I had cellular service through Sprint PCS and was locked into a year of crappy service. My calls would get dropped a lot, especially when I was in my car, and I didn't have service in places in the Bay Area where I should have had service.

When my year plan was up, I dropped Sprint PCS like a hot rock and decided to get Pac Bell Wireless because my girlfriend had it and calls to/from each other would be free. I also figured that the service couldn't be any worse than Sprint PCS, but I was wrong.

I am on month 6 of my year contract with Pac Bell (now Cingular) Wireless. I get absolutely no service in my house in the Sunset district of San Francisco. I presume because it is an old house and probably has lead-based walls or something. Service outside my house is spotty at best, though. Luckily I have my trusty land line phone for making phone calls in my house, so I can live with this restriction.

Ever since I got the phone, I will occasionally get dropped calls while driving in my car. I was hoping this was only limited to Sprint PCS, but it turned out it wasn't. Also, within the last month I seem to be having dropped calls more often. I thought this was limited to when I was in my car where I am roaming in between cells, and I get out of range or get into a cell that is busy. But just today I was talking to someone who was on a normal land line and I was sitting in my desk at work, not moving at all and the call dropped in the middle of my conversation! Then my friend called back and it happened again a couple of minutes later. I had to have my friend call my land line to finish the conversation!

The service has really gone downhill the last month in other ways, too. About half the time I try to make calls now my phone says "Service Busy" and the call doesn't go through. Then I have to redial over and over until it goes through or I give up. I am getting more and more people telling me that they called my cell phone only to go straight to voice mail while I had the phone turned on and was presumably in a place with ample coverage. I assume that this is due to the "Service Busy" problem. The phone indicates that I have good service, but the system is overloaded and calls can't go out or come in.

I am going to call up Cingular today and try to get out of my year contract because of this terrible service that I am getting. I don't know how lucky I will be. I will update this opinion with what I find out. I want to document my terrible experience as soon as I can to stop others from signing up for this unreliable, worthless service.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 40/month