Cellular Wasteland
October 19, 2005
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Posted by Aubrey Turner
I’ve been pondering whether to change cell phone providers. I’ve grown increasingly more dissatisfied with Cingular over the past year or so. My main concern with Cingular is that despite their constant advertising about “more bars” after the acquisition of AT&T*, I am having more difficulty making and taking calls. As I go about my daily routine I find that there are MANY dead spots around town. Further, I have come to conclude that my phone lies to me about the actual signal strength. Many times I have lost a call despite having three or four bars.
My primary concern is having a phone that actually works as a phone. Cameras and games and ringtones are nice shiny little toys, but they add nothing to the actual business of making phone calls. I wonder at times whether all the attention given to add-ons isn’t distracting the wireless companies from their core business of providing phone service.
Anyhow, I’m considering Sprint or Verizon. Oddly enough, I’ve actually come across a couple of people with nice things to say about Verizon (which when you consider most people’s overall feeling about their cell provider, is something of a rarity). I suppose if I choose Verizon they will have completed their quest for total domination of my communications services (Internet, landline, TV, and cell). Talk about all your eggs in one basket…
I see that cell companies are now starting to offer more information about coverage area on their websites, as well as a 15-day grace period where you can take the phone back and cancel the contract. This is one of the things I’d always wanted in the past, because you never knew when signing up with a company exactly what kind of signal and sound you’d get. Now I can try them out before being permanently locked into any committment. The other thing I’d like to find out, but which would be harder, is how well the provider handles 911 calls. I tried calling 911 with my Cingular phone from the intersection of Bourland and Keller Parkway after a traffic wreck a couple of weeks ago and ended up getting the Fort Worth 911 center. It took them about three minutes to transfer my call to the Keller 911 center, by which time the wreck had already been reported by several other people.
Here are the requirements I’m going to have in mind as I’m comparing companies and plans:
- Good signal coverage.
- Good call quality (signal strength isn’t the only indicator of quality; the level of compression used and the quality of the equipment matters, too)
- Must have a “trial” period where the agreement can be cancelled.
- Should get the correct 911 center.
I suspect Google is going to be my friend while I’m doing these comparisons. I’m going to have to research not only the companies and their coverage, but the phones. It’s kind of a daunting task, considering that searching for a cellular company on Google usually results in lots of references to very unhappy people.
* I ditched AT&T several years ago and switched to Cingular (except they weren’t Cingular yet) because of AT&T’s horrid customer service. It only takes one instance of being treated as a nuisance in the store for me to give up on a company (in this case, the sales drone in the Denton store couldn’t be arsed to discontinue his phone conversation in order to sell me a phone upgrade, at which point I left and began looking for a new company).
Categories: Technology
I love Verizon.
Their coverage seems to be unsurpassed. In driving across the country, moving Deb here, there were no dead spots any time I checked, and there was usually digital signal available, important because I was using the phone for e-mail.
Mine is an older FreeUp phone, the prepay plan, so I have never dealt with billing in the same sense you might with a traditional plan. However, we switched to automatic credit card payments, and in dealing with that the customer service was delightful. My experience with the landline/DSL people has been stellar too, but the groups are probably still quite separate, so I’d not assume one from the other.
I have never heard the complaints about Verizon that I do about other cell providers, and I have heard other people praise Verizon the way I am doing. For what it’s worth.
The odd thing is my pager is also Verizon, and that is the only aspect of Verizon I have any complaints with, home or business. Half the pages never get through, but I think this is a problem with the quality of the default pager they provide. When I had a different pager, with Verizon service but paid for and supplied by a client, there were no problems at all.
From someone living in the same general vicinity, I can strongly recommend Verizon. I use the Treo 600 all over the western US and I always have a signal. Significantly, too, I use it down at the ranch, and have excellent signal strength even in the sticks. I also have their EVDO laptop-card unlimited-data plan. The EVDO coverage is less than I would like, but it’s still the best available, and I think they’ll roll it out even further, faster. The new Treo 700W is a Windows Mobile device with EVDO built in, if you’re desperately seeking a new handheld toy. I’m just waiting for the 700P(alm).
I chose them because they are a CDMA provider, if the geek factor matter to you—it’s just a better technology than the GSM stack. Greater coverage, more efficient, less battery usage, more secure, blah-blah-blah.
Customer service is pretty good, but like all of these tech firms, it strongly matters who picks up the phone first more than the company behind them. I can say that I’ve gotten a greater percentage of good reps with VZW than I have come to expect.
My only complaint is that Verizon are more expensive than other cellcos, but in this case, I am definitely getting what I pay for. Their website is pretty klunky, too.
It’s funny you should mention their website… as I was just poking around on it looking at coverage area and other information.
It looks like I can get a discount through my employer (21% off of the monthly fees), so I’m going to give it a try. Although if you want to see clunky, you should see their business website…
Anyhow, I forgot to mention that good service out in the sticks is a plus for me, as I would often like to use my phone when visiting my mother in East Texas, but don’t usually get enough signal out there.
I’ve had an account with Verizon for several years now. I have to admit that I’m pretty happy with their service. Granted, I’m on the east coast, but I’ve had decent service in Oklahoma. It died in my hometown, but I have yet to find a company with decent service there.