GoBrns

Have had verizon and T mobile for past couple yrs: have never had a call dropped w/ Verizon, except when next to the XRAY equipment in Radiation-Oncology. Have had good luck w/ T mobile: have it for my kids. The calls always go through. I like T mobile.. get more 600 minutes plus free evenings and weekends: best plan ever, esp. for my phone boys!

gtnag

I have had ATT and Verizon and used Nextel in the east and central valley and in the White Mountains and Flagstaff. Verizons been the best for me. It also covers the western united states very well.

s2kJer

I'd say its safe to go with T-Mobile..
They have some of the best rates, customer service, and network quality!
I drop at most one call a month and last time I drove to Los Angeles I had service the whole way there from Phx.

Make sure you get a good phone though "Nokia or Samsung" the rest of the brands have sub-par reception.

Oh BTW I have the motorola V600 now and i can't say im too impressed. The reception is much better on my nokia and the interface is slow like the phone is out of memory. Read the reviews on amazon.com and they will fill you in on all the gripes.

As far as ATT/Cingular goes I would strongly suggest avoiding them. I had them before T-Mobile and the service was so bad that I paid the $200 fee to cancel after 2 months and the customer service was horrible.

Good luck

Waterbug

Hmm, did you have regular ATT or ATT next generation? They are completely difference when it comes to service.

As far as all brands other than "Nokia or Samsung" being shitty, I would disagree. It depends a lot more on the model. The Samsung T720 was a terrible phone, I have heard tons of people say bad things about it. But I haven't heard anything negative about the V60 and V600. Nokia's TDMA phones typically always have good reception, I dunno about their GSM phones. Nokias are easy to use, but at the same time seem to lack features and usually don't have that professional look. I like my Sony Ericsson T637, but I don't think a grandma could operate it like they could a nokia. I also see a lot of people using LG now and I haven't heard anything bad.

s2kJer

I had ATT GSM a little over a year ago and it sucked ass. I still have friends though that have them and work for them and they are constantly pissed off about their lack of a quality network not to mention the minimum of 10 minutes wait to speak to a CSR" T-mobile has been under 2 minute wait consistently every time i need to call to ask a question or change something and they are very serious about one call resolutions....

The reason why the ATT TDMA phones work better is because that is their old network that is more built out but eventually it is going off air and going away like analog will be with CDMA carriers.

Samsung T720??? Don't you mean Motorola T720??? Yea those were crap...

Waterbug

Ah yes, and Motorola V60 and V600, I got confused. I dunno anything about Samsungs.

I was actually assuming you had TDMA w/ ATT because that technology is very dependent on the provider's towers and your location. I think GSM has probably been built up a lot since a year ago.

Im under the impression that, theoretically coverage should be the same for all GSM providers because GSM phones can use any GSM towers regardless of provider? In this case it just comes down to customer service and plan rates when choosing.

s2kJer

GSM coverage is not the same for all providers because the carriers do not allow intermarket roaming. You use your carriers towers unless your in a market that they do not provide service in but another carrier does that they have a roaming agreement with.... Just the same with any other carrier that uses the same technology "Verizon vs ALLTEL" "Cingular vs T-Mobile" etc....

ThaWyze1

Verizon is the best in our area, bar none.