Originally Posted by DBruce49

I've used Cingular for 3 years, and although I've looked at T-Mobile, I keep finding Cingular better for my needs.

The things that I like about Cingular include:

Nationwide roaming (without fees) -- It is very freeing not to have to be concerned about roaming charges, especially with college kids in the family. (I recently was in a seminar in a hotel, and while I had great coverage, an associate with Verizon could only get costly roaming unless he went to the lobby.)

Good rural coverage which helps when traveling in the US.

Rollover minutes.

Unlimited mobile-to-mobile (Cingular & AT&T), including now messages.

I travel to Europe once or twice a year (for about 2 weeks each) and I've always used Cingular's int'l roaming. It's been more cost effective for me.

FWIW, here's what I do when in Europe: Turn off voice mail since it's twice the cost per minute to retrieve, as are most inbound calls from the US. So I typically don't answer and inbound call but I return the call right away (since caller ID works). I also rely on text messaging from associates in the US -- much cheaper and you don' t have to be awake. At night, I leave the phone on with the ringer off so I can tell who has called.

Now if only they had a decent calling plan from here to Canada.

AT&T (the new Cingular) has plans with unlimited calling to anyone with an AT&T landline, in addition to AT&T/Cingular mobile, but there are no rollover minutes.