Well this time has almost come for me to get a new cell phone and plan. I've been with Verizon for almost two years and am pretty happy with my plan and phone. Right now, my plan is 450 minutes and 20 pix msgs a month, with zero allowance for texts. This works ok for me, because I don't use many minutes per month, I keep my phone calls short and to the point and I don't pix msg very much, but I do a bit of texting, and at $.11 a text, that's hurting me. I need to find a plan that's like 500 minutes a month (can't go much lower than that IIRC), and has an allowance for ~50 pix msgs a month, and preferably unlimited texts, as I can never tell how many of those I'll send/recieve, but I do like to text, it keeps me occupied during the slow days at work.

In a phone, I need a camera, but would like a MP3 player that's able to play the music on my computer instead of only being able to play the songs that are provided by the cell phone provider.

My main vices against my current phone and provider is the lack of service I get at work. When I'm in the showroom and in the office section, I have zero bars, and a little popup says that I lost service, and when I'm in the shop area, I have one bar out of five. I need something that'll get me four-five bars at work, which is in the middle of a 2nd tier suburb of St. Paul. Service shouldn't be a problem there. Apparently T-Mobile has great nation wide coverage.

I went out looking at providers today, I looked at Cingular and T-Mobile, I liked T-Mobile more. Their plans are cheaper, service is better, coverage is better.

I think I'll probably go with T-Mobile, what do you have, what would you recommend?

If you want wireless broadband, Sprint EVDO is the best. TRUE unlimited service and you can use Vonage through it!

I guess broadband and TV thru the phone aren't really necessary, but would be cool if I don't have to pay a ton of extra money for them.

I really like this phone from T-Mobile. It's a slider, AIM capable, MP3 player, camera phone, video capture
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/Detail.aspx?device=bd890d2c-0286-4ade-87ba-b298c1fa73ff

If you want wireless broadband, Sprint EVDO is the best. TRUE unlimited service and you can use Vonage through it!My Verizon DSL is never used at home since I got my Sprint Broadband card. In fact, I've got the windows open and I'm watching Judge Mathis on the DVR with my laptop on the card right now. I've been on my desktop 3 times in the 7 months I've had Sprint.

Add in a Slingbox and I'm a happy boy.

I have cingular. Its pretty good got free long distance + my families #s and other cingular customers. Also I have free* picture texts/IMs/regular texting (*1K free texts a month is the plan I have for textings but I barely text like I used to) Its $19.99 I believe for the 1K per month texting/IMs/pict texting. I'm not positive on how much the long distance thing was but you probably wouldn't need it Chad. I do since I'm travelling between Pitt and Chicago :D I'll probably knock it down come this summer. Save me some money :)

I had Verizon, and liked it alot, I had pretty good service everywhere I went, network was always good, and I like their phones (LG)

When I moved to GA, I needed to get my own new phone, so I went to Verizon and asked a few questions....

There was an issue tho... I don't talk on the phone very much at all... I just don't like the phone much.... but I do talk to a handful of people often... I talk to Aimee everyday, around an hour total, give or take... and every few days I'll call my parents and talk to them for awhile.

My parents have Verizon, but Aimee has a T-mobile..... The biggest thing was being able to talk to Aimee on T-mobile for free..... the next thing was ebing able to talk to my parents on Verizon for free....

I ended up going with T-Mobile... I've had it for 5 or 6 weeks now and really like it, it has been great.

Here is why I went with T-Mobile:

They have the My Faves plan, you pick any 5 people, any network, and even land lines.... calls to any of these 5 people are totally free... day night weekend, everything.... just free. That was awesome as I was able to put Aimee on their, my parents cell and home phone and a couple friends.

It was a choice between unlimited calling to any T-mobile phone, or the 5 any phone any number thing.

So I have unlimited calling to any 5 people (which you can change each month) free nights and weekends and 600 anytime minutes (could have had 300 instead for $10 less) free long distance, caller ID, voice mail, call waiting, 3-way calling etc...

This plan is $50, but I also added a media package... 400 text messages, picture messages or AIM/Yahoo/ICQ messages.... which is awesome. It was $5/month for, and I don't text alot, but its nice having them, same thing with pictures, I like to take pictures and send them to my e-mail address.

So $55 for the plan and meda bundle, with tax and stuff its like $60/month... I am monitoring my minutes cause if I am using less then 300 regular minutes, I am gonna go down a level in the plana nd save $10/month.

The phone.... free was a regulart Samsung flip phone, I paid an extra $20 for a version of that phone with the camera... I like having the camera on the phone, even tho I don't use it much... its a Samsung TGsomething-319.... good phone. It came with hands free ear piece too... and off Amazon I was able to get a leather Samsung case and Samsung car charger both for $30 shipped. Reception is great and the phone is handy... unlike Verizon there is no mini-antenna, or worse.. an antenna that needs to be pulled out each time. It dosn't have the customization as Motorla, but its great for what I use it for... nearly as good battery life as my old LG... I only charge my phones every 2-4 days as I never use them much. Its a good phone though. For $150 (then a $50 mail in rebate) I could have bought the new Razon V-whatever... but I wasn't gonna spend that much on a phone... but if you want the video and MP3 stuff, then I guess it would be good.

So... I liked my T-mobile... its my only phone as I do not have a home phone and I get great recpetion whereever i go, except some places on my parents property since they are in the boonies.

I'd reccomend T-Mobile, I'd also reccomend Verizon... I guess its a matter of who you are gonna call most, if your friends/family have Verizon etc... since most networks offer free in-network calling... and chec out the phones.. I was leery of the Samsung phone... not as popular as LG or Motorola... but it is a really good phone, I like it.

I just renewed with Verizon on Saturday. I updated my phone to a Samsung SCH-u740, it takes micro-SD (transflash) and plays MP3s. Screen flips to standard portrait (normal flip phone) or into landscape for texting with a full qwerty keyboard. Bluetooth, GPS navigation,1.3MP camera, video recording,etc.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/Verizon/SCH_U740CDAVZW.asp

Rick, am I in your top 5? ;)

Got a Nokia 6620 with Bluetooth and Real Player and an external Flash memory card and any other thing youd ever want a phone to do. I have Cingular and pay $89 a month for 1400 minutes and 200 texts and a bunch of other crap i dont need. I enjoy being on the phone and sending hotttt txts to fly bitches,but no matter what youre gonna get the shaft no matter what you do.

Cell phone companies are evil,spineless,heartless,nasty,horrible,disgusting ,vile,worthless,God-forsaken companies.I cant tell you how many times ive been charged for things i didnt do or for calls i never made.Eck,watch out.

Didn't read everyone else's responses...buuuuuttt...

I have T-Mobile, have for years. It works everywhere I've ever been. I drove through Kansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, etc etc etc...everywhere between here and Kentucky, twice, and had maybe a half hour of no service. My nokia phone went through more hell than god himself could have dished out and it worked for three years before I finally decided to upgrade...to the next 23.99 Nokia basic no frills ring and answer phone. I love it. My plan is fifty bucks a month. Six hundred minutes, a thousand messages (text or picture). Nights/wknds free.

I occassionaly go over in minutes, but not often. I DID go over last month on the old 400 texts, so I moved up to a thousand. Actually, when I did that my bill went up to 54.95 a month. Not bad, I say. I love that the phone worked in Mexico, ten miles offshore from Mazatlan. Reliable, to say the least.

Cell phone companies are evil,spineless,heartless,nasty,horrible,disgusting ,vile,worthless,God-forsaken companies


:yeah:

I think I'll probably go with T-Mobile. Verizon has been pretty good but I wanna try something new, that and their plans are much cheaper and allow for much more messages.

:rofl: :histeric: Haha yep I have something like that only I have the Razor... I have a crap load of minutes and texting stuff. Sweet you can text this fly bitch for free! :highfive: *No I'm not a bitch but I can be if you piss me off :thumbsup:

Got a Nokia 6620 with Bluetooth and Real Player and an external Flash memory card and any other thing youd ever want a phone to do. I have Cingular and pay $89 a month for 1400 minutes and 200 texts and a bunch of other crap i dont need. I enjoy being on the phone and sending hotttt txts to fly bitches,but no matter what youre gonna get the shaft no matter what you do.

Cell phone companies are evil,spineless,heartless,nasty,horrible,disgusting ,vile,worthless,God-forsaken companies.I cant tell you how many times ive been charged for things i didnt do or for calls i never made.Eck,watch out.

i've got sprint and i don't have any bars inside buildings. When i had nextel, it worked everywhere. even though they are the same company now nextel has great service and sprint doesnt

My only answer is iPhone....cingular.....mid June. Wait for it and get that. I pay 60 a month for unlimited data free text and Picture 1000 mins. with rollover and all mobile to mobile free!

C thats a agreat phone. I thought about getting one for my Verizon line but i never use that phone only keep it to have a CDMA Line incase a crazy awesome phone comes out. Good choice.....

Cingular generally has a much stronger network then T-Mobile. Cingular uses 1900 and 850 while T-Mobile only uses 1900.

I have Cingular, have 3 lines plus a 3g card, pay a fortune a month, they suck, but they suck the least. I have a Nokia 8801 but you have to get them unlcked on eBay.. cool phone.