The Megalopolis. That area of the Northeastern corridor that stretches from Washington, D.C. to Boston. The area encompasses Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington (Delaware), Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark (New Jersey), New York City, Hartford, and Boston. The question is, which cell phone plan makes these cities and EVERYTHING in between your home area? The answer is Bell Atlantic's Digital Single Rate East. Utilizing analog and digital (CDMA) techology, Bell Atlantic provides the most comprehensive coverage for the price (from Northern Virginia through Maine!).

Here's how it works. You buy a minute plan (I have 200 minutes per month). If you are placing a phone call while being anywhere in the Bell Atlantic coverage area I described above, you can call anywhere in the 48 contiguous states for free (well, it's not really free...you pay per month but calling it free just psychologically sounds better). So if I'm driving from Philadelphia to Boston and I want to call, say, Nirav Tolia in the Bay Area, it's a snap. Let's say that I'm passing through New York city at the time. Even though I'm "roaming," I'm still in Bell Atlantic's "home" area (you must buy a phone from them that will handle this plan - but most of them do). I dial Nirav's area code and number and talk to him for 2 minutes (he rarely has more time than that). So I made a cross country call for 2 minutes and if that was the first call I made that billing cycle, I can still call him or anybody else in the lower 48 for the remaining 198 minutes that month. And if he were to call me back, the standard caller-id would alert me that's he's calling and we could talk for free during the first incoming minute. Plus, if he calls and doesn't get me, the standard voice-mail will hold the message for me until I can retrieve it and return his call.

So why is this plan better than the others? Sprint has great deals but their network isn't as extensive as Bell Atlantic's in this area. Visitors to my parent's house north of New York City who use Sprint have often been dropped because Sprint's service in the outlying areas is poor. In cities Sprint PCS is something worth having and they have a 500 minute pricing plan that's competitive with this Bell Atlantic plan. Until they improve their coverage, though, I'm afraid that I cannot endorse them.

AT&T offers great deals as well but you either have to buy into a certain market (Philly, NYC, or Boston) or the whole country. My Dad has an NYC number through AT&T and during peak times cannot make or receive calls because there's so much cellular traffic. In addition, near his office in Greenwich, Connecticut he gets completely dropped because AT&T just don't have the coverage that Bell Atlantic has.

Philly's Comcast/Cellular One also has limited plans. Again, you have to buy into the market and each time you go outside that market, you have to pay for roaming and long distance and all that. What I'm trying to say is that with most other plans, you'll end-up paying too much for the same type of service offered by Bell Atlantic.

Bell Atlantic does have its downfalls, however. The phone that you have to use in order to use this plan must be a dual-band analog/CDMA phone. These phones are a bit expensive and Bell Atlantic carries a very limited number of types of phones. Ideal would be the dual-mode Motorola Star-Tac but I went for the slightly larger and slightly cheaper Motorola SC-3160 (please see my review of that). Several other phones (Ericson, Audiovox, and LGIC) are available from Bell Atlantic. A larger selection of phones (Nokia, Sony, etc) can be found at dealers who sell Bell Atlantic plans and phone separately.

Overall the experience with Bell Atlantic has been great. This is my third phone with Bell Atlantic and I've never had any major problems with billing or sound-quality. Look over all the phones. Compare the monthly fees. If you travel within the Megalopolis, look at the roaming, long-distance, and roaming per-minute charges. You'll find everytime that the Bell Atlantic SingeRate East is the best bang for the buck!




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 45/month ($39.99 + tax)