What is the best cell phone company out now?

[caira111]

What is the best cell phone company out now? Do you think that you get what you pay for? That if you buy cheap, you get cheap. No matter what cell phone you have, if your cell phone company is bad, than your connection and things would be bad. Also If you chose a cheap plan that you get cheap and poor coverage?

[earthdancer]

Ciara, I have used Alltel for 6 years now! In that 6 years I have always had good reception no matter where I traveled. I have found 3 dead zones in all 6 years and they were located in heavily wooded mountain type terrain, and one was down in a hollow (deep, narrow valley) in Kentucky. I also use the Alltel air card on my laptop, In the 3 years I have had it and the numerous states I have traveled in the past 2 years, I have always been able to get online and have more than acceptable service! My sweetie Chuck has AT&T. Totally different story! He thought dead zones were common and all over the place until we started traveling together, I always had at least 2 bars when he had none. He ended up using my cell phone and air card more than his own! He has seen the light first hand and his AT&T contract is up in Feb so he will be switching over to Alltel at that time. Unfortunately, he still has another year contract to go on his air card so I guess we will be sharing mine a bit longer. I'm serious when I say that I have seen others walking outside for reception and not getting it while I had 3 or 4 bars and could easily call from the inside. I wholeheartedly endorse Alltel as being the best phone cell service around! Also, when you call customer service, you get someone who speaks English clearly ! They are always polite and very helpful! I hope this helped without sounding too much like an Alltel commercial!! Geri

[sacsun]

Based on your comments, I looked it up in California. Alltel is currently unavailable. However, it appears that they are merging with Verizon. Hopefully it will remain as you have indicated.

Peace and Sunshine

[earthdancer]

Hi Sacsun!

In southern Ca and on central coast of California in October, my Alltel was working better than Chucks AT&T, both phone and aircard for laptop. Geri

[sacsun]

I wonder if they'd merged with Verizon at that point. In any event, I looked it up for future service and found I couldn't sign up because of that. A belated Welcome to California! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

[earthdancer]

In todays was a "welcome to Verizon" letter telling all about the merger 'tween Alltel n Verizon. You might check with Verizon.

Geri

[sacsun]

Thanks Earthdancer,

When I start going on the road, I will. I have ATT and get blank spots on my Oregon trips even now. Fortunately there are fewer. I just wish they'd get below $60.00/month. They are all priced the same, which is fishy.

[SeaDawg]

We use both Verizon (Paul) and T-mobile (me and daughter, family plan). In many places we get great coverage with T-mobile, and they have some family services we love (at least on our old plan...) like unlimited texting for a small fee, and international service at a reasonable charge.

However, in the mountains of North Carolina, T-mobile has zip for coverage most times, and Paul's Verizon almost always works. We got the cheapest single plan (and cheapest phone) in Ashville, because we got tired of driving down the road for a mile or two to find a few bars on T-mobile. Since we carry two phones with different services, we have pretty good coverage now in most places.

Thinking about adding an aircard in the future, and I think we'll probably go with Verizon.

Sherry

[mountainborn]

I think Sherry is right. We anticipated the Alltel/Verizon merge/purchase, hopeing to have improved coverage with what's being touted as the worlds largest wireless network, since they combined services.

[technomadia]

Verizon has the best / biggest network - particularly now that they have gobbled up Alltell.

 

But they also have the worst phones, and the worst priced data plans.

 

You just can't win.

 

We have Sprint for our data card, and AT&T for our iPhones. At some point we may add a Verizon card to the mix, but their overage charges are $250 a gigabyte if you go over your 5GB monthly allotment. Insane.

 

- Chris

[mountainborn]

Verizon has the best / biggest network - particularly now that they have gobbled up Alltell.

 

But they also have the worst phones, and the worst priced data plans.

 

You just can't win.

 

We have Sprint for our data card, and AT&T for our iPhones. At some point we may add a Verizon card to the mix, but their overage charges are $250 a gigabyte if you go over your 5GB monthly allotment. Insane.

 

- Chris

That's why we upgraded our phones before the Alltel buy out. We both have smart phones ( on Alltel ) and our data plan still states in the contract, UNLIMITED DATA ! We have been watching it closely to make sure there are no charges for overages, we exceed the Verizon 5gig limit often.

I am sure they will develop strategies to ferret out the unlimited contract users in the future, but for now it is good.

[SeaDawg]

Chris and Mountainborn,

Thanks for the input. If we get a Verizon aircard, I guess we'll have to watch the bytes. Ouch. (I know this is very important to Chris and Cherie often actually work via aircard. My use is mostly "recreational" and staying in touch with family and friends.)

 

Sherry

[sacsun]

If one has an aircard from Verizon, is it easy to check the usage to avoid monstrous charges?

It certainly appears there is some "price fixing".

[SeaDawg]

I stopped into the neighborhood Alltell store today to revisit the aircard vs. smartphone idea. Alltell becomes Verizon, at least in our area, in July.

Their data contract at $59.99 a month here is still unlimited, and I was advised that it would remain so throughout the two year contract if purchased before the Verizon name goes on the billing next month. Seems like the best of both worlds, Verizon and Alltell networks, and unlimited data. (Especially since Verizon is the only cell phone that has worked for us in some areas of North Carolina where we spend a lot of time. I have a great family plan with T-mobile, but it doesn't work there... so we have to carry an extra Verizon phone with us.)

At this time, Alltell only two devices to offer, but the price is right on both: free after mail-in rebate. The Huawai ec168 was recommended by the rep I spoke to, as being of a more durable design than the Starcom um175.

 

Any of you use either device? Any problems or opinions?

 

Sherry

[SeaDawg]

Well, I decided on the Huawai device. Looks a little sturdier, both guys in the store today said they rarely had any come back. We'll see how it goes.

 

This post is via Alltell wireless, and the Huawaii device. It's a little slower than my cable modem, but faster than the DSL we used to have, I think. Of course, right now I'm still in the middle of a metropolitan area. We'll see how it does in the mountains this weekend. That's the proof of the pudding.

 

Sherry

[sacsun]

As an air card will be in the future, I am following your posts. Thanks for taking the time to share your information.

[SeaDawg]

I plugged in the aircard Thursday for the drive to a Sarasota alternative energy seminar, and was happy to receive decent signal all the way.

 

Truly, it was marvelous to drive across the beautiful Sunshine Skyway bridge connecting Pinellas and Manatee counties, and look up traffic, this forum, and information on the presenters at the seminar we were attending.

 

I think back to my days as a kid on the farm, with a party line phone shared with several neighboring farms, and I'm just stunned. How did we get so far, so fast?

 

We'll see next week how it works in the mountains of North Carolina.

 

Sherry