After four years with Cellular One, I elected to jump ship to Sprint PCS when they came around to my company with three times the minutes for the same money I was paying (90 mins a month with CellOne for $30; now I have 250 minutes a month plus free LD.)

I talked to a Sprint rep assigned to my company on the phone and did the deal. I ordered two phones: one for me and one for my wife. The very next day, I came home from work to find two UPS packages with overnight stickers on my doorstep.

Dang, that was fast. Opened the boxes to discover my phones (two SCH-3500's, I have a review on them too.) Charged 'em up and unlocked them. The unlock code was indeed the last four digits of my social security number. After two hours of charging, I was ready to go.

Had a look at Sprint's website, which is pretty impressive. I have yet to actually order anything off there, but I did pay my initial bill with a credit card on there. Went right through. Signed up for auto-payments while I was at it, and those are going through just fine.

The service is good -- the SCH-3500 has a habit of switching to analog, but if you read the manual it came with, swapping it over to digital-only is very, very simple. The only spotty thing is coverage while I am in the building I work in -- I may or may not have coverage sitting at my desk. It seems to fade in and out. But in all fairness, I work in the sticks and I won't let it pick up analog roam.

The clarity is great. No static or anything. The caller ID works well. The only thing I do wish is that the phone did not send my name and number via caller ID when I call someone.

Free long distance? Wow, there's a plus. I've used it a few times; at 250 minutes a month I have ample time to call family in another state.

Phone-based Customer Service is responsive and has handled well what I've thrown at them so far. Of course, being a former customer service rep myself, I refrain from temper tantrums on the phone. (Funny how I tend to have better C/s experiences than others...) There are waits, but I had to wait with Cell One too.

The one store I went to, in Henrietta, is oddly laid out. They're pretty stingy with the accessories they have out on the floor -- I guess they want you asking for the rep. Well, that's great for signup, but if I want a car adapter, just gimme the car adapter, I can grab it myself and cash out.


All in all -- I'm very pleased. The service is as good or better than Cellular One's. And the value is extraordinary. To a large extent, Sprint came into the local market with very aggressive offers in order to get clients -- there are already two very well entrenched competitors (Cellular One and Frontier/Bell Atlantic Mobile/Verizon or whatever they're calling it this week) who have had years in the market; Sprint had to offer killer deals in order to get people to take a chance on them.

So far, I'm happy I did.







Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 130.66