Cellular Plans

[mueber]

I’m trying to decide on a cellular telephone plan. Obviously, it has to cover Fort Wayne, and another of my criteria is that the plan has to cover all the places I plan to go to the races.

This year those are Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake, and Cleveland. I also sometimes make it to Denver, and I want coverage in Indianapolis, too. The only vendor which seems to have coverage in all of those areas is Nextel/Sprint. My next choice would be Verizon because they cover the area around Elkhart Lake pretty well while not covering Elkhart Lake itself, and I have other accounts with Verizon.

So, for you Midwesterners, what has been your experience with these vendors? My plan is to be a cellphone only user, so I am particularly interested in the reliability of the provider.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Tifosi24]

I currently have Nextel and overall I have been happy with the quality of the phone service. With extra charges it can be more expensive, but if you catch them when they are running plan deals you are in good shape. I didn't make it all the way to Elkhart Lake, but I was in the Sheboygan area a couple weekends ago and I had full service and it worked like a charm. Only downside to Nextel, but maybe Sprint service, is that if you aren't on their network it won't work at all. Sprint isn't bad as long as you don't go cheap on the phone, because my fiance had one of their cheaper phones, terrible experience, but those with slightly more expensive phones will never switch.

[trauma1]

i went to t moble 1500 minute anytime and no roaming charges plus only 39 bucks a month good plan, plus good customer service

[Hard Driver]

Have not looked at coverage maps. But have you considered Cingular? Since they merged with AT&T, they should have very good national coverage. They are also a GSM network, which is the international standard, rather than the old technology US only CDMA technology used by Verizon.

[Wabbit]

Whoever you choose, try and get a one (or none) year commitment. You pay a little more for the phone up front, but if you hate the service, you aren't stuck with it forever.

[KLang]

Last time at Road America my AT&T GSM phone worked just fine.

[Turbodog]

I have 3 phones with Verizon with 1400 anytime minutes and its $99 a month

[Tifosi24]

I have a fellow student in my program from the UP, and we were looking at cell plans one day and T-Mobile isn't the best in more secluded areas, mainly because they get alot of their service from Cingular. I had AT&T and it wasn't bad for service, but there was no other company that found a better way to mess up bills. But, if you are going GSM I would recommend Cingluar.

[Turbodog]

I had T-Mobile before, and they do not have very good coverage. Their customer service sucks also.

[racermike]

I have the T-Mobile Get more plus, 1500 minutes, nights/weekends free, no roaming, no long distance. ($49.99/mo)

been on this plan for 8 months, and am happy as a clam!

Even using my phone for work all the time, and as personal phone (ditched the land-line last year), I never come close to my 1500 minutes. (usually get 1250-1400)

[chop456]

I'd rather have a signal mirror than T-Mobile. We have them for work and they're incredibly bad.

No signal strength in downtown Chicago? :gomer:

[rabbit]

I've had Verizon for several years and love it. The only place I have not been able to get a signal is Eldora Speedway. (Heck, I even get a signal in the Washington DC Metro tunnels. :thumbup: )

[Linda]

Just wanted to tell ya. It's not any cellphone company's problem. But with the hills and all at the track at Mid-Ohio it's very hard to get a connection. Even with other cellphone users at the track.

[Sean O'Gorman]

I used a prepaid phone for two years that had a network supplied by Alltel and I NEVER had a dropped call, and had reception everywhere except in a specific basement computer lab at Cleveland State.

This includes Mid-Ohio, Oscoda, MI, Detroit, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, and whereever else I went between June '04 and Jan '06.

[Wabbit]

I had T-Mobile before, and they do not have very good coverage. Their customer service sucks also.

Didn't have a problem with their coverage, but the customer service (hard to call it that) sucked big time.

[chop456]

This includes Mid-Ohio, Oscoda, MI, Detroit, Columbus, Toledo, Dayton, Cincinnati, and whereever else I went between June '04 and Jan '06.

Wow - you're a regular Rick Steves. :D

[Dr. Corkski]

http://jacksonspecific.com/media/1/20051130-poser-mobile.gif

[JLMannin]

I've been land-line free since 2003 and have been with Verizon. Poor coverage at elkart lake, but considering the topagraphy and reletive remoteness, that was expected by me. Good reception in nearby towns, however.

Verizon customer service is good, I guess. I really don't know, because I have only had to call them 2 or 3 times in 3.5 years, and each time, my issue was resolved during my call. In stead of transferring you from place to place, the customer servixe represenative you get puts you on hold and gets info from other sources, so you only deal with one person. Kind of neat.

I pay $80/mo (includes all taxes and fees) for two phones and 700 daytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and unlimited IN calling (calls to other verizon wireless phones)