How's Your Cell Service?

Coldeagle writes "Well for those of us who are fed up with your current leash...Cellular phone providers... Here is an interesting article on various US cell phone providers and how their service adds up."

Comments

Check!

[vladid]

Can you hear me now??


GOOD!

I don't have a cell phone.

[Black Parrot]

You insensitive clod!

Re:I don't have a cell phone.

[dnoyeb]

I bought a phone and had it for 3 years back in '92. contract was 2 years. Then I decided to upgrade, so I got a new 2 year contract with a new phone. 2 days later phone was stolen. They made me pay out the rest of the contract even without the phone, and would not give me a deal on a new phone. They wanted like $500 for a cheap ass motorola botom of the line phone.

From then on I quit Ameritech. Screw them. I just tought me I could live without a phone, and I have for 8 years running now...

I got one for my wife though. Married folks know how it is. Nice to to have your wife tethered, but not quite as nice to be tethered yourself.

How's My Cell Service?

[Anonymous Coward]

Overpriced...

Re:How's My Cell Service?

[ZaMoose]

Few people seem to realize that many cell phone companies, in the interest of retaining subscribers will actually do quite a bit. Give your company's service desk a call. Explain that you think you're paying too much and ask the service rep if there's anything they can do to help you.

Since cell phone companies' service plans seem to change all the time, you can usually luck out and get them to change you to more minutes for less money than you're paying now.

Try it some time. If you can stand wading through the 7 layers of Phone Menu Purgatory, you may just be pleasantly surprised.

Re:How's My Cell Service?

[whatch durrin]

I had a 2 year contract with Sprint. At the end of the contract, I called them and asked if they could offer me any incentives to stay with them.

I was basically told no.

Funny, I thought the biggest profit for cell phone companies was retention of customers.

I changed to T-Mobile and have been happy so far.

Re:How's My Cell Service?

[Chelloveck]

Funny, I thought the biggest profit for cell phone companies was retention of customers.

It is, but only because they're not giving incentives to the retained customers. The extra profit comes from the existing customers paying full rate (and probably on an older, more expensive plan) whereas the new customers get XX months or YY minutes discounted. Give the existing customers a discount and they're no longer a profit center.

Which is why phone providers are so vehemently opposed to number portability. The current pricing structures try to get as many new customers as possible, and try to wring as much money as possible from the existing customers. The only incentive there is for people to continue with one provider is that they'd have to get a new number if they switched. Enter number portability and you get to take your number with you to any provider. Now there's absolutely no reason not to jump to a new provider for the incentives every year or two.

Of course, any provider with a sensible pricing policy has nothing to fear. Call me when you find one...

Re:How's My Cell Service?

[AKnightCowboy]

Give your company's service desk a call. Explain that you think you're paying too much and ask the service rep if there's anything they can do to help you.

I just did. They laughed, said no, and hung up. I think Dogbert runs my cell phone company. :-(

Interesting article but

[mjmalone]

What about taking into consideration types of services offered? I had Verizon up until about 3 months ago when I decided I wanted to upgrade my phone. I found that Verizon had no GSM network and after talking on the phone with some representitives I found there was no plan to implement one either. The phone I wanted (ericsson t68i) was a tri-band GSM phone, so I decided to switch networks. I now have T-Mobile, and I admit that their coverage is not quite as good as Verizon's, but I have found it is getting better (I was in blacksburg, Va. in June and there was no service, I went back in July and had full coverage all over town.) Also you have to take into consideration the location of the individuals being polled. Some providers have excellent service in various regions, but very poor service elsewhere.

Re:Interesting article but

[numbski]

Very true. I've used SprintPCS since 1998, and I would have sworn by them all the way up until last year. Then it seems like they started oversubscribing their network.

Well, I've moved a few times, and it seems that in some areas this network over-subscription began in 2000, combined with the fact that their newer phones didn't always get the best signal. I had an old Qualcomm 1100 and never had any issues, then I got an LG flip phone, and the signal was miserable, and a 2G phone too. Now my sanyo 4900 will get full signal right next to that LG phone that gets none....wierdness.

Some R+D and catchup work on their network would do them a world of good. I realize over-subscription is the profit ticket to a network provider, but it has to be done INTELLIGENTLY.

Re:Interesting article but

[TopShelf]

Another aspect that's left out, of course, is actual customer service (as opposed to merely cellular network coverage). I'm sure the majority of people with cell phones have at least one horror story - like my wife who had to cancel her AT&T Wireless phone service on 4 separate occasions before they finally stopped sending us bills...

Re:Interesting article but

[Misch]

I had Sprint back when I lived in Rochester. It was great, always had good reception (living near 2 major colleges really helps that). Now that Ive moved into a bassackwards town, I find that my apartment is in a no-sprint service zone. Even when it's plugged in, my phone shuts itself off at night because it can't find a signal anywhere, and I am constantly bombarded with the "Bloop-bleep!" of moving in and out of digital-analog ranges.

I'm dropping Sprint when my contract ends in 15 days. Verizon has a store just down the street from me. I think they'll have better service there :-)

Re:Interesting article but

[uradu]

> how is accepting worse service being proactive

The OP was talking about interchangeable phones, something currently only GSM provides. Part of Sprint's and other proprietary networks' strategy is platform lock-in; even if someone licensed the exact same technology as Sprint (as some very well may have) you can be certain that Sprint would NOT interoperate their phones with them, other than on a roaming agreement level. While T-Mobile might have poorer coverage in some areas at the moment (which is what I was talking about regarding poor service), their trend is to improve this. With time their coverage will equal or surpass the proprietary ones, while those proprietary phones won't at the same time become less proprietary. IOW, switch to a GSM carrier if you want to send a message that you don't care for proprietary phones.

A note about SprintPCS + Vision

[numbski]

If you purchased an account (or bought a new phone/got a new advantage agreement as an old customer) and had unlimited vision, and you removed unlimited vision since then, guess what?

You still have it. They've 'grandfathered' your account into having unlimimted vision anyway. Set that next to the fact that since the christmas season, the novelty of the vision network has worn off, and I'm now getting comparable to ISDN speeds off my phone using a USB cable hooked to my powerbook.

Ja ne!

Re:A note about SprintPCS + Vision

[nolife]

I spent about a week looking at providers and talking to various CSR's from multiple carriers for a three phone package. No one plan from any company was above and beyond the others. My advice is to take what is most important to you and make a weighed scale.

My general comments on Sprint..

Overall, very happy with the phones and the service. Occasional dropouts when driving but not an issue for me.

Pros..

The phones they offer are very good with many gadgets and gizmos and are not expensive to replace.

The Vision plan offers unlimited and unmetered internet access (+$15/month or free with 2000 minute plan). The phones work with many portals including /. (I specifically recommend www.sprintusers.com portal)

Your phones email account is web based accessible from the phone, any web browser, or your favorite email client via POP3 or IMAP. Your email address is selectable and changeable. You get 10digitnumber@sprintpcs.com and pick-one@sprintpcs.com

The Free and Clear America Plan (FCA) (+$10/month) gives you free roaming when off the PCS network. Basically, if you get a signal, the phone will work. If you use more then 50% of your minutes roaming they reserve the right to remove that option to prevent "abuse".

There is no smaller "home" concept area like some of the Cingular plans have.

The phone to phone option (free with 2yr contract or $5month) is unlimited, some carriers charge for this.

The add-a-phone plans (Family Plan) are $20 for each extra phone (the 2000 minute plan offers the second phone free) and it carries the same options as the main plan (Vision + FCA + phone to phone etc..) at no extra cost.

Unlimited N&W, pretty standard but some providers still have limits on the minutes.

Not sure if Sprint specific but there are portals that allow you to download games, pictures, ringers, and upload your own content to the phone with no charge. You can get stuff from Sprint directly but they charge.

Cons:

Although you recieve unlimited messaging and unlimited download, you can not send SMS messages directly from the phone without going "online" first. Basically you have to be on the web to send SMS messages.

Customer service - Touchy issue and really only messured by your own experience. I have had billing issues since day one, the CSR's are friendly and helpful but not very knowledgeable of the billing system. Luck of the draw I guess.

Niether:

Signal quailty - Really depends on the buildout of your area. In Northern VA and Western PA, I have not had issues. I took the coverage maps into consideration with the FCA option when I chose Sprint and dropped Cingular. For me, the overall plans and prices outweighed the potential coverage pitfalls.

YMMV depending on what you plan on doing with the phones.

Verizon Wireless

[GeckoFood]

I have Verizon Wireless. Last month, I drove from Northern Virginia to northern Indiana (and back), and I never lost the signal and never went into roaming, even in the mountains of West Virginia. Can't get too much better than that...

Re:Verizon Wireless

[jmkaza]

Good to hear that Verizon's coverage is good, but as a fellow motorist, I'd prefer that you had watched the road rather than stared at your signal strength bar the whole drive.

Re:Verizon Wireless

[duckpoopy]

Try I-95 near the North Carolina-Virginia border. Very bad to no coverage. I guess it could also be my cheap (V-120) phone.

It seems that phone quality can skew the results of customer surveys, like those in the article. My phone is apparently prone to dropping calls, by no fault of Verizon. Perhaps the companies that push better phones have better perceived service quality.

Re:Verizon Wireless

[pogle]

Go just a little further south with Verizon and you encounter problems. I just got back from a week in North Carolina, once we crossed from VA into NC my Verizon Wireless connection went to perma-roam. Roaming charges everywhere in the eastern part of the state. Made me severely unhappy, despite good service elsewhere. Lucky I don't visit down there too often, would be expensive.

T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[geddes]

I use t-Mobile, the second to lowest scoring provider. I havn't had that many service problems, with the exception of coverage. Thier coverage could be a lot better, but I use them over Verizon because of the quality of their customer service. It is really excellent, and customer service, to me, makes all the difference. What I would like to know is how to honestly figure out a cell phone companies coverage (other than taking their 7 day trials or whatever and walking your route, that is annoying). Like, how can I find a map of all the cell phone towers in and around Groton, Massachusetts, and which companies run them. Having such a map at my disposal would be far more useful than the "coverage maps" the companies hand out with the entire nation shaded red. I have heard that some of the mobile shops have these, but that they really aren't allowed to share them. Surely these towers' locations have to be registered somewhere

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[ozbon]

I'm sure the towers are registered somewhere - however, it's then got to be mapped against geographic features that nork up coverage etc.

In the UK we used to have these kind of maps, but there were too many cases of people thnking they'd get coverage then not doing so because of geographic features such as hills etc that were creating blackspots. So I think they've actually stopped doing them now - I'd assume they've done the same in the US, although this assumption is speculative rather than based in fact.

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[ccoder]

if you are a complete sadist, you might be able to compile the information from http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/reports/index.cfm

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[WhiteDragon]

check usenet. alt.cellular and children have lots of info. I bet some people have made some nice detailed cell site maps. I actually have a friend who's hobby is finding cell towers, he has a big book with photos of just about every tower in the city he lives in, and he draws up maps of all the different providers. It is pretty cool, he looks at the pattern of existing towers, and says, "ok, I predict that Cingular will have a tower here", then goes to that spot, and sure enough, a tower! I had never previously heard of such a hobby, but he can't be the only one.

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[wolf-]

I was doing contract work for a cell provider in atlanta about 6 years ago. We had to have a serious background check done in order to even view the database with tower information in it. The cell companies claim that the hush hush is for security and anti-terrorism reasons. Personally I thought it was so we couldnt share just how lousy their coverage really was.

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[frane]

Refer to the article, Grad Student's Work Reveals National Infrastructure (here)

This guy used public information to build a very thourough mapping of communication, transportation, power, etc. infrastructure. IIRC, it included cell phone towers.
Of course, this caught the attention of politicians and various agencies, and he can't share his research.

Re:T-Mobile isn't great, but good enough

[Abm0raz]

I work for a company that does Phase-I/II** 911 Emergency Management Systems for states including PA, FL, ME, NY, VA, IN, LA, MS, NC and Washington DC. To properly figure out total coverage and signal strength, you need to know the lat/long/alt of every tower, as well as the antenna length, signal strength, and any local interference generators. You take all that info, and you plug it into a composite signal rendering program (such as SIGNAL by EDX. This will give you a "100% coverage" map. This assumes that all surrounding obstacles (trees, mountains, buildings, etc..) have 100% transparency with the carrier wave of the transmission. This is good to analyze the "best case" scenario.

After that, you get a topographic map (usually in .tif format from the state or federal gov't) and plug that in. Place the tower info on the map and run the software again. this will give you an "expected-case" scenario. Then repeat the process with known buildings, structures, etc ... to get the worst-case scenario.

If you ever have the chance to look at some of these maps, you'll see a lot of interesting patterns. Many cell towers aren't located on the top of mountains (like radio and TV towers). Most are located in valleys on the roofs of larger buildings. This is because the signal from cell tower's requires much more power at 800Mzh than radio and TV at lower bands. This increased frequency gives it a smaller propagation distance. This is why you see towers in towns/cities and along major roadways. Most cell companies use mountains to shield signals from bleeding excessively into other cells (because of how it works, especially with billing). This is why you can have a full strength signal going up a hill, lose it at the top (where your radio signal is strongest) and gain cell phone coverage as you go down the other side.

-Ab

** 911 Phase-I is where the dispatchers know your address/location via a Geo-database if you are on a landline and can ship out aid regardless of the info you give them.
911 Phase-II is the same thing, but for cell/satellite phones.

You get what you pay for

[Andy Dodd]

Verizon is significantly more expensive than most other US-based providers.

It has always been (in my opinion) worth the extra money, so I'm not surprised they were ranked #1.

Re:You get what you pay for

[Xrkun]

Actually, I have to correct you on the "expensive" thing. In the second quarter Verizon Wireless's average service revenue per subscriber was $48.66 This is a lot lower then the other major cell companies out there. The reason for this is Verizon does not pull tactics like placing you in plans that are not fit for you. I.E. Some other providers like to put you in lower plans and then when you use up your minutes your bill gets outragous. Verizon actually has a computer based tool that calculates your best rate plan based on the actual minutes you use. Plus with Verizon, you can change your plan at any time.

Re:You get what you pay for

[feed_those_kitties]

Verizon is significantly more expensive than most other US-based providers.

Well, someone has to pay for all those annoying commercials...

Re:You get what you pay for

[lucifuge31337]

Verizon is significantly more expensive than most other US-based providers.

Yeah...everyone other than Nextel. Who I've been using for years, as do most of my business associates and friends, and, more importantly, my fire department. LNP or not, Nextel has their customers who actually use direct connect by the balls, and thay know it.

They could double the price, and I'd still pay it. Any more than that and I'd carry a phone for calls and a Nextel for just durect connect. I suspect others feel the same.

I hate that.

Becoming like monopoly's

[Anonymous Coward]

Their becoming useless and using bullying tactics. My sister wished to swap her service away from verizon and verizon proceeded to contact ME telling me i would be paying higher charges because she was leaving the network. their was no information ever about lowering costs if we had the same provider in the first place and I even had my plan at my exiosting price far before she ever had a cell phone. So now they wanted to raise my price probably to pressure me into making her stay, so I told them to get the hell out and I switched too. Their tactics are bullying and that's not service.

This is an interesting article?

[rlsnyder]

The standards for "intersting article" seem to have gotten lower. This is a very brief writeup of a customer satisfaction survey. There is very little information on how the survey was taken, and the scoring on the survey ranks in the range of 0-104, with all services being ranked right next to each other at the top of the spectrum (with only a few % difference between each).

In other words, a short article vaguely describing a survey with largely insignificant differentiation in results. Whoo hoo!

Re:This is an interesting article?

[lordDallan]

Shout out to rlsnyder for laying the smack down on this being a seriously whack article!

I need to know where the approx. 16,000 folks they surveyed were located too! If they're all on the eastern seaboard or in southern California, what the hell does that tell me about the quality or lack thereof of each companies nationwide coverage. Nothing, that's what.

Different results

[afidel]

Here in NE Ohio between my father and I we have used all of the major cellular companies. Verizon has shit for voice quality (I might blame it on the phone but we've had 4 different sets from 3 manufacturers), AT&T I couldn't be happier with (and their coverage KILLS anyone else, I have used my phone from coast to coast and in some pretty damn remote areas like on Mt. Whitney Calif, The Grand Canyon, etc, finally Nextel is fine so long as you are in a major metro area or never get off the highway but because they have no analog backfill don't expect to get a signal in the boonies (or even the outskirts of the Cleveland/Akron metroplex in my case). Oh yeah the only reason I put up with Virizon? Price, $80/month for unlimited anytime minutes =) My dad and I both use up more minutes then even the jumbo plans that many carriers offer for well over $100 and none of them have reasonable per minute charges if you go over.

Here, in Switzerland...

[mirko]

I remember being called while I was on the top of the Schilthorn (the Piz Gloria is the restaurant in which G. Lazenby plays "At Her Majesty's service").
So I guess the coverage is quite decent, even far up the mountains. :)

Now that we know about coverage

[LogicX]

The next thing I want to know is which provider gives the best wireless internet services, including unlimited connections for a reasonable price -- and services such as AIM with a real client instead of through SMS messages. aim.com/wireless is a start, but I want to hear from those of you who use the services.

I currently have cingular, who does not offer AIM, and I've had numerous problems trying to get the wireless web service to work (apparently it wasn't supported by the towers in my home calling area).

to cell or not to cell

[selderrr]

I'll probably get modded redundant, but I still don't have a cellphone. And so far, except for 2 occasions where I got stuck in traffic for several hours and got late to pick up our kids from school, I have never even thought "damd, I wish I wasn't so stubborn and bough that cellphone"

I honestly go whooptie-flip over those 15-year olds crammed together in the bus messanging or calling eachother, yelling in my ear, poking with their elbows and tripping over anything smaller than a shepperd-dog (I recently saw a teen running along the road while phoning. Neither he nor the road-sign pole had the immense fun I had when I saw him smack his forehead fullspeed into the metal, and then the back of his head into the asphalt as he bounced back. The silliest thing was that when I tried to help him get up, he could only utter 'mind your steps... my phone is on the ground somewhere overhere' The guy was nearly blind from the impact for christ sake !)... Not to speak of the near-constant phone ringing all around me whenever I step out the door. At a bus station for instance. Sometimes it's funny to just watch everyone grab for their phone (women in their purse, machos grab their crotch as those things seem to live in simbyosis with testicles)...

That's perhaps one reason to buy a cellphone : stand at the busstation with a friend, and secretly call him. He doesn't pick up. I hang up after 3 rings and repeat. Mr. Cleese would be proud of me.

Re:to cell or not to cell

[Palos]

The main reason I ended up with a cell phone was price vs a landline. For $40 a month I get unlimited nights/weekends, no charge for long distance, and a decent amount of anytime minutes. Compared to the phone in my house which used to cost about $30 after caller id/etc and included no minutes, this was very nice.
As far as the article itself goes, as has been mentioned before its 100% location based. If you're getting a cell phone talk to people who have one there, and find out what is best.

Re:to cell or not to cell

[mOdQuArK!]

Free nights, free weekends, free long distance, mobility. Land lines can't compete.

Don't forget a really important point: it's illegal for telemarketers to call you on your cell phone.

I hate the phone

[AssFace]

I absolutely hate the phone and will do nearly anything to avoid talking on one.

That said, I love shiny things. I have had a series of phones over the years and a series of carriers.

I started in '99 with a Nokia - I think it was a 6590 or something like that - it seemed cool at the time. It was with Sprint in Boston/Cambridge.
There were small, but frequent dead zones and when I walked into one while on a call, it would drop out. Frustrating.
I called Sprint about it and they actually said "yeah, we aren't planning on upgrading out networks at all"... so I told them I would be leaving their service, which I did.

I then got a Nokia 8860 - the shiny mirrored girly phone that Christina Aguilara had on one of her MTV interviews. That phone scratched easily and had terrible reception - but I was worshipped like a god whenever I pulled that out of my pocket. It was also excellent for finding nose hair issues.
The reception on that phone was so bad that it is hard to fault AT&T for any of that. That said, AT&T fucked up the billing on my phone and my cable service about 4 times in a row and led to a several month series of events that made me decided to never use them again. They were incredibly annoying to deal with - one person would say the situation was resolved, then I would get a letter from a collection agency - for something that I never needed to pay in the first place according to AT&T.
Finally, the last straw was when the woman (many supervisors up) said to me "I understand that you aren't supposed to have this charge, but you do, and I can't fix it, so how about you just pay $10 of it and then I will write off the rest (of a $100 charge)".
I was so pissed that I had to pay anything at all since I wasn't supposed to - but at that point, I saw the $10 fee as my way of getting out of their fucking phone annoyance hell - and I was sick of getting collection notices for things that weren't my problem.

So I will never go with them again. I later got some mail telling me that I was part of a class action suit against them and would in the end get like $1 off of my cable service if I upgraded - right.

Then I switched to VoiceStream, and they then renamed to T-Mobile. I have the Nokia 8890 with them. GSM - works in other countries and many cities.
Great service, great customer service - no billing errors - great phone.
Was very happy with them - they would upgrade my service for free as things came along - great stuff.

Then I moved to Bermuda and had to cancel that.
I can still use the same phone here, and the service is decent enough, considering I didn't want to get it in the first place (work made me get it, but then refused to pay for it, so as a result, I don't answer it much).
The customer service here is non-existant - but so far haven't had to deal with that yet. Have had a rude person and a nice person when signing up. That is pretty normal here - usually more rude.

In the end, the only way I would change phones is if I get one of the new Treo phones from Handspring/Palm, or if Nokia's upgrade to the 8890 comes here (I think it is the 8910 and 8910i - nice looking phones).

Regional Considerations

[timothy_m_smith]

The problem with this article is that mobile service should be rated regionally as opposed to nationally. I understand that some carriers have national plans, but in general each carrier has strengths in different geographic areas.

Since last christmas (left that part out)...

[numbski]

I got modded up anyway, but I meant to say if you bought a new phone/agreement this last christmas season while they were giving unlimited vision for free, and then removed it.

Hate to see a bunch of people remove it and find out they are getting metered because they didn't fall in that group. I'm saying if you've removed it since christmas, not to go do it now. :P

Most times...just like ewoks

[emo boy]

I have Sprint PCS and I would say over 50% of the time the people on the other end just sound like Ewoks. It could be the service quality or it could just be that I'm talking to Ewoks but I mean what sounds more likely...Eworks or the quality of service?? Yeah Ewoks...those damn ewoks.

Cingular

[LogicX]

Just wanted to toss out there that I went to get a new phone at cingular last week, and they've JUST switched everything to GSM networks from CDMA. All their new plans are for GSM service, all their new phones are GSM. If you are a currently customer you have TWO phones to choose from that still do CDMA. The GSM service has MUCH less coverage, they claim better quality and signal strength.

Does anyone have any good URLs showing what network types all the providers use, and maybe compares them?

Re:Cingular

[WhiteDragon]

cingular was never CDMA, they have been TDMA. That being said, the two phones that have TDMA and GSM (a combination known as GAIT) are the Sony-Ericsson T62u and the Nokia 6360. I have had a cingular phone for a year and a half and really love their coverage. I am on a national plan which includes roaming to analog and tdma, and I almost always have some signal. I don't care whether it is cingular, other tdma, or analog, since I don't pay any extra for it. My only complaint is the fact that calls made while off the cingular network are not billed immediately, so you might have to wait a month or two, then all of a sudden you wonder where those extra 150 minutes on your bill came from. I suppose that is probably not cingular's fault though, since they have to wait until they get the data from the roaming partners.

Re:Cingular

[MikeVx]

cingular was never CDMA, they have been TDMA.

Cingular as such was never CDMA, but Ameritech Cellular, which became Cingular, was CDMA for digital before the great SBC consolidation, when they then re-built the network to do TDMA. I live in SE Michigan, and have had a friend in the Ameritech/Cingular switching center since before digital was deployed around here.

I've just recently switched to a Cingular National using a GAIT SonyEricsson T62u phone. I haven';t had a chance to test the extended calling yet, but I now get calls in areas that the TDMA phone wouldn't work. Mind you, this is by roaming on to ATT, but it is included in my minutes. It just messes with mobile-to-mobile figures when I do that.

One interesting wrinkle in the Detroit area. The GSM coverage for Cingular seems to be a bit thin, so they have this interesting arrangement with ATT. When they are running out of channel space in a thin area, they hand off incoming calls to ATT to handle. Other than producing a strange call record, this is treated as a local call for mobile-to-mobile purposes. I get a 248/FollowMe line on my bill when this happens. Also, they have feature transparency wuith ATT so my text messaging works the same.

No

[computechnica]

There are still alot of rural areas out west that do not have any service. I doubt some of the areas in the commercials really had service.

Isint this a poll question? ;p

[Comsn]

you insensitive clod! my tinfoil hat blocks cell service!

I'm surprised..

[MImeKillEr]

.. Sprint PCS did better than T-Mobile. We had nothing but problems with our Sprint phone and I had absolutely no issues with my VoiceStream (now T-Mobile) phone.

I'd like to see another report, however, that takes cellular coverage issues as well as billing and customer support. I wouldn't be surprised to find Sprint at the bottom of that list.

Re:sprint PCS sucks!

[MImeKillEr]

When we had our Sprint PCS (Nokia?) "Dual Band" phone, we also had an old Analog cellphone (carrier and brand I can't recall). The wife and I took a roadtrip and plugged both into the car outlets (cig & accessory). Every time we saw a tower on the horizon, we'd check both phones. The Sprint phone got a signal maybe 80% of the time whereas the older analog got a signal more like 90% of the time.

Both plans reported that they had coverage on the highway we were driving on.

Can you hear me now?

[miketang16]

No.

At least according to those results.

Sprint Feedback from recent trip

[Metroid72]

Using Sprint, this weekend I was in: Detroit Pittsburg New York Washington DC And in all those sites I got the infamous "Signal Faded" (the other end was usually a landline). Are the other carriers as bad as Sprint?

Re:Sprint Feedback from recent trip

[papa248]

Using Sprint, this weekend I was in: Detroit Pittsburg New York Washington DC And in all those sites I got the infamous "Signal Faded" (the other end was usually a landline). Are the other carriers as bad as Sprint?

Nope. I use Nextel, and it would take a miracle to pry my i90 from my hands. I used Sprint PCS phones since I was a Junior in college (roughly 1999) and I hated it.

The handset was OK, but service was atrocious, between Troy (my hometown) and Ann Arbor at Umich.edu, I was lucky to be able to make calls. I thought "Signal Faded/Call Dropped" was the home screen on my phone for a while. Then there were probably a half dozen billing snafus, an finally I was fed up when my last phone, a StarTAC, would refuse to ring (calls went to voicemail) and my voicemail notification would come maybe 48 hours after they were left with me.

I swicthed to Nextel in 2001 since that is what everyone in my company had--plus, they were buying. I've had 3 phones (all upgrades, no failures!) and I couldn't be happier. I pay $54 /month for 1000 peak minutes, and unlimited off-peak and weekends. The only disadvantages is that wireless internet costs an extra $10 which I don't use anyways, and because the phones are higher-power than typically cell phones, the battery usually only lasts me a day with moderate talk time. But for quality and reliability, I can't beat Nextel in the Detroit Metro area.

Prepaid

[Patik]

Prepaid phones are a great resource for those who wish they had a phone for occasional usage (emergencies, quick short calls, etc.) but won't talk enough to justify $30/month. I've found Virgin Mobile to offer the best rates. You have to add $20 every 90 days, which works out to $7/month if you never use it (or use up to about a half hour a month). You can add money on their website, through the phone itself, or by buying a card at a store. The balance also carries over until you cancel the service. I've never had to add any more than the minimum, and I feel like I've adequate usage out of it. It's .25/min, which seems costly but if I had a $30/month plan I'd still only use it 30-60 minutes, and I'd be pay three times per minute when you average it out. Free text messages (10 cents to send) are very convenient.

For the 7 months I've had it the service has been great, phone has worked fine, and everything has run smoothly.

Since then I've convinced three people close to me to get their own. They, too, disregarded cell phones because of the daunting costs, but have found the occasional usage quite convenient.

Re:Prepaid

[tetranz]

Yes, prepaid can be handy. I got a Verizon prepay for emergencies about three years ago when the minimum payment was $15 per 60 days or about $7.50 per month. Once everyone was hooked, the minimum became $20 and then $30 per 60 days. I couldn't find anything better at the time so I've had it ever since and now have several hundred dollars and a ridiculous number of minutes available. If I'm a day late recharging it, all minutes disappear. I must check out Virgin.

Verizon / Nextel / Sprint

[weave]

I've driven all over the southwest with a friend of mine. I have Verizon, my work phone is Nextel, and he has Sprint PCS. Coverage wise, it was Verizon by far, then Nextel, then that POS Sprint. Even in dense areas like - ah, er, Phoenix -- he often had trouble getting a decent signal.

Then there's the entire southeast quadrant of New Mexico. All around Carlsbad, Roswell, and basically anywhere east of I-25 was a complete dead zone for Nextel and Sprint. Verizon was great except for a few isolated areas between some mountains.

Sprint's "all digital" shtick is supposed to be a selling point, but it's actually a disadvantage. If there's no digital signal, I'd much rather fall back to analog (plus not have to pay roaming charges) than have no service at all.

One more thing, modern cell phones pretty much suck. I've had a startac 7868W for years now, works like a champ, great sound quality, and goes ages on a charge. It's basically a very good telephone. OK, so it doesn't have solitaire or allow me to snap photos inside of locker rooms. I'd rather just have a good phone and reliable dependable phone service.

Re:Verizon / Nextel / Sprint

[arkane1234]

Sprint's "all digital" shtick is supposed to be a selling point, but it's actually a disadvantage. If there's no digital signal, I'd much rather fall back to analog (plus not have to pay roaming charges) than have no service at all.

I have a (company-owned) Sprint SCP4900 dual-band digital phone through Sprint PCS, and I get analog when I get outside of their digital network.

Re:Verizon / Nextel / Sprint

[weave]

I had coverage in the most remote, god-fosaken areas of the southwest.

And if you think about it, that's what really counts. If you're out in the middle of nowhere and stranded, having a signal could be a real life saver. I've done a lot of hiking in remote areas of the southwest and almost always had a verizon signal. If not, I could usually just walk up to the top of some hill or mountain (not always that easy I admit) and grab one!

True

[Andy Dodd]

That's part of why Verizon rocks.

But assuming that one chooses the optimum plan for a given provider, Verizon is significantly more expensive per minute - With other providers, you get more minutes for the same price.

Nonetheless, minutes aren't everything. Having tons of minutes is worthless when you waste them due to dropped calls or can't use them because you're roaming. Per-minute, Verizon is much more expensive, but they are worth every penny.

maybe

[Datasage]

Verizon may be best for the entire country, but not best for every area. When i was choosing a cellular provider i did a bit of shopping around. sometimes by overhearing other customers talking to the guy at the counter about thier problems. Most of them were compaining about the quality of verizon's service. In the end i choose t-mobile.

Quality of service is not the only reason why i would choose a provider.

GSM vs CDMA: Because we in the US always have to be incompatible with the rest of the world we create the cdma standard. Generally i have found that the cdma based networks cant send sms outside of thier network or to very few others. while t-mobile to many of the networks around the world. T-mobile also can be used on many of the networks around the work, but you pay a premium price to do so (anywhere from $1-5 per minute). But if you were in those countries, it would be rather easy to just get a sim card for a local network. The last reason i like gsm over cdma, i can upgrade my handset by just moving the sim card to another phone, no programing needed.

And if you're sick of your provider...

[daveschroeder]

...Wireless Local Number Portability (LNP), meaning you can change to another wireless provider in your service area while keeping the same telephone number, goes into effect November 24, 2003:

FCC press release

I'd wait until November....

[numbski]

So you can keep your phone number when you switch. Just a thought.

Etiquette

[div_2n]

Just as with anything else, there is (or should be) etiquette for use. Sometimes it takes quite a while for the social norms to develop. Smokers still seem to think it is and should be acceptable for them to blow smoke right in a non-smokers breathing area. I don't think too many people would argue it is ok to have sex in public (can't wait for responses to that).

The point is that social norms will develop. It will probably take too long (as in smoking) so establishments will probably have no cell phone policies except in special areas. This makes sense anyway as phone conversations tend to be louder than normal conversation. Whenever I get a cell phone call in a public place I always move to a point where I am out of the way and talk just like I was having a conversation with someone right next to me.

Just as a car shouldn't be driven just anywhere (a neighbors lawn), a cell phone shouldn't be used anywhere and anytime. For example, answering a call while your girlfriend is yelling at you is likely to get it broken upside your head. Strangely if they go down while you are actually ON the phone it is ok. Go figure.

Tower Location

[Duckz]

This site does most of the work for you.
http://www.berkana.com/tower.php3

Todd

Re:Tower Location

[Duckz]

In Mississippi, where I'm at, Bellsouth and Cellular south owns most of the towers in the state. Im a cellular south customer and so it's easy to use that link to find their towers, since their the owners.

Another thing to realize, is this doesnt carry all towers, just those high enough that they have to be registered with the FCC so the FAA can avoid them.

BTW, for any Mississippians, I'd had cellular south for a number of years and they do a swell job of coverage in rural areas where as some of the big timers don't. Sometimes it's better to go local if you need good local coverage. Cellular south seems to know where to invest it's money, putting towers at home.

I don't work for cellular south, I'm just a very satisified customer.

--
Todd

Don't get AT&T in LA!....

[PincheGab]

That's all I know about L.A. cell service. In finding out which provider to switch to from AT&T, I ran into this ePinions page. Unlike this awful and non-informative article, the ePinions page divides ratings by territory or metro area. Use something like this when choosing a cell service provider, as providers DO vary in service depending on the location.

Re:American vs Japanese cell service

[Pompatus]

I remember when I was in Japan I was impressed by their vastly superior cell phone technology. 3g phones which double as pdas and have video capability.

Like this or the older now $199 model from Sprint? Ironic they should fair poorly in the poll in the article, but understandable, since I can't get a signal at times in uptown New Orleans (note there are no tall buildings in uptown New Orleans, due to the difficulty and expense of building a structure in the swamp. And in general, we're quite poor). Also, the market is a bit different between Japan and the United States.

While our students are lazy and self centered individuals, the Japanese youth know the value of conformity and hard work. Ever hear of crime or poverty in Japan ? There isn't much. Gun control along with a generally more polite attitude keeps crime there very low.

I'm going to skip my flaimbait rant here, because your next sentence

We Americans could learn a lot from the Japanese, although we are still the best damn country in the world our technology is slightly lacking!

astounds me. Tell me, is it our lazy and self centered students, or our high crime and poverty that make America "the best damn country in the world"? I'm a bit confused here.

I don't WANT "best," I want GOOD.

[dpbsmith]

Big deal, so Verizon's the best of a bad bunch. Let's see some ratings on an absolute scale.

What do I want from a cell phone? I want it to just work.

Every time I contacted Verizon regarding problems, they implied it was because I had one of those "old" analog phones. So I bought a spiffy new digital tri-mode phone and digital service.

And it still acts weird. People still call me at times when my phone is powered on and showing five signal bars, and get sent to voice mail. And it can take hours for my phone to tell me that I have voice mail.

And sometimes it beeps for no reason at all and I can't figure out why and Verizon's customer service can't tell me.

And if I'm actually walking around with the phone, I hear little bits of garble as if I were briefly underwater--I suppose it's decided to change what tower it's talking to, for no reason.

And when I was on a trip, every time I turned it on, the first call I made would not go through--I'd get a recorded message to the effect that "this mobile unit is not authorized in this area." But the second (and subsequent) phone calls would go through fine. Why? Customer service couldn't tell me.

And all my conversations are strange, because--something nobody bothered to mentioned to me--unlike analog cell phones, which work in real time, the digital phones for some unfathomable reason incorporate a split-second delay of nearly half a second in each direction.

And the thing has a complex, pesky, homebrew user interface that takes me back to the days of character-oriented DOS programs which all had their own UI conventions.

And the "end call" button is also the "power off" button so if you don't have a good sense of timing you can turn the thing off when you just meant to end the call.

And the maps they give you showing where cell service is supposed to exist are just jokes. The coverage areas look like slice of American cheese, but the reality is more like Swiss cheese.

Like so much high-tech gear, it doesn't really work and nobody cares.

Tmobile had a computer coverage map

[acomj]

I remember in a TMobile store the sales guy pulled up a map of my home area coverage on the sales computer. The coverage wasn't good. He sugested I try some other provider (I respect that alot). Ask if you can see a coverage map when you go to buy, if your nice they might show it to you..

You are violating Sprint's TOS

[JasonUCF]

Read closely on their Vision website -- using a USB cable with the phone (instead of their 'PCS Connection Card') is a definite no-no.

Enjoy your service while it lasts, eventually you'll get a phonecall from Sprint saying 'Mr. So and So, you have three options, we can cancel your vision outright, you can purchase a monthly service plan (20MB for $$, 40MB for $$$, etc) for business connections, or you can pay a per kilobyte charge on your data.

reference 1 reference 2

Re:You are violating Sprint's TOS

[Anonymous Coward]

uh, but you won't get caught unless you d/l gigs a month...something most people don't do.

Has anyone actually ever take five different phones around and used them to compare?

I did this late last year with:

Sprint
AT&T
Verizon
T-Mobile
Nextel

I really wanted to know what worked best.
I used common model phones, so as to eliminate that as an issue.

Sprint - good overall coverage, some missing spots. Rarely got the network busy.

AT&T - good coverage, but over-saturated
network...lots of "network busy" messages.

Verizon - poor coverage, even at major airports

T-Mobile - Very spotty coverage, unless in metro area.

Nextel - Good in metro areas, spotty in outlying areas.

Overall, Sprint was the best of the lot in terms of coverage. Also, they have the best plans pricewise.

More importantly, voice quality is excellent on Sprint, at least in my testing.

I think Sprint has issue because their cust. svc. isn't the best. But that's because they have a certain SLA for cust. svc. and stick to it.

Again, your mileage may vary, but I was curious and thought this was the way to test it. I expected Verizon to be a lot better, and it wasn't. I expected AT&T to be poor (based on using it 3 years ago), and it (still) was.
Nextel was actually better than expected, but voice quaility was iffy. T-Mobile is.....well, only good for Starbucks wi-fi hotspots. I expected Sprint to be decent, but was surprised how much better it was compared to the others.

Re:You are violating Sprint's TOS

[CuriousGeorge113]

uh, but you won't get caught unless you d/l gigs a month...something most people don't do.
Or you admit to doing it publicly on Slashdot and a Sprint rep just happens to stroll through . . .

Re:UK - no top up required on prepay.

[Nurgled]

Well, it appears that all of the UK mobile telcos are trying to phase out prepay these days. My theory is that they came up with the prepay idea because it's the only way they could get all of the teens into it at the time, but now those teens have grown up so they can be tempted with a contract in exchange for cheaper calls, which are actually artificially cheaper because they actually increased the prepay tarrifs.

Add to that the fact that it's not just teenagers madly buying up mobile phones these days and the prepay model doesn't seem so attractive anymore. I've still got my first prepay SIM although I just recently changed phones. The only real reason I'm still with Orange is that I don't want to change my number. Fortunately I use my phone so infrequently that their recent tarrif increase hasn't hit me very hard.

The ongoing saga...

[badasscat]

Cellular service in this country is a mess, and urban areas can be just as bad off as rural. Case in point: New York City. I've been with Sprint now for about 6 or 7 years, not because their service is so great but because everybody else is even worse. I live in Queens (though not in the boonies of Queens) and commute to Manhattan - I get 1 bar of signal strength in either place, occasionally going up to 2. A good 50% of my calls are either dropped or just go through to voicemail. This is not just on one model of phone, either - as I said, I've been with Sprint for a while and have used a good 4-5 phones over the duration, all with external antennas, and all have been equally bad. It's the service, not the phones.

Fed up, I tried Verizon for 2 weeks about a year ago, based on their reputation (a reputation confirmed at the linked article). Every single call I made reverted to analog mode despite showing 4 bars of digital strength prior to placing the call. Accessing any data services was useless for this reason, and call quality was atrocious. Dropped Verizon within my 15 day trial period (which I believe is mandated by law around here).

During all this time, Sprint's rates have shot up dramatically, and for my family plan I am now paying a minimum of $95 per month including taxes (taxes are much higher here than anywhere else - YMMV). That's the cheapest plan available with 2 lines.

Just this weekend my wife and I signed up with Cingular, mostly due to their lower rates ($50 plus 17.1% total tax for 2 lines and a reasonable amount of minutes). Was instantly complaining that I was going to cancel the service again after I couldn't even complete a call to my wife's phone in our own apartment. Now that I've had a bit more time to play with the phones I'm starting to think the service is not particularly worse than Sprint (1 bar of strength at home, 1 bar at work, 2-3 bars everywhere in between, some calls dropped, some go through), so at the reduced rates I may as well stick with them. But I'm still not particularly happy.

If any other product on the market (and cellular service is a product like any other) only worked 50% of the time it would be considered defective. Imagine picking up your home phone and wondering whether or not your call will go through. This is the beginning of the 21st century, not the 20th. The top priority of all of these companies needs to be to fix their service. And I mean fix, not "improve". The service as it is is broken.

I have not tried cellular service in Europe but I can't imagine it is this bad. I have, on the other hand, tried it in Japan and was absolutely astonished. Now, granted, I only tried one company's service (DoCoMo) and only in one area (Tokyo metro) but it was full signal strength at all times, even in rural areas (yes, there are rural areas around Tokyo), with absolutely crystal clear call quality. I cannot understand how cellular service in the US could be so much worse.

Re:The ongoing saga...

[hackstraw]

If any other product on the market (and cellular service is a product like any other) only worked 50% of the time it would be considered defective.

But you keep buying them and tell them that 50% is OK!

I had a cell phone for about 6 months, hated it, got a $400 bill one month, dropped calls left and right (Verizon), and once my jobhunting was over, I enthusiastically paid to get out of my 1 year contract and then threw the phone in the trash.

Once cell phones are as affordable (*cough*) and reliable as a land line, I may consider getting one and replacing my land line with a cell, maybe not, I like holding my phone with my shoulder.

My cellphone service is PERFECT.

[Beardo the Bearded]

When I want to make a call, I ask one of my friends, "Hey, can I use your cell for a minute?" Either that or I use a pay phone. Remember those? 25 cents gets you a ten-minute call, and no roaming charges apply.

It's that easy. No contract, no phone to buy.

Worthless article.

[faedle]

First off, the point spread is like, what.. 10? So, can we infer from this that the "worst" cell provider (Alltel) is only a little worse than the "best"?

Some other problems: they make no differentiation between, for example, AT&T subscribers on the old DAMPS/TDMA network versus the new GSM network. There is also no mention of regional networks like Cricket and metroPCS (and with their all-you-can-eat pricing, it would be interesting to see how they stack up against "real" cellular providers).

Similarly, since cellular service can often vary widely from region to region, a breakdown by metropolitan area is almost a requirement. In Phoenix, SprintPCS was wonderful, while in Los Angeles it's oversold and almost unusable. NexTel also has a wide variance in quality, and I'm sure the pimping out of the service via Boost Mobile in California (a prepaid provider) is pushing their already heavily loaded Los Angeles network over the edge. Also, some of the technologies fare differently in different environments... a dense city like San Francisco is going to be less friendly to some technologies and more friendly to others.

Oh, and a generic note to those who have commented on Virgin Mobile: in the US, it uses the SprintPCS network.

This poll makes no sense

[hellfire]

As some people have pointed out, the service that is best nationwide is not always the best region to region.

My mother and sister have Cingular. It is by far the worst I've ever experienced and we can never talk to them because they are constantly breaking up. My father has a Nextel phone which is pretty good. I have a T-Mobile phone which is almost as good, though in some areas I get this bad echo which I believe is in fact my phone's fault and not the network (the echoing problem didn't start happening until they replaced my previous phone with a current phone, and they are the same model).

A good cellular article will be broken down by region, or will be left to regional news outlets. Otherwise its little more than pandering to national phone companies.

Decide.com

[_ph1ux_]

I used to work for a co named Decide.com - we were an online retailer of cell packages and phones. We gave you the ability to rate cell phone features side-by-side and determine which carrier had the best package for your needs.

In order to give you the full gammut of info - we had vans that were equipped with cell phones from almost every carrier, and it would drive around and the banks of phones would make automated calls from the van, play a pre-recorded message and then rate the quality of service.

You could then put in a commute path - or an address and see which carriers had the best service for that area - based on actual call data. all nicely overlayed over a neat little map.

The company obviously went under - but since I left before the final sinking - I am not sure what happened to the technology for doing these ratings...

it was cool though.

Re:sprint PCS sucks!

[scribler]

I've had Sprint PCS for a little over 3 years and the its coverage definitely differs depending on the area. When I lived in Dallas, Sprint was perfect. I rarely lost a call, the sound was great and very rarely did I find an area where I just could not make a call. I loved Sprint PCS. (Unlike AT&T Wireless. I had nothing but problems and customer service was horrible.) Now I live 45 min north of West Palm Beach. Here my Sprint PCS service is not nearly as good. Lots of areas where I have little or no reception. And oftentimes, when I can use the phone it is very staticky. However, I will be staying with Sprint for 3 reaons. 1. I don't have a contract. 2. I have no proof other providers would be better. 3. I love my Motorola StarTac and would not want to give it up.