Cell Phones

well, I just got a Nextel and I love it. You really cant beat the clarity of the calls and the plan I got is pretty damn good. I get 400 outgoing, free incoming, free nights, weekends and long distance. The direct connect feature is pretty sweet as well as my business partner is also on nextel, and it makes communication easy. That being said the only complaint would be the relatively large size of the phones and the expensive plans. I am a big guy so it easily fits in my pockets (i have a i95cl) and it is a pre-tax business expense, so it is a lot cheaper for me. Might not be for everyone. Feature wise the 95cl is amazing. Amazon.com has it for $100 after various rebates. I got the cable that connects it to my computer for free, and while I have not used it to access the net, I have used some nice hacked programs to download MIDI files as ringtones and wallpapers.

if computer connectivity is your big thing, your best bet is to go with sprint. While i do not have any direct experience with sprint, a good friend went with them and he is very happy. Get a plan that includes 'unlimited PCS vision' and this is essentially unlimited internet access. While radio shack will no longer sell you the usb cable, you can pick it up just about anywhere online. Their coverage is decent and you cant beat the free relatively high speed.

If you have any more specific questions about nextel or the i95cl ask away.

My wife and I just switched from AT&T to Verizon about 4 months ago. We had alot of problems with AT&T in terms of reception and switching and cancelling of available service options that were "free" when we signed up. But the largest problem was reception, whether it was the phone or not I'm not 100% sure but I know several people who had problems with them in our area.

We live in Bethlehem, PA... but I commute to work into Western New Jersey.

For someone who despises the Telco's, and Verizon in particular! I couldn't be happier with the service. Reception is beautiful and I really like the Motorola T720 phones we got for use with our family plan. We pay about $70 a month for our plan. We are not what you would call "heavy" cell phone users so we never come close to using up all the free minutes we get.

Good luck!

Well, I'm nowhere near Boston; but my wife and I have Cingular with the following setup:

500 pooled minutes (shared)
5000 night/weekend
Free Long Distance
No Roaming
Free Mobile-to-Mobile (with ANY Cingular mobile)
Rollover Minutes (what you don't use one month adds to the next's)

Both phones (Nokia 3390s) are on the plan and it's $70 a month after all the taxes and BS that's added to a communications bill, so $35/each ain't bad.

But I'd stick to opinions and suggestions from those in the Boston area, as plan and providers vary greatly depending on the geographical area.

-myrkat

I agree w/ the myrkat about using opinions from your area, but for what it's worth, I use Nextel and am quite happy w/ it. I live in a pretty rural area and can't find any dead spots that aren't at least an hour further into the stix.

That said, nextel is kinda expensive. I pay about $92 after taxes for 1000 pooled minutes for two phones and free nights, weekends, 2-way, long distance, no roaming, etc.

i would avoid cingular like the plauge - thats what I had and it was just awful. the i95cl from nextel is pretty damn sweet - polymorphic ringtones, full color display, wallpaper, complete SUN java implementation so you can download just about any sort of program. web browsing and AIM are availble... pretty sweet stuff.

Yea, nextel is expensive, but considering this is my ONLY phone it is worth it. I dont have to pay for a land line and it is free for anyone to call me wherever I am.

I can't say anyhting about Networks since I live in the UK, but as far as the individual phone's go I highly Recomend these.

Ericsson T39
Ericsson T68
Nokia 7210

All Exelent phones.

nope, all incoming calls, regardless of orgin are free. thats why i feel comfortable giving out my number as my primary phone because I know i wont pay for it if someone calls me.

Mr. Andersen (ok, enough Matrix quotes),

Yes. Most calls have tolls, though... I can't even call the neighboring city (30-40 miles away) without a ZUM (Zone Usage Minute?) toll... I use my cell, as the free long distance / no roam sure beat anything a land line can come up with....

So if I call you on your cell, I'd have the same long distance charges I'd have if I called your land line... however, your landline would be a "free" call for you, but your cell would subtract minutes (unless it's the free incoming that NexTel has).

Hope that clears things up,
-myrkat

Just got a Samsung S105 w/ T-Mobile and i love it. for reviews and a bunch of info on phones check out. these sites have helped me out tremendously.

www.howardchui.com
www.howardforums.com

I had AT&T also and had terrible reception. We live in a large city (Phoenix, AZ) and should not have had problems with reception. They use TDMA and claim that it is better than the other processes, but did not seem that way to us.

The coolest cell I've seen is the nokia communicater. Its a cell/pda combo, but its not much bigger than a normal cell phone.

http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator

This is pretty interesting as well. Claims to play games with playstation quality. Don't think it would be very good cell phone though.

http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/domes...es/28546.shtml

This one is pretty nice $20,000
http://www.gawker.com/03/02/004599.html

I've seen these for $19,450 - so I think $20,000 is a bit too high.

-myrkat

I just ordered myself the Nokia 3650 Smartphone.

I got a really good deal on it, $200.00 bux with a $100.00 mail in rebate from T-Mobile. Not a bad deal for a 500 dollar phone.

The reseller also thru in a leather case, headset and car charger for free.

Im kind of excited from some of the features of this phone.

One feature that grabbed me to this phone is that it supports the Opera Series 60 web browser.

With there Small-screen rendering technology, viewing web sites on a mobile device is not going to be a horrible experience anymore for me. Demo

I have Sprint PCS and it works great for me. It gets the best signal strength out of any providers in my region of nothern lower michigan. I drive all over in the middle of nowhere for work sometimes and I'm often surprised at where I still get a signal. And where digital doesn't work, analog usually does.. at a not so cheap per minute charge. The plan is nationwide, and i have unlimited nights/weekends, and all of the usual goodies. I use mine more as a portable voicemail than for live calls though.

I have heard bad things about Sprint, but maybe it's in certain regions or big cities. My experience has been excellent. Especially compared to voicestream.. my previous service. Ugh.. took me 6 months to finally get it cancelled. The first call seemed easy. The guy took my info and said I'm all set and it would be cancelled. The bills kept coming. They claimed not to have any record of my cancellation, but one support person slipped up and made the mistake of mentioning my move to a new city. ONLY the very first person I talked to knew that information, since he asked why I wanted to cancel the service. Poor service is one thing, but outright dishonest service is pathetic. She was trying to blame it on me saying there was no record, but yet knew something that she would have only seen on my cancellation record.

ok.. done with my cell phone rant. I guess it depends on your area and needs.