Plumber Helper

Every 2 years or so I go shopping for a new phone and wireless plan.  I enjoy the shopping aspect of the hunt and it’s interesting to me to see how much things change in 2 years.  I have a couple of favorite sites I use to compare plans before I buy. And before that I will stop by a few kiosks at the mall while my wife shops to get a little personel attention and see what’s new from the carriers perspective.  I also like to ask friends in the locale I am buying in to tell me if they like their phones and carrier as this has a lot of weight for me.

As far as phones go something like an iPhone is overkill for me now but I expect in 2 years time I will be able to get the equivalent or better at no cost.  My previous phone was nice but rather plain by todays standards no color display, camera, etc.  Now 2 years later nice sturdy phone, beautiful and sleek, color display, camera, etc. and they pay me for signing up to a 2 year plan.  I would rather not be committed to a 2 year plan as we move around alot but the incentives are pretty strong to go that way.

So ultimately in deciding on a plan the phones offered are comparable.  It comes down to reception in local area(s), customer support, plan price (somewhat) and travel for me.   Reception in local areas is a funny thing.  When I lived in California I had T-Mobile for awhile and I had no complaints until I moved.  The move was only a couple of miles from where I previously lived but that was enough to be in a dead zone.  I literally could not take calls at home.  T-Mobile was nice about it and admitted it was a bad reception area for them and let me out of the contract.  As I move around quite a bit now I am more concious of checking how reception is in the areas I will be at most as a big criteria for choosing my carrier. 

This eliminates a few carriers that don’t have nationwide service yet.  Another consideration that I ended up eliminating from my purchase decision was broadband support.  In order to get broadband support you are strongly incented to have a service contract/plan with them as well.  I wanted a broadband card to allow me to mobile in airports and anywhere I need to go, but the prices are still a bit prohibitive for me right now.  I expect the 2 year rule to work well and on my next signup that it will be very reasonably priced as a packaged option.

My previous service was with AT&T, which became part of Cingular.  I was never thrilled with their customer service and most reviews of carriers seemed to agree.  My choice eventually boiled down to Verizon and T-Mobile (again).  Verizon really had the edge in reception by reputation and both had good reviews for customer service and the plans (comittment, minutes) were very similar though I found T-Mobile to be a little bit cheaper.  Based on this I valued reception over price and would have gone with Verizon but I travel overseas and I wanted a GSM phone so I can take the SIM card out and put in a different card, to take local calls in the country I am in.  I really can’t understand why this isn’t a default in all phones in this day and age.  

So T-Mobile won out and so far the reception has been great in my current locale and I am thrilled with my phone (a Motorola Razor VT3).  Well that’s my story and look forward to my next adventure in 2 years.