(ot) Cell Phone and Cell Phone Company Question (ot)

I am going to regret asking this here, but.......

I am in the market for a new cell phone and cell phone company. Will be used mainly in the southeast ( GA, SC, NC, VA ) Have been shopping and the deals are bizarre... Every time I find a good one, I find a link to a better one. So far Cingular has my attention as a provider. But I am open minded, if not stubborn. Also looked at a deal on a Palm Treo 680 Anyone have one of those? Jeff (I'll sit down now and wait for the pummeling...) Rice

Reply to
Jeff Rice
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Jeff, I have been going through the same process. Strangely enough, a young woman in our local Cingular dealer gave me this website:

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The best deal for me is the T-Mobile Nationwide plan (no roaming) with a free Motorola Razr, 300 prime time minutes, unlimited weekend minutes (no nighttime deal)- $29.99. We can't use a cell phone at home (dead area) and my DSL bundle includes unlimited long distance. I was going to go with their Dash data phone which required either paying $49.95 (for the phone, free on higher priced plans) on their $29.99 plan plus $30 a month for six months for their unlimited data plan. What I liked was the Dash has Wi-Fi capability built in. I would dump the data plan at the end of six months and just use the Wi-Fi. But. I decided that, since our five week Lincoln Highway Trip fell though, I didn't need that capability. I have had Cingular for five years with no complaint, but they are getting ready to cut off support for my old analog phone and they are charging me an extra $4.99 a month until they do drop it. Paul Johnson

Reply to
Paul Johnson

I would ask locals who their provider is. I had Verizon and loved it, the rest of my family was on Alltel so I switched. Stayed with Alltel a total of 6 days and had more dropped calls, missed calls, poor reception in those six days than I had in 10 years with Verizon. But that's in Lexington, SC. I know people in Columbia (10 miles away) that haven't had a single problem with Alltel. It all depends on location.

I have had a RAZR for about six months, I love it... but I haven't dropped it yet. From what I'm told they're a one drop phone... then you get to buy a new one.

Several people at work have the Palm Treo 650, no major problems with them. I think I'd look at the 700 if it's available with your carrier... not sure what the differences are but everyone with a 650 wishes they would have waited until the 700 came out.

Lee

Reply to
Lee Aanderud

Boy do I feel fortunate! I'm a Canuck but work in the USA as a "disaster relief adjuster" under NAFTA. When I went to Florida in 2004 I picked up a phone and plan from Cingular (which they no longer offer, duh I wonder why...). It was a "North America" plan with no LD and no roaming charges anywhere in North America. 1700 daytime minutes per month and 1000 night/weekend minutes. Unused minutes roll over. Pay $99/month. Got a Sony bluetooth with the plan for $29 or something. Upgraded last year in New Orleans to a RAZR, love it. Because there were no hurricanes last season I didn't use all the minutes and my contract ran out so I just left it month to month on a plan they no longer offer. I have over 12,000 minutes banked and the Cingular network (Rogers-AT&T in Canada) works perfectly for me. Didn't work at all well in New Orleans after Katrina but once they put back up the cell tower and fibre-optic lines FEMA screwed, all was well again.

Brooksie

Reply to
Brooksie

I just got the 680 Treo. One problem, if you get it with Internet Service, you cannot turn of the Internet. Called Cingular, who called Palm, and they said, ooops.. we forgot to put a "log off" in it. Only way to keep battery from draining is to re-boot after each internet session. Ofcourse, if you do not buy the inernet service, no problem. If you do go with Cingular, pay the $4.99 a month for messaging. The 680 is nice, lights up and does not drop calls.

BG................... oh one thing, it won't work in either Japan or Korea. If you plan on leaving the US, you will need to let them know.

Reply to
Bill Glass

T-Mobile is the same T-Mobile that is a subsidiary of Deustche Telekom, in turn a subsidiary of the Bundespost - the German Post offiice. I used to have to pay my T-Mobile bill at the Bundespost office when I was stationed in Germany. That's how I know.

I developed a bit of an attitude about spending my money with a company run by and for the German government. I suppose it is because I was exposed to a lot of the German attitude while living on the economy for 3 1/2 years.

I will not knowingly enrich their coffers....... Just one of those quirky "buy American" things.

Mark Dunning

Reply to
Mark Dunning

You do know that Cigular has become the "new" ATT, right?

JT

Jeff Rice wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

If your into cell phone pictures avoid Verizon or any other company who's phones won't let you download to your computer. They want to force you to go through their system where they charge you for every photo.

Reply to
Alex Magdaleno

Reply to
blacklarkviii

I have had Cingular for years,but service in southwest Virginia is non-existant.Cross the state line near me on 4 highways(52,77,103 104 and farther in,220),nothing for 1 hours driving time.Race truck broke down in Independence Va last friday night,no sevice,6 cingular phones were suddenly only pocket watches. Check the coverage maps, those areas may not be an issue for you.

blacklarkviii I have been a Cingular customer since they first started as a digital

Reply to
Freddy Badgett

Well, don't blame them for the analog drop off. The gov't mandated that and ALL analog is going away. Just ask any satisfied OnStar user (that is always locking their keys in their running car...).. They are pissed off because they have to pay up big bucks to upgrade, or get shut off altogether.. Jeff

"Paul Johnson" wrote... > I have been going through the same process. Strangely enough, a young woman

Reply to
Jeff Rice

I did notice that in the maps. Mountain areas pretty much sucked. But they also sucked for the other major brands. That might work for me though, as my new excuse for not answering will be "I was in the mountains" Jeff (start the banjo music..) Rice

"Freddy Badgett" wrote...

Reply to
Jeff Rice

Try this, I've got it on my laptop and sync it with my Verizon Razr phone... don't recall ever downloading pictures though... because the images are so crappy on a cell phone it's not worth the time.

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Lee

Reply to
Lee Aanderud

I wonder if the newer phones do any better. I don't have a phone camera but the pictures I saw a year or more ago were pretty sad.

Reply to
Alex Magdaleno

Most are still 1.3 MegaPixel, there is one that is around a 3MP, but it looks like a digital camera that you can use as a phone.

Lee

Reply to
Lee Aanderud

As with vehicles, most will tell you the one THEY chose is the BEST, the rest are junk.

However one would do better by choosing the one that best sits their needs and budget, albeit a vehicle or a phone and service. Try Letstalk.com for an array of providers as well as low cost or free phones, WBMA LOL

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

I just had to relate my experience with cell phones when i was in Nong Kong over Christmas. My wife has a cell phone plan with Sunday in Hong Kong. She pays the equivalent of $12 US for 1200 minutes a month with all calls within Hong Kong free - that is no charge against the minutes. She uses the 1200 minutes for international calls. She added me to the plan for the eqivalent of $0.50 US per month. Now mind you, any calls we make within Hong Kong are not charged against the minutes that we contract for, only calls outside of Hong Kong. Even if we come to the US and use our cell phones here the charge goes against the contract minutes. If you go over the contract minutes it costs $0.02 per minute. In addition, there is no such thing as a "long-term" contract. Even her land line is cheap. International calls amount to $0.02US per minute anywhere in the world. AT&T tried to break into the Hong Kong market and gave up because they could not compete. I have heard that AT&T is trying to get into the market in China too, but they will not get special treatment, so I suspect that they will quit China too. Wait and see. Within a few years AT&T will be the only provider again in the US.

Paul V "Jeff Rice" wrote in message news:462f3b90$0$16336$ snipped-for-privacy@free.teranews.com...

Reply to
Paul Villforth

If you are thinking of using the phone for data (e-mail, web, pictures) and are using Cingular check and see if and when they are going to roll out UMTS (mobil broadband) it,s almost as fast as cable. Both Verizon and Sprint/Nextell have similar systems. All three are in the process of expanding their coverage areas of mobil broadband

Reply to
Bill C

Yup........ATT was initally merged with Verion, then at some point, we became Sprint. Then ATT went off line here in NY, we joined Cingular, which is now ATT. How do I know.........got a call on my Cingular phone that there was an outstanding balance on my Verizon account, which was ATT, now Cingular, but if I did not pay the $14.83 cents, ATT would cancel my Cingular account because of a past due on Verizon.

I hear all the phone companies are merging, going to call them selves Bell Telephone.

BG

Reply to
Bill Glass

On Cingular, with the Treo you can either e-mail yourself the photos, or with the Hot Sync cord (included) you can download.

BG

Reply to
Bill Glass

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