cellphone

<p>which cellphone service is the best?</p>

<p>also, i just moved to california. so should i buy a cellphone here and then get it to cmu or wait till i get to cmu....???</p>

<p>I like sprint... some people here like that razor company for their phones since Pittsburgh gets about equal reception from everything so go with whatever phones you like. </p>

<p>Personally if I could choose (my parents have Sprint) I'd get that new phone that can dl full songs and stuff but I'm spoiled, rich and envious.</p>

<p>haha...i jst knew you'd be the first to respond!</p>

<p>but which is THE best phone service on campus? are all the same? if yes, do lot of people get 't-mobile'?</p>

<p>Wow, I was JUST about to make a thread like this.
I have a plan down here in FL but it didn't work too well when we visited. Whats' teh most popular provider on campus?</p>

<p>I'm curious about this too. Does Verizon get good service?</p>

<p>I'll be sticking with Cingular ... my phone gets better reception than most anyway.</p>

<p>hmm....so any CMU students...please answer the question...!!</p>

<p>Popular: Verizon probably but its because all their parents have it and they have some kinda plan with it. T-Mobile is not very popular since almost all CMU kids are from the northeast and Verizon is very popular there along with Sprint.</p>

<p>Like I said, I haven't seen differences between reception here (all about equal) so if you can break away from your parent's phone plan then go with whatever phones you want.</p>

<p>You can get a slvr L7 for 29.99 w/2yr contract or extension with cingular right now at CompUSA. If you go cingular this would be the way to go - you could ebay the phone for 200 if you don't want it. The downside is cingular plan pricing is not as competitive as t mobile. Personally I favor GSM networks (Cingular and T Mobile mostly in the US) just because of the benefits of using a SIM card (including the ability to travel and get a prepaid SIM for local calls) and the wide use of GSM.</p>

<p>umm, you can't use prepaid SIMs in cingular and tmobile phones, unless you unlock the phone (not possible on all models ... for free at least), sorry to say.</p>

<p>
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umm, you can't use prepaid SIMs in cingular and tmobile phones, unless you unlock the phone (not possible on all models ... for free at least), sorry to say.

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<p>...which is why you don't buy a phone that cannot be unlocked (btw the vast majority of GSM phones can be unlocked...in fact i'm hard pressed to come up with an example of a phone that cannot be unlocked)</p>

<p>now the real question is if cingular or t mobile will give you the unlock code or not....if they don't you can either hunt for unlocking software (used this method with my moto) or pay someone (usually either an over-the-internet unlocker or a send-in service) The fee would be like 10-15 bucks iirc...not free but not exactly draining your bank account. Of course if you call and tell them you need the code bc you are going on vacation in europe you may stand a good chance of getting it.</p>

<p>Lots of people have Verizon, and if you get a plan with IN calling, you'll use all of 20 minutes a month, since most of your calls will be free. It doesn't matter where you get your plan becuase you'll REALLY want to get a plan with free long distance, because CMUers come from all over the country, and their area codes will reflect that...</p>

<p>As for the inevitable question of getting a phone for your room, I'd say pick up a cheap phone somewhere, because free calls everywhere on campus is nice to have. Also, you can call free to your room from all over campus. It's worth the $8 for a cheap phone.</p>