What cell carrier do you have, are you happy with the features and costs ?

[Bondonutz]

As you might have guessed I'm cell phone carrier shopping, I've ben with T-mobile for 9yrs (they changed names 3 times during my tenure w/them)
Anyho, I put my wife on my account 3 yrs ago and we have the "family plan".
When I added her I elected for what I thought was unlimited text but when I got this months bill for 115.00 over the normal bill due to overage I realized nope. Now I have what I thought was a pretty good deal for her and I for the month for $119.00 with only 300texts for me. After talking with a few friends I realized there are better deals out there but the coverage/service is lack luster. One thing I'll say about T-mobile is that I get a signal anywhere even 15miles out in the Gulf of Mexico.
Internet service on the cell would be really nice and a hellava bonus because to have but T-mobile wants additional $50.00, I cant justify that when we have 3 laptops in the house ?
I would appreciate you guys advice and experiences with your carriers.

[What's_nitro?]

I'm with Verizon. I have the Moto Droid with the unlimited data plan and 500 txt allowance. I also have a Slacker radio subsciption. That alltogether runs me ~$90 per month. The service in my area is great.

[reno911]

My work phone is AT&T and it gets good service wherever I go on the west coast. I don't want to know what it costs as it is the iPhone on 3g with everything. Company pays for this one.

My personal is Verizon. The wife and I are on a family plan at 70-80 a month for shared 600 minutes, with each line having 250 texts. Works well service is decent on the west coast. We have had more dropped calls on Verizon than on our previous provider which was T-mobile. T-mobile was great in my eyes should of never left. Great service in all of the areas we ever went, and at the time it was cheap since we got the 10$ unlimited family text when it was available. Now I think that is like 20-30 dollars on T-Mobile.

To be honest I think what your paying is probably the best, all the other guys nickle and dime you for everything. Verizon has little charges that pop up just about every month. The bill is never the same. T-mobile was identical each month, never changed.

Maybe AT&T, they do have roll over, but I imagine their text rates are horrendous, and I know that their smart phone plans suck. Like I said I don't have to pay for my work phone, but I imagine it is not cheap, besides the fact that they probably have a corporate discount.

Best thing is to shop around. There are always good deals out there. Oh and look into track phones. AT&T will charge you out the bum for a new phone that Target has a track version of for 20 bucks. My parents went this route when my dad dropped his from 3 stories up, just went to Walmart and got a razor for 25 dollars and threw his sim card into it.

[simplechamp]

I was on Alltel, who was bought out by Verizon. We are relatively happy with our plan. Always would be nice to have it cheaper, but seems similar or better than what most have.

Plan features:
$120/mo for service package with 3 lines (total, including taxes, fees, etc.)
1400 "Anytime" minutes
Unlimited night and weekend
Unlimited mobile-to-mobile (other Verizon customers only)
Unlimited calling for "Friends and Family" 10-number list (any network)
Unlimited text
No data plan, stuff like GPS navigation, Facebook, etc. is extra fee.

Honestly, out of the 1400 "Anytime" minutes we only use like half, but the lower package down doesn't include unlimited text or the 10 "friends and family" list, so it would end up costing the same with those features added. We use a ton of the night, weekend, and mobile-to-mobile, makes up for like 90% of our usage.

It's only like $10 to add on an additional line, so why don't you and your wife hop on our plan Bondo! We got plenty of room and more than enough minutes, LOL

[bl-is-future]

Well i guess i am the first Sprint guy.

I pay 200 but have 4 lines unlimited data and text with 1500 minutes to share but get free night and weekends which nights start at 7 and also get free mobile to mobile no matter the carrier. I have 2 evos, a palm pixi and blackberry on the account. The evos run an extra 10 bucks per month per phone for 4g but sprint will say it is for a enhanced experience but that is BS. Over all i am very happy as i have been with Alltel, Verizon, Cingular (before at&t times), t-mobile, boost, virgin mobile, trac phone. All of which had faults. I finally landed with Sprint because they have the best over all prices and get good phones and the service is good. From my experience i will list what each carrier has over another.

Signal:
Alltel (i live in northern michigan so they rock but since verizon bought alltel verizon is the same now)
Verizon
Sprint
Boost(Uses sprint towers just a prepaid phone)
T-Mobile (not bad but wouldnt work where a sprint phone or verizon would)
Virgin (mainly big towns and highways)
Cingular (was horrible pre at&t)

Cost:
Sprint (best overall for features)
T-mobile (really cheap but features lack in areas)
Cingular (pretty pricey now that at&t owns it)
boost or virgin (pay as you go)
Verizon (crazy expensive, my current plan through sprint would cost me over 400 a month through verizon)

Phones:
Really hard to say as all carries have a good phone to choose.

CS:
Haven't had a problem with any one.

So that is my experience and i landed with sprint. been with them for 5 years.

[E-Revonut]

I have had AT&T for over 8 years, through all the name changes. I did a 2 year contract with verizon in the middle of that but switched back to AT&T for the iphone. I also had sprint for 2 months. Verizon by far has the best coverage in my area and as soon as they release their iPhone I'll be going back to them. My AT&T coverage seems to keep getting worse, I even had my iphone replaced because I thought the phone was the problem. Sprint had even worse coverage locally though, thats why I dropped them after 2 months. Sprint does have the best price plan though. AT&T and Verizon prices are pretty close to the same. My current bill runs me $100.xx, don't remember the exact change. I have 450 anytime minutes with rollover, unlimited night and weekend, unlimited messaging and I'm grandfathered in on the unlimited data plan still

As far as customer service goes, having an iphone i only deal with apple for phone issues and their service is right on par with Castle. As far as dealing with the cell companies, send in a girl to deal with any of them, they get a lot further than a guy will! I have had crappy customer service from all of them. When AT&T was cingular they had great service but now it's almost non existant

[bryan]

Verizon cell phones....AT&T for the I pad.

[DrKnow65]

I have At&t for my iPhone, wife and kids have Verizon. Similar reception for either carrier, though I'd rate verizon a hair better. Cost between the iPhone 4 and her Droid X are also close though the droid seems plagued with minor bugs related to software (much like the earlier iPhones were).

Camera and screen with the iPhone 4 are so much better that it warrants poking fun at her wannabe smart phone on several occasions per day when I'm not looking for "personal attention" wink wink ;-)

[E-Revonut]

Iphone 4 comes to Verizon on Feb 10, my advice is to wait for that. So what if you can't talk and surf the web at the same time, I've only done it once.

[What's_nitro?]

Originally Posted by E-Revonut

So what if you can't talk and surf the web at the same time, I've only done it once.

It's pretty cool/funny when someone calls you for directions ... and you say "Hold on I'll find it."... and you continue talking to them at the same time.

[TexasSP]

Originally Posted by E-Revonut

Iphone 4 comes to Verizon on Feb 10, my advice is to wait for that. So what if you can't talk and surf the web at the same time, I've only done it once.

I actually use both a lot so on Verizon that would annoy me. I keep people on the phone while looking up traffic, getting directions, looking up other info on the web, etc. It's extremely useful to me.

Of course I am not a fan of the iphone and use a Samsung Captivate which is of the Galaxy S series. It's honestly the best phone I have ever had. I have experience with iphones as well and my wife's 3Gs and Dad's 4 drop calls a lot. The 4 is a little better with a case on it but still annoying. I also often have signal in places they don't.

If you are a city dweller who doesn't travel, Tmobile is a good bet for the price and they typically have really good data speeds. I am not a fan of Sprint/Nextel.

[Bondonutz]

I greatly appreciate all those who chimed in but I'm looking for decent service and 2 lines cheap as possible with unlimited text. As sweet as it would be to have net on the phone I dont want to spend excessive amounts monthly to do so(I dont need it that bad). I'm hoping to do this for under $100.00 a month

[kulangflow]

I've done similar research, polled a ton of people, and this is what I've come up with:

Verizon: Best coverage, most expensive
T-Mobile: Great coverage, best value
Sprint, AT&T: Terrible customer service, similar coverage

If you travel a lot through outlying areas, you might want to pay the extra coin for Verizon. If not, T-Mobile is a great option with respect to money, cs, and coverage.

I am very happy with T-Mobile.

[E-Revonut]

Trac Phone Straight Talk from Walmart. $45 unlimited

[Bondonutz]

Originally Posted by E-Revonut

Trac Phone Straight Talk from Walmart. $45 unlimited

Unlimited what ? More details PLZ