Information on Cellular

Staying in touch with family, friends, your boss and others are very important these days. Constant communication has become a necessity of life. Technology has come a long way from party lines, home phones, pay phones and pagers. Mobile phones are own by millions of people all over the world. Wireless service is the best way (so far) to keep in touch.

Communication is also more expensive. Since we are all willing to pay for wireless service, we demand to have our money's worth. When we are not able to reach someone, we become concerned, angry and frustrated.

Which brings me to my topic. How many have experienced poor cellular service? How many have seen over priced cellular bills? How many have had to spend hundreds into mobile phones just to end up throwing them away? How many of us are still looking for that cellular provider that they can rely on?

With so many choice out there, who do you go to? Just to name a few, I would like to share the experiences with the different carriers I have dealt with.

My first carrier was Cingular. The service and coverage was reliable but the bills were expensive. The account incurred overage in minute usage every month. That was before Cingular started with the Roll-over feature. It was good for a single line plan but not if you had to share minutes with others. So I changed to Verizon.

In 1998, Verizon did not have good coverage as they do today. It was very frustrating talking on the phone and the next thing you know, you are talking but no one is listening. So, I called Verizon to ask why do my calls keep dropping. Of course I would get excuses instead of resolution. So after 2 year contract, I switched to TMobile.

TMobile had very nice price plans. Affordable and convenient. To my dismay, I was still experiencing dropped calls, not as often as Verizon. Again, I would have to call my carrier and ask why do my calls drop. With TMobile, Customer Service was okay and Reps would offer bonus mnutes. Bonus minutes meant nothing if your bill says you went over your minute allowance. But you went over your minute allowance because you had to keep calling someone back because you could never finish a converstaion. So, after 2 year contract, I switched to Metro PCS.

Metro PCS started in 2003, when Bill Clinton was president and passed a bill that allowed new companies to rent service from existing carriers cell towers. What a joy. More choices. No contracts. I thought that was the best bill he had ever passed. Little did I realized that the coverage was worse that the company they rented from, which means I could not travel and use my Metro PCS phone. If I had an emergency on the Turnpike, I had better be able to find a pay phone or one of those boxes in between the mile markers. Or pray no one tried to rob me while waiting on side of the road for help. So, now I have switched back to Verizon.

Verizon may cost more than other carriers, but I can use my phone anywhere as my family and friends can not. They have to borrow my phone when we travel to rural areas. And the phone, WOW!. I love them.