<p>DUH - we live in New England - and tend to travel between here and Florida - DD is in school in NC - when she first went to school - she had lots of problems with T-mobile at the time - lots of dead spots - no service between Rt 95 and her school - east of RT 95 - didn't work inside any of the buildings at her school - cept on the roof.</p>
<p>SOooooooo after much research - including doing research with a Verizon store in Raleigh-Durham area - just happened to catch a salesman who runs between Greenville, NC and R/D - who had NO problems - as long as we took his recommendation to get tri-mode phones. So we got them up here. Up this way - they tend to try to discourage you from tri-modes cuz most of this area is digital anyways - but what do they know???</p>
<p>We are all Verizon now - and very happy with the service - DD went to Idaho mountains - called home every day - no problem - we went to Colorado - again no problem - up in the mountains skiing in New England - no problem - down in the south in the Carolina's and Florida - again no problem - ya there are a few DEAD spots - where there is NO service for any cell phone - but few and far between now with verizon.</p>
<p>Since changing to Verizon - we have NOT had any problems what so ever with our billing either - another biggy for us. We pay it online - done!!!</p>
<p>We had cingular for many years - and the end - LOTs of problems - T-mobile - lack of reception in wayy toooo many places - so Verizon is it for us. The local cell services in the mid-atlantic area - would not work for us - as DD spends alot of time away from those areas. We needed a full service phone program - that we did not have to worry about - unless we go out of the country - then we can add international without any problems also.</p>
<p>This is just IMHO tho - Verizon offers us the best for what we pay - and no problems at all. OOO and we got her LG6100 for essentially 0 cuz of the NEW in TWO program they have - was her time to trade up - but the $49 is still a great deal on that phone - since it retails for over $250.</p>
<p>Don't ever go with T-Mobile. They have a very small network unlike Cingular and Verizon. I hate it when I'm somewhere where there's no T-Mobile service, but I can pick up another carrier's; My cell phone then displays "Emergency Calls Only"</p>
<p>But for me, my dad gets the plan from work for free, so there's not much to complain. :(</p>
<p>T-mobile is a national service - just all digital - in some places it works great - in others - not at all.</p>
<p>There are places that NO cell works - no matter what service it is - hard to pick the best for ones circumstances - kind of a crap shoot at times tho.</p>
<p>I live smack dab in the middle of the techiest place in america, and can't get decent cell service from my bedroom. The most expensive zip code in america (according to forbes) has some of the worst cell service I've ever experienced. It really is a crap shoot.</p>
<p>i have cingular and no problems with it. i get service everywhere (except basements) and i travel all over the dam place (i wuz in cali last month and got service everywhere and didnt have to pay long distance charges). and besides, who can beat rollover????</p>
<p>Either Verizon or Cingular are the best and safest bets - both have pretty much maxed out in the service area thing - I think it is a personal choice - we just prefer Verizon - to each their own tho - both have some pretty decent prograqms - i would do a comparison and then make a good informed decision.</p>
<p>Cingular is more of a pricesaver.....Roll over for a whole year, free cing to cing, free nights and weekends all included, not to mention you get to upgrade your phone to anything within the pricerange of the phone you had when you first signed up whenever your contract expires for $25....no roaming anywhere, no long distance....this is for ALL plans...Verizon only offers no roaming for nationwide plans, which are pricier than the standards.</p>
<p>Verizon also has free ver to ver - free nights and weekends - no roaming - no long distance - and also has the new in 2 phone upgrade with 100 buck credit - - they actualy do have very similar programs - they are compteing with each other for the same market - for very similar prices also - so not quite sure where you got your information.</p>
<p>verizon's standard plans usually require you to declare a home area...and if you move out of it it charges roaming...once you move outta your home area you're no longer eligible for the free nights and weekends..and in charlottesville (where i'm located) there is no home area coverage....cingular has no "home area"....wherever there's a GSM network, there's signal without any roaming.....with verizon you'll have to go with the national enhanced coverage to get anything similar to such, so you can run off alltel's network or what not.....my information you ask?.....3 Verizon customer and <a href="http://www.verizonwireless.com%5B/url%5D">www.verizonwireless.com</a> :)</p>
<p>oh yeah...detailed billing not included with verizon, plus...a year's worth of roll-over can come in handy....you pay the same price but you talk for longer</p>
<p>Verizon offers local plans as well as nationwide plans, just like Cingular does. If you get a region plan from Cingular, you'll get charged for roaming as well.</p>
<p>With Verizon's AmericaChoice plans, you get free roaming and free long distance. IN calling is included just about every with their new America Choice plans (AC2). Your information is a bit dated, as there is no longer any roaming on the AC2 plans.</p>
<p>Rollover simply means your plan isn't sized to your usage. Sprint's Fair and Flexible is far better than rollover since you don't have to pay for minutes that you don't use. Verizon now allows you to backdate plan changes so theoretically you could just change your plan if you are going to go over your minutes.</p>
<p>NAHRAFSFA - again I have no clue where you got your information - unless you are talking about a local/regional plan. Ya I do know of a plan similar to what you are saying - but that is only effective in Florida - with 'most' verizon plans - you are not stuck with a ''home'' area code - do not roam etc.......We live in New England and have local area code and DD is in school in NC with our local area code - actually she is in extended network 75% of the time and all functions work well there - I can even IM her right from my computer or my phone and she receives them with no problem - and she is never in roam - bill is constant - never changes month to month.</p>
<p>And actually where we live - there is a local/regional plan - choice of 2 actually - northern or southern New England - but very very few chose that as an option - most chose plans with the extended network because there are many places that have only extended network - which is NOT roaming - all included in the plan - no extra charges for anything. The AC2 plan became effective in February 2005 - which basically changes their program to a NO roaming plan.</p>
<p>Best bet - Verizon's Americas Choice plan - with no roaming!!! - free nights and weekends, etc...blah blah blah</p>
<p>Oh - and detailed billing IS available - on-line!! at verizon.com OR you can pay $1.99/mo for a detailed paper bill</p>
<p>DUH - congrats on your purchase - good luck and hope all goes well for you.</p>
<p>oh hey do people(perhaps college students) use lots of txt messages??
currently i have no plan for messages which'll cost me 10 cents for each message.</p>
<p>a store clerk asked me if i wanna add an unlimited txt message service for some amount of dollars, but i thought i would rather use a voice message and what not.
what do you think??
do u use txt or pic message alot? do you use ur phone as aim client as well?
are they really helpful (nicer than voice?)??</p>
<p>p.s : yeah nowadays people seem to use a cell for all kinda stuffs.</p>
<p>I use Verizon, and it's great. Just got my "New Every Two" free phone, and it's awesome and shiny. Oddly enough the flip phone with a screen on the outside without a camera came with a speakerphone. Didn't think I'd use it, but it's actually come in handy a few times. You can have other people listen to your messages, leave group messages to other people, and talk hands-free without the annoying headset if you're in a quiet place.</p>
<p>A lot of places (including some you may not have considered) don't allow cameras, and therefore don't allow camera phones. If that's going to be a concern for you, you might not want a camera phone -- that's why I went to so much trouble to avoid one. Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder not to get a cameraphone, with something like 80% of the phones on the market having a camera.</p>
<p>Get a tri-mode phone if you can. Networks are being upgraded to all-digital, but until they are, you'll get more service with a tri-mode that can take advantage of still-existing older towers.</p>