Need a cell phone for my company.
Any idea which is the best service provider.
I am not going to list Nextel as they are a premium business cell phone provider. I am looking for something with reasonable rates and great service.

Thanks.

Not verizon. Forget any reception inside any buildings.

Verizon is the absolute worst cell phone provider out there, customer service is terrible, and i payed extra for a warranty and got 3 new phones and they all sucked.... stay far away from them...

Voicestreams no good if you plan on traveling, as they dont have dual mode service really...

Im now with sprint and they seem to be good on the service end, they have the largest digital network so its great for traveling, but their billing is kinda screweed up, i wont even go into that, in a short verison they have a tendency to shut off your phone if your bills get to high even if your acct isnt past due, i travel so much i have a 99.00 plan and sometimes my bills get to 400-500.00 and on 2 occassions they just shut off my service even though the bills wernt past due, but other then that it seems out of the 6 different services i tried sprints the best.

Ye gods, don't go with Cingular, they charge you an arm and a leg for everything!

It all depends on your area. Where I'm at (DC Metropolitan) Verizon seems to be the ideal provider because they have the most...data centers (?) Ack, my brain isn't functioning today. Two of my friends use Verizon. They went to the 9:30 club and one of my friend's phone wouldn't work, while the other friend's did, and they were standing right next to each other and using the same provider.

Sprint rules!

Even though once I got harrased by their customer service.

"Sir, are you calling from someone else's phone?"

Just because I couldn't remember what my cell phone number was, she accused me of calling from someone else's phone. Argh. Luckily I got my birthdate and social security number right.

I've got Sprint PCS as well and they are decent, for the most part. I've had a couple situations similar to 'cbaker17', but I don't have high bills every month. I've had a couple voicemails left for me from the billing department saying I need to contact them "immediately" and that it was "important". I still haven't found out what the issue was because I refuse to wait 30 minutes to hear what they have to say when there's absolutely nothing wrong with my bill. Otherwise, it's been a good experience and I would recommend them. I like the Online user section they offer as well. Very nice!

Originally posted by Planet Z
Not verizon. Forget any reception inside any buildings.

On the contrary, My Verizon service is the only one I've had service inside a building.
Voicestream, nope.
Sprint, forget about it.

The others I don't know.

darn, no one selected Voicestream.

I am thinking of going with them, as they seem to make the latest advances in technology.

Any one use them?

Originally posted by ProSam


On the contrary, My Verizon service is the only one I've had service inside a building.
Voicestream, nope.
Sprint, forget about it.

The others I don't know.

Lucky ..... :D

The only time I get reception in buildings is if I'm right by a window. And this is all over the place, not just locally.

Yes, we all use voicestream here. Although it was pointed out that they do not have dual band, they do have agreements with most digital providers so that you can get service practically anywhere. Also, the smartcards are great. You can just insert the smartcard into another phone and retain all of your settings on the new phone. (a neat feature which we used a couple of times when upgrading phones).

They have some nice plans (shared minutes, free LD, free roaming, etc.) and their customer service is leaps and bounds better than Sprint (don't get me started on them, they just plain blow).

We are using the Nokia 3390 phones now - Motorolas are no good, and the 5190 do not have vibrate mode. You can get the 3390 phones now for 20 bucks.

I use Sprint personally and its great but here we use Nextel :) Why?

Nextel offers
400 Minutes of Outgoing
and
Unlimited Incoming Minutes

This would be best for webhosting companies offering 1800 support and have it routed to the nextel phone. Not only that, you can get 2 way walkie talkie service.:D

voicestrema phone will not function outside of their digital network which is only in larger citys so if you travel forget about it, voicestream did have a dual band sleeve you could slip on but they no longer offer this... but they do have some good plans, reception in buildings suck, but outside seems fine, so if you planon using your phone outside need a good really good rate plan and dont planon traveling id recommend voicestream.

Originally posted by cbaker17
voicestrema phone will not function outside of their digital network which is only in larger citys so if you travel forget about it, voicestream did have a dual band sleeve you could slip on but they no longer offer this... but they do have some good plans, reception in buildings suck, but outside seems fine, so if you planon using your phone outside need a good really good rate plan and dont planon traveling id recommend voicestream.

Charles,

Hate to tell you this (as I hardly ever disagree with you!), but this time you are mistaken. Voicestream now is available on most networks other than their own in the US. Further, there is no roaming fees anymore (unless you are still on an old plan). Our phones (registered to our Phoenix numbers) work in Vegas, LA, San Diego, New York, KC, Tampa, Dallas, Boulder, just to name a few, and quite a few of those cities o not have Voicestream service available.

Isn't it better if your phone doesn't work indoors? That means that the building is shielding you from the microwaves outside.

Of course it also means that the microwaves inside can't get out.

Just kidding, I love microwaves. They heat up your brain cells and make them go faster. Vroom! :nuke:

yeah, I hear that VoiceStream is really expanding.
They seem to be the only company moving forward with the latest technology (i.e. istream, aim, etc.)

I heard many people say Sprint really sucks. Only good in major metropolitan areas.

I have Verizon right now. But they don't offer true nationwide. I can only call out of my home calling area. Which sucks if I want to travel.

I have not tried At&T, so I have no comments.

I have been using Spring for over a year now, a month ago I recieved my Sprint PCS Samsung I300 ( http://www.samsungelectronics.com/mobile_phone/wireless_terminals/cdma_pcs/sph_i300_features.html ) .. simply put .. I coudl not survive today widouth it .. I get all my warnings on it, and with a HTML browser I can check the servers status n the road .. if you are in this busines, I would strongly suggest you take a look at it ..

the service has been quite good as well, cannot complain ..

I can give the thumbs up to Verizon, Nextel, and AT&T. I use Verizon for personal and work and Nextel for work (direct connect is very handy). I haven't had any problems with Verizon's ability to get into buildings or their service coverage. It seems to be pretty good, at least in Minneapolis. My wife used AT&T and has had good results with them too.

Sprint on the other hand has decent phone service quality and their rates are outstanding, but their billing department is terrible to the point I will never consider going back.

About two years ago I got one of their two phones on one plan where you share the minutes. This was supposed to be one plan with one bill per month. I started getting two bills coming at various times of the month billing me for two different plans, so I call customer service. After an hour they say, "Hmm.. that's not right. Let me fix this. OK, pay this bill and ignore the other one, everything is fixed." So I do that and I still get two bills, only now one is past due. Again I go to customer service and after an hour they say, ""Hmm.. that's not right. Let me fix this. OK, pay this bill and ignore the other one, everything is fixed." So I do that again and again I get two bills, only now I also get a nastygram saying I'm a deadbeat and they're going to turn off my phone. Customer service "fixes" it AGAIN and the next week they turn off my phone for not paying my bill. Nice. At this point I am so confused as to which bill I am supposed to be paying and ignoring that I pay the one that is overdue thinking I may have actually forgoten to pay the right one and I can't afford having my phone turned off anyways. This little game goes on for nine months and after Sprint fixes the "error" six times. I get fed up and close the accounts and go back to Verizon. This does not end the story though, I continue to get bills for two months after I closed the accounts telling me I owe for service for those two months and they are going to turn off the phones. I wonder how this is possible since the phones are no longer working. The real kicker is I have run into several other people who have had the exact same problem with Sprint, almost to the word.

I really wonder how they can keep customers with such bad problems with their billing systems, and why they haven't fixed those problems. Obviously others on this board have had similar bad experiences with Sprint's billing department.

AP

I've only used Cingular (dumped it), and now use Sprint. No complaints, like most things about it, decent reception Southern L.A. area.

I've had all the above except for Sprint. Verizon is by far the best coverage/signal quality. ATT wouldn't even work in my house. Cingular was great, but expensive as all heck. Voicestream doesn't have the coverage.

Originally posted by Chicken
I've only used Cingular (dumped it), and now use Sprint. No complaints, like most things about it, decent reception Southern L.A. area.

Wait until you have to contact customer idontcare

I use AT&T and its great. The price is alittle more, but the service is alot better. I always get through on my phone, and have connections in even remote areas, which really helps out.

Jim

Voicestream runs on the european standard GSM network.
Which is why they have all the coolest features like AIM, Ping Pong, iStream, and more.

Anyone know what kind of network Sprint, Verizon, and At&T are on?

Isn't GSM better?

Originally posted by mantra
Voicestream runs on the european standard GSM network.
Which is why they have all the coolest features like AIM, Ping Pong, iStream, and more.

Anyone know what kind of network Sprint, Verizon, and At&T are on?

Isn't GSM better?

Voicestream uses GSM over the PCS band (1900MHz). Because they were already using GSM, it was easy for them to upgrade to packet switched GSM (GPRS) which they use for their iStream network that can support up to 115kbps in theory (20-30kbps realistically), but still faster than the 14.4kbps offered by CDMA. Their ping pong is no different than every other provider's messaging.

Sprint uses CDMA on the PCS band.

Cincular owns the majority of the 800Mhz spectrum, and are using TDMA on it (that's why they're so cheap). But their next step is GSM-800 and then a modified GPRS for the 800Mhz spectrum.

CDMA is better than TDMA and GSM. It is more secure, uses the full spectrum, and can support more calls.

I of course had to resort to rereading the report I wrote about this awhile ago. I can't spew this stuff from the top of my head.

I would really want to go with Sprint, but they don't carry any Nokia phones.
I love the fact that I can create my own ringtones and download them.

If anyone knows of a nokia that Sprint carries, please let me know.

Thanks.

I'd vote for Fido but they are not one there ;)

I'd vote for BT Cellnet, but as usual, the UK never gets a thought :(

Well that was my point. Fido is Canadian :)