them. I've had some dropped calls, and some of their business practices kinda irk me. I had T-mobile before and they were pretty good.

How was your T-Mobile coverage? They have the sweet-spot plan (mins vs. $$) for us but the coverage looks like once you leave the highway you are in sketchy territory.

I see you're in MI, I use US Cellular here in WI/IL and they have the BEST coverage. My work phone is a Sprint and there are places where I can't get signal where my personal cell has full bar-age. I've also been with Cingular and Verizon.

They also have mobile 2 mobile for free and since my wife and best friend are the only two I call, I never have to worry about going over in min.

Only drawback is that they often don't get the "cool" phones.

Here in the Kansas City area it was perfect. I tended to lose service in the backwoods of Arkansas when I would drive down to Louisiana. Other than that, no complaints.

Tim Baxter wrote: . I tended to lose service in the backwoods of Arkansas when I would drive down to Louisiana. Other than that, no complaints.

that's kinda exactly where I wouldn't want to lose service...

Joey

I can't really help you, but I am going to gloat:

I am on the Best Cell Phone Plan Ever, namely Sprint SERO. 500 anytime minutes, unlimited n&w, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited data, unlimited text...30 dollars a month. You can still get it if you're hip with a sprint employee, but now it's 60 bucks, and you actually have to know somebody. (Or do you?: http://mcguireslaw.com/2008/07/16/psst-have-you-heard-about-everything-plus/)

I also will humbly disagree that Sprint "doesn't offer anything". I firmly believe that the rollover bullcrap is just a gimmick, but then I never, ever, have used more than 500 peak minutes in a month. But they do have the fastest data, and the cheapest plans. Vzn and AT&T are far too expensive for what you get, IMHO, and the only ding on Sprint I've ever really heard is E36 M3ty customer service, which A: I've never had to use and B: reportedly has gotten better. (But who knows)

Anyway, that's my $0.02

DrBoost wrote:

Tim Baxter wrote: I have AT&T now, and I'm not wild about them. I've had some dropped calls, and some of their business practices kinda irk me. I had T-mobile before and they were pretty good.

How was your T-Mobile coverage? They have the sweet-spot plan (mins vs. $$) for us but the coverage looks like once you leave the highway you are in sketchy territory.

My wife and I have had a T-Mobile family plan for 3-4 years now, and we like it. Coverage is pretty good. I have never lost coverage anywhere in SE Michigan (metro Detroit). The only bad spot I have found was at my inlaws house in rural SW Michigan. It might just be their house though, as I get decent reception in that general area and was shocked I couldn't get a signal while there last time. Maybe it was just a temporary glitch.

WilD wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

Tim Baxter wrote: I have AT&T now, and I'm not wild about them. I've had some dropped calls, and some of their business practices kinda irk me. I had T-mobile before and they were pretty good.

How was your T-Mobile coverage? They have the sweet-spot plan (mins vs. $$) for us but the coverage looks like once you leave the highway you are in sketchy territory.

My wife and I have had a T-Mobile family plan for 3-4 years now, and we like it. Coverage is pretty good. I have never lost coverage anywhere in SE Michigan (metro Detroit). The only bad spot I have found was at my inlaws house in rural SW Michigan. It might just be their house though, as I get decent reception in that general area and was shocked I couldn't get a signal while there last time. Maybe it was just a temporary glitch.

Where is "rural SE Michigan"? I live in Fenton, while not rural in my mind, much of where I go could fall into that territory.

I think I am the only one in the world who likes AT&T, seems to work in more places than my friends Sprint and T-mobile crap. I could probably count the number of dropped calls on one hand for the 8 years I have been with them. Dropped calls happen, get over it and redial, be happy you have a telephone that works wherever you go. I remember the days of waiting by the "phone" because somebody said they would call.

I have T-Mobile. It's only redeeming value is that it is the cheapest I can find. $.10/min prepaid x my useage of ~100 minutes/month = $10/month.

skip AT&T. My brother has good luck with Verizon

Used to have Suncom, worked pretty good and the price was right. Unlimited calls $50/mo on the wife's phone and 1200 nation wide minutes on mine for $40/mo. Coverage was pretty good.

Then T-mobile bought them. Coverage was cut in half and if I ever change my plan the price goes from $40/mo to $70/mo on mine and the wife loses the unlimited. T-mobile SUCKS as far as I am concerned. Unfortunately you can't get what I have now for what I am paying anywhere else.

Yup-I have Alltel/now Verizon. Pay lots of money a month but I have a bunch of minutes, my wife on the plan, and an unlimited wireless modem I run my home internet on. Not unhappy with the service.

I had AT&T/Cingular/AT&T for over 5 years and finally dumped them like the bad habit they are. I've been very happy with my T-Mobile now. Coverage is excellent, price is cheap, and the customer service is phenomenal. Audra has Verizon and constantly runs out of minutes, drops calls, and can't get an English-speaker in customer service to save her life.

i have boost mobile 50 bucks unlimited everything not as great of coverage as att was but i don't have to fight over charges that don't belong either

therex wrote: I can't really help you, but I am going to gloat: I am on the Best Cell Phone Plan Ever, namely Sprint SERO. 500 anytime minutes, unlimited n&w, unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited data, unlimited text..._30 dollars a month._ You can still get it if you're hip with a sprint employee, but now it's 60 bucks, and you _actually_ have to know somebody. (Or do you?: http://mcguireslaw.com/2008/07/16/psst-have-you-heard-about-everything-plus/) I also will humbly disagree that Sprint "doesn't offer anything". I firmly believe that the rollover bullcrap is just a gimmick, but then I never, ever, have used more than 500 peak minutes in a month. But they do have the fastest data, and the cheapest plans. Vzn and AT&T are far too expensive for what you get, IMHO, and the only ding on Sprint I've ever really heard is E36 M3ty customer service, which A: I've never had to use and B: reportedly has gotten better. (But who knows) Anyway, that's my $0.02

I had the $30 SERO myself but by the time you add 2 SERO lines together it's pretty expensive really, especially if one of the lines doesn't use any of the data features. Gets really expensive if you have to add in a BlackBerry data plan like I did for work purposes. I dropped Sprint for AT&T and 2 iPhones and haven't looked back, even though my bill did go up $20/month.

Cell plans are really all about the coverage though. I had T-Mob years ago and loved the service and the plan I had but the coverage just wasn't where I needed it. I'd study the coverage maps carefully and talk to lots of people where you use the phones and see what has the best coverage. Once you find decent coverage everywhere you need it then you can shop and compare plans. Sprint has been getting stingy on freebies and perks since Dan got on board, but you can still do better there than with AT&T. Verizon is the evil empire, locking down GPS services on their smartphones and overall being the most restrictive carrier around.

A friend of mine deals with cell phone plans at work and has told me that Boost Mobile is probably the best bang for the buck when it comes to cheap/affordable plans.

DrBoost wrote:

WilD wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

Tim Baxter wrote: I have AT&T now, and I'm not wild about them. I've had some dropped calls, and some of their business practices kinda irk me. I had T-mobile before and they were pretty good.

How was your T-Mobile coverage? They have the sweet-spot plan (mins vs. $$) for us but the coverage looks like once you leave the highway you are in sketchy territory.

My wife and I have had a T-Mobile family plan for 3-4 years now, and we like it. Coverage is pretty good. I have never lost coverage anywhere in SE Michigan (metro Detroit). The only bad spot I have found was at my inlaws house in rural SW Michigan. It might just be their house though, as I get decent reception in that general area and was shocked I couldn't get a signal while there last time. Maybe it was just a temporary glitch.

Where is "rural SE Michigan"? I live in Fenton, while not rural in my mind, much of where I go could fall into that territory.

Where in fentucky do you live? I'm in Holly. I'm going to go outside and yell, you will probably hear me.

Joey

I am on ATT on my fiance's plan, I have no complaints. Before that I had Net 10, they are my choise for low$ phones.

Danica likes it, maybe you will too....
Boost Mobile is 100% owned my Nextel and Nextel is know for having good coverage in Michigan.

You buy the phone ($50 to $100 one time or provide your own used Nextel or Boost handset) and then the service is unlimited (all voice, text and data) nationwide for $50 per month. You are not tied to any long contract or commitment.

www.boostmobile.com

You can bring your current number with you and if you find you do not like the service, you can take the number with you on to another cell company - any time. If you do not need the crazy latest gadget of a phone, you will find that "contract style" phone service will be a thing of the past in the next few years.

When shopping these "no contract" companies, keep an eye on the overall value. Some companies charge low for the phone but charge high for talk. Others, higher phone the phone and lower for the talk. It is often better to pay the higher one time entry fee phone purchase and recoupe that in monthly savings, if you talk a lot. If you talk little, the reverse may be true. You just need to know what "value" means to you.

Does anyone have Boost? I did a quick search for reviews and it was pretty terrible.

What about coverage in the Midatlantic region?

I've always had Verizon because back in the day (8 years ago or so) they were the only outfit with decent coverage in the Delaware area (Philly-Balmer). We could get service where most of our Cingular/etc. friends could not.

Since then we've stuck with them, but I'm getting tired of the lack of good phones and expensive data plans (don't have one for my Treo but it would be nice). We have 4 lines and rarely if ever use more than 500 minutes (mostly call each other), though we are heavy text users.

Where should I be looking? I'd love an iPhone but Verizon is many moons away from giving Apple the cut they want, and the new Palm isn't coming out on Verizon either.

Dr. Boost,

See PM

DrBoost wrote: Does anyone have Boost? I did a quick search for reviews and it was pretty terrible.

I have it... not too bad the bang for the buck is pretty good the texting does act funny every once in a while tho