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What's The Best Cell Phone Calling Plan?
ChazeFroy asks: "I just got a new job that requires much travel throughout the United States, and this company is giving me $50 per month to put toward a cell phone bill. Although I found this discussion helpful, it didn't talk about cell phone calling plans. Things that are important to me are the company offering the plan, coverage (I will need nationwide coverage, most likely), number of minutes per month, the possibility of free incoming calls, and the price per month. What do you guys have, and what are your experiences?"Update: Wirefly offers a great tool these days to compare cell phone plans.
However, a few tips:
DO NOT GET SPRINT NOR VERISON'S SERVICE. Sprint is unresponsive with it's Internet service, which drags down everyplace else. Just don't get it. Period. Verison Wireless is still a hotbed since the Bell Alantic/GTE merger and the strike that followed. I don't know if you will be delayed a month to get service to your phone.
Other than that, AT&T and Cellular One are very competitive for individual users. Nextel is geared towards businesses.
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You have to do your own research. I had verizon, and hated it, but not for any obvious reason. They worked okay, except I lived on the edge of a digital/analog zone. My phone always went to the weak digital tower in the next town, and then didn't receive calls due to the weak signal. When in analog mode it would recive calls from the strong signal.
If you travel the nation, then no raoming is the way to go, but if you rarely travel the lack of minutes on those plans could be a problem. With voicestream I get 600 minutes, a similear priced national plan would give me about 300. (good luck finding that plan though, prices are always different between providers to make it harder to compare!) If you rarely travel, then it might be worth while to pay high roaming fees and hold your calls down when in those areas. My current phone covers 5 states (yeah, slivers into 3 of them), but most of my friends have the same plan, and we have discovered that while we travel right to the edge of the area regularly we rarely cross the line. (It just happens our favorite camping spot has service only on one side of camp, but that is good enough)
Every provider has a different plan, different in every way they can make it. They don't want to saying "X gives me 500 minutes for $35, while you chrage $40" They want you confused, maybe the $40 plan above has voice mail, and a better covereage area so it is worth it. Verizon and Att both have local, regional and national plans, with different pricing in each. Sprint has national only (but a poor coiverage area IMHO). Many local providors exist with local and regional plans. You might find an out state providor who gives you a better deal, and is local in your city even though your phone says roaming! (But you have to decide if giving your friends a long distance number to your cell phone is good or bad)
don't foget other featues. CallerID seems to be the norm with cell phones (in area!), but voice mail isn't even though it should be, at $10/month you might decide on a different plan anyway. Will you use wireless web? some people might, I'`ve never tried it. I have an option to get news clippings to my phone, I never tried it, but that might be important to you.
Bottom line: plans are intentionally confusing. Talk to people where you often travel to find out about local problems (and how long, since towers are upgraded everywhere but not all at once). Decide if you are going to travel enough that a national or regonal plan makes sense. (Too bad there are currently no international plans) Figgure out how much you use the phone, remembering to factor in the increased convience of having it. Only after doing the above should you look at plans.
Also, watch out for the silver Motorola "Timeport" that Sprint sells through Office Depot and other stores. It is missing 800 MHz digital mode, which the black, non-Sprint version of the same Motorola "StarTAC" digital phone has enabled. So, on the black phone you have the option to do digital roaming and switch to a digital 800 MHz primary carrier, on the silver one you only get analog roaming.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
And that applies to Sprint. See my other comment about them.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I've been a Verizon Wireless customer for about 4 years or so (well, actually I was a Nynex Mobile customer before mergers, but I digress...). Now that they have a nationwide company, I suggest using their SingleRate plan - about $50/month gets you 500 minutes with no separate long distance (all calls are included regardless of destination), and no roaming anywhere in the US.
They offer a Motorola Startac phone that's tri-band - it operates on 800MHz AMPS, 800MHz CDMA, and 1900MHz CDMA, which are all the various frequency bands they use nationwide (Verizon was formed from Bell Atlantic, GTE, PrimeCo, and AirTouch). The phone works quite well, and they have cheaper dual-band phones also.
Sprint PCS isn't bad if you're in a Sprint-served area, but you get brutally violated with huge roaming charges if you step outside their calling area. And the Sprint footprint is relatively small.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
-Eric
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There a few critical questions:
Do you live and or plan to travel in a major metro area? Many calling plans are great until you get out of a large area then its mom-n-pop all the way. For example most cellular (or digital, for the purposes of this discussio we'll call everything cellular) build up are in major metro areas and along major interstate highways so if you live not near those you will have degraded service. The work around for that can be in some areas to prepurchase analog minutes instead of having to essentially roam at that time. One thing to remember though is that a dual band or even tri band phone will suck batteries as it attempts to switch in an out of digital and analog zones if you're in a marginal area that crosses both systems. Next, find out exactly what the up front charges are if you want any additional services. Have you noticed that you haven't heard much about mobile net from the carriers recently? That's because a) it doesn't work and b) they charge some obscene up front setup like $300 plus $5/minute. At least they do here in the Raleigh NC area. Next find out about bundled billing. If you want 2 phone numbers to share the minutes pool you will have 2 basic choices a) No and b) a large block of initial minutes with the corresponding large monthly nut. Sprint will do that for a 500 minute/month plan or higher. Next find out what kind of billing detail they can provide incase you have to provide that to your employer. Next what kind of phone rebate if any are they offering or is the really really great calling plan only available if you purchase a $400 phone. Is the phone replaceable per the contract or is it upgradeable? If the answer is yes probe deeper and find out what they mean by that. Some providers mean yes to mean that you can do whatever you want if you want to buy another phone and then pay some multi-hundred dollar switch over fee to move your phone number to another phone.And make sure that your phone is not Nextel because that is a closed system different from all others and you have to use a Nextel phone in a Nextel area which is why they appear to be offering such great deals. Next of course the usual carry over minutes, plan change options should be reviewed. Oh - yeah, check the online vs. calling a telemarketer rates and plan options, they are usually different and they almost never know about one another. Next check phone insurance and compare it to what you can get ANYWHERE else including your existing homeowners'. Carrier provided phone insurance is close to loan shark rates. Find out if battery replacement canbe included in the maintainance contract - a very few do this. Do you need prepurchased minutes. Some providers have flat rate prepurchased service that shuts off when you reach it. A good thing to have if you're using the phone only for business and the employer won't pay for overages. Can the service be combined with ANI, CallerID, Paging, voicemail and the like which actually are pretty good to have with a business phone. Do they support inbound and outbound faxing? Is that even important to you? Does the service have automatic firmware updates for the phones a-la Startac or do they expect you bring them the phone 6 times a year to upgrade the microcode. Will they give you a loaner if yours breaks. What is their fraud protection?
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Yep, that's exactly what I said. I'll spend all the money on trainfare and/or rent, I'll burn out from the 13-hour work days (if you include travel), and I'll be left with pretty much nothing. The only reason I considered taking it for $60K is because I could then get something better half a year later. But half a year is a really long time...
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And don't even get me started on these flimsy condoms that are put out today... 'Course it give you more feel when tha goddamn thing's busted right when'sya puts it on!
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I suspect that for someone doing a lot of traveling, something like AT&T's Digital One-Rate would be a good idea. All calls, whether local or long-distance, are charged at the same per-minute rate. Basically it no longer matters where you're calling.
For receiving calls, that's basically a freebie that some places like Cellular One give you for calls to/from other Cellular One network phones. You'd have to find out who you'd be calling a lot and get on the same network as them.
You could also skip the long-distance carrier and use phone cards. My phone can auto-dial a card number for long-distance calls.
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lake effect weblog
{Network engineer in Chicago--looking for work!}
Well, here in the Philadelphia area, it's not uncommon to live in South Jersey and commute to the other side of Philly, Valley Forge/King of Prussia/Wayne/Malvern/etc. Those destinations are much closer in mileage, but take 60-90 minutes to drive to. No reasonable mass transit, and only one or two roads that go there. I'll take 30 min easy drive + 90 min of relaxing train ride over a frustrating 60-90 min drive.
I do agree, however, that $60k in NYC is terrible. If you're any good at your coding, you should be at least getting $80k+. Also, the better companies in the city will gladly pick up the tab for public transit.
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The unsig!
50 bucks last me about a week and a half. And that's strictly business.
What I can recommend is Fido (with the US equivalent being Omnis I think. At least that's what my Fido registers on when I cross the border.)
They're digital, they're Nokia's and I like it. You even have an analog module option. Just stick it under the battery, and you're in business. Other important thing: No roaming fee, and all your outgoing calls are local to the area you're in. You got an Alaskian phone, you're in NYC, dial an NYC number, and it's local.
Up here, you get 400 minutes for 40$ CDN, and if you dont use it all, it rolls over to the next month. They have pay-as-you-go, and also 200,300,400,600,700,800,1000 minutes plan.
'nuff said.
Marriage is considered capital punishment for the theft of a goat in some third world countries...
actually, headsets might make it worse.
There was an article (either here, or on BBC - I'm way too lazy to check) about a week ago claiming that the wire for the headset acts as an antenna, collecting and concentrating the radiation that the phone emits. And pumps it straight through your ear into your brain.
Of course, this could result in a better world, one where all the morons that walk around hotel and convention center lobbies yelling at nobody have died of deep fried brain cells....
Then again, there is always bluetooth...
Steve -- If you have to call it a system, you don't know what it is.
Just recently, I needed a mobile phone that would allow me to not get reemed on long distance/roaming charges in the Midwest. My mobile service is now through Verizon. Yes, I know verizon sucks but they had the best deal for my needs. :P
I used the website www.point.com to get educated on the current state of mobile phone technology and to price out plans/phones for North America. I recommend this website for getting an idea of what is out there.
Speak truth to power.
Here in Finland the prepaid cards are not as popular however.. it costs about 3 times more than in a normal contract (42 vs 14 cents, respectively) and I haven't seen a *real* person with such a card for lo-ong time now.
Not to mention that roaming in Europe is something you don't even need to know about - it just works. (don't go roaming to Russia, though - the prices are astronomic, I hear. One of the most expensive networks in the world, they say).
There is still one analog network in Scandinavia (NMT450) which is used mostly in less-populated areas (such as Lapland) due to its vast coverage (it's safe to say that you can still make a call from any point in Finland, however remote it is) but the analog network is being replaced by digital one. It's just as well 'cause it covers all the cities and roads and where else could you be? Analog cell phones are rare, expensive and hard to come by, there's really no reason to buy one, unless you're a hunter or something of a type.
Oh, that sure helped to answer the original question? Good. :-)
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God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ --1Thes5:9
I don't know where you people get the idea that we don't have this. There's several really cheap phone-in-a-box plans -- I saw one for sale in a video rental store, $20 for the phone, I forget how much for minutes. Of course, the coverage area is pretty bad. I went with the AT&T Prepaid plan, which has nationwide coverage, and a Nokia (6100?) phone, works with both digital and analog, and the prepaid plan is nationwide -- no roaming charges. I think it works out to around 45c/minute.
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"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
Quick reality check! How much does it cost you to call your next door neighbor from your landline phone?
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I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
The conflict in frequencies is a little bit unfortunate. There's not too much that can be done about it however, 800 and 1900 MHz are the bands that have been set aside for mobile phones in the US, and I do believe that these were set aside before Europe made the 900, 1800 MHz standard. If you know that you will be traveling between the US and Europe (and non-Japan Asia, Japan is a whole different can of worms) then you get the phone that supports it.
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I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
Hey what do you know. That's the same amount (give or take, exchange rates and all) That it costs me when I receive a call on my cell phone, except the first minute is free. 6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other. It's not better worse, it's just different.
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I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
I heard that in Britian they eat their babies! Have you ever heard of such a backward place?
I'll try to inject a little truth here. If you come to the US with your GSM phone. It will work. At least in urban areas (Not just the big cities, my city has only about 100 kilopeople and we have GSM). As of right now GSM probably isn't the best choice for someone who does not plan to travel internationally very often. Most of the rural areas are served better by the TDMA digital system. That's right! We do have digital coverage pretty much everywhere.
We also have analog coverage still in place pretty much everywhere. I see this as a feature not a bug. Analog service performs much better in a weak signal situation. With an analog phone with a weak signal you get static. That's ok, you just have to yell. With a digital phone with a weak signal you get silence. You can yell all you like but you still can't communicate.
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I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
I seriously doubt you'll see AMPS die off in the US for another 20 years. The thing that will eventually kill AMPS will be the lack of data services on IS-54, and that won't become important to the masses for another 10 years.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Aerial was GSM 1900, as is Voicestream. See this for more details about their network. From looking further, it looks like they have acquired licenses for Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, LA, SF, and other markets but have yet to complete their network in those markets.
This is true. I've been on my current $30/300min SPCS plan for over 2 years and I recently tried to sign up for a 1-year service agreement to take advantage of their offer of free Wireless Web for doing so. I was informed that this couldn't be done on my account because I have first incoming minute free and they don't offer that service on their current plans. I even asked her to make sure that this couldn't be done since I was agreeing to not change providers for a year and I was told that it couldn't be done.
My time is more valuable to me than spending 2 hours getting to work (and 2 hours back), and $300/mo for the privilege. I can make $60k in a decent sized city, live 1 mile from work (or 20-45 mins to the burbs), free parking... and then spend my vacations in NYC if I really really wanted to.
Watch out for that (Verizon) SingleRate. It says "no roaming" but in the fine print you find that this means no roaming charges WITHIN THEIR NETWORK. Furthermore, to get no-roaming, you need to buy a tri-mode phone.
The only good weather is bad weather.
You DO pay for incoming calls in Europe if you are abroad. Example:
- You have, say, a Dutch phone and contract
- You go to, say, Belgium
- You receive a call from Holland.
You pay for the communication from Holland to Belgium.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Personally, I just turn my cell off (I have a StarTac, too) when I'm in a meeting, or at the movies, and then I turn it on when I'm done. I figure if I'm not even going to answer the call, or pop open the phone to see who it's from, I don't even need to know that I am getting a call, or at least not at that moment.
Do domain names matter?
Yeah, but I wouldn't talk about ANYTHING that should be secure over a cellphone. EVEN digtal cellphones supposed securty can be comprimised. One other bad thing about digital phones is that some people's voices just plain don't go over the digital ones well. The digital phones are nice, but they need a few more bits of data to make it useful to me. Right now they are just on the edge. This comes from a digital phone user (NEXTEL.....I reccomend these for business's big time....if you can get them to go this way, convince them it can replace pagers too. Plus it has wireless internet (ok, I know it's MSN but it's still cool!)). So far as this imaging problem you are talking about this is called harmonics. Almost everything that produces rf will produce a harmonic, but this isn't what you have to worry about. Scanners may hvae the cell frequencies blocked when you buy them from a store, but this can be easily undone and you can scan around MUCH easier then trying to hit a harmonic.
Gorkman
From the site that used to bring you News For Nerds, we can soon expect the following:
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"But what's all the hype because people have been using radios and headsets for over twenty years, so where's the "antenna" effect there? "
Last time i checked a radio was a receiver, not a microwave transmitter.
What, me worry?
Dosn't Hull have free local calls?
My story: I used to pay, and expense, roaming charges for business. Now I have national roaming, and though I haven't figured out how to expense a single call, nonetheless my net expense is much less.
sulli
RTFJ.
Then the second phone had a bad habit of answering calls on its own, and then hanging up on people.
That's the reason I took the first phone back. It kept hanging up on me. Eventually, it kept turning off unexpectedly. It was completely annoying. After my second phone, I told them I didn't want the same model. I guess the salesperson could see in my eyes, that I was out for blood. She immediately got her manager. He of course, gave me the StarTac. So far, I have no problems with it.
You might try taking it back, next time it hoses out, and telling them you want another model. If they say they won't give you one (a highly unlikely scenerio), just tell them you'll cancel their service. They're the ones pooching the deal by not giving you a decent phone.
Cell phone service here can be useful for me because some have their local calling area extended from North East PA to State college, so I don't end up paying the big roaming charge fee when I'm making calls from there. However, outside of NEPA and State college, the roaming fees pile up very quickly. Your $50 will vanish :(
Who's the black private dick, who's a sex machine for all the chicks?
That is incorrect. PCS sits on top of TDMA and CDMA, while GSM is an entirely different standard. If they were the same, why would they be advertising "world phones" that do GSM for $200 more than your standard Sprint PCS phone? Here's a link to a discussion of wireless coverage where they certainly make the distinction.
Del
Nokia cell phones are great. I have two that have been abused all to Hell. The one has been glue-jobbed all over multiple times because the poor baby gets dropped on concrete a lot. Growing up my dear old dad was the "take care of stuff" kind of guy who would wash and wax his cars, even lawn mowers, and was big into taking care of stuff. I thought that "stuff" was around for us, so if it couldn't handle our abuse, tough. Thus, I am really hard on anything (that I own... I do respect other peoples' stuff), no mercy, and I don't mind if that results in glue globs and duct tape. For example, I had an old Audi sedan that was broken into twice and busted up, I drove it through snow banks once to refill my step-sister's snowmobile with gas, etc., and I had even drilled holes in the driver's door because the opening mechanism was shot so I had to use a coat hanger to jigger the door open... but the damn thing kept going and I loved that car(don't even ask about the '76 Chevy pickup with five different colors of paint I had in college)! And I have to say my Nokias are just like that. I beat them up and they still work fine. Don't think that isn't worth something, because if you are on the road and drop one of those wimpy phones with little fragile parts sticking out of them, you are out of luck, and that fancy little feature that sold you isn't worth squat.
"My mother works for Microsoft now. A whole other cult."
You'd be surprised... Lots of people commute daily from Philly to NYC. If you're just coding, chances are your employer would likely be agreeable to telecommuting 2 or 3 days a week.
I live in South Jersey (Burlington County), and from August, 1998 - December, 1998 (as part of a contract) I commuted daily from my home to NYC (2 WTC). My days went something like this:
The reverse trip was easy too. Back on the PATH about 5:00, catch the 5:30ish train from Newark back to Trenton. Home before 7 every night.
Oh, by the way, the 50 minute train rides make for great naps. There are also AC outlets if you need to get work done.
Cost? Work was picking up the tab, but here's what it ran me:
The NJT weekly && monthly passes permit you to ride the Amtrak unreserved trains between certain hours at no extra charge. Nicer trains, more comfy seats too.
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The unsig!
You're close.
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The unsig!
A large portion (square miles wise) of the country is only reachable on 800 AMPS analog service. If you stick to cities all the time, no problem. But if you're driving between Phoenix and Las Vegas and need to make a call, you'll be real grateful for that analog signal you have.
So when you see an advertisement for "all digital" what they are saying is "no analog" and in my mind, that's a real problem.
Personally, I'm with Verizon Wireless and with their national plan, the tri-band phones update themselves with current roaming tables so they always pick the correct band or if on analog, the correct side (A or B) and there are no extra charges for calls all over the country. You get CDMA digital calls where available and if not, you'll calls will be delivered or sent over an analog network. Analog is better than nothing...
Voicestream's coverage map can be viewed here. From experience, I know that there is no Voicestream coverage in Cleveland or Cincinnati, and by looking at the map it looks like the don't cover most of the SW US, no Chicago, and no California. I'm willing to bet that a job with a lot of travel would be frequenting at least one of the areas. GSM is far superior to CDMA and TDMA, and AFAIK Voicestream is the only provider still offering "first incoming minute free" to new subscribers, but it's too bad that it's taking Voicestream so long in providing coverage to new areas.
In South Africa, we have what's called a 'pay as you go' system.
:-
For about $20 you get a starter kit that gets installed in your cellphone at the shop you buy it from and comes with your PIN number and your Cell Number.
After that, you buy 'recharge' vouchers of several different denominations - i.e. call time.
These vouchers have a serial number which you reveal in the same manner as a scratch card - you then simply dial a number and punch in the serial - viola, more call time !
All incoming calls are free.
IOW, you call the shots on how much bucks you want to spend.
This system is only useful if you receive more incoming calls than you make outgoing.
I can't believe there's nothing like that in the states ? -
Hmm, come to think of it, I think it was invented in South Africa - check it out
http://www.vodacom.co.za
http://www.mtn.co.za
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
If you decide to go with the Sprint plan, here's some things you'll need to know.
Don't get the Samsung SCH-3500 model. No matter how hard they try to sell you. I've had two of these models quit on me. I finally traded it in for a StarTac and not only can you hear better on them, but they have better glow in the dark readout. And, by the way, are more compact.
If you put the phone on vibrate, so that you don't disturb anyone, such as in a business meeting or movie theatre, the phone will vibrate when you get a call, but then will RING to let you know you have missed a call. When I called Sprint about this poor design they said there is nothing they can do about it. Samsung designed the software and the hardware. When I called Samsung, they said there was nothing they could do. I would have loved to be in the design phase meetings when they made this phone.
The phone also has a keylock function. When this feature is activated, the keys won't respond, until you turn it off. This is in case you have the phone in your pocket, or where ever and you don't want to accidently dial people. The problem is, all the keys are locked behind the hard flip-top cover. All they keys, except for two. One of these non-protected keys is the OK key. Guess what it does. It turns off the key-protect feature. Guess what the other one does. It dials your voice mail (for which you get dinged for minutes). Oh, did I mention the keys on the side of the phone? They are a quick-features key. One of these gets you to the main menu where you can do all kinds of dialing damage - again, getting dinged for cell-phone minutes. Just another example of ingenuity in action.
On the plus side, the voice activated dial worked really well. The only problem is, I used it more to impress chicks, than I did for its functionality. The problems with the phone far outweigh this one little plus.
My rating: 1 out of 4 stars.
So far, AT&T and TRACFONE have tried this; AT&T recently shut down their program. Sprint is just starting theirs; endcap displays have arrived at many stores already (including my CompUSA).
Just a caveat: when purchasing a cell phone, get a bill. For an idea of what it's like to run out of cell phone time, type this into your Q3 console:
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
This might be useful for you: http://www.wirelessdimension.com
go to the consumer section then click on "Service Plan Locator". They cover a few good SPs.
The prices differ a bit, but you should have a rough idea on how much you will use your cell phone...a good start is to check you current/past cell phone bill and work it out from there.
Good luck.
My own story: Some company in NYC offered me a job for PHP/MySQL/misc. programming. After pulling the price back and forth for a while, we ended up at $60K with some benefits, with them starting at 50, and me starting at 80; A compromise which definitely ended on their side of the line. I live in Philadelphia, so traveling is not really an option. I would have to relocate. I explained this difficulty to the recruiter. He offered to lend me $5K for moving expenses, which would then be deducted from my salary.
I'm not one to kill someone for a few dollars, but if a company declined to even offer me moving expenses, I doubt that they will be very kind in the future. For better or for worse, I declined.
Posted with a recent Mozilla nightly, BTW. Just get the UI bugs out, and I'll use it guys. :)
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So.. you're getting a job which requires that you travel a lot, and in return you get a 50 buck voucher for making your calls ? I'd rather look for a new company that just refunds all business calls, no questions asked, instead of a new plan :)
Effectively cellphones are little more than pocket radios, and despite US radio scanners having the cell frequencies "blocked" (IE, the scanners skip the bands assigned to cellphones), you can still pick them up on blocked scanners due to "imaging" (Check Strong Signals and check their glossary about imaging.)
So if you want to be entirely secure, and what good Slashdotter doesn't, avoid analogue phones like the plague, or if you have no choice, at least treat them as being as secure as shouting across a crowded room.
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- Are the minutes you get useable at the times you'll be using the phone? Ignore the free minutes if they're off-peak. What are the chances you'll be doing work stuff at night.
- Are the free minutes useable to networks you'll be phoning most? Some talk plans don't include free time to other mobile networks, premium rate lines (eg tech support.. or pr0n if you have a weird job 8)).
- Is the phone billed per-second? I've heard nasty thing about some US telcos rounding a 65second call up to 2 mintues..
- Whats the coverage like? Is it going to work where you are going to be..
- What are the toys like? Are the options for things like WAP, email to the phone etc..
- Whats the phone itself like? Theres nothing worse than having a chunky, poor quality, poor interfaced phone that you need to use quickly and easily everyday.
I've heard some pretty good stories about Bell Atlantic's SingleRate tarrif, its a good network with coast to coast coverage. A couple of American consulatants I've spoken to are with the network. That said though, I'm fortunate enough to live and work in the uk, our 4 mobile operators are pretty much equal.http://twitter.com/onion2k
The *G*lobal *S*tandard for *M*obile communications is the phone standard that most of the world uses. Thankfully, it is available in the USA (although strangely on a frequency that no other continent uses for GSM). The GSM system is by far the best implementation of a cellular network, and I highly recommend that you go with it. Some highlights:
1) First of all, it's a world standard, and you know how we love standards here at Slashdot. Nonstandard networks include AT&T or Verizon (a bizzare TDMA hack) and Sprint PCS, which is a new system entirely (although they get kudos for doing something new, CDMA). In fact, there is no central corporation with GSM, only an alliance of providers and manufacturers which decide on the standards.
2) GSM isn't a just digital radio transmission protocol like TDMA or CDMA. It's quite unfair to compare "the big three" as GSM, TDMA, and CDMA. That makes no sense at all. Heck, GSM uses TDMA for its radio transmission. In reality, GSM is an entire cellular phone system, from the phones you use, to the radio towers, the whole bit. Everything about it is part of the standard.
3) GSM was built with wireless data in mind, which is why it has always supported voice, data, and SMS (short messaging service, two way paging) in its network. Every other USA service is just now catching up (read: hacking it in).
4) GSM separates owner and phone by utilizing a SIM card, which identifies you and your provider. This means that you don't even have to notify your provider when you buy a new phone. Just pop in the chip and off you go. I have several GSM phones, and I just stick the chip in the one I wish to use that day. Hmm, do I want the sweet Nokia 8890? Or the terminal-in-my-pocket Nokia 9000?
By the way, amidst the fragmented USA cellular phone market as it is, 1900MHz was assigned as the GSM frequency. This means that for a GSM phone to work here, it must support that frequency. However, some phones do both. The Nokia 8890 or the Ericsson i888 work just about everywhere in the world. And they both have IR ports for your laptops/Psions/Palms. Fun stuff indeed.
When you decide to go with GSM (and I'm sure you will), be sure to choose Powertel. From my research, they have the best value for data minutes in the USA. 600 minutes of voice (or data, no extra charge) anywhere in the USA to anywhere in the USA for $65/mo. Not bad! =)
-Justin