Cell Phones... what company?

[Boroda]

Originally posted by Harppa
Nokia !

Way to go...

I am stuck to a small CDMA provider in a GSM country, and I had Nokia phones for 2 years. I have chosen Kyocera after I have lost 5 Nokia phones in 6 months

[Saurdaukar]

Stay away from Cingular.

[Hawklore]

My dad works for Verizon, they have over 422 towers in Florida.

You just don't wanna hear the statistics of what happens when lightning hits all 400, .

I like verizon, the phones themselves are pretty cool too..

[majic]

Thanks for all the advice.  Went with Verizon (just about everyone I know has one, so many free calls).  Got a Motorola T730.  Was cheap with the plan.


Yay.

The money I save here is getting me digital cable and cable internet (instead of dsl).  Ohhh, the boobies.

[phookat]

Originally posted by majic
Thanks for all the advice.  Went with Verizon (just about everyone I know has one, so many free calls).  Got a Motorola T730.  Was cheap with the plan.

Good choice, I have the same setup.  The reception is very good and the battery life too.  The only thing annoying about the 730 is the slow response time when you hit the buttons.

Originally posted by majic
The money I save here is getting me digital cable and cable internet (instead of dsl).  Ohhh, the boobies.

And since you are supporting Verizon, they'll be able to wire your home with 30 Mbit fiber all the sooner.  "I motivate them with boobies, and the promise of more boobies to come."

[Meatwad]

Best one I ever had was First Cellular. You get 40,000 (yep you see that correct!) anytime minutes for $40 a month. Here verizon residential line runs $63, so this really is a lot better deal than having a land based phone line.

[SOB]

Good choice on provider, but that phone is teh suck!  By slow to respond,     
Phookat actually means "don't make any plans."  But maybe I'm just impatient.

[mora]

Nokia phones are the easiest to use, just go with one of their cheapest models.

[beet1e]

Originally posted by Furball
i have a sony-ericsson k700i.

Awesome little phone.  + it has mp3 playback, radio, digital camera, video clips with sound and big colour display.

The only 2 phones worthwhile atm in my opinion are the Sony Ericsson K700i  and the Nokia 6230

Bah! Sony Ericcson T610 here - camera, cartoons, comes with a CD... and I hate it.  I hate it because it's so freaking complicated. I don't want to take pictures. I don't  want football scores/stock quotes to be texted to me. I don't want cartoons/games.

All I want is phone service, text and voicemail. And the alarm clock function is useful when travelling, as is the built in calculator for doing currency conversions.  I miss my Nokia 5210 - that was a little gem, even though it had an idiotic thermometer thing - which always read 71°F - the temperature inside my pocket?

Majic - you might want to consider a basic phone - not a bells and whistles job. What I'm finding with my S.E. T610 is that because there are so many freaking options, I have to go through about 13 key presses just to send a text message.

I wish I still had liquid crystal display, not one of these new fangled display screens. Why? Because sitting outdoors in bright sunshine (rare this summer in Britain) I cannot SEE text on those screens. I have to go indoors with the phone. Conversely, LCD is really easy to read in bright light.

I hate Vodaphone. Do you know, Furball, those bastiges cut off my account just because my balance went over £40? No explanation, no recorded warning about credit limit exceeded, no customer service agent called - it was left to me to figure out why the phone wasn't working. Called the 0870 service number and got put on hold!  Well bugger that at 50p per minute. So I called the account cancellation service - it was the only way to get anyone to pay attention. Problem solved, but I lost phone service for two days - right around the Easter holiday. Man, I was pissed off about that. Did I get a partial reimbursement of my £22 monthly contract fee for those  two days when I was left without service? Erm...

I had Orange for many years, but when I moved house last year, I found that Orange signal coverage at my new location is zero.

So my next move is going to be to O2. They have English speaking customer service agents aged 30+, who are adept at dealing with crusty old farts like me. The thing I hate most about Orange and Vodaphone CSAs is that they are 20-something trendies of Asian extraction, and talk like Ali G the whole time, and avoid eye contact.

That's the end of my rant!

Majic - just be sure that your chosen provider provides good coverage where you live. Don't take their word for it (they're all liars). If you have a friend who's pleased with their mobile service, have 'em come round to your house to make sure that signal strength is adequate where you live. And don't get a phone with more functionality than you want or need - you'll be pressing a lot more buttons if you do.

[Furball]

Originally posted by beet1e

So my next move is going to be to O2. They have English speaking customer service agents aged 30+, who are adept at dealing with crusty old farts like me. The thing I hate most about Orange and Vodaphone CSAs is that they are 20-something trendies of Asian extraction, and talk like Ali G the whole time, and avoid eye contact.
 

I have O2 now, just switched over from vodafone.  They are much better.

As for the bells and whistles on the phone, you dont have to use them, just nice for when you want to!

[beet1e]

Originally posted by Furball
I have O2 now, just switched over from vodafone.  They are much better.

As for the bells and whistles on the phone, you dont have to use them, just nice for when you want to!

Glad to hear that O2 is good. I'm off to their shop in Maidenhead this afternoon. If they ask me if anyone recommended O2 to me, I'll tell them you did! Might get you a few phone credits. (?)

Yes I know you don't have to use all the bells and whistles. My point was that with so many functions and features, there are so many menus and keypresses that have to be made to perform a relatively simple function. And I much prefer the LCD display for text for the reasons I gave. I'm not interested in camera functions/cartoons/bluetooth/WAP/games or any of that nonsense.

[beet1e]

Furball -  Did you find that vodafone would call you back if someone left a voice message, and keep calling you until you answered, or switched the phone off? I had that happen to me. I had left the phone in the car one night, and someone called, left a message. Vodafone 121 called me back 58 times, and this drained the battery. So there I was the next day, just going out and finding that my phone battery was dead.


I've just got back home. Signed up with O2 on that £19/month tariff and got the phone - a Nokia 8310 - for nothing. It's charging up in the kitchen. The O2 rep was just like all the others - name was Saurbesh or Ramesh or something, and he talked like Ali G, innit?

No stupid camera, but a built in FM radio! :rolleyes: And an LCD screen that I can read, even if the sun's shining on it. Looks like I'll be able to send a text message in fewer than 13 key strokes. I'm a happy bunny again!