***UPDATED : 12/02/02
At the end of my original review, I've added more current information.
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Cingular Wireless was formally Cellular One. I've been very happy with my plan for the past 10 months, but I don't think I'll continue it once my year is up.

THE GOOD
I have the Cingular Home 600, it's $49.99 a month and includes 600 anytime minutes with no long distance charges to anywhere in the US. The home coverage area is pretty good, but not nearly as good as the similar AT&T plan. It comes with all the additional features that most plans come with such as: Caller ID, Call forwarding, Voice Mail, Text Messenging and Three way calling.
The plan also comes with some very nice premium features. It has unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. This allows you to call other people with Cingular service that are in your home are for free (it does not come out of your minutes.) Also, one of the specials that I received was free weekend and nights for the life of the plan. Nights start after 9pm and go till 7am. With this plan you can talk for much more than 600 minutes.
The customer service of Cellular One was not that good, but since the change over to Cingular the service has been incredible. The few times that I've called, I was on hold for about a minute and the people that I've talked to were very nice. They dealt with my problems quickly and efficiently.

THE BAD
The coverage area of the plan is not very large. It covers the great Philadelphia area, southern Jersey, all of Delaware and part of Maryland. But it doesn't go very far north or west of the Philadelphia area. Similar plans with AT&T cover a multistate area.
The quality of the reception in the area is good, but inside a building or the more remote areas, the coverage is not good at all. That's because Cingular uses 800MHz TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) which is not as good of a technology as other providers.


I want a plan with a larger coverage area, because of travel. I'd also prefer a company that uses multiple frequencies and a different transmitting technology. But if you have a family or already know many people on Cingular, then it might be the right plan for you. With unlimited nights and weekends, no long distance (with certain plans), and mobile-to-mobile calling, Cingular is still a very good contender. But for my personal needs they just don't satisfy everything I want.

For info on plans in your area check out www.point.com It is by far the best site for information on wireless service. It'll tell you everything that you need to know and make your decision much easier.

****** UPDATE ********

It's been over a year and a half since my original review and a few things have changed since that time.

1. I changed from a Local Plan to a National Plan
2. I went from 600 anytime minutes to 350 anytime minutes
3. From a $49.99 plan to $39.99 plan

When cingular first offered the National plan I realized it was worth it even if I only travel occasionally. Now I don't have to worry about roaming when I make my calls. I now only have 350 anytime minutes, but I realized that of my monthly bill of around 1200 minutes only about 200 were anytime the rest were night and weekend. Majority of the features and benefits are still the same. I have voicemail, text messaging, caller ID, 3 way calling, etc. And I still have night and weekend minutes, but 3000 minutes per month instead of unlimited (which is more than enough for me). Cingular has also added online account access so you can monitor your minutes and keep track of your useage, so you won't be surprised with a big bill.

I have FULL national coverage with NO ROAMING. I went to Las Vegas and California for vacation and I was able to use my cell phone the entire trip and not worry about long distance or roaming charges. I even let all my friends use my phone so they didn't get charged extra using their cell phone plans. The service everywhere I've been has been fantastic.

I recently helped a friend look for a Nation coverage Cell phone plan for the Philadelphia area, and after looking at them all side-by-side Cingular was still the best deal. You get the most minutes, complete national coverage, and the lowest price. I compared between Verizon, AT&T, T-mobile, Sprint, and Nextel. The only company who came close with a TRUE national plan was Verizon, but they were more expensive.

The other companies have "Network National" plans, but that means you only get coverage if you are on their network. I know when I was in Las Vegas I was on Verizon's network, but I still received coverage without a roaming fee. And T-mobile uses GSM, which in the US still has a somewhat limited coverage area, so in alot of areas you won't get any coverage at all (look at their coverage maps for yourself).

The only slightly negative thing about cingular is text messaging. It's 10cents per message, sent or received. How can you stop someone from sending you a message?? They should have some type of add-on for the plans where you can get a certain number of Text messages per month for a set monthly price.

Do the research for yourself, but you'll probably come up with the same results when comparing companies. Cingular is #2 Wireless provider in the nation, but also one of the fastest growing providers. I've only got happy things to say about Cingular and the way that they've improved over the past year and a half.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 39.99