Best Cellular plan?

Hi all-

I was curious if anyone could recommend the best ONE-person, barely ever talks but needs national coverage/long distance, cellular phone plan. I'm thinking Cingular, but I'm open to suggestion.

Thanks!

I've had Cingular for awhile now...I like it! Never have a problem with dropped calls but YES you do have to check your bill! I've had the mysterious charges show up too.

I'm on T-Mobile's 1000 minutes plan for $40.

The reason I got it is because I got a free Nokia 3650, and for $5 a month extra I can use it via bluetooth with my laptop to wirelessly connect to the internet from anywhere.

Though I use a Nokia 6600 now, also free.

Does anyone use Sprint PCS? They have a nice $34 dollar plan, and I'd like to hear impressions...

it's ridiculous how a 40 dollar plan to can turn into an 80 dollar monthly payment. my contract ended with cingular in august. i'll definitely be shopping around for an alternative.

Sprint PCS is the worst. Avoid at all costs.

do not use cingular.

i cannot tell you how many times i've had to call and ask about weird charges on my bill. in fact, i have to do it again when my next bill comes in.


if i had the money to do it, i'd cancel the account now.


i have a verizon phone, and i haven't had any problems with them, aside from their weird billing cycle bullshit.

I lasted only two months with Cingular before ending my contract. I too was very getting sick and tired of fighting mysterious charges and Cingular's bait and switch tactics. Switched to T-Mobile and have no complaints.

I have Virgin Mobile. I pay as I go, which is great, because I hate talking on the phone, so I probably use about an hour a month. And I get Spongebob's thought of the day!

[Edited on Sep 04, 2005 by bibliachica]

I have Verizon. Its decent. Pretty good coverage area and my bill doesnt get absurd. The only extra charges are the usual taxes. I cant really complain, but then, I dont really use a phone that much.

I don't think I've ever heard a single, solitary good thing about Cingular.

I've used Verizon for a couple of years, I haven't had any problems. I drove across the country and there were some middle of no where areas, with not coverage, but that was expected. My bill is sometimes higher, but that is from games and sending too many pics or text messages; my own fault.

The only good thing I've heard about Cingular, is through-out this whole mess in New Orleans, it's worked better than Verizon, but Verizon has a tower down or something, it was just poor luck.

If you have good service with them, T-Mobile has some excellent rates right now. With Cingular, you keep your minutes and have a better network.

Usually 'mystery charges' are just overage. The way the bill lists overage is weird - the allotted minutes are listed seperatly, instead of having all minutes, overage and alotted, summerized with a single sum. And while it's great having rollover, it can create billing confusion; for example, some people change to an occupation which causes them to use more minutes than they get with their plan, but they assume everything is fine because for a few months their rollover minutes cover them.

Other common charges: 411 calls ($1.50/call), text messages ($0.10/msg), internet ($0.01/kb), picture messages ($0.25/msg), and game and ringtone purchases.

If you mean state/federal taxes, regulatory fees, 911 fees - yeah, those are retarded and phone reps are pretty much the only people that can adequatly explain them.

I LOVE T Mobile.

nah, i understand the overage stuff. i paid a few $200 bills because of that. it's the "directbill" stuff that i don't even USE. mapquest? i told them to delete it from my account months ago. now i'm getting charged for it again. it's so much hassle from a phone i don't even use anymore.

i like my tmobile. i had AT&T (pre cingular merger) and had more charges than i oculd count for tons of shit. and they were assholes whenever i went in store to talk to them. i ended up paying 175 bucks to get out of it.

How much are you willing to spend on a plan?

Do you need national coverage because you travel or because you need to make calls across the nation from where you live now?

I am a T-Mobile customer. Generally, I am happy with my service, but sometimes the T-Mobile network is patchy. It tends to work best on or near major highways, at least where I'm living now. I'm not happy with the way they have bungled their PDA cell phone products. They have introduced two products relatively recently and dropped both of them relatively quickly due to technical glitches. Unlike other cell phone carriers, they have not introduced the free incoming minute option yet.

Have you considered Alltel? They have the best coverage in the entire country--bar none. They have low minute plans, but they are a little more expensive in comparison to other carriers (probably in light of their stellar network).

Do you have high speed Internet? Have you considered VoIP? You can't take it with you, but their calling plans are hard to beat.

*Edited for capitalization*

[Edited on Sep 04, 2005 by Holden_Caulfield]

I just bought out my Cingular plan, because of the extra charges, crappy plans and shit customer service. I'm with Verizon now, and they seem decent. I was sort of muscled in Cinguar from AT&T when I lost my cell phone. AT&T was crap, too, but their customer service was a shitload better before they were bought out.


I've heard great things about T-Mobile.

I have SunCom's UnPlan. They claim that the stated plan amount will be the price you pay, but my $50 plan is always $70. But, honestly, I don't really give a shit. I guess maybe I should.

I've had T-Mobile 5 years. I'm actually willing to pay a little more for them, because when I call customer service they are really ace. Short wait times, knowledgeable people, and instant answers. I've never had funny charges on the billing, and no problems at all roaming in Europe, Caribbean, and Asia. They just upgraded their voicemail system and the switchover was seamless, so I was impressed. When a SIM card went bad, it took 6 minutes in their store, no charge. I've also had AT&T; hated their customer service, and found a fair number of holes between cells.

See, I've had them for almost 3 years now in the Baltimore/DC area and have never had a problem.

My bill has never mysteriously been higher than normal and I get usuable signal coverage almost anywhere but the total boonies.

Phone service is a russian roulette in quality, I suggest asking people from your actual area what they use and how they would rate the service.

Can anyone comment on plans for companies in Canada?