what cell service is the best?

Answer 1

In my opinion, either Verizon or Cingular. I've had Verizon/Airtouch/Cellular One, Sprint PCS, Alltel/GTE, Rogers and Telus in the past. I have Cingular now and will probably stay with them even when my contract is up.

Verizon's coverage is the best. They run on cellular frequencies as opposed to the new PCS frequencies. That means their towers/phones have better range and less drop outs, especially in rural areas. You can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but when it comes down to it all of that is no good without a decent signal. At the root of it, a cell phone is to make and receive calls and Verizon does it best. They have decent phones, mostly coming from Samsung and LG, both based in Korea, one of the few other places besides the US and Canada which use CDMA digital technology. Verizon also has some phone exclusives like that chocolate phone so if you really want THAT phone, you have to get Verizon. However, Verizon never locks their phones, which is great for the resale value of the handsets.

Cingular is the best PCS carrier. In some areas they do use cell (850MHz) frequencies, but in most areas they do not. They acquired AT&T and in many areas both AT&T and Cingular provided service. What this means is they have towers that do double duty in many areas and that makes the coverage quite solid. Some rural areas will have problems and you can't fall back on analog with a GSM phone, and that's why I put them as second. Another quick note on GSM technology is that the vast majority of the world uses GSM technology. While this may not mean much to you initially unless you travel, how it does affect everyone who uses the service is the amount and variety of handsets available. You will always see GSM phones have the latest technology first and since most phones these days are quad band it is real easy to take the same phone and put it into 90% of the world's cell phone market without having to make any physical changes to the phone.

SprintPCS has made improvements over the years but their coverage is still second best when it comes to PCS service. At least their phones will do analog mode if needed. Still, their primary coverage area isn't as solid as Cingular's. Sprint's customer service is one of the worst (if not THE worst) in the mobile phone industry. They use CDMA technology like Verizon but use the PCS frequencies which have less range and requires them to have more towers. However, Verizon has been around (as other companies) for much longer than Sprint so their infrastructure is much more developed. Sprint has similar phones to Verizon except for the fact they lock all of theirs and refuse to activate anyone elses' phones. This means if you see a cool phone from someone else, even if all the tech specs line up, they still won't activate it so Sprint's phone line up will always have an inherant amount of inferiority to it.

T-Mobile reminds me a lot of Sprint PCS .... the Sprint PCS from 1999 in terms of coverage. They cover metro areas quite well but you get out into the suburbs and especially urban areas, the coverage is really hit and miss. T-Mobile in the US is actually the result of many mergers and acquisitions. They used to be regional carriers before they got merged into one. Developing this nationwide thing is still new for for them like Sprint used to be years ago. Eventually their coverage will be as good as the other PCS providers, but it isn't yet. One good thing for T-Mobile is they probably have the best customer service in the industry. They also have very competitive international roaming rates as they are in many other countries, particularly in Europe (as they're German themselves). They use GSM just like Cingular so they have good phones, with some exclusives like the Sidekick. You can take any unlocked quad band handset and put it on T-Mo, just like Cingular. If you travel overseas a lot, T-Mo is definitely worth considering.

Nextel is the worst. They've been bought by Sprint, but they still use their old Nextel network and their old Nextel phones. They use a digital technology that no other carrier uses (except for their counterpart Telus Mike in Canada) called iDEN. Mainly only Motorola makes equipment for iDEN which means there's hardly any phones to choose from, and most of them will be junk from Motorola. It even runs on a completely different frequency than any other cell/PCS provider. Their coverage is very spotty. Poor, poor, poor. In their favor is the walkie talkie capability. They marketed pretty much only to businesses originally as an alternative to licensed 2-way radios with much better range (Nationwide) and no license. Eventually other carriers figured out how to add that feature to their network. Another thing was free incoming calls. While this is standard in Europe, no other carrier offered anything of the sort in the US. Nextel still offers this, and if you can put up with the bad coverage and you use your phone a lot, it might be worth it for you.

Speaking of using your phone a lot, if you talk pretty much non-stop, live in a metro area and never travel outside it then a service like Cricket or Revol might be for you. They charge a flat rate for unlimited minutes, but their coverage is poor, non-existant in rural and even some suburban areas, and roaming to other areas, even in state areas is not included. They're niche market providers and do well for a select group of people.

Pretty much every carrier has mobile to mobile these days so ask your friends what carrier they have. Some carriers have mobile to mobile and it doesn't matter what network they're on, however it could matter to the person you're talking to! Also, most carriers have satisfaction guarantees in either 7 day, 14 day or one month periods. If you find you don't get coverage where you need it, take the phone back during the return policy and you only pay for what you used, and you get your money back for the phone and you're out of the contract.

Answer 2

If you live in a more rural area of the country you will get more dropped calls than in the city. But I guess that's true of any service. My boyfriend has Cingular and he has had problems with customer service and wants to change providers. However, as far as I know Cingular is still the only provider that offers rollover minutes which is the best idea in cell phone history to date, IMO.

Answer 3

I may be a little bias on this but I love Verizon. I have had Cingular and Suncom in the past and Verizon is the only provider where I could get service in my house. There calling plans are cheap and they have great phones. Also they have mobile to mobile calling for free in the Verizon network so if most of your contacts are Verizon it would be a good idea.

Answer 4

The answer is very dependent on your location. Some services are better in other places. In terms of the deal that you get, I prefer Suncom here in South Carolina. It's on the Cingular network since Cingular purchased them. I have the Unplan for 59.99/mo., which means that I have Unlimited calling at any time of day. No minutes to track.

Answer 5

I honestly think verizon is the best cell service because you can talk from any verizon to verizon or In costomer for free minutes...and you can get one phone for about 50 dollars and then get one free...

Answer 6

for good service and plans get cingular or verizon

Answer 7

verizon it seems