Cellular Service Companies

So apparently AT&T is going to buy T-Mobile. I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since like 2003 and have never had a problem with them. Great pricing and great customer service. I’ve only heard bad things about AT&T with their spotty networks and not so great customer service.

I’m likely to get a new service when my contract ends in 3 to 4 months. Anybody have any good suggestions or a good carrier and how costly their plans are? I pay $74.99 a month for 1000 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, and unlimited text and data.

[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
So apparently AT&T is going to buy T-Mobile. I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since like 2003 and have never had a problem with them. Great pricing and great customer service. I’ve only heard bad things about AT&T with their spotty networks and not so great customer service. I’m likely to get a new service when my contract ends in 3 to 4 months. Anybody have any good suggestions or a good carrier and how costly their plans are? I pay $74.99 a month for 1000 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, and unlimited text and data.[/quote]

You think AT&T will pull down T mobiles towers after they purchased them?

I believe that T-Mobile’s service will remain unchanged for the most part, from what I’ve read.

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
I believe that T-Mobile’s service will remain unchanged for the most part, from what I’ve read.[/quote]

But I doubt the unlimited data plan will remain an option once AT&T is in charge.

I just switched to Sprint (from AT&T) and have been very pleased. I pay 90 bucks a month, including tax/4G $10 premium required to pay for all smartphones which is the only thing that irritates me, for unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited data/text, 450 “anytime minutes” free nights/weekends. This is great if you don’t call anyone on a land line - which I don’t other then my parents. That 90 also includes insurance on the phone.

sprint? you can’t even get a signal in a sprint store, lol

ATT customer for 4 yrs and never a problem out of them of the service or customer service wise. granted, I’m right outside the DC area, so it may be different in the sticks

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
sprint? you can’t even get a signal in a sprint store, lol

ATT customer for 4 yrs and never a problem out of them of the service or customer service wise. granted, I’m right outside the DC area, so it may be different in the sticks[/quote]

That’s funny, I had the opposite experience. I had an Iphone with AT&T for about a year or so and last year my service just started getting worse and worse. I was dropping 20 to 30 calls a day because people were clogging the network with all the stupid apps.

That was unacceptable for my business, so I ended up switching to Verizon and getting a stupid blackberry. I pay more (~$250/mo for two phones with unlimited call/text/data) but I have only dropped like THREE calls in the last YEAR. For me, it’s worth the extra money. For me, a PHONE should be a PHONE and WORK as a PHONE FIRST, fun and entertaining apps, etc should be SECOND.

To top it off AT&T’s customer service people were either incompetent, didn’t speak English, or were just plain assholes. Verizon is more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I have had NO issues at all since I switched.

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
For me, a PHONE should be a PHONE and WORK as a PHONE FIRST, fun and entertaining apps, etc should be SECOND.[/quote]

It’s funny how marketing has changed this lately, and most companies are putting in no effort at all to improve call QUALITY and reliability.

Blackberries, although losing market share, is still very reliable as a business phone - which is why so many people use them.

Verizon is great. I live in the sticks and have great service.

[quote]waldo21212 wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
I believe that T-Mobile’s service will remain unchanged for the most part, from what I’ve read.[/quote]

But I doubt the unlimited data plan will remain an option once AT&T is in charge.[/quote]

Why would AT&T drop it?

I pay $47 a month for unlimited talk, text and mobile web. It’s prepaid, but does everything I need. Even let’s me get all my email.

I worked for Sprint a few times, their business practices alone are enough for me to never have their service as my personal phone. As a matter a fact, I can still get their employee plan but choose to pay an extra $100 a month to Verizon so I never give another nickel to Sprint. If Verizon does merge with Sprint, I’m going to Cricket.

[quote]dday wrote:
I worked for Sprint a few times, their business practices alone are enough for me to never have their service as my personal phone. As a matter a fact, I can still get their employee plan but choose to pay an extra $100 a month to Verizon so I never give another nickel to Sprint. If Verizon does merge with Sprint, I’m going to Cricket.[/quote]

Dday why is this? I have had sprint phones since 1998. Pay $230 bucks a month for 4 phones, 2 Evo’s, 1 palm-pre and then my father-in-law is just a regular cell.

Any time I had to talk to customer service and there is any hint of language problem I just tell them give me someone who’s first language is English. Never had any problems with them.

AT&T service is the absolute worst I’ve ever had. I imagine it will improve with the upcoming merging of services but on principle I won’t use their service in the future.

[quote]DJHT wrote:

[quote]dday wrote:
I worked for Sprint a few times, their business practices alone are enough for me to never have their service as my personal phone. As a matter a fact, I can still get their employee plan but choose to pay an extra $100 a month to Verizon so I never give another nickel to Sprint. If Verizon does merge with Sprint, I’m going to Cricket.[/quote]

Dday why is this? I have had sprint phones since 1998. Pay $230 bucks a month for 4 phones, 2 Evo’s, 1 palm-pre and then my father-in-law is just a regular cell.

Any time I had to talk to customer service and there is any hint of language problem I just tell them give me someone who’s first language is English. Never had any problems with them. [/quote]

They have a history of mass layoffs right before Christmas, not just once but several times over the years. There is A LOT more to it but since I’m at work I’d rather not bad mouth to much

[quote]dday wrote:

[quote]DJHT wrote:

[quote]dday wrote:
I worked for Sprint a few times, their business practices alone are enough for me to never have their service as my personal phone. As a matter a fact, I can still get their employee plan but choose to pay an extra $100 a month to Verizon so I never give another nickel to Sprint. If Verizon does merge with Sprint, I’m going to Cricket.[/quote]

Dday why is this? I have had sprint phones since 1998. Pay $230 bucks a month for 4 phones, 2 Evo’s, 1 palm-pre and then my father-in-law is just a regular cell.

Any time I had to talk to customer service and there is any hint of language problem I just tell them give me someone who’s first language is English. Never had any problems with them. [/quote]

They have a history of mass layoffs right before Christmas, not just once but several times over the years. There is A LOT more to it but since I’m at work I’d rather not bad mouth to much[/quote]

I understand Dday I have worked in Hospitals all my life up until a few years ago. Perception is important, what we see from the outside is not always what really goes on in the inside.

The deal hasn’t been approved yet so don’t get too excited. What really concerns me is that no one seems to have a problem with there potentially being only one GSM provider in America.

It’s the equivalent having only one cable company and being stuck with whatever packages/plans they want to give you.

Family has been with sprint since near 95… I’ve never had a signal issue. As far as dropped calls I can’t even remember the most recent and I’m constantly on my cell phone… A handful at most a year. I’ve used my phone consistently in central Texas, upstate New york, Montreal, and LA. So at least for my usage they have plenty of coverage.

I’m on a family plan with unlimited everything… 3 smart phones 1 normal… insurance as well and it runs roughly 220-230. As far as customer service I’ve never had a problem either. I drop my phone all the time so every few months it ends up being completely broken. Take it to the store and get a new one within the same day… They’ve only once actually fixed it(instead of giving me a new one) and just replaced the screen. Had it back the next day… When I had a htc pro touch and broke it they just gave me a pro touch 2 which was a huge upgrade.(assume it somehow came out cheaper for them but I was happy with the better phone)

Basically I’m a fan of sprint… they’ve never done me wrong. If I was to jump ship at some point I’d probably go verizon… but I don’t see that happening for a long time if at all.

[quote]Madman2 wrote:

[quote]waldo21212 wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
I believe that T-Mobile’s service will remain unchanged for the most part, from what I’ve read.[/quote]

But I doubt the unlimited data plan will remain an option once AT&T is in charge.[/quote]

Why would AT&T drop it? [/quote]

http://www.cio.com/article/595852/AT_T_Drops_Unlimited_Data_Plan_Impacts_iPhone_Owners

Verizon plans on doing it for newer customers too. Older customers are generally grandfathered in with the unlimited data.

Why? Bandwidth costs money. You should see how much data I use just from streaming music off Pandora. Other people tether off their phone to get internet for their laptops and desktops at home using pdanet. At some point they’ll either need to raise their price or do what they’re doing now: Tiered data plans.

[quote]sam_sneed wrote:

[quote]Madman2 wrote:

[quote]waldo21212 wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
I believe that T-Mobile’s service will remain unchanged for the most part, from what I’ve read.[/quote]

But I doubt the unlimited data plan will remain an option once AT&T is in charge.[/quote]

Why would AT&T drop it? [/quote]

http://www.cio.com/article/595852/AT_T_Drops_Unlimited_Data_Plan_Impacts_iPhone_Owners

Verizon plans on doing it for newer customers too. Older customers are generally grandfathered in with the unlimited data.

Why? Bandwidth costs money. You should see how much data I use just from streaming music off Pandora. Other people tether off their phone to get internet for their laptops and desktops at home using pdanet. At some point they’ll either need to raise their price or do what they’re doing now: Tiered data plans.
[/quote]

Thanks Sam. Hadn’t heard about either of these. Guess it’s a good thing that I don’t have an Iphone and that I’m grandfathered in on the one I do have (unlimited text and data).

As far as AT&T, the only time I’ve ever had any problems is when they upgraded the local network to 3G. No problems with service or dropped calls (dropped calls maybe 5 or 6 times in total in the last 5 years with most of those being during the upgrade). My mother works out of town and never seems to have problems whether she’s in the middle of nowhere Kentucky or San Fransisco. Any time I need customer service outside of the local stores, I’ve always gotten great help.