Cingular (AT&T)

* Purchased the Go Phone (or similar name) service from Cingular for my son. I paid $50 for the phone and spend about $25 every 3 months or so to renew his minutes. Vince Leonemailto:[email protected]

* We are on Cingular, since we were org. w/ ATT and have no real complaints about their service. They had a promo and we pay 60/mo for two diff. lines and have way more minutes than we can use. If you find someone cheapr/bettr, please do share the info. mailto:[email protected]

T-Mobile

* We brought T-Mobile with us from New York. The signal is a little weak inside the house, but it works fine otherwise. We also like it because it's easy to use internationally (even though roaming charges are a little steep). Robert Engelmann mailto:

Verizon

* Verizon does not have good coverage at Stanford. We switched about a year ago (from AT&T) and are very happy with coverage in Monta Loma and most places. Karen Fitchmailto:[email protected]

* Have had Verizon since 1995?? absolutely no complaints..I am very satisfied..Can you hear me now? :) mailto:[email protected]

* Highly recommend Verizon. I've had it for at least 15 years and have had excellent reception, even in Canada & Mexico. Rita Gardiner mailto:[email protected]

Summary of responses about various providers

Compiled by Pat Jordan

When I asked my neighbors for input on Cingular, here were their responses. I had Verizon and was considering switching. In the end, because it seemed to be 6 of one, and 1/2 dozen of the other, I ended up staying with Verizon. I got a new LG phone instead of using the old Motorola, and it doesn't drop calls like the Motorola did, but it has periods of a tinny sound and static.

So here are the comments. Each asterisk * is a different person's input:

* Happy with them. Very few dropped calls 
* Has a Blackberry. No problems. Better reception that T-Mobile. 
* Husband & Wife both have Cingular and have received excellent customer 
service when transferring their numbers to a new phone. 
* Happy with them. Travels across country with no reception problems. 
* Heard that Verizon has more towers & was surprised I was thinking of 
switching. Has had no problems with Verizon. 
* Said T-Mobile is bad news. Said the issues with trouble have more to do 
with the phones than the service. He said Motorolas are trouble, but that he has a Samsun SGH-C417 and has no trouble. 
* Says service is o.k. but reception not so good in his house & sometimes 
has static. Has GSM which is working worldwide, even in Europe. Gets 3-4 bands there. 
* Says Verizon has faster data service right now if you are using a Blackberry 
or Treo, but that Cingular is supposed to roll out a new data network in the next few months. Says Cingular has 4 bars in his house, Verizon 2-3 bars, and Sprint, 1 bar (lives on Benjamin). 
* Had Cingular & gets good reception everywhere except Tahoe. Now has Spring & hates it and has to tough it out 6 more months (bad customer service) 
* Didn't like Cingular - attitudinal customer service and repeated billing problems. Likes Sprint. 
* Likes Cingular - says reception is good everywhere except Alaska (travels extensively). 
* Had trouble with Cingular in trying to add on long distance after having dropped it prior to that. Cingular was requiring her to buy a new phone in order to do this. Then said she would have to pay $175 extra to transfer a phone number to a new phone because it was a "company-owned" number. Very unhappy with Cingular. 
* And lastly, Leane Reelfs came to my house with her Cingular phone, and we compared *bars* of the signals on each of our phones, and they were almost identical. So then, I knew I wasn't gaining much by switching.

* We use Verizon and like the quality. Carolyn Siegel mailto:[email protected]

Sprint

Frequent mistakes in billing, extremely bad customer service, poor reception inside the house as well as anywhere in South bay. I am glad the contract is getting over soon. - Shalini on Dell Ave