The inexorable march of time goes on, I'm getting a cell phone

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
This is depressing. I am depressed. My hatred of cell phones is well documented here and elsewhere along with the resignation that I will get one eventually.



That time is now.

The fiancee's contract with Sprint is running out and we are thinking about getting one of those time-splitting deals and getting rid of our land line alltogether.



It looks like Cingular and AT&T have the best deals for that sort of thing.



Give me your opinions on these and other providers!
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 43
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    It seems to vary by region, but a lot of people feel Verizon has the best set up {in terms of coverage area, call integrity, and service).



    Downside, Verizon seems to really lag on the "cool phones" (still nothing with bluetooth, not much in the way of samrt phones).



    But my experience has been postitive. I never drop calls, I have service all over the country, and i pay about what I would pay with another carrier.
  • Reply 2 of 43
    trick falltrick fall Posts: 1,271member
    I've also heard good things about Verizon and dude, what took you so long? Who cares if others are idiots with their cellphones, they're useful devices.
  • Reply 3 of 43
    thegeldingthegelding Posts: 3,230member
    we have the verizon family plan...the wife and both girls split minutes...i still refuse to have a cell phone...just set in my ways i guess



    the instant gratification of society is harmful i think...whatever happened to just taking a walk? or having down time?? i walk across campus everyday and i just walk and think or walk and don't think...everyone else is on phones and such...ahhh, i just sound like an old man





    g
  • Reply 4 of 43
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    no g, you sound like every single constant contact burned-out twenty-something year old that i know...
  • Reply 5 of 43
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    I was fairly anti-cell phone for a long time but now I have one. It's verizon, it's really cheap, but it is needed since I don't have a landline in boston. Coverage has been great, the only place it doesn't work well, unfortunately, is at my home in california, other than that it's excellent. I got free roaming and long distance so that's nice.
  • Reply 6 of 43
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    I've never had one. I don't talk to anyone on my normal phone, so why do I need a cellphone? Bah.... for me, a waste of money. Plus I'm cooler without one.
  • Reply 7 of 43
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Cingular: Better plans, better phones, and and by the end of the year the best coverage.
  • Reply 8 of 43
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    The one thing everyone I know agrees on with regard to cell phones is that AT&T wireless sucks! The coverage is OK, the plans suck, the customer service sucks, and everyone I know who has used them has been hit with huge bills and overcharges. The only redeeming aspects of AT&T Wireless are that the phones are arguably some of the best out there, and that the company will be folded into Cingular by the end of the year.



    Cingular would be good in Texas I imagine. Their coverage is known to suck in some places though, so check that out. That's about the only "bad" thing I've heard about them, and the AT&T acquisition will go a long way in fixing that. Try (it's hard, really) to glean what you can from the Howard Forums for others' opinions on these services and the phones too.
  • Reply 9 of 43
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile (when they were selling the T610 on Amazon for $0) and it works just fine. Rates and offerings are good (email, etc) and the phones are fine (I'm not all that happy with my T610, but that's another story). T-Mobile coverage is just fine in the 3 states I routinely travel in (UT, OK, and MS).



    Cheers

    Scott
  • Reply 10 of 43
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    I hate to make this analysis but. . .



    Let's say your computer's primary use is to crunch numbers, and 10% of it's usage is for other stuff. Getting a Verizon or Sprint plan is like getting the best $1500 PC, whereas getting something else might be like getting a $1500 mac. The other phones will look cooler, have more featurettes, and in most reasons be better. But if the primary use of your phone is to talk, which for me account for about 98% of its usage, and you don't care about the extras, then Verizon and Sprint win bigtime.



    The way they communicate with the towers and their networks is a half-generation ahead of what everyone else is doing in Europe and America. (Eurokids, don't give me shit about this unless you plan to break out a stocastic error analysis of SNR thresholds and multipath interference robustness. Face it, you're wrong. Don't start.)



    The phones are boring, but that's something you have to ask yourself: what do I plan to use a phone for? If your answer is something like "make/receive calls, store numbers in address book, vow to never send a dumbass text message in my life." Then you are definitely a verizon/sprint guy.
  • Reply 11 of 43
    Well groverat, the Last Bastion will miss you. My best friend and charter member of the Last Bastion left a few weeks ago, upon getting his first cell phone. He's living in NYC for the summer and doesn't have a land line at the apartment. I may finally cave this summer as it may be the only way I can call my girlfriend, in PA, from the camp I'm working at this summer. Sigh...



    I am glad to see so many holdouts here. It surprises me a little at a place so devoted to technology. But it's nice.
  • Reply 12 of 43
    timotimo Posts: 353member
    I've got to say: having had Verizon and a lackluster phone for awhile, I've never been happier after I switched to a provider that has a modern phone.



    Most important: get a phone that syncs with your mac. For me, it turned out to be much more important than I initially thought.
  • Reply 13 of 43
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Timo

    I've got to say: having had Verizon and a lackluster phone for awhile, I've never been happier after I switched to a provider that has a modern phone.



    Most important: get a phone that syncs with your mac. For me, it turned out to be much more important than I initially thought.




    That's a good point, Verizon officially doesn't support macs, but there are workarounds.
  • Reply 14 of 43
    artman @_@artman @_@ Posts: 2,546member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by thegelding

    we have the verizon family plan...the wife and both girls split minutes...i still refuse to have a cell phone...just set in my ways i guess



    the instant gratification of society is harmful i think...whatever happened to just taking a walk? or having down time?? i walk across campus everyday and i just walk and think or walk and don't think...everyone else is on phones and such...ahhh, i just sound like an old man





    g




    Join the 'ol folks holmes...I got a cell phone three years ago. Had too I guess...mainly because back then I'd be going out to see my Mom out in the burbs a lot. Family too. Since I don't have a car...I'm pretty much an outsider in the burbs and when I'd get there by train or bus I'd have to call SOMEONE to pick me up. I hate pay phones...and now that I hardly get out at all I hardly use it now. And most pay phones in Philly are mangled or have no receiver dangling on them.



    I have Verizon...and a friend who does too mentioned that he has a service with them...though limited...is practically FREE...anyone know of this? I'd definately switch to it now that I hardly ever use it and never really have given out the number to anyone...'cause I know when you do...god help you...



  • Reply 15 of 43
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    Spline: America is soo behind Europe, it's not even funny anymore. Stick it up.
  • Reply 16 of 43
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Defiant

    Spline: America is soo behind Europe, it's not even funny anymore. Stick it up.



    Europe does the phones well, while America and Asia do the electrical engineering part of it well. That is, the whole signal transmission and processing part of it.



    Having spent the last two years of my life knee-deep in the frequency domain (with usual trips to the Z plane), I'm very defensive about this.
  • Reply 17 of 43
    haraldharald Posts: 2,152member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Splinemodel

    Having spent the last two years of my life knee-deep in the frequency domain (with usual trips to the Z plane), I'm very defensive about this.



    But you also think text messages are "dumb-ass." You can keep your tip-top SNR, I think I'd rather communicate with people
  • Reply 18 of 43
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    Well, signal transmission and processing is behind the scenes anyways. And who cares about that part if you can't even send an SMS from T-Mobile to Verizon?



    I'm pretty close with Harald about that point, quite surprisingly.



    C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-I-O-N my friend, communication. That's what matters to me.
  • Reply 19 of 43
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    My better half and I have a Cingular account where my phone is like an extra $10 a month and we then split the minutes of a single account. My experience is that in more dense urban areas the coverage is good and the reception quality average (though that could be my Motorola flip phone as much as anything).



    Once you get into more sporadically populated suburban areas or "tweener areas" between major populations, Cingular's coverage sucks IMO. Their coverage map is total bullshit. I mean to tell you, it's false advertising, rather than just being "a little exaggerated". Where I live, the map is solid orange (coverage indicator) for 20 or 30 miles in every direction (other than east because of the Lake), yet there are gaps all over the place within that area. And my house is right in the middle of one, despite there being cell towers about 400 yards away.



    I can't tell you how many times I get booted off the network because Cingular doesn't have a pad on said towers. Right at the ten minute mark of every call: BOOT! Pisses me off. My phone works better on the road than it does at my home office. Their response of course, is that it must be the phone...



    ...which brings me to customer service. It is average at best. Only slightly better than AT&T Wireless was when I had an account with them a couple years back. Occasionally you get someone who is very honest and will tell you where (on their end) the problem is, others are total smart asses who act like you must've done something wrong if your phone isn't working properly. This goes both for their retail stores (with service center) and their 800 numbers.



    There's a guy in my local store who treats other customers so flippantly, I want to reach over the counter and smack the shit out of him whenever I'm there. I actually had the repair guy in that store contradict me when I told him I wasn't informed of certain things when I originally bought the phone.



    Me: That's interesting because when your rep was helping me choose this phone, no one told me GSM had problems with x or y.



    Repair Guy: Sure he did.



    Me: Uh? No, actually no one said a thing about that, and in fact gave me literature that spelled out the opposite.



    Repiar Guy: No. He told you...



    Me (thinking to myself): You weren't even THERE, you arrogant FVCK!



    Me: Maybe we're talking about two different things; is my phone ready yet?



    Essentially, they're very pro-customer during the sales process when helping to pick out phones and all that, so they sort of lull you into thinking that's the way their service always is. But once you sign on, they know they have you for two years and so treat you like dirt, basically. There's no accountability at all for employees at the retail store locations IMO.
  • Reply 20 of 43
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    americans don't have the patience for typing in text messages... why leave a text message when voicemail is easier and can convey more info?
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