PCS Coverage
 

I've long been an ATT guy for wireless, but am tired of their billing games.

For those of you that have PCS, how is coverage? Is it really the best network around?

What phone is recommended?

Finally, anyone know when I will be able to take my cell number from one carrier to another?

Dingo:

I've had great reception with Sprint PCS all over the country. The only trouble I had with it was for a 15 mile strech of roads in the boonies of Iowa [not interstate or major highways]. A friend of mine that is an elite on Delta and does a lot of flying switched from T-Mobile to Sprint and says his coverage is MUCH better with Sprint than it ever was with T-Mobile.

Another major advantage, in my case, was with certain plans that allowed the unlimited Sprint PCS to PCS calling. Since many of my friends and co-workers have Sprint PCS, it's great to be able to call them whenever and not have those minutes count towards your anytime minutes.

In terms of recommended phone, I would either go with the latest Sanyo PCS phone or Samsung phone. I personally have the Sanyo 4900 and am quite satisfied with it. I would recommend the Sanyo or Samsung as they hvae speaker phones, which make it safe to talk on one's cell phone in the car; be sure to verify with your Sprint PCS sales agent to see which models offer speaker phones. A friend of mine repaired cell phones last summer and said that flip phones tend to need more repair than non-flip phones.

If you decide to go with Sprint PCS let me know via E-Mail, and I can get you a one-time $10 referal credit, and I get a referal bonus too... it doesn't matter which you sign up with Sprint PCS - via phone, online, or at the store... all ways are eligible for getting the referral credit.
No catches or obilgations; you just have to enroll in the referal program within 60 days of activating your Sprint PCS phone.

As for cell phone number portablility, I read in the most recent issue of Kiplingers magazine that they said around November 2003 you'll be able to transport your cell number from one carrier to another.

For more detailed information on Sprint PCS stuff, check out

http://www.sprintusers.com/

Hope this helps.

Very helpful indeed. Thank you very much for all the information.

I could go on and on about Sprint. Instead, one word:

Don't.


Read Consumer Reports. Try to get Sprint "Customer Service" (A true oxymoron in Sprint terms)

Stay with AT&T, at least it works.

Sprint is good & bad. They're good in the sense that their prices are very competitive & they've got decent service in all the major metropolitan areas (most of the time). however, they have their fair share of dropped calls. I've had a Sprint PCS phone (Sanyo SCP4700, I think) and in the beginning, I was SO frustrated with them and the dropped calls. That led me to write a letter and complain after one of their store managers in Harrisonburg, VA was really rude to me. Since then, whenever I have a problem, I've written Sprint & they've sent me a brand new phone for free (with me sending them my old one - this has happened twice) and I have my own personal contact in their executive office so I never have to deal with "Claire" their customer service computer person. In the past year or so, I haven't had any problems with them. I've travelled the country extensively and in rural areas, you aren't going to get service unless it's analog and you're willing to pay more for it. I'm not switching anytime soon because I'm earning airline miles with them and it's too much of a hassle to get a new cell number and tell it to everyone you know. BUT, if I were going to switch, I'd probably switch to Verizon - everyone I know that has that is VERY happy with their service. I only pay ~32/mo (with an 8% corporate discount), I've earned a hell of a lot of miles with Sprint, and I get 500 daytime and 1000 nights & weekends and N & W minutes start at 8PM and end at 7AM, which is better than the 9PM start most plans nowadays offer. Unless I find a better deal, I'm sticking with Sprint.

On a side note, a friend of mine recently went through the process of getting a new phone and frankly, he shopped AROUND & found that sprint offered the best deal than any other provider in the DC area so it was worth it to put up with a dropped call here & there. If you use your phone for business purposes and their paying for it, I would go ahead and go with Verizon though.

I have had Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile and now Sprint, again. I was not able to get Cingular and T-Mobile calls in my house or within about 2 blocks. My son has ATT which seems to work fine, though I understand that ATT and T-Mobile both use Cingular's system here in No. Cal (as they are all GSM.)

I have not had any problems with my current Sprint service and had no problems with their customer service (had questions about my first bill and they answered promptly and resolved quickly.)

I hear Verizon really does have great coverage and fewer dropped calls, but their phones and service is much more expensive and no UA miles.

Of course, it seems that the expectations are still way too high as I read about problems that all service providers are having.

Of course, I remember my first cell phone back in 1985 and you want to talk about expensive, poor service.

Well, if you go over to the Visa/MC board and search on "Verizon", you'll find that there are a lot of FTers (including me) who are very unhappy with Verizon (local service) billing. Unlike any other modern phone company, Verizon has for the past few years not accepted credit cards over the phone or over the web for payment of your monthly (local landline service, at least) bill. The only way to pay by credit card was to schlep to one of their physical stores (with limited hours and limited locations and ever-changing store names). Now I hear they've added paying by credit card over the phone but tack on a "convenience fee" which wipes out any mileage earning you might get by paying by credit card (there's no fee if you schlep to a Verizon Plus store). And they won't take Diners Club (my preferred card for mileage earning) at all. (Btw, Verizon bought up GTE here in SoCal a few years ago, and when they were GTE they had no problems taking credit card payments over the phone with no surcharge.)

In contrast, Sprint (long distance) not only lets me pay by credit card over the phone, not only lets me pay by Diners Club, but years ago was able to set up (at my request) automatic billing to my Diners Club every months so the only time I have to contact them about billing is every few years when my card gets updated!

So at the very least I suggest you check with those people you know who are happy with Verizon (wireless) and find out if they're mileage junkies who want to pay for EVERYTHING with their best-milesage-earning credit card. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif