Sprint, Verizon or Cingular?

[The Kid]

Ive been a Verizon Wireless customer since 1998 and I think they ROCK! Rarely have any dropped calls, voice mails never disappear and no issues what so ever. I pay $89.99 per month and with taxes and other BS fees it comes to $108. I have no home phone and use my phone all day/everyday. 3000 minutes a month is not uncoomin to me. No expensive roaming, free text and pic messages and my phone works everywhere. Im a very satisfied customer:biggrin:

 

[mikec]

I've had Verizon, T-Mobil, Nextel and Sprint.

They are all work phones so I can't speak to the billing issues. From a functional standpoint, Sprint is the worst. It is so bad that we consider our phones not functional work tools. Sprint phones:

1. Have low signal one second, then switch to 5 bars the next.
2. Calls started at high signal levels drop off and the phone displays the infamous "signal faded" message.
3. Speaking of item 2, the phone has a dedicated "signal faded" message to tell you why it disconnects so often.
4. It roams often. It is in roam even at our local Sprint store.
5. Calls many times have annoying echos and distortion which makes it very hard to converse.

I wouldn't want a Sprint phone if it was FREE... well to me my phone is, and I don't want it. We are forced to use them because of a corporate directive.

I have a T-Mobil phone at home and it is better, but I don't use it much.

At work we used to have Nextel phones. Big and clunky, they always worked well and have the best speakerphone of any. The PTT feature works GREAT. Nextel is a good business phone.

I think Verizon is the best as far as coverage. I've heard that they have high rates and have poor customer service. Perhaps they have so much business they can afford it.

The above are my opinions only. YMMV.

 

[Viper Driver]

I subscribe to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. I've also been a T-Mobile/Voicestream user for the last seven years, and I've only had minor problems with them. I've had thoughts of leaving them for another provider a couple of times, but I've never regretted staying with T-Mobile afterwards because of the terrible reputations the other providers seem to have with their customers.

Are you going to get a spectacular enough deal from another provider that would actually make you want to make the switch? To me, it would have to be a fairly significant price difference in order for me to roll the dice on another provider. If it seems like you are paying a lot right now, then maybe you might give T-Mobile a call and make sure they don't have a new plan that is a better deal. I've done that several times over the years.

On another subject (for those talking about the RAZR), T-Mobile has been using the RAZR V3 for quite some time. It is offered in silver as well as the cheezy magenta color. In addition, you can get an unlocked Cingular Razr in black and it will work with T-Mobile just fine.

 

[Motegi]

Sprint and Nextel have merged if I'm not mistaken. I believe that there will be a transition of all "Sprextel" subscribers over to Sprints CDMA system.

I have been a Sprint customer since 1997 in a variety of metropolitan markets and have been relatively pleased with my service. I have owned Sprint network phones by Sony, Nokia, LG, and Sanyo (4-5 Sanyos).

I do drop calls, not quite as often as others seem to indicate but I do make an effort to research which phone models tend to have the best signal reception prior to purchasing.

With regard to "roaming" I have turned off that function via the user menu so the phone operates strictly on Sprint's digital network. Occasionally deep inside certain buildings I will have no signal in which case the phone will switch to standby mode.

Most of the people I call on a regular basis including friends and family all have Sprint phones so with our added unlimited Sprint-to-Sprint calling we can talk as much as we want. I also have unlimited night and weekends to anyone (not just Sprint) and get a pretty good discount on my plan through my place of business.

Sprint customer service has been pretty helpful throughout my years of ownership and their customer retention department has been good about getting me additional discounts and bonuses added to my plan.

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

Find anything and everything about cell phones and providers at >>> www.howardforums.com.
Tons and tons of info there.

I had already mentioned this at top of this thread.

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showpost.php?p=549542&postcount=2

 

[NSXrebel]

They don't have the black Razr, but you don't have to get Magenta. They carry the silver Razr though. http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?phoneid=255520&class=phone

I know they carry the silver Razr, just not as flashy though. and the only reason i'm not getting an unlocked black Razr from Cingular is that once they are unlocked, they lose their internet capabilities.

I was thinking of getting a black Razr, from T-mobile in Europe, since it is offered in black out there, UK and Germany I think. I'm not so sure about buying something from overseas though. Guess i'll have to go with the magenta Razr for now.

oh, and if Nextel will be switching to Sprints all-CDMA network, I wont be going back to them at all.

 

[AndyH]

Does someone know for sure about Cingular's night and weekend minutes? Somebody above said it starts at 7 pm. Their site is showing 9. Is it wrong? 7 would be alot better.

T-mobile Nights = 9PM -7 AM
Cingular is the same but they have an option where you can add $7 for night to start at 7PM

and the only reason i'm not getting an unlocked black Razr from Cingular is that once they are unlocked, they lose their internet capabilities.

That's not true. Unlocked the phone doesn't effect any features on the phone. The reason that it won't work with your T-mobile internet is because cingular phone are preprogram to use with their internet. ALl you have to do is setting to correct IP address and you can use the internet just fine
http://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm21625.htm

 

[H-carWizKid]

Does someone know for sure about Cingular's night and weekend minutes? Somebody above said it starts at 7 pm. Their site is showing 9. Is it wrong? 7 would be alot better.

I think it varies- they were offering nights and weekends at 7:00 when I re-upped my contract. I have it, but I can't say if that is how it is everywhere, or if it is consistantly available.

I can say that I love this feature, and will stay with Cingular permanently if they continue to allow me to have it.

As an aside- How many households have given up their land lines and gone totally cellular?

Philip

 

[White92]

As an aside- How many households have given up their land lines and gone totally cellular?

Philip

I didn't have a land line for years. Our cell phones were our only phones. It was cheaper in every single way. I did get a land line again about a year ago when our baby was born and my wife was home. It was more for the peace of mind than anything.

I didn't want any of their packages so I called them up and had them custom make me a plan with something like 3 hours of out-going calls per month and unlimited in boud calls per month for $15. It doesn't have long distance, but I have my cell phone for that. I don't know why we still have it. The phone gets dusted off more than it gets used.