So I’ve been having a dilemma lately on what to do once our contract expires with Sprint. I’ve been with Sprint for almost ten years now, (although they won’t say that) and I’ve been a pretty loyal customer of them. But I think I might need to break away from them and go with someone else. I’ve been contemplating either Verizon Wireless or AT&T (iPhone). I know there are others out there like T-Mobile but I know that Meesh doesn’t like T-Mobile at all, so it’s definitely out.
That leaves only Verizon and AT&T. (that I know of that are any good.)
Right now, they’re both looking good. But I want to know what you guys think. The biggest thing AT&T has over Verizon in my mind is rollover minutes. But is that included with an iPhone plan? Do I have to specifically sign up for rollover? I know this is a question for the people at the stores, but I’d thought I’d ask, since I know a lot of you have iPhones.
So let me start off with what we need. We’re simple people and we don’t need much. But there are things we definitely need:
- cell to cell unlimited. If we’re on a family talk plan, I’d expect to never pay for any calls to each other. If there’s an additional fee involved, if it’s small, that’s ok, since we’re doing that now. Of course, in our case, if the called person has Sprint we don’t pay at all. (this is good)
- Some kind of text messaging that’s good. Right now, we have 300 txt messages a month to each other. That’s quite a bit for us, I think we actually use about 50% to 60% of it now.
- Unlimited data goes without saying. I think both companies provide that. But no one actually says that.
Other than that the phone is pretty easy. I mean iPhone versus another smartphone (most likely blackberry if we go with verizon I think).
Any opinions? Suggestions?
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Shouldn’t even be a discussion. iPhone all the way, so AT&T!
Okay… so here’s my little spiel. AT&T has the iPhone but it has a special data plan to be “unlimited” that is really expensive – and you said you don’t need anything special so why bother with an iPhone? Some of the newer phones like the LG and Samsung are pretty impressive.
Verizon has awesome coverage. Your phone will work pretty much everywhere (and the LG phones they carry are cool). Verizon generally cripples their bluetooth data connections though so you may have some issues there.
I’ve never liked AT&T service – calling them has always been a huge problem for me in the past so I don’t like them too much.
Be sure to ask for specifics with data plans. Many are NOT unlimited usage so be sure about that when signing up.
Also – how many minutes do you really need a month? Most of the people I know with roll over minutes never use their monthly allowance anyways so why care about roll over?
I use T-Mobile because their customer service is awesome and their coverage is fine (not as good as verizon but still good). Their dataplan for blackberry UNLIMITED with tethering allowed is the cheapest I could find as well.
Also, be sure to check with your company or family members companies to see if they offer specials for employees.
Call quality/signal strength will vary depending on your location. Here, AT&T has the best signal, tenfold (but none at all where Jade is) and I’m lucky to get 1-2 bars with a Verizon phone (old work phones were Verizon).
AT&T requires a data plan before they’ll even let you buy the iphone.
If you don’t need a data plan right away and don’t need an iphone right away, here’s what I have:
Family Talk 1400 plan (1400 shared minutes, unlimited nights/weekends from 9pm, unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling on AT&T network) $80 + $10 for Kyle’s phone. I can’t go with a cheaper plan because he talks on the phone waaaaay too much for a 35-year-old man that DOESN’T make business calls at all!
200 Messaging plan (includes normal SMS text and MMS $10)
Palm Centro (lots of free apps, and plenty of apps to be “acquired”…without having to jailbreak it) $99
After taxes and fees (this is where they get you), last month’s bill was $118 (not counting the $2 charge for late payment).
I currently have AT&T, and I haven’t really experienced many problems with them, so I gotta go with AT&T on this pole, honestly I think Verizon and at&t are pretty similar anyways because after all they are competing against one another, so its not like one of them can afford to be overly expensive, or overly cheap.
I love Mac. I love my iPhone. I love how the 2 will sync with each other – email, calendar. I love all the apps on my iPhone – the games keep me occupied quite nicely. I rarely use my iPod anymore since I can put music, video and photos on my iPhone. I pay about $70/month, includes 450 minutes that rollover, 5000 nite/weekend minutes, 200 messages, unlimited data, unlimited mobile to mobile on AT&T. Downside – AT&T coverage here is spotty, but I live near mountains and all the cell companies here have spotty coverage so I can’t win with anyone. Get the iPhone!!!
Verizon has NO service where i live. Att is the best!!!
where do you live??
i just got the iphone weeks ago — i’ll have say that it is the best thing since sliced bread. it was between the blackberry and the iphone and i took the iphone because it had a cheaper baseprice and it was $15 cheaper per month … the iphone and the new OS gave me push outlook capability (which blackberry had long held an advantage with but not anymore), a great safari browser (rather than a mobile ie version like the blackberry has) and all the useful apps that come with it (free and paid).
got to say something though, which might be a negative for you. the iphone onscreen touch keyboard might not be suitable if you have big fingers/ thumbs. saying that, the keyboard is very intelligent, recognizing your incorrectly typed words and changes it automatically. i was hesitant to get the iphone at first as it was hard to type… it does take some time to get use to. like all the guys have said in forums and blogs, when it comes to the keyboard, you have to trust it (to correct misspelled words) and continue typing, even though you have misspelled a word.
in terms of coverage, that’s a tough one… it’ll all depends on your area. verizon is not as good in my area but AT&T is better. while some of my friend don’t get as good of a coverage with AT&T as they do with Sprint or Verizon. nothing bad, it just is that some guys have more concentrated/ shared towers in some areas and some don’t.
i choose AT&T because everyone in our family has it so the calls were free. i have a 200 text messaging plan… which is plenty unless you have a texting crazed teenager in the household. yes the rollover minutes come with the iphone plan like any other AT&T phone. you are forced to get the data plan (which does not include the texting), makes sense as most of the apps and email functionality leverage the phone to make it work.
using it for business, i needed one with GPS capability, there are GPS apps out there too if you want it (that was the part that saved me paying $15 every month over the blackberry). it’s not as good as the blackberry’s GPS version but it gets me places. A lot of apple blogs are saying that when the iphone OS version 3 comes out in June/ July, that there will be better GPS iphone apps with turn by turn voice capability.
i think the best thing about the iphone is the hundreds of available apps out there from games to productivity types — that in itself makes it stand apart from any other phone, smartphone you’ll ever have. you can find apps for almost anything you want. i’ve downloaded some free and paid for some that i can’t do without daily.
btw: about the small touchscreen keyboard, i heard that the new iphone OS version3 will have the capability to make the keyboard bigger by turning/ reading the iphone screen horizontally (on it’s longer side like a normal computer screen) rather than reading the screen vertically.this should make it easier to type.
@TheFoo, I hope the version 3 of the iPhone will make me finally want to get an iPhone =D