Well, here I sit -- two weeks into my new VoiceStream contract, and I've got to tell you I'm pretty impressed and amazed by the service so far. While it may not be the right choice for everyone, it has been an excellent choice for me thus far. But to understand why, I'd need to tell you a bit about myself first.

My Phones:

Ok, calling me an early-adopter might be a bit of an understatement. When a new gadget is out, I've gotta have it. And especially when it's something communications-related, I really go nuts for that stuff! So, I've been on Palm-based phones for a while (just gave up a Samsung I300 on SprintPCS), and was interested in purchasing a Treo -- either the 270 on VoiceStream, or the 300 on SprintPCS.

My Calling Habits:

I'm not a big business traveler ... at least not during this economic recession ... so fully 95% of calls are to and from people within 100 miles of me. So, most of my calling is regional in nature, and on those occasions when I am traveling, I have no qualms about receiving a few calls on my phone if necessary, or using a calling card to save roaming/long-distance.


So, now that you know what works for me, I ended up choosing the Treo 270 on VoiceStream (soon to be T-Mobile). There are a multitude of reasons why I'm happy with my decision:

- Ridiculous night-time-heavy rate plans on other carriers. I was paying $75 a month to Sprint for a plan with 1,000 anytime minutes nationwide and 7,000 night and weekend minutes. Who the heck could ever use 7,000 night and weekend minutes? Ok, maybe someone who works third shift ... but that's not me. 7,000 night and weekend minutes translates to roughly 4 hours on the cell phone every single night. So, VoiceStream has been running their "Get more" promotional plans, which include 3,000 anytime minutes (regional), for $59 a month. That's a fabulous plan for me and my calling habits. You know, calling people during daylight hours???. And I'm saving $15 a month!

- Two-way SMS. If you've never used it, or traveled to Europe, you can't fully appreciate how awesome this capability is. Need to send a quickie email to someone? Just type it out (a breeze on the Treo phones) and hit send. They can reply back. This is considerably different than the one-way text messaging that most other carriers have. The ability to be able to originate a quick message from my handset is great. The first day I had it, I was SMS'ing back and forth with a buddy from London directly via SMS numbers, not even going through email!

- The ability to easily swap phones. Ok, so I'm carrying around a $500 phone. But ... maybe I'm going somewhere that I don't want to worry about breaking my expensive Treo. I can pop the SIM card out and stick it in another GSM phone (they're easily found on eBay for a very low price) within a few seconds, and then that phone is my phone for the evening. Or, if I've used my phone a lot one day and have run the batteries down, I can just ask a friend if I can borrow theirs and stick my SIM card in there. Their phone, my plan. This stuff is awesome. Europe is way ahead of us 'murricans in this regard.

The other reason why this is important? Let's say that a year from now I still love my Treo, but I'm sick of VoiceStream and want to try out another carrier (let's say, AT&T, who is now building GSM into their network). All I have to do is remove my VoiceStream SIM card and cancel my service, and then stick an AT&T SIM card in my phone and I'm in business! You can NOT do this with Sprint PCS. They control which phones you can and can't use on their network, and you can't take phones off of their network and activate them on other networks without a lot of difficulty and reprogramming.

- International capabilities. While I don't get over to Europe much, it would be nice to be able to use my phone while I'm over there, and receive calls on my phone number. And that's the beauty of GSM. Most anywhere you go in Europe, you'll find GSM coverage. And in major cities like London, you'll find wall-to-wall 100% signal strength no matter where you go.


So, ultimately the satisfaction of a cell service plan comes down to three things: sound quality, coverage, and customer service. Let me comment on all three:

- Sound quality. At first, I was highly skeptical that GSM would sound really, really clear. I mean, c'mon - we invented CDMA here in the states, and everything we make is great, right? Well, I can't really say if one is better than the other, but I can tell you without a doubt that my $500 Treo on GSM sounds absolutely as crystal clear as my $500 Samsung I300 did on Sprint's network. I'd need fancy audio-testing equipment to really tell if there's any significant difference. Simply put, GSM sound quality is as good as any other carrier's technology.

- Coverage. So, VoiceStream is kinda the new kid on the block. They're not AT&T, and they're not Verizon. If you drive out past the suburbs into really rural areas on a regular basis, VoiceStream probably isn't your best bet. But, if you primarily stick to the cities, suburbs, and a bit past the suburbs, you're quite likely to have coverage with VoiceStream.

I live out on the tail-end of Ashburn, just before Leesburg, and get great signal at my house. Better signal than SprintPCS had, but that's most likely due to a better/closer tower positioning with VoiceStream in comparison to SprintPCS. I've found coverage in some of the far-out towns as well, such as Purcellville and Middleburg. On the road out to those towns, there were some coverage gaps, but I'm sure they'll be filled in soon.

Occasionally, I can find a spot where the distance between two towers seems just a bit too far and the signal really struggles, sometimes it drops. For example, there's about a quarter-mile stretch on Centreville Road heading from Herndon into Chantilly where I'm likely to lose a signal (or have it start to garble for a few seconds) until I make it fully within reach of the next tower. No biggie -- for 3,000 minutes for $59 a month, I can live with this (maybe others couldn't).

- Customer Service. While I've only placed one call to customer service so far, I can say that they were prompt and courteous at servicing me. So far, so good...


Until their coverage gets better, I've moved my dual-band SprintPCS phone down to a $10 "emergency" plan, which only gives me 50 minutes a month, but gives me the ability to place an emergency call - if I must - almost anywhere that Sprint has digital coverage, or analog roaming agreements.

So, for $69 a month, I've got a great 3,000 minute plan on a very clear sounding phone with respectable coverage for such a young company. Plus the added benefits of SMS, GSM, SIM cards, etc. And included in that same $69 is my $10 a month to carry my old Sprint number, and their coverage, to keep me protected in case of an emergency.

So with VoiceStream, I get MORE and pay LESS ... and still have the added piece of mind of Sprint's coverage if I absolutely need it!

Yeah, it was the right decision.



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 59