cell phone question

[cellomusette]

Suppose I want to purchase a prepaid cell-phone in the Cambridge/Somerville Area. Does anyone have an opinion about which prepaid plans are good and which ones suck? Trying to decide between Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobil, etc. Thanks.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Verizon in general has the best network in terms of coverage. That might be important if you plan to use the phone while at your mom's.

I had a poor experience with Cingular but that was 6-7 years ago. They used to be real good at "gotcha" billing back in the days when roaming was expensive.

T-Mobile is pretty much nonfunctional outside of major urban areas and off the interstate. Check their coverage map.

cellphones

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

When I looked, about a year ago, for a cell phone that would act primarily as a home phone, I narrowed it down to Verizon and T-Mobile.

Verizon does indeed have better coverage, but your primary concern would probably be getting a strong signal where you live, where you work, and where your mom lives.

Verizon has a better "free calls to people with the same provider" plan, also, although that was immaterial to me since I never come close to using up my non-weekend non-night minutes anyway.

I picked T-Mobile 'cause I figured their coverage was good enough for me, and at the time I shopped, I got a nifty free cell phone free for picking them. (Short-term gratification, ohhhh yeah.) I got the $40+tax plan for 600 free minutes, and nights and weekends are free. I suspect Verizon might be a slightly better choice for you overall, but you should compare plans that work for you. The T-Mobile plan was slightly cheaper for me.

My T-Mobile coverage at my Old Place diminished over time, from 3-or-4 bars (out of 5) to 2, sometimes even losing a connection altogether. That seemed surprisingly poor; thatt's right near Porter Square! It's consistently 5 bars here near Medford Square, fortunately. At work it's iffy, but Nextel is the only provider that has a good signal on our island in Boston Harbor. :-)

More on coverage: Sometimes bercilakslady and I do a comparison-when-traveling (she has Verizon, I have T-Mobile); she sometimes has a *better* signal than mine, but I can't actually think of a time she could make/receive a call while I couldn't do so at all.

Re: cellphones

[watercolorblue.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing the best things about Verizon, which is what I had before. I checked out their prepay options, and they give you unlimited nighttime minutes, so I think I'm going with that. It'll hold me over until I have a real phone.