I have the FamilyTalk 450 plan, which gives 450 minutes and unlimited calling to other cingular customers and three phones, along with voice mail and caller ID. That comes out to about $20 per phone, which is a pretty good deal.

I got three Nokia 5120 phones for a total of $30 from the dealer, so it was again pretty cheap :).

Anyway, as for the calls themselves, the coverage area around my house is a little on the weak side. There are places where the signal strength isn't strong enough to make a call. But I also live out in the suburbs, so that partially accounts for it. Once I get into a commerical area, signal reception is fine.

Call quality is fairly good. When I have either 3 or 4 "bars" (most commerical areas) on my phone, the calls are clear with no drop outs. With 2 bars (most areas around my house), the ends of words occasionally get cut out, but you can still carry on a conversation. With 1 bar (occasionally in certain areas), whole words get dropped out and it's exceedingly difficult to carry on a conversation.

As for the coverage area, from my own experience, it seems to cover Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs out to about Lancaster. When I went to Harrisburg, my phone was roaming.

As for the roaming charge, it seems to be about a total of around $.80/minute, though I'm not too sure, that's just an estimate.

Having dealt with customer service more than I would have liked, the people are generally helpful, though the hold times are usually several minutes.

A few of my friends have other services, and Verizon/Sprint PCS seem to have clearer calls and better coverage in my area, but it doesn't have the unlimited mobile calling that Cingular has. I use it often enough to make a big difference.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 60