<p>On another thread on another board, someone suggested asking of a particular school which cell phone company gets the best reception. So, which company would y'all suggest we sign up with? Thanks.</p>
<p>According to my son, it's T-mobile. We've been using it for about 2 years now, so we did not have to switch. And by the way, if your cell phone is broken, T-mobile has a nice plan whereby you can get a new one - and of course sign up for a year - for free.</p>
<p>ps. - If the phone is a bit expensive, then you pay for the new one but not as much as you would have if you had to just buy a new cell-phone.</p>
<p>Btw, every Swattie also has a phone in their room and there is no extra charge for using the phone to call anywhere. It even has voicemail.</p>
<p>My daughter ended up choosing Cingular at Swarthmore after asking around about reception. She waited 'til she got there to sign up for a plan, so that she has a local Philadelphia area code (pizza delivery guys won't deliver without one!)</p>
<p>Reception is like anywhere else. Overall good, but in the concrete, stone, and steel buildings, there are spots where reception is poor -- as there are in our house.</p>
<p>She has "downgraded" her plan to fewer minutes because she was rolling over an avalanche of minutes. All of the plans have essentially unlimited nights and weekends; college kids just don't use the phone that much during daytime peak hours. She now has the cheapest plan that offers 'nationwide' calling so that she can use her phone at home without roaming charges.</p>
<p>All of the major cellular companies have retail stores within a half mile of Swarthmore. Or, you can order phones from the Internet websites that arrive ready to use in a day or two.</p>
<p>Not particularly related to Swat, but what are charges for cellular service like in the US?</p>
<p>Approx. $30-$40 a month for an individual. With lots of minutes free (400-500?) per month etc. Some more if you want to call India and other countries using your cell phone. I am not sure how much more...cause I use the land line phone to call international.</p>
<p>My daughter has Cingular on the cheapest "family plan" with free nights & weekends. We are sharing the minutes among 3 phones, and still never get anywhere near close to the limit. Her area code is our local one (so the calls from our home are NOT long distance), I guess she uses her room phone as a local number for the pizza...</p>
<p>Our daughter will be keeping Cingular. We visited campus twice over two years and have been in Philadelphia a number of times. Coverage on campus was fine. Note - with the Cingular-ATT merger, the successor company will be the GSM/GPRS protocol provider with the greatest US coverage. T-Mobile is a roaming partner with Cingular.</p>
<p>Here's a link with many coverage maps for various providers along with overseas compatibility:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gsmworld.com/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.gsmworld.com/index.shtml</a></p>