so far i've liked t-mobile the most.

good phones, and i've never had a problem with their coverage.

verizon had good coverage, but i HATED their phones.

i was happy with at&t wireless for the three days i had it.

presto117

It appears that T-Mo hires fucktards, and although ATT has many discount codes available, the customer service is horrible. T-Mo doesn't not allow you to cancel an online order once placed. The best thing to do is refuse it when the package arrives (in my opinion). It can take 30 days to get a refund.

Dealing with ATT is like having a job....that doesn't pay anything. You will go round and round. Luckily, my two-year contract ran out, and I was within my 30-day trial. I switched to Verizon.

None of the carriers are any good, but VZ seems to be decent if you're aggressive with what you want.

yellowcabdriver

foxmajik

* AT&T Wireless has shitty network reliability but their customer service is SUPERB. I have not tried their 3G offering but I can tell you that the EDGE network speed is incredibly frustratingly slow. The signal is so bad that sometimes I can get a data connection if I am sitting next to the window, but if I move away from the window of a building the connection stays on but I can't pass any data traffic.

* Sprint has HORRIBLE customer service but their network reliability is SUPERB. They literally made me want to cry because they billed me so much in misbilled fees that I didn't have any money for groceries for two weeks one time. I had to call every single month and beg them to remove charges that they billed to me by mistake and in the end I still had to pay hundreds of dollars in misplaced fees that I couldn't get them to remove after spending hours and hours on the phone. They kept 'accidently' removing my PCS Vision plan so that all of my data usage was billed as "arbitrary data use" and then they tried to charge me two Early Termination Fees ($400) that I had to spend three hours on the phone arguing with them about after they told me they weren't going to charge the fees. I blogged every call and by the time I canceled my accounts at a little over a year I had logged a total of 18 hours on the phone, mostly waiting on hold and arguing with billing representatives. I almost always get full bars on my EVDO Rev.A data card and flawness Internet access, but it was costing me more than I could afford in time on the phone and misbilled fees to keep the service with them.

* Nextel has okay network reliability and their customer service is okay. I usually get one or two bars on my EVDO Rev.A data card and network access is usually sufficiently 'broadband.' Sometimes it's hard to get reliable 'broadband' speeds but I never have trouble getting a connection.

* Quality of data service varies by carrier and location. Some companies offer better service in some areas but not in others. You have to try them all to find out who offers the best service in your calling area.

All three of these carriers have a 30 day return policy so try them all.

Which carrier sucks the most: Oh my god, Sprint. I've never been so miserable with a company. At least AT&T's customer service people focus on one call resolution.

foxmajik

pliSkiNAKE

lowtechone

fontaine.nick

Jules Winfield

There I feel much better now!

Joe1234

SneakerFiend

superjap

andrewthemacfanboy

Try getting charged for 1400 txt msgs when on average a month you send 50 and the only way they offer resolution is for you 2 go 2 your local sprint store. average wait time for customer service 1 hour 30, bill pay link going missing in your online account and numerous other d bag moves. Sprint YOU SUCK! only 2 weeks more and my 2 years of hell is over. How does this company survive

electroRock80

"Fewest dropped calls"

Give me a freaking BREAK. I switched from Verizon because of my work, and I NEVER dropped a call on VZW. But now i drop them all the time. Sometimes just standing still at my home or work.

"More bars in more places"

Again, straight up BULL$HIT. VZW killed them in coverage too. Only problem is you are dealing with phones from 2 yrs ago with VZW. If you want the latest and greatest tech (GSM/iPhone, etc etc) then you have to deal with AT&T's BS and crappy service. Thats just the way it is :-(

P.S. ATT, stop with the lying already! just get your network up to par! Cut the crap, thanks :-)

OmBass

Kendra

I've used Sprint and AT&T/Cingular ... I've had fewer dropped calls since I switched to Alltel, and I've never had billing issues. The phone selection is severely limiting, but getting better.

techjedi

asynja

matto

T-mobile's been great to me though. I guess it largely depends on your area.

Kruel

That having been said, they have had the best overall coverage of any carrier I've ever used. Their network is generally pretty reliable, and except for specific trouble areas of coverage (I suspect intereference of some sort in these areas) I rarely drop a call until I've slammed my phone on the pavement 15 times. (I'm clumsy...)

The other upside is, my family and most of my friends use Verizon. It keeps my phone bill low w/ free calling. Especially since I need to call all of them long distance these days.

Until digital was a bit more ubiquitous I had issues w/ T-Mobile. Couldn't get a signal in rural areas. A real suck if you needed to call for help.

USCellular gave my parents such craptastic service that my parents paid to get out of their contract early. They were also sued by the state of Iowa due to how their contracts were written once upon a time.

Mostly my biggest complaint about Sprint/Nextel was the cr*ppy Motorola phones that you couldn't hear anyone/anything on.

Xavoc

T-Mobile is the least evil if you get coverage in your area. If not, then you should just buy an iPod Touch and use your friends' cell phones to place calls.

my favorite car is a motorcycle

i sell alltel up here on the west side. you're mostly right about the gadgets and gizmos, if you want something super-duper fancy to NOT use as a phone, go with ATT. but in alltel's defense, we do have really great EVDO coverage up here... i carry a motorola q and have never had issues connecting to the data network. i can count the dropped calls i've had in the last year on my fingers.

allegedlyyours

ideaman2020

mykalt45

pupaboy2

Waiting for next gen iphone.

I have nextel and although it has surprisingly gotten better in this area, I find it extremely expensive for nothing more than a glorified walkie talkie.

dontforget

Still, I've heard a bunch of bad things about Sprint around here (poor coverage, lousy reception)... and this is an iPCS affiliate area. If you thought Sprint corporate areas were bad, come to Fort Wayne. Interestingly enough, a local GSM carrier (Centennial Wireless) seems to do very well around here with free incoming plans and reasonably priced unlocked phones (even though they make you sign 3-year contracts to get them)...

As for me? Right now, I have Verizon. I love their coverage, but I hate their phone crippling. As soon as my contract is over, hello AT&T and the iPhone!

MFfan310

takeshi

subryu

madmathias

If I had a choice, though, I'd go with Verizon.

chasema

I had AT&T and left them because they sucked. I went to T-Mobile and now think they suck. I want to go back to AT&T just for the iPhone, but may opt for Helio when my contract is up.

Either way, it won't take long to think my new carrier sucks. The grass is always greener on the other side...

stuntmanmike

sguth925m

I select an option and hit VOTE and the page refreshes with an un-used Poll where I can select an option and Vote again_

uberfu

froggy

I have Alltel, and for voice service it's pretty good. I know they are working on bringing in better phones too.

TechnoElf

DJTripleRRR

- att - poor voice quality - expensive data plans (for rather poor 3g coverage)
- tmobile - NO 3g coverage - cell phone selection looks like a playskool toy ad
- verizon and sprint/nextel - proprietary handset technology coupled with pretty outrageous pricing overall
- alltel - is this really even an option? for having "america's largest network, with coverage across the nation...giving you the freedom to travel far and wide" (as advertised on their site) - it seems odd not to have a store or offer service within at LEAST 50 miles of chicago...

bottom line - find the carrier that sucks the least FOR YOU - and stick with them - you wont find one that makes you completely content in all aspects of the service

Kricket

anon4u

firesign

Then I went with T-Mobile. Good phone choices. There was no coverage in a 5 block radius of the area I lived. I had to turn my phone sideways to get something remotely related to a connection. So T-Mobile stunk even more. Though they were very reasonably priced, and I think they still are.

Then onto Cingular/AT&T. I immediately noticed much better coverage. There's hardly anywhere where I don't have coverage. Pretty expensive for the minutes you get though. But the phone selection rocks! (You know, that phone.) I started out with a RAZR, which had a crappy OS and was slow, but the call quality was great. I have a slick Samsung, but with worse call quality. Who knew?

Rain-man

nash7

dcoughli

_woozzy_

More users of any one service would increase the potential for more votes. Showing the adjusted voting would be a truer indication of user feelings.

glenside

rgmcewen

Limited coverage, so its not a solution for those people whom might travel outside of the coverage range.

I completely despise att & vz.

meek

stinkyboy

_woozzy_

_woozzy_

I have made notes every time i called sprint and i have long list of their bad customer service. I wish i can paste all those conversations here but there must be a word limit in this comment.

Stay away from sprint. only take sprint if they offer you their best phones for free and offer you 80 % discount on their plan. But then again, be prepared to spent half of your time talking to sprint customer service people in order to fix your billing errors.

crazy_jutt

majortom1981

jld3

yogibimbi

Rundemc

Krutch

i hope sprint and all their BS drown in a pit of lava.

i HATE, HATE sprint.

aphexacid

Arelar

How about Verizon and their superior network and customer service? What I got was a very expensive bill with the same crappy cover and service as t-mobile.

AT&T is all of the sucky Cingular people wearing AT&T uniforms.

Has anyone heard of Boost Mobile? Unlimited calls for $35? I'm interested but how's the coverage and service? I heard that Metro PCS sucks so please don't say Metro.

roblee36

twoeightnine

phungy

I had Tmobile for almost 2 years and all I can say is that their customer service is just absolute crap. I had major issues with 2 of my phones and they flat out wouldn't fix it. Once I finally got them to take my last phone in, they "lost it" and made ME try to find it.. when I claimed it with UPS (who shipped it under their corporate shipping), they faxed me the signed delivery slip, which i forwarded to TMobile and they continued to tell me that they had no record of my phone, obviously they had lost my phone and didn't want to pay up.. eventually I filed a complaint with the FCC, which prompted TMobile's legal department to call me and offer me up a brand new, retail ready phone, and they waived the cancellation fee that I had gotten when I cancelled my contract out of frustration. .. mind you this was 8 months after i had originally sent my phone in. 3 months after i had cancelled my contract with them. Needless to say, I don't particularly like Tmobile.. and now I'm realizing how subpar their service is, though, i guess you get what you pay for.

I had a similar experience with Sprint, though with them, they just kept changing my contract to add Text Messaging.. which I continuously cancelled. Got out of the contract when it got out of hand and they charged me for a bunch of months of text messaging that i hadn't signed up for.. once again, filed a complaint with the FCC and they waived my cancellation fee. So.. I guess that's my advice on getting out of a contract without paying a cancellation fee, write to the FCC... but it'll only really work if they're actually screwing you over.

plunketchris

jamar0303

ejacobi

The sound quality of AT&T service was not nearly as good as Verizon and the Edge network was seriously slow. It made Verizon look like a freaking jack rabbit!

Then when my 30 day period was coming to a close, I tried to cancel at 9pm. Guess what? Their customer call center is closed. There is no way to cancel online and if you can't talk to someone, you can't cancel!

Finally I got to the point where I could cancel (after a call to the Office of the President of ATT). I called and asked the customer service department and asked them if they could give me a reason why I should stay with AT&T and not return to Verizon.

The prick at AT&T calmly said that Verizon was not in the same class as AT&T and therefore he didn't see them as a competitor. He claimed AT&T had the best service, best handsets, best customer care, best reputation *yawn*. He then proceed to say "While we'd like your business, we just don't need it. We are the best and we only want the best customers. We don't have to do anything special to get people to sign up with us or stay with us because we are number 1".

I thought he was joking for a second. Then I realized this pencil dick thought he was right. I said thanks and promptly canceled my service. I called the contact at the ATT Presidents office and told her what the prick has said. She apologized profusely and then I said goodbye to her and AT&T.

A bunch of bitch asses if you ask me!

Hackoff

Exactly! Haven't you noticed AT&T's slow transition to releasing more WiFi points in major areas? I've noticed lately that AT&T's been moving their new business model to go data all the way. Heck, why else would they let Apple dictate whatever they want from their wireless division?

ripfire

What?!?!? *BEEP BEEP*
I'm just at the theater watchin a movie. What you up to?! *BEEP BEEP*
NO WAY! *BEEP BEEP*
Sweet. Yeah this movie is boring. *BEEP BEEP*

rennyn

bnsqueak

Saith17

Virgin Mobile pretty decent, if all you really use your phone for is as a phone. Even though they still have better transfer rate costs.

Rogers/Fido, most expensive data maybe in the world.

Rogers is cunty.

pomophobe

pure241

Christibyte

My vote for worst is Verizon. Annoying CS, and I haven't seen a Verizon phone that wasn't crippled to a ridiculous extent. What person designed such an awful UI anyways.

tmweber

the one thing i will give them, is that if you have one of their non-shitty phones they do have pretty damn solid coverage, and i've never had a call dropped or anything.

emptythought

Honestly.. they all suck in some way..

DJJS

us cellular never ever dropped a call, no matter where i was or what i was doing. T-mobile on the other hand, sure has a good signal almost everywhere but then there are a few places that it has absolutely nothing, and when driving on the highway, sometimes the signal drops in a rural place....

bottom line - i wish i could switch back to us cellular and use the iphone - or at&t was as cheap as tmobile for the iphone

kickace

corhou99

FANBOYS UNITE!

theshizzle

I'm on a SERO plan with Sprint right now and couldn't be happier.

DomZ

dcartist

either way. in 2 years if Verizon doesn't support GSM then I wont be supporting Verizon. I can get by now with my blackberry pearl because of the symbian clone instead of their God awful proprietary UI. but i have every intention of going for one of Nokia's N Series phones or one of the lovely creations from Sony Ericsson

Lavallee017

barrygeorge001

x40sw0n

RollOverForMore

SomeAudioGuy

WolfDemon

sprint nextel has to many damn problems i dont think it can be fixed. someone needs to buy sprint and do a clean sweep and fire every last person at the company.

at&t they got horrible coverage there sells reps always try to get you to sign a new contract even if you want to pay the no commitment price and then force accessories on you.

verizon the only problem with them is the bull shit os they got on there phones and they're prices verizon has the best coverage in the us period i have no problem with them being cdma since i have a world phone that works on gsm and cdma; everyphone i have had has been a gsm/cdma world phone so i get the best of both coverage area's. i'd rather have a crappy phone than crappy coverage a crappy phone will still let me dial 911 while with crappy coverage i might not be able to

utube2007

drbles

ds1w

drbles

lemz

drbles

I wonder if cell phone companies will ever charge a fair rate for their services. It seems a little ridiculous to be charging by the minute when the infrastructure is already there and requires little maintenance.

mechfluff

rdldr1

Hand_O_Death

Price is very competitive.
Easy to talk to a real person!
Easy to pay the bill (I was amazed how my last carrier made it dificult to pay them with a lousey website and inability to get in touch with a CSR over the phone).
Not too forceful about contract extension when needing upgrades (they negotiate). Reliable

The only bad things are spotty service in very-rural areas and the EDGE service I had for a while was pretty useless (but easy to get out of paying for)

jeffdrafttech

rimplestultskin

Singlespeed

smitherssocal

We've never had any major problem with anything. Any issues we've had have been taken care of (some took longer than others.) However, we all use it for basic phone service. Although my in-laws have it, too, but I don't think my father-in-law has had any major trouble with his smartphone.

RMK

QWEST is probably up there though; in my experience they're way behind the curve compared to other companies; they outsource some of their tech support for wireless as well as the rest of their services.

Verizon isn't bad for us here in Montana; it's the better of the two decent choices we have for wireless here: Verizon and Alltel. Both rip people off horrendously, but Verizon has better service here and almost everyone in the state has it, so you can get one of their cheaper plans and use almost no minutes due to IN talking.

mattjanz

ab3

I hate AT&T like the day is long--currently under a 2 year contract with them, THANKS APPLE--but I think the worst is Verizon.

Yes, there customer service sucks. So does AT&T. Yes, their sales "techniques" are disgraceful. But so are AT&T's.

I give the prize to Verizon because of the crippleware they force on their customers. People buy phones only to find out about the "special specifications" Verizon hardware has.

So for being sleezy salespeople. For their horrific customer service--"Bruce" from New Dehli, "Hi Yankee cowboy, did you catch the NY Mets match last night?" trying to buddy-up while taking 5 calls at once. To their crippleware phone.

The award goes to Verizon. But AT&T, you are on notice.

B. Whaler

ds1w

T-Mobile sucks because their phones lack variety, and there's only a handful of exclusives. I love the sidekicks and the wind but t-mobile is pretty so-so. I give them a B+, because they have sim only plans and good data rates.

Verizon gets a B+. They have a good music store and great coverage and signal strength. However their phones aren't exactly the best phones ever.

Sprint/Nextel gets a C-, poor reception, only good phones are the Samsung line.

CGrant

snitch29

It's nearly inexcusable to have a phone that still has a visible antenna nowadays.

shiftyeyedgoat

Sprint: Great coverage; horrendous selection of phones, and even worse customer service. They'll try to scam you in whichever way they can to add charges to your bill.

Verizon: Cool phones, amazing cell service, acceptable customer service, but their phones are all crippled and slow because of Verizon's obnoxious need to have that hideous proprietary interface.

T-Mobile: Okay phones, amazing customer service, but horrible reception. I had them before switching to AT&T for the iphone, and it was like every third or fourth block in the city (and this is San Francisco we're talking about), I'd have a dropped call.

AT&T: Only had them since late June, but they seem to be the average of all the others. Decent choice in phones, decent reception, tolerable customer service, although, I don't know about the interface with their phones since I have the iphone... hallelujah, they left it untouched ;)

cloudnine

Wicked1

kamakazikorean13

snitch29

I will always stick with either tmo or ATT. GSM is so easy to upgrade. Ebay + SIM = happy.

Stacky Botrus

izim1

Mag

Lstormy10

Then I switched to Cingular, and they were fine with the exception of reception in my Hollywood apartment, but NO ONE got reception there. I'd have to walk 3 blocks down to Hollywood Blvd in order to get reliable reception, I guess my area was just a black hole. My friends would have to call before passing there as well to let me know they were coming (my buzzer for apartment didn't work, so I had to let people in manually) Everywhere else it was fine. When I moved out of there, everything was fine until the merger. Then I had absolute hell with my phone. Dropped calls galore, people would constantly get my voicemail right away even though my phone was on. One of the most annoying things was my phone would ring once, and then as soon as I open it, it would say missed call. So I'd try to call them back only to get "Network Error" or "Network Busy". I was hoping it was just growing pains with the network during the merger, but it continued for months on end. Now all is back to semi-normalcy, but when my contract is up in March or April, I'm switching to a different provider.

eidetic3d

MIKEAWESOME

SirNirian

thadude

MIKEAWESOME

Daddy0896

Alltell is the best, but there coverage isnt as supported in places like, I dont know, NEW YORK CITY!?!?!?!?

Miccheckin4life

No discounts for loyal customers? I've been with Sprint for almost 5 years and for the last 3 years, I've gotten almost 30% discount each month.

chillywilly

Having managed a corporate Nextel account for 2 years, which was switched to Sprint over a year ago, I can say Nextel was great when we had it. Sprint had no consolidated account management, now they do but I won't see it for another 2-3 days, so the jury is still out. All of them are trying to jack you with excessive charges which will not be combated until Android (hopefully) where we can actually control what the phone does. No more 411 if you don't want it, no more expensive SMS etc. No need if the phone is a truly "open" internet enabled phone.

Chuck Pearce

IMO, finding a carrier that's gives you a decent amount of minutes and features for the a good price is one to stick with, even if your coverage is not always spot on.

chillywilly

I know, this was supposed to be a "worst" discussion. Sorry.

willentrekin

Kendra: No discounts? Are you kidding me? Sprint is the one that hooks the customer up the most, no other customers that i know have freebies (fimf, incoming, n&w@5, 6, or 7, pv) like the ones that Sprint customers have.

YankeeFan

thechansen

rospaya

Beryllium

porktree

snakepliskin

jetsafl

NewPerfection

tmobile coverage is horrendous

do we really need to explain sprint/nextel?

gadgetchic

sprint's reception is crap, and so is their service. their prices are also outrageous

glaeven

I left Cingular (now the new AT&T) for Helio and don't look back.

I voted for Alltel because I cannot stand their commercials; I want to punch them in their faces when they're on.

bmbnbs

ripfire

Either you have a decent price and poor coverage, or it's the other way around. And I'm not even talking about the hidden fees here. You can subscribe for a 25$/month plan that will cost you upwards of 45$ (8$ of "network access fees", 911 service, other random fees). And they keep raising their price (SMS messages went from 0.15¢ a piece to 0.25¢ a piece last month).

And don't even bother looking for a decent data plan. 500 Mb/month will cost you over 100$. 3G data? 5¢/kb without a plan (that's over 15,000$ per Gb), or you can get unlimited WAP access for 20$/month (that's without voice).

Really, nothing to be too excited over.

J. Nadeau

flame500

I'm on the third collection agency attempting to collect a cancellation fee. Sprint insists "someone" authorized a two year contract two years after I moved into a new home where the last Sprint phone I had was always on roam with no data service. No paperwork, no proof, just "someone" authorized it.

I'm sending them an invoice for my time dealing with their three collection agencies. Surely "someone" at Sprint authorized it.

gzumwalt

Myself, I was with Fido/Rogers up till last month, and actually really liked it aside from the price. I get a better deal with Bell through my professional affiliations ($10 unlimited data is pretty amazing for Canada), so I'm with them now, but the call quality and signal strength isn't as good in my area.

topcatticus

Verizon never met a phone they didn't cripple. If Google Android takes off they can kiss their phony Picture Mail revenue bye bye.

T-Mobile at least has attempted some innovation with their WiFi tunneling, however their network coverage is arguable the worst of all players.

Phineas J. Whoopie

1,Verizon. Sure,my problem was eventually fixed but the journey to that point was so disturbing that I can never forgive them. Plus,having experienced the Verizon OS,lockdowns and everything else involved with Verizon culture I couldn't get away fast enough. I dropped them 3 months into a 24 month contract...thats how bad they are.

2,Sprint. Sprint isn't so much bad as just very inconsistent. You call 4 CSR's and get 4 different answers. My big beef with Sprint is if you go inside a store to pay your bill they charge you $5...or at leaast they used to. I've never had a company charge me to give them money.

3,ATT. I had an iphone that worked everywhere except in my house and being my only phone I had to drop them..I was sick of the drops,static and slow as hell data...I never figured my iphone was defective because it worked flawlessly everywhere else. Well,after my nightmare with Verizon and not wanting to go back to Sprint and no prepay option being worth a darn I went back to ATT and decided to live w/ spotty coverage. Well,the problem is the performance of my new phone is outstanding. It works flawlessly in my home. I couldn't be more happy with it. Makes me scratch my head as to why my iPhone didn't work in my house but my new phone does. I was averaging about 5 drops a week w/ my iphone but so far I have zero. Weird. No issues w/ ATT CS.

4,US Cellular. Outstanding CS. The problem here is phone selection,prices,poor data options,etc..all of which is getting better but it's not quite there yet.
But if you have a problem they actually try to fix it and not just to shut you up but to ya know...make you feel satisfied and happy even.

I am very happy with ATT and I would go back to USC if I had to. I'm lukewarm to Sprint...we had them like 4 years ago and it was a rocky but not totally bad relationship. I will never step foot in a Verizon ever again.

redpeppers20xx

In about 1.5 years I have had 1 dropped call. SoCal area. Biggest pain is that I can't take it overseas, but that's just an excuse to buy a sweet GSM phone =)

meefer

tarochan

ogre8706

Playstation3

oat