How is your cell phone service?

I really don't like cell phones, but I'm close to getting one because I need it. I don't want to spend a lot of money either, the last thing I wanted is another monthly bill. I really don't want contracts either, but financially speaking, I might as well get one compared to prepaid plans. :\ How's the service for:

Cingular
AT&T
Sprint
Verizon
Nextel

They all seem to have ok plans, but how is your service with the above? After your contract was up, did you continue using them? Did you try something else?

Thank you in advance.

I have Sprint PCS (Pretty Crappy Service) and can't WAIT for my contract to expire. Horrible reception, sharing regular minutes between phones but not weekend and night minutes, and the fact that they actually charge me ($5) to pay my bill in their stores means I'm going elsewhere. :yuck:

Fuck Sprint.

I'm a canuck and I'm under Telus, it's fine for now, they have some nice phones, i forget the model number but its real nice and a flippy too :). My plans pretty good, for 20CDN a month i have 300 minutes, evenings and weekends,with all that useless internet/voice mail/ games crap. i only needed it to be reached while im at College, it's so useful.

-1 for Sprint. Thank you for the insight.

As of now, I'm looking at Cingular the most.

(More Canadian talk.)

My sister, ignorantly, got locked into a Telus contract after they convinced her to switch from Fido with a free new phone.

I'm with Fido. Sure, the coverage area is limited... but that only matters for the few days of the year when I'm out of it. Other than that, I've had no problems through my 5 years with them.

Verizon's the best one Shinobi. Best service anywhere I've been. When it comes to service, people complain about everyone but Verizon on the West side, people complain about everyone but Verizon on the East side.

That's not saying much. All cell providers in the US suck.

Oh, and stay away from Nextel. Too expensive for what you get.

You need to find what service works the best in your area. We can't help you there.

I've been with Verizon since '99. It get's the best reception in my area from what I've seen (and it's been getting better every year). Half the time when I call people that use Nextel, it can't find them.

I work for Verizon. And all I can honestly tell you is to try them out, all the carriers have some sort of return period, ours is 15 days, to try the service out. While we do have the best coverage overall :) occasionaly another carrier may work out for you.


But avoid Sprint. Thier Customer service and network engineering is horrid.

Nextel doesnt really target the consumer market, they tend to go for the big dollar business users, so thats why the normal user gets a bit screwed on thier plans..