Service
Keeping in mind that I have the 300 plan (300 min/mo for $39.99/mo), I have free long distance and unlimited nights and weekends. Nights are after 8pm weekdays and ends 8am the next day - pretty good for Californians, since Chicagoans are after 10pm (technically, they are the same time, if you factor in the time difference in time zones).

Reception
But that is all that's good with the service. Everything is downhill from there. First off, reception is as bad as they say it is. All ePinions here hit the nail on the head on that subject. "Digital" does not mean clarity. It may be worse than analog in some situations. Weak signals (like the one Cingular has) would benifit more if it was an analog network. Under weak signals, digital is a hit or miss: mistaken 1s and 0s will create garbles and drop outs instead of static (which, at least, you can still make out). Thus, drop outs and garbling is often, even with strong signals. At my house, in the street, whatever... I usually see no, one, or two bars.

Congestion
Oh, how "off-peak" hours have a different meaning when it is completely free. At Cingualr Wireless, "off-peak" really means "peak plus". Because everyone wants to take advantage of the unlimited minutes, the network gets congested during nights. At least the weekends are better. After 8pm, you will receive "System Busy" and "All circuits are busy, please try again" whenever you try to call outside your region (as in, long distance). Either local or long distance, you will get dropped out eventually - even with strong and clear signals.

Recomendations
This services, at the end, fits me pretty well. However, to recomend it to someone else, it is hard to say. If you're a cheapskate and don't mind redialing over and over again, it's worth the bucks saved. If your calls are mission critical, look elsewhere.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 40