I am One Happy Customer of AT&T Wireless
Written: Jan 22 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Local Coverage: |
 |
|
| Plan Flexibility: |
|
|
| Customer Service: |
|
|
|
Pros: Excellent coverage, good tech support, nice prices
Cons: Nothing of note! Great service!
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend AT&T Wireless because their coverage is excellent. I am fully satisfied with this stable, reliable cellular phone service.
|
|
|
| abbie's Full Review: AT&T Mobile Phone Service in Washington/Baltimore |
I have been a very satisfied customer of my AT&T Wireless Service since I signed up for my phone in March of 2002. I live and work in the Laurel/Columbia area of Maryland, although I spend time in both DC and Baltimore. I have also travelled cross-country with this phone by car and by plane. The phone that I have is the now-standard Nokia 3360, which has been a good phone. About 80% of my phone calls are long distance. I have used this phone for international calls as well.
This was my first cellular phone, and I used Epinions.com when I went looking for a cellular service. I wanted to cancel my landline (regular) phone and use just a cellular phone. I make a lot of long distance phone calls and thought that the cellular service deal would be much better, financially-speaking, than my landline deal (also with AT&T). This has certainly been the case.
My deal with AT&T is $39.99/month that include 300 Anytime minutes and 3000 Night & Weekend minutes. This has been more than adequate for my usage needs. The plan includes at least caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, and probably more benefits that I don't use. My long distance is free when I make my calls from within my home calling area; the cost for the calls when I'm out of my home calling area is about $.60/minute. Pretty high. If I were to do this plan again, I would spring for the plan where I could make calls from anywhere, because even with the five or six trips that I make per year out of the home calling area (which is actually a very large area- covers all of Baltimore and DC and parts of Pennsylvania and other states as well), I end up spending big bucks on the phone calls I make at those times. It's still cheaper, however, than a landline phone with the additional long distance charges. The only issue that I have in comparing my cellular phone with a landline phone is the caller id. A regular phone will try to list the number of the caller as often as possible, sometimes with the name of the person as well. My cellular phone will only list the name of the person if it is a person who is listed in my phone's speed dial. This can be frustrating.
The quality of service from AT&T has been first rate. I rarely have connection trouble. I have sat in a car in rural southern New Jersey comparing the signal strength on my phone with my grandmother's phone (using Cingular service), and my signal rated 5 bars while hers rated only 3. During that road trip, I was able to make phone calls at several points when she was not getting a strong enough signal. The only times that I have been unable to get a signal strong enough to make a call was when I was in rural Missouri, and that's not a surprise. Even then, the only bad time was when I was in a valley or lowlying area. I have heard other people complain about their service in the Laurel/Bowie area with SprintPCS or similar digital carriers. I have had no such problems. Last spring, I would often make international calls from my cellular phone while in the car in the morning during rush hour (using an earpiece, of course), driving through a fairly hilly and rural part of the Baltimore/DC corridor. I never had a dropped signal, nor even so much as a crackle on the line.
When I've had a problem, AT&T has a fairly good technical support system. Even the salespeople at kiosks can answer some of my stupider questions.
My Nokia 3360 has been a fairly good phone as well. I wish that it came with a better earpiece, or I wish that better earpieces weren't so expensive. I use mine pretty extensively. The phone only comes with an AC Adapter for the home, not for the car. I think I shelled out $25 for the car adapter, but it was worth it. I have to say that the phone battery does not have much of a life. The phone also does not ring very loud. But it does have a vibrating silent ring, and it can switch between analog and digital signals- important things for anybody's cellular phone choice.
In summary, I highly recommend AT&T Wireless. I was a happy customer of AT&T Long Distance Service, and I have been a very happy customer of AT&T Wireless. I have spoken with other users of AT&T Wireless and they share my good experiences with this carrier. If you live in the Baltimore/Washington area (specifically, in the corridor), this is a great bet. I have been very pleased, and plan to stick with this carrier for as long as I live here.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 39.99/mo
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
abbie
|
|
Location: Laurel, Maryland
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Professional computer geek with other interests including movies, books, and food.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.