Best U.s. Mobile Phone Provider

[birudagmawi 0]

Verizon has one of the fastest Mobile and WIFI network available plus they offer the widest coverage stretching all over the United States.The second one would be T-Mobile, the are good but since my sister uses them, she tells me that when she goes out of town they tend to drop the signal unexpectedly. The worst carrier you could ever sign up to would have to be AT&T. They have the slowest network, (takes a LONG time to download ring tones) and their customer support is mediocre, I advise you to stay away from them.I suggest you stay with Verizon, as long as you can afford the premium pricing, they offer the best service availble.

[reconraiders 0]

T-MOBILE FTW!!! :XD:

[iGuest 3]

providersBest U.s. Mobile Phone Provider

I just wanted to ask if someone could recommend a mobile provider for wisconsin/minessota, I`m just moving to the states so I have no clue what to look for...

-question by db_blacky

[Xalor 0]

This is an old poll, since Verizon bought Alltell already. In my opinion I haven't had too much of a problem with lost calls or dead zones with Verizon. Some hotels are rather annoying but its just the rooms. Maybe's its the ceiling that doesn't let me get a signal. Verizon has the best service and a lot of people have it so the whole Verizon to Verizon thing really does help cut down your bill. Its self-sufficient but the prices are ridiculous. Its at least 10 dollars more than any plan to get texting, and the family plans are worse. Even data doesn't come without texting, its completely ridiculous.

[rayzoredge 2]

Applying some technological arguments to this thread to end the discussion until anything else better comes along...

 

Comparison of Wireless Technologies

 

Here is an awesome table as to what cellular technologies (and therefore, carriers) offer the consumer. According to this chart, it makes sense why AT&T (Cingular was bought out by AT&T) and Verizon are awesome carriers. They are pushing to improve their networks with 3G and later LTE technologies, and they have the capital and the customer base to support that capital.

 

However, if AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint actually works on their higher-frequency technologies, they would rule the market, I think. From my understanding, higher-frequency bands are able to penetrate through blockages (depending on what the material is) better than a lower frequency. On this note, though, Sprint is in a bad spot because of company-level issues and that because of these issues, they are actually unable to satisfy their customer base and losing out on customers, which also means that there's no capital to improve on the network. I don't think that they're even trying to expand the iDEN technology as they are more focused on bringing QChat to the table to replace the Nextel PTT. (QChat will work on CDMA.) If that happens, there's no point to having Nextel around except to support current customers and current users of Boost Mobile (which runs on the same technology). AT&T faces a good bit of competition from Verizon thanks to what I hear as great service, reliability, and customer loyalty... but doesn't AT&T have the same, if not at that same extent? (Then again, I've read that the CDMA technology will be the most superior when it actually matures. GSM is rather old but still kicking around with a lot of utility, and the standard is here to stay because GSM IS the standard worldwide.)

 

Personally, I was going to go with Verizon because of all the good things I've heard about it, and I was foolish enough not to explore AT&T on the basis that they didn't have a rugged handset that I liked. That's another thing that drives customers too: if you have cool phones that people like, you're going to have a potential user base for that carrier.

Edited August 14, 2009 by rayzoredge (see edit history)

[Xalor 0]

A difference of even 30kilobytes download or upload speed doesn't define a network. The reason I said I like the Verizon the best is because of the coverage in even rural locations. Its able to cover almost all of the continental US and compared to At&T, Sprint, T-Mobile the big 3, it has a larger coverage area. Phones do define a network, if they get the better phones first, like the HTC upcoming phones people will flock there to get it. There is a reason that AT&T has been bashed and berated AFTER the iPhone came out, it redifined the playing field. Before the iPhone you really only had those Treo's and some other WinMo phones. It didn't matter what carrier you were on, there was a phone for you to use as a business or a pleasure device. Now that the rise of personal smartphone computing has risen, the business end has dropped and people are looking at the phones than the network. Initially people flocked to AT&T for the iPhone, but because of the personal uses, only business users are complaining about shoddy networks.

[missalex 0]

T-Mobile and Verizon are the best, for me anyway. Yes, service is best. I hope there will be more cell phone choices in the future.

[kagerioshu 0]

Like someone else has said before me, this is largely an issue based on your location and the providers in that area. However, I can at least comment on the ethics of these companies and on foulness in particular. Of all the businesses out there that provide phone service, the worst one that comes to mind is ATT.Don't get me wrong: I think ATT provides quality coverage and has some decent, feature-rich service options. That's not the point of my reply, however. I simply wish to point out how absolutely, unwaveringly predatory they are towards their customers.I've used their services periodically for the past three years and with every phone and plan I've had through them, they've set it up so that it's nearly impossible to keep your billing under control. From deceptive user agreement jargon to applications on phones you can't delete that misdirect you in ways to add unwanted charges to your account, they have every angle covered to walk you unknowingly into their service traps and to ensure that they can charge you what they please for it.For example, I just switched to a new phone that doesn't require a data plan. I was going to keep my line on this account as cheap as possible, but the phone comes with tons of system-locked applications and links that I can't disable or delete which immediately connect me to the internet upon activation, accidental or not, adding data charges to my phone. That alone would be pretty sinister, but what ATT does is automatically adds a data plan to my account of their choosing to ensure I don't "run up unnecessary charges." I have no use for internet on a phone, so I tried to disable it and guess what? This new phone has no option in the setup that allows me to do that, a feature which has been in every phone to date I've had with ATT.This behavior alone more than triples my bill! Just for an accident in most cases! Granted, I can call them and usually have it removed; however, this in itself is a huge hassle and they train their representatives to do their fare share of haranguing and wheedling to convince me that I NEED these added "services" after all, adding displeasure and inconvenience to the added charges.My girlfriend has a Blackberry through ATT and it's three years old. Apparently it's one of the last models that allowed customers to disable data -- now, if you want to buy a blackberry, you HAVE to purchase a data plan to go along with it in order to use it at all. Granted, you'd probably want a data plan if you're using a Blackberry, but the fact that they've made it mandatory just goes to prove my point.It isn't just Data plans though. They have all sorts of things set up to prevent a customer from being in full control of their charges. It isn't simply marketing flotsam that all the other competitors employ when they ask you if you're tired of mysterious charges. They're probably talking about ATT. You have to really examine your plan agreement and make certain you stress exactly what you want to pay for with these guys.I have no idea how the other providers stack up, but I can say this much at least: I used TracPhone and StraightTalk, which I believe utilize the Verizon network as a mobile virtual network operator. These two are essentially the same company, but with both services I got exactly what I agreed to paid for and no more, no less; they don't charge you for anything beyond what you choose to use whether it be on a per-minute basis or for a set monthly fee. They're not feature-rich but they do give you the basics if all you're looking for is texting, talking, and picture mail. I heard Metro PCS is good like this too, so if you want something simple, affordable and efficient, I'd recommend anybody to look into them. If you choose to go with ATT, I say to tread carefully and keep a hawk's eye on your monthly statement.