When you spend as much time on the road as I do, you live and die by your cellular service. I'll tell you about phones in my other reviews, but poor service is just unacceptable. This is why after 4 years with AirTouch/Verizon I switched to AT&T.

For 5 months now I’ve been experiencing what my associates told me was better than Verizon. I listened and can tell you that my experience has been varied based upon the location I am in. You see I spend a lot of time in cities other than Los Angeles and have found LA to provide worse coverage than when I am on the road.

When shopping for cellular service the most important thing you can do is to talk to others that you trust and ask them about their experience. The most important thing you can find out is if they use their phone in the same way you will. You need to know the areas they use the service in and if they travel to the same cities you travel to.

Some coverage areas are spectacular, some are spotty and even though the cellular technology keeps improving, it is very costly to put up cell sites especially when the provider doesn’t think you’ll switch providers if you have spotty service in some areas.

It is amazing how many minutes I waste every month saying to people, “can you hear me”, “ I can hear you, can you hear me?” It got so bad 2 months ago that I had AT&T remove $89 from the bill because I went over the monthly plan cost. They were accommodating but what a pain.

I have found that overall in Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle the AT&T service has been great 70% of the time. I am troubled with poor connections only about 15% of the time and the rest of the time there is some difficulty with reception, but it is acceptable.

As for the plans, they are competitively priced but you need to compare and shop! If you have not had service before, let me say that you have some important decisions that can cost you extra money if you are not careful.

The Phone

My last phone had internet access, so I paid the extra money for the service that I made little use of. I am not a day trader like my partner and so I don’t need to know when my stocks go up or down when it happens. I have chosen a phone that does not have internet access for web browsing.

My AT&T service does give me a wireless e-mail address and I can respond to e-mail this way too. I have used this at times and have found it to be a valuable service. I do not subscribe to the service as I only use it occasionally so it only costs $0.10 each message. A pretty cheep backup when necessary. It doesn’t rival a blackberry but that would be overkill for me.

The Company

AT&T is a stable company, they provide adequate service at competitive prices. Be careful not to get too locked in to terms if you can avoid that. This is one area the phone companies love to get you on. Even so if you are locked to a 2 year term, you can negotiate with them when you experience very bad service and they will usually give you a 30 day out where you can return the phone and cancel the service and just pay for what you have used without the penalty fee. Not a bad trial for anyone.

So Good luck with your search, I hope that my experience helps you to pick a good service provider and helps you tone down your expectations of what “Quality” cellular service really is.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 200