Saturday, July 01, 2006

A Cell-Phone Question for the Collective Brain

I am thinking of switching my cell-phone service from Virgin Mobile Pay-as-You-Go to a regular monthly plan service. The leading candidates right now are Verizon (to which some family members and friends belong), Cingular (which also carries a few of my friends, and I'd get a neato phone with iTunes), and T-Mobile (which none of my friends have, but which offers the most minutes for $39.99, and I'd probably get a pretty pink Razr -- happy girliness abounding). Has anyone had any especially positive or negative experiences with these services (or phones)? High taxes? Hidden fees? Poor coverage? Dropped calls? I'd especially love to hear from New Yorkers about your experiences.

Thanks!

5 comments:

  1. This New Yorker has a verizon phone and no complaints. Sometimes it even rings in the subway, underground, in the middle of a tunnel...but that tends to happen mostly near 42nd or 34th St. (That pink razr sounds awesome though....)

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  2. This non-New Yorker has Verizon for my carrier, too. No complaints on my part either. In fact, when the first rounds of hurricanes came through our area in 2004 (Central Florida), Verizon was the only service working.

    I do have issues, not a huge problem, with the coverage area where I live, but that doesn't mean there are problems like that everywhere.

    A friend of mine has the pink razr phone, it's very cool.

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  3. This New Yorker has Verizon, which 2 years ago Consumers Report declared the best cell plan for this particular city. I'm not sure if that's still the case, but I do get reception in my basement apartment, which is rather impressive.

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  4. My mother-in-law has one of those Razr phones. She hasn't had any trouble with it, except that she can't read the screen when she's outside in the sun. No idea how it would work in the subway, since we don't have those around here.

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  5. hrm. I use T-Mobile. It offers the greatest number of minutes per dollar. I also know that I get service in your apartment. T-Mobile also uses GSM based phones, as does Cingular, which may be handy if you plan on continuing your globe trotting ways (though you'd probably have to get the phone unlocked--which T-Mobile tends to be pretty good about).

    That being noted, most people seem to have a preference for Verizon. Since you have family members of Verizon, perhaps it would best to inquire whether there is some sort of plan that gives you free minutes when you talk to family members.

    One other thing to note is the start time of free nights and weekends calls. Different carriers may have different times, which could affect your decision.

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