What's the beta on cell phone plans?

[shmerham]

I need a new phone and subsequently, since I'm not under contract anymore a new plan. I currently have AT&T, which is pretty good because I can get ok service in the mountains of New England. It seems though that AT&T doesn't offer any inexpensive non-gsm plans anymore. A gsm plan won't work in the mountains will it? Like if I need to roam off another carrier's tower?

Ideally I'd like to get verizon; as they have the best coverage. Very good coverage in the mountains. Unfortunately they won't give a plan to someone in my zip code even though they have coverage. WTF? There's no way to circumvent this, is there?


Thanks anyone who knows this stuff.

[AltaPowderDaze]

verizon was the best company when i was on the east coast. why not just get a po box in another zip and get you bill sent there. always go with the america's choice with those guys. you never know these days with the messed up roaming charges. to be honest i'd call up a customer service rep and ask them. they are usually friendly and you can tell after a few seconds which ones can see the grey areas.

[shmerham]

aha, not a bad idea

[AltaPowderDaze]

if they won't do a po box, call and find out which one of your friends will let you use their physical address. then you can just get your bill online like i do. call verizon and ask which zips are acceptable.

[Billow]

I just changed my address to a zip that is not covered. Already have a plan and pay on the net, time to change back and continue using the Verizon paperless billing.

I changed to the National Singlerate, works best in VT and NH. I think this is the option you want to avoid any roaming, lots of roaming up here. I think that is why they don’t want costumers, assume Verizon doesn’t make much money while roaming around on other peoples towers.

I thank somebody I’m leaving soon.

[Buzzworthy]

There is a sister company to Verizon that is getting to be big all over the east coast. Alltel. THe reason they say you have coverage in your area with Verizon to me thinks that Alltel is the main carrier there (roaming agreement, no cost). Like Att and Cingular kind of.

Alltel plans tend to stink, at least a year ago, not like the Americas Choice Program by Verizon.

Alltel was in WV when I had Verizon's Americas Choice program and my phone was contantly on "Extended Network", which meant that my mobile to mobile calls don't exist when on this extended network, had to dial a different number to get voicemails (they did not pop thru like normal, had to physically check to see if I had any), caller ID worked sometimes......

See what the local shops carry and get back to me. I used to be in the bus.

Another question, are you planning on moving anytime soon, or simply want a new service?

There is a phone that is coming out FINALLY that will do CDMA (Verizon and Sprint) and GSM (ATT, Cingular, T-Mobile). The Motorola A840, not even released but you can google it.

I look forward to seeing who will carry this phone and what kind of crazy new service it will have. This will make plans international very easy.

[Plakespear]

Just switched to Cingular from Verizon (their coverage sucks where I live now). Never had a problem Verizon in the Northeast,. Probably your best bet in New Hampshire.

[huck4bucks]

AT&T is the worst. I have had nothing but problems with them. They sneak charges onto your bill and you have to call, wait on the phone for someone that isn't a robot, plead your case, and wait on hold for an answer or a supervisor. Out of the 13 bills I got from AT&T, they had mischarged me 8 times. That's a 61.5% fuck up rate.

Not only that, but after my one year was up, I called to unlock my phone so I could use it when I moved to Canada and they wouldn't give me the code for the phone that I paid $200 for, rendering it useless.

Under no circumstances will I ever willingly give AT&T another nickel from my pocket. I'd rather send smoke signals than use AT&T again. Since my experience with AT&T, I have quit using that blasted homing device and now it sits on a shelf acting as a $200 digital phone book. Anyone wanna buy a Sony Ericsson T68i?

edit: BTW, once you call customer service a certain number of times, your account is flagged as a 'problem customer' and you have to sit in a special queue extra long to talk to super rude customer service reps that can handle people such as yourself. Don't believe me? Try it. AT&T, the customer dis-service telecom lords.