I'm tired of my cell phone provider, Verizon, and don't really know what to switch to. I know I don't want Sprint, but other than that I don't know what companies to look at. I haven't heard anything bad about AT&T and don't know anything about Cingular. Any suggestions on one of these two or somebody else? Sorry, I remember a thread about this from a while back, but can't find it without search.
I've been VERY happy with VoiceStream. They've been switching over to T-Mobile, and it's been a difficult switch. At first, my phone had no signal half the time. Now though, it seems to be back to its old reliable service. I've never had any real problem with it at all, outside of this T-Mobile switchover. I haven't had any other cell-phone providers so I can't compare, but I'm so pleased with VoiceStream/T-Mobile, I doubt I'll ever switch!
That's the company that I use, and I just started with them when they changed over. I've never had any problems, and they even offered me a better plan when one came available - free of charge - without me even having to ask and without increasing my payments one single cent.
I hated Sprint PCS. I like Cingular. When I switched from Sprint, my final two choices were down to Cingular and Verizon. Cingular supposedly has the best service in the Houston metro area, so I went with them.
I don't see what the big rap is with Sprint. I've used them for over a year and have never had a serious problem. I did have a screen on a phone that was going out because I kept it in the heat too long, but they quickly replaced that phone with a new one and I've been happy since. I pay my bill, check my minutes and when needed, change my plan(free of charge) all online. I live in Austin, so of course I talk to people here all the time, but I also talk to people in Houston on a regular basis and they all say they hear me better than people on most other providers. My girlfriend uses Verizon and she is always having problems. She has been through 3 phones in less than a year and her reception sucks.
I have AT&T in Dallas. The reception on my trips to Houston isn't as good as I had with Verizon. There are several dead areas along I-45 on that trip. In Dallas itself, I still think Verizon had a stronger signal, but I could be wrong.
I finally gave up on Sprint. I've put up with dropped calls, lack of reception in my own apartment, and basically ****ty service for 2 years. I kept the number because it was on all of my resumes circulating around the world. However with no prospects on the horizon and me growing very tiresome of their lousy service... I finally gave up. Remember... man can live by landline alone! I'm about to be living proof of that in 1 week.
I have AT&T...and as soon as my contract is up, im switching to Verizon. A side note...when I am in Houston on biz, AT&T is not that great.
I've had Verizon for a few years and never had a problem. My brother has Cingular and hasn't had much of a problem either but I think Cingular might be a Verizon reseller so really the same service, not positive on that reseller thing though.
Not the case at all. I wrote contracts for cellular infrastructure for 18 months...and I can tell you that Cingular and Verizon are two separate companies. Their antenna equipment is similar...but most of that stuff is fairly standardized these days.
Actually I think it's TMobile and MCI also. Different companies resell service a lot of times. There aren't 6 or 7 cellular networks in each market.
Damn no edit. I think the way it works is that there is one network per market per technology. So in Houston there's CDMA (Verizon), TDMA (formerly Houston Cellular not sure what it is now), GSM (Aerial I think), and PCS (Sprint). Any company that isn't one of the four is a reseller.
I use Sprint and have had no problems other than weak service at my house! But when I travel, I can get signal wherever I go. San Fran, Albuquerque... I've always had good luck with them. The most complaints I hear are about billing, but I've never had a problem, I pay my bill on time and their web interface (bill pay) is so easy to use. good luck.
Timing is wrong, you can have multiple providers using the same technology in a market. For example, ATT and T-Mobile both have GSM 1900 in Houston.
I'm not talking about two providers using the same technology, I'm talking about there being two networks with the same technology. There could be one hundred providers in Houston using the same technology but there aren't one hundred networks.
PCS is not the technology that sprint uses PCS is the band they run on (1900mhz) and the technology is CDMA. The FCC sells licenses for spectrum (parts of a band) and they dont give a rats ass what technology is being used. For example Cingular owns spectrum in some places that they currently run a TDMA service on which they are now changing over to GSM service. BTW The only to bands used in the US are 1900mhz and 850mhz (sometimes called 800mhz but its the same thing) so different carriers parts of the spectrum for each band in the same market. If I were you I would probably choose T-Mobile's GSM service. I think they still have the Sony Ericsson T300 w/ camera for $100.
