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Truth Or Dare — What Is the Best US Cell Company?
Epsilon Eridani writes "I am returning to the US after an extended time overseas and upon my return I need to jump head first into the data enabled phone bandwagon. I have to admit ... I am lost as to what is the best company to choose. Before I left the US I used a Sprint HTC phone running Windows with the 'simply everything' plan to communicate and stay organized and a Sprint Wireless Card to connect my laptop to the world. Coming back several generations of technology later, what is the best set up technology-wise to link phone and laptop or two to the Internet? (Open source solutions accepted too!) Can the Slashdot community verify some of the claims on quality of service before I give my first born up when I sign a service contract?"
From a pure technical perspective, Verizon will get you the best coverage. But the sales people are vicious.
AT&T has iPhone obviously, but shitty coverage. I lend my phone to friends on AT&T in a couple different cities.
T-Mobile is worse coverage then AT&T. But has more open phones.
If you've got nothing right now, I'd go Droid on Verizon, pay 40 bucks for the unlimited data and use Google Voice for routing of your calls and LD service.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
No, they don't. AT&T's 3G network is on a different frequency than T-Mobile's, and the iPhones only support the AT&T 3G band. You can use unlocked (a step beyond jailbroken) iPhones on T-Mobile, but only with Edge support.
If you're in a major metro area, T-Mobile is by far the best and cheapest. They also let you tether with all their smartphones without an additional tethering charge. If you're in the boonies, it seems Verizon is the only way to go.
"It's complicated."
Signal quality and coverage depend on multiple things - the carrier's infrastructure vs your (common) locations, and your phone. Verizon's coverage, say, in one city, can be completely different than in another city. There is also the difference between voice quality and data, and then there's data SPEEDS to consider. You also want to look at future upgrades. Verizon will be the first one going to LTE (the next big jump in data connection speeds), though Sprint has already rolled out WiMax in some cities (a competing 4th gen spec), noone is likely to be coming out with any WiMax smartphones until the second half of the year, by which time, Verizon will be on the verge of their LTE rollout. You can get WiMax cards for your laptop now, though, if you just can't wait.
There's also the issues of phone selection and plan pricing to consider, and whether you're going contract-free or not. We're in a period of transition this year on more than one front - the impending switch to LTE in the second half of the year, and the decimation of Windows Mobile-based phones by Android-based phones, oh, and the now 'superphone' type phones - ones with 1ghz-class processors and WVGA screens (like the Nexus one and HTC Bravo).
So, I guess I would start by thinking about finances. Can you afford to outright buy a phone? If you can, I'd suggest that so you can go contract-free and increase your choices for switching in a year if you need to based on how the industry shakes out this year. The beginning of 2011 is going to look VERY different from what it looks like now. Android will be matured, LTE will be available in most major cities by Verizon at the very least, Sprint's WiMax infrastructure will possibly be starting to switch over to LTE if it is, indeed, as simple as upgrading network tower software, and we'll see how mature Android is, how much Microsoft bribes the cellphone companies to put out WinMo 7-based phones, and whether the iPhone finally upgrades to 'superphone' status and becomes available on networks other than AT&T.
If you can't afford to outright buy your phone, then go with Verizon or Sprint for the 3G coverage (for now), assuming 3G is a big concern. Verizon vs Sprint is a matter of network quality/phone selection vs price. Verizon (currently) has the better phone selection and network quality over Sprint, but Sprint has those Simply Everything plans (I'm on the Simply Everything 450). Verizon is officially going to be carrying the Google Nexus One phone later this year. Sprint was completely silent during CES on what phones it's going to be carrying. If they get the HTC Bravo (the hardware that is essentially the Nexus One), I may stay with Sprint, especially if it has the Sense UI on it, which the Nexus One does not. Verizon seems to have made the biggest official commitment to the Android platform of any of the major US carriers. I just wish they'd match prices with Sprint. If I could get an HTC Bravo on Verizon at Sprint's prices, I wouldn't hesitate to sign a two-year contract.
I wouldn't consider AT&T or T-Mobile because of their 3G coverage and network reliability issues at this time, but those AREN'T issues for many people in many locations. You'll want to find out from people where you live what those networks are like there.
I've been w/T-Mobile since they started in the US. Here's why I like them:
* Avid supporter of Android. First one to introduce the G1, and now the first partner w/the Nexus One.
* Support advanced android features like visual voice mail for free and auto-notification when you near your minutes limit
* Reasonably priced, as cell phone companies go.
* Customer service has been shockingly fast/friendly whenever I've needed them (which admittedly, hasn't been often)
* Great coverage in US. Every city I've been to has had solid coverage. I've only been to fairly large cities though.
* After 3 months of service, they give you unlock codes for your phone.
* GSM network so most phones can be used overseas-- successfully used my US G1 in US, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, etc. T-Mobile's parent company is Deutsche Telekom.
* They are not AT&T.
* As far as I know, they did not spy on Americans when Bush asked them to.
And no, I don't work for them.
all of them have a 30 day escape clause in their contracts.
That clause didn't show up there by accident. In the US, it's the law.
That's actually offered by AT&T under the term "A-List", Sprint under "Any network any time", and T-Mobile as "MyFaves"... all require their higher plans.
ive had the service for nearly 4 years now, and had very little issue with them customer service wise. ive called about several billing issues and theyve always been corrected completely and promptly.
When I was a Sprint customer, I also called them about several billing issues, and they were also corrected completely and promptly.
Then I got tired of having to correct my bill every month, so I switched to another carrier and didn't have any more billing issues to call about. First Verizon and now T-Mobile have always managed to charge me the correct amount every month.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
Sprint is about the same price as Tmobile (and until recently, were cheaper), has better 3g coverage by far than Tmobile, and roams on Verizon's network in case you *are* heading for the boonies. Sprint has a bad reputation they can't seem to get rid of, but have made vast improvements in customer service under their new CEO Hesse. That having been said, all of the carriers suck....
I was with AT&T for over 10 years then switched to T-Mobile because AT&T had no signal in my new house. T-Mobile and Verizon stores let me borrow a phone and bring it home, which was really cool of them I think. I went with T-Mobile because I could get 2-3 bars at home my old GSM phones would work.
Anyway I am 100% happy with T-Mobile. Their 3g service is NOT oversubscribed and will go to 21mbps (HSPA+) in 2010, everywhere. The price is lower and their customer service is far better, hands down.
AT&T has better coverage in remote areas. Their 2g signal is pretty much everywhere, while T-Mobile is in the metro areas and along the highways only.
I am envious of the Droid, which makes my Cliq look like a toy, but Android phones seem to be falling from the sky these days. One equal to the Droid should come around this year.
The Web brings people together because no matter what kind of a twisted person you happen to be, you've got millions of pals out there. Type in 'Find people that have sex with goats that are on fire' and the computer will say, 'Specify type of goat.' - Richard Jeni
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
I was a customer with sprint for 4 years. I left them specifically due to how awful their customer service is. It's like wrestling a... very difficult thing to wrestle with every time you need a small thing changed or adjusted. And there's usually a fee for that small adjustment. T-mobile has bent over backwards to help me out in every situation, and has never charged me an additional fee for something. I won't go into details here but here's what I wrote about them last week.
I agree one hundred percent, and I went over to T-Mobile at the recommendation of some of my coworkers. I haven't looked back. To be fair, I never had a problem with Sprint's phone service ... their customer service however, was another issue entirely.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Don't be a troll: http://mobile.engadget.com/2006/12/18/sprint-users-can-get-their-data-served-verizon-style/
I live in the state of Colorado. This State is about half sparsely populated flatland, and about half sparsely populated Mountains, with a thin strip of quite dense population running down the middle where the two sides meet. (The I-25 Corridor). In the city of Denver coverage is just fine but up in the mountains, trying to cover every single little town with a population 100, and occasional family cabin would not just be incredibly expensive. It would be such a large construction effort that it would ruin the wilderness which is why people live in those parts of the mountains in the first place. This doesn't even get into the fact that Americans generally avoid robust government regulation, insted hoping that the "free" market will save us all and be more efficient. America also made a heavy early investment in copper telephone lines, so we never had an actual need for wireless service like a lot of developing nations without legacy infrastructure to depend on. Despite all this, when you compare us to other large Countries with uneven population distribution like Canada, Russia, China, I think cell coverage is actually probably not too terribly bad in comparison.
The technical, political, financial, and ecological difficulties of trying to have 100% coverage just in this one state make it basically impossible to seriously consider. The idea of a single mobile network operator actually having 100% coverage in America just isn't seriously considered.