<p>My son will be a freshman at College of Charleston beginning next month. We are from West Virginia and our current cell phone service provider is not available in SC. It is less expensive to continue sharing minutes with a family plan, but that makes Sprint our only option. I have heard Sprint doesn't have great coverage on the CofC campus. Is that true? What would be a good choice if we have to have separate providers? Thanks!<br>
Frugal Mom</p>
<p>This doesn't exactly answer your question, but my daughter will also be a freshman at CofC next month. I decided it makes more sense for her to keep her cell phone number on the same family plan currently -- we have T-Mobile -- even though there is no T-Mobile in SC. T-Mobile roams on the SunCom or Cingular networks and there is excellent coverage.</p>
<p>If you have free roaming, I'd suggest he keep his curent number and service -- that is, if Sprint coverage is okay.</p>
<p>We don't have Sprint right now, we have Cellular One. Cell One says my son can't stay on our plan. The majority of their calls have to be made "in network" and he makes about 3/4 of the calls right now. Our contract is complete with Cell One, so we're free to leave. We only have 500 anytime minutes, plus free nights and weekends. I think the roaming, while free, counts toward the anytime minutes and he would go over very quickly. Cell One's rate is .40 per minute for overage compared with Sprint charging blocks of 50 minutes for $5.00. He learned that the hard way last month-it was the first time went over in two years. They were all calls of a minute or less, too, but there were twelve pages of them! He ended up having to pay the $60.00 extra part of the bill.</p>
<p>We don't have T-mobile in Southern WV either. Our choices are US Cellular, Sprint, WV Wireless, Ntelos and Nextell (which I think is Sprint).</p>
<p>Can you get Verizon? We are on a Nationwide plan and can use it pretty much anywhere w/o roaming. I have traveled to the west coast, Florida, up-state NY , Jersey shore , pretty much all over and have service. We used it when we visited CofC and got great service. I know that some friends with Cingular had difficulty in SC though.</p>
<p>Verizon seems to have a tower right on the CofC campus, but it does seem to be more expensive than some other plans. In terms of coverage, that does look like a good choice. I don't think I'd have very good coverage with Verizon here, though. They do offer service is Charleston, WV. Do you know if Verizon is GSM?</p>
<p>I don't know what GSM is- sorry. As far as cost goes - around here they are comparable to other plans. You get unlimited mobile to mobile service so any calls to my cell from my daughter's cell are free. It works out well for us. Good luck - C of C is gorgeous!</p>
<p>One other question - is your daughter at another school in SC? If so, does your daughter have a PA area code and does that work o.k. for her?</p>
<p>She will be going to USC as a freshman in a few weeks. She will be keeping her PA phone number so I am hoping all works out well! As long as she calls Verizon to Verizon it is free so hopefully she makes all Verizon friends. LOL</p>
<p>My daughter will be a sophomore at CofC, we're from PA. She currently has Verizon with a PA area code--no problems at all last year, and she makes a LOT of calls. We have a 1200 min family nationwide plan with all 4 of us on--my son was in school in NY with a PA area code, but he didn't make nearly as many calls as my D dig. And, as said before, Verizon to Verizon calls are free. We've also used Cingular in Charleston with no problem, but switched to Verizon a year ago since I received big discounts through my company. </p>
<p>My D will be in an apartment this year and she and her roomies have decided not to get a landline and just use cells, since the coverage in Charleston is excellent.</p>
<p>Thanks! Verizon sounds like a good choice, if we can't use Sprint. Does anyone have Sprint?</p>
<p>Please bump. Sprint in Charleston, SC, anyone?</p>
<p>I go to CofC and I have verizon, with my new jersey area code. I've never had a problem with the service. The only downside is that there is no verizon store downtown, so you would need a car to get to the store if you had any problems. If you are switching services, you might as well find one that has a location downtown</p>
<p>Thanks, but we don't have Verizon in WV. My son ended up with Sprint and it seems to be just fine. Have a great semester!</p>