It's the Network!

By Adam Truong, staff writer
Tuesday October 10, 2006

With so many available wireless providers, people wonder which one trumps all and which one sinks to the fishes. This short overview is directed towards those who are coming to the end of their contract and is considering a new carrier for the new school year.

There are three C's that judge any wireless company: connectivity, cost, and the cell.

T-Mobile:

Many of you can relate. Good reception is only found floating next to the satellite in outer space. T-Mobile users tend to get very emotional when it comes to the quality of connectivity. I find myself repeating what I had previously said, over and over again. Now I must admit, T-Mobile is slowly resolving this problem, but they were left in the dust when other companies jumped on the band wagon of fixing their reception issues.

On the other hand, the plans of T-Mobile are perhaps its greatest asset. With so many different plans and the sheer amount of minutes they give, T-Mobile offers much flexibility, especially to the families. This should help, considering the long minutes you will need to spend clarifying what your partner just said. The only problem is that this is slowly becoming synonymous with other carriers.

The Cell: T-Mobile used to be the absolute leader in hip cell phones but started to fall behind recently. It has picked up with its new release of the Sidekick III and the Pebble or (PEBL). The Sidekick III is a great solid phone with its focus on text messaging. It has a wide screen that kind of “kicks” upwards and can view entire webpages. The only problem is that is a little bit chunky. The PEBL has very few flaws and is a great combination of style and usefulness.

Overview: T-mobile is for those who talk a lot and are not so picky on the sound quality. T-mobile users will appreciate the fact that nearly everyone has it and free mobile-to-mobile is a major bonus. Also, the text plans are not expensive at all and can accommodate anyone who wishes to jump into the craze.

Cingular:

Cingular is commonly remembered by the little orange guy, which only reminds me of one thing, bouncy. That suits Cingular because they are known for “rollover,” the idea that unused minutes of one month get reused for the next month. This of course can get very annoying when you don't talk that much and have amassed 4,000,000 minutes you will never use. Then again, if you talk frequently and find a plan that suits you, you shouldn't have that many minutes left over anyways. The plans are quite bland and are not much different from other carriers. This is a small dent in the overall picture of Cingular.

The commercials all say it, and I am starting to believe it. Cingular and its “all-over network” has the fewest dropped calls. This is a great relief to hear when you dread dropped calls. Still, it is hard to find a good place to talk. Although the call isn't “dropped,” the sound quality occasionally declines in many places. So you can imagine that one butcher screaming into the camera with a fuzzy voice. His voice wasn't dropped; it was just impaired. And that seems to be all that matters to the company.

Although Cingular is a little bland on the plans, it more than compensates for it in the quality and innovation of their phones. Cingular is by far, the best cell phone provider out there. With so many techno gadgets, any teen would want to get their hands on one of these awesome phones, such as the new V3i Razr, the SLVR, Pantech, Samsung slider, and Walkman. Dominating the markets, Cingular has blown the other phones off the planet. The only downside is that they are all pricy except for the Pantech. Get a job, save some money, and then talk about the trouble you went through to get your new phone.

Overview: Cingular is for those people who want the phones, period. All of its cons are outweighed by the one fact that their phones rock. As for the reception, it is not so much a problem in the city, as it is when you go traveling outside the county. Then the reception largely varies on where you are and how tall you are. The plans are fairly cheap but their phones are quite pricy.

Sprint:

The plans are practically at status quo with the usual family plans, running about $70 for 800 minutes. It's a little bit more than what Cingular provides and is around the amount T-mobile provides. One of Sprints saving graces is their policy on not charging for overtime or overage. When you go over on your minutes, they charge only as much as the next plan up will charge. Basically, you can go over as much as you want, and it is like you are paying for the plan that suits you best. Very handy.

The reception of Sprint is one of the best out there. There is no place that really has bad reception. The bars are constantly full, and the only time otherwise is when you are missing one bar. However, since practically no one uses sprint, your friend-friend free minutes won't really help. And even though Sprint's free nights start 2 hours earlier than other carriers, your friends who use T-mobile are watching their minutes and won't talk to you until 9 o'clock anyways.

The phones of sprint are pitiful. The most obvious turndown of Sprint is their lack of cool, techno-advanced phones. Recently released were the Katana and the A-900 (Blade). The Katana was an attempt to make a razor-esque phone but the slapdash Katana was a failure on the long run. The Blade is the total opposite and is actually the predecessor of the new CRAZOR being released soon by Cingular. It has a sleek design with many features packed in, but, sadly, the phone has countless major flaws and Sprint once again fails to release a phone that will attract major consumers.

Overview: Sprint is one of those carriers that you might get if you want to be different and cool, except not really cool because you won't get free minutes with your T-mobile friends. The reception is very good, probably the best out of all the carriers, and if you are very anal-retentive about your voice quality, Sprint is your company.

Verizon:

Verizon is the company that is very overshadowed by the others. The plans are pretty much the same as everyone else's but there are a couple differences that make Verizon stand out.

The Network is very reliable and the reception is crisp and clear. Both Verizon and Sprint have their sights on the most reliable network. Sprint recently merged with Nextel for their communications, and Verizon had merged with AT&T for the same reason. There is a battle going on but that just opens up possibilities for the consumers.

The phones are pretty much dull. Luckily, slipping into mainstream, Verizon recently released the heavily advertised Chocolate. A major letdown to some, a savior to others. The chocolate has a sleek design and various capabilities; it's a well-rounded phone fit for almost everybody. This puts Verizon a step ahead of Sprint when dealing with phones, but that does not deter from the fact that the Chocolate is still their only notable phone which is still a little pricy.