Cell Phone Plan Recommendations for 2003?

scubacuda asks: "What do techies think about the plethora of cell phone plans out there? (While accompanying a friend at the Sprint kiosk, I couldn't help but dissuade several people from signing up with Sprint.) When I told a friend about my new AT&T "minutes w/o limits" plan ($99/mo for unlimited ANYWHERE minutes), he talked to Nextel and had them match the plan. What plans do you consider to be the best, and when have you been successful in negotiating your plan down?" Ask Slashdot did a similar question during November of 2000. It's amazing how fast cell phones have been adopted by people worldwide, and I think it would be interesting to see how much more you can get for your buck now, as opposed to then.

Comments

My opinion of the "plethora of cell phone plans"

[0x0d0a]

What do techies think about the plethora of cell phone plans out there?

My honest opinion? They all suck. They're a huge number of deliberately convoluted systems designed to part you and your money in any way possible.

And the phones themselves are a pain, too. Toss your cell phone in the trash and be free of people being able to bother you at any time of the day.

The biggest social problem today is stress. Studies show that stress *plummets* when people know that they can't possibly get hit with communications. If they aren't getting 50 emails a day, they're much more comfortable. Same goes for phones.

I mean, there are a couple jobs where you're just screwed and have to be on call, with a pager or cell. Some doctors, sysadmins, some emergency workers.

But why harness yourself with more worries and obligations if you don't have to? And *paying* a phone company for the privilege of people being able to bother you at any time is just silly.

Cingular Web site is terrible

[Pingster]

Cingular's customer service Web site is completely unusable. The complicated frames and Javascript are a mess and haven't worked properly for me in months. Often parts of the site are just down. Recently they decided to force everyone to re-register with new usernames ("Cingular IDs") and passwords for no good reason. Logging in hasn't worked ever since I went through the re-registration process.

I've had it. I'm switching. I mean, why must these people make it so hard for me to give them my money? How many developers did they hire and how much did they spend to create the current monstrosity? Can't they just give me a plain page showing my bill with a simple payment form?

Naturally, the "advanced features" of the Web site also make it totally hostile to text browsers or screen readers. I called them once to ask if they have a text-only version, hoping it would be more usable; they don't. I wonder if this is a violation of the ADA.

Verizon....

[Julius X]

Myself, I've been really happy with Verizon's service.

*ducks*

No, really. I mean it. I've gone all over the country and almost have never had a problem getting service, and since they use other people's networks I don't run in to the problems that Sprint or Cingular or AT&T people that I know have had getting service. So go figure. *shrug*