Sprint vs. Verizon
I have had a cell phone for about 7 years now. In that time I have had US Cellular, Verizon, and most recently, Sprint. As a friend of mine once said about cell phone companies, “they all suck equally”.
My contract with Sprint is about to run out, and I really have no incentive for staying with them any longer (my insider in the business moved on to bigger and better things.)
Of the three companies, I think I was most happy, as a whole, with Verizon. I am thinking of becoming “in” and switching bakc to them.
Any thoughts?

I think it all kind of depends on what you want
I have cingular and that works well for me, my family lives in des moines, and all the other people I talk to on a consistent basis lives in ames, so the coverage is fine. Also, rollover minutes are sweet. I’ve also noticed that cingular doesn’t try to make you buy everything under the sun to enjoy your phone. For instance, I have the sony-ericsson z520a. It comes with infrared and bluetooth capabilities. I can send files back and forth from any bluetooth enabled computer, and other sweet things, etc. Luke Van Gorp just got a razr from verizon, he has bluetooth, but he had to buy a bluetooth kit for it to be functional, etc. However, I think Verizon works best for Luke because he has family/friends in Northwest Iowa, and cingular, as far as I know has like no coverage up their. Anyways, Im happy with cingular because it works for what I need in a phone.
When will you humans learn that all cell phones are equally inferior to living in the same building as everyone else, and just yelling at the top of your lungs?
Verizon, best network.
-Dustin
Well Matt, if you join verizon then you can talk to me for free! I’m In! I’ll call you all the time, because we’re like best buddies.
I have always had US Cellular and have never had a complaint against them. I would think that has to count for something.
Good coverage too… when all other cell phones are “searching” during scout camp outs, dads ask to use my US Cellular phone which almost always has a signal… even on top of Longs Peak!
The “in” thing is definitely a plus, especially when you consider the fact that a majority of cell phone users in the Rock seem to have Verizon. And, having just taken advantage of “new every two” — I can attest that a $100 credit toward a sweet phone is pretty cool as well!
I originally switched away from US Cellular many years ago because of some weird clause they had in their contracts for a while about being penalized if you consistently used your phone out of your home area for more than 8 weeks, or something like that (Obviously LT was a problem!). I am sure they don’t do that any more, but that was why they lost my business originally. I then went to Sprint, and left Sprint because I was too often roaming on my travels to small-town Minnesota and out in the boonies of Iowa. I’ve heard this has improved, but it drove me crazy at the time.
I’ve never had roaming issues with Verizon. The only annoying thing has been when we tried to get Tony’s ISU employee discount applied to our account, and it took months to take effect (and we still haven’t received the back credit for the months it was supposed to be in effect). I think that issue was mainly due to the first person he talked to about the discount giving wrong info about what paperwork was needed. Otherwise I’ve always been pretty happy with their customer service.
Verizon does lock down their phones more than other carriers, but this can be fixed in many cases. Do your research! phonescoop.com and howardforums.com are your friends! :-)
We are going to (at some point) mod my new e815 to enable obex (bluetooth object transfer) to make it possible to get on/off pix and ringtones without using Verizon’s overpriced services.
I have great service through Qwest. The only dropped calls are other people’s fault. My service area is pretty limited, but I’m ok with that.
I priced it out and 1 year ago sprint had the best deal for what I wanted which is:
A family plan where we share minutes
Free Roaming
Coverage that is equal to verizions (I roam for free on verizons towers)
Free minutes (nights and weekends) start at 7pm
And a big plus is if I go over my minutes they just bump me up to the next plan so I don’t pay per minute I just pay $5
From what I know very few other companys have the “7pm” deal
and no other ones have the “bump up plan” deal
So if you want what I wanted and can get it for what I got it at 1 year ago. Do it, it’s the best deal out there.
8 different people, 8 different opinions. Seems to happen whenever anyone asks for cell phone advice.
I noticed that you opened the question without really specifying important things that could distinguish what services/features are of most importance to you. Makes a difference. For instance, USC’s stellar coverage in Iowa, but inferior nation-wide network verses the opposite from most other truly nation-wide carriers. Where do you call from? Who do you call? When do you call? What other services do you use? Care to have useful customer service? Contracts?
When you consider all of these quesitons, you will probably come to the conclusion that NO cellular carrier has any truly fulfilling service, and that it would be much more cost-effective to simply forego owning a cell phone :-) . And is that really NOT a reasonable option?
Right on, Vos. Thus, my Qwest “cellular” service.
yep ill add a late opinion BURN THE CELL PHONES