Cell Phone Carriers

[izus]

im getting ready to either re-do wifes contract or change services in 2 months so im wondering if AT&T is still worth it for us.

 

ive heard alot about Tmobile phones being able to have no trouble working in china.

plus being able to use phones purchased there as long as they are unlocked.

my company is with verizon, its rare i get a disconnect or have no bars to place a call.

we used to run with nextel which has completely lost its reputation as of recent.

cingular doesnt offer anything special and we get crappy reception when placing a call in our house.

 

 

i think verizon and sprint are on the same frequency

and tmobile and cingular are running the same.

[Corbin]

I can't complain about Verizon, I've had them through two name changes which I think were buyouts. My Verizon phone worked in China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was the surprise for me because Verizon's website did not show Hong Kong as a usable area.

[izus]

I can't complain about Verizon, I've had them through two name changes which I think were buyouts. My Verizon phone worked in China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was the surprise for me because Verizon's website did not show Hong Kong as a usable area.

how much did you pay per minute to use in China?

[chilton747]

I can't complain about Verizon, I've had them through two name changes which I think were buyouts. My Verizon phone worked in China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was the surprise for me because Verizon's website did not show Hong Kong as a usable area.

how much did you pay per minute to use in China?

I paid $1.29 per minute with Verizon when I was last in China.

[lou]

I've had t-mobile for years now with no problems. Started out

as Omnipoint, remember the ads with the parrot? Then changed to

Voicestream and then T-mobile.

 

Never had any signal problems even when traveling to other cities,

always seem to pick up their network so no roaming charges.

 

Worked fine in China, don't remember the per minute charge. Their

site says $2.30 per minute but I paid a lot less, might vary by the

plan you choose.

[Shenzhen K-1]

I can't complain about Verizon, I've had them through two name changes which I think were buyouts. My Verizon phone worked in China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was the surprise for me because Verizon's website did not show Hong Kong as a usable area.

how much did you pay per minute to use in China?

 

I also use Verizon, the family plan is a pretty good rate!! Something like $39.99 for 450 minutes and it is free from one family memeber to another?? I only paid $.69 a minute when in Beijing in October!

[Corbin]

I can't complain about Verizon, I've had them through two name changes which I think were buyouts. My Verizon phone worked in China and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was the surprise for me because Verizon's website did not show Hong Kong as a usable area.

how much did you pay per minute to use in China?

Haven't seen the bill yet, but I was quoted $1.29 per minute so I'm sure that is what it will be.

[izus]

you know if i have to use verizon phone or can i use unlocked nokia of some kind?

[chilton747]

you know if i have to use verizon phone or can i use unlocked nokia of some kind?

 

I know that any Verizon phone works in China. As to whether Verizon will let you use an unlocked phone from a previous provider I don't know. Wouldn't hurt to ask them.

[tsap seui]

Being a techno dummy...NO, I'm an IDIOT I'm very thankful for Verizon making it easy for me in China, and other countries.

 

And, I'm not going to even ask what the heck an unlocked phone means Too much info for a simple redneck, especially when I've got Little Feat playing Alan Toussaint's soulful 'Nawlings' sound and extraordinary message "On Your Way Down". Lowell George's slide work and voice...Oh MY..."The same people you abuse on your way up..you just might meet up...on your way down".

 

Some government workers might need to take a listen to that song...and take heed

 

Fairdinkum, I am.

 

tsap seui

[steveandrong]

im getting ready to either re-do wifes contract or change services in 2 months so im wondering if AT&T is still worth it for us.

 

ive heard alot about Tmobile phones being able to have no trouble working in china.

plus being able to use phones purchased there as long as they are unlocked.

my company is with verizon, its rare i get a disconnect or have no bars to place a call.

we used to run with nextel which has completely lost its reputation as of recent.

cingular doesnt offer anything special and we get crappy reception when placing a call in our house.

 

 

i think verizon and sprint are on the same frequency

and tmobile and cingular are running the same.

i currently have two carriers...t-mobile and at&t/cingular....i really have no complaints about the service for either, as they seem to have same coverage....they do however, operate on different bandwidths...why i have 2 carriers?... i was unhappy with the phone i had with at&t and after talking with my local at&t rep, was told, if i was going to china, it would be best to get a cell phone there..said they have much better phones than we do here in the usa....he did not, however, explain to me about the compatability with the bandwidths and also if they are an accepted phone with their service....so i go to china 3 weeks later and come back with some phones....yes...plural phones...coming home from chicago, the phone worked so so at best....went to the at&t rep and asked him why....upon checking it out, he told me it was not operating on the same bandwidth and it also is not an approved phone for at&t service.....i later found out t-mobile service did support this phone, so i took a one month trial service to see how it worked...it works very well with t-mobile....after returning to china again with the new phone, i later found out some more interesting things about my new phone....it has a dictionary in it that translates just about any english word you can think of to the chinese script....and if you put it in full chinese language mode, it will also translate the same english words to the chinese pin yin....so...now i just wait for the at&t contract to run out, and then i will be going with t-mobile....one thing i will note....i do not think t-mobile has international text messaging....and as for using in china, only need get a simm card for it there....and to make phone calls from china to usa, just need get the international phone card, which many chinese women sell at a bargained price outside the cell phone/cell phone service outlets there....my fiancee' generally pays about 1/4th the price shown on the card...and this will save a lot more money on making the calls back to the usa from china

[warpedbored]

I used to have Verizon and the coverage was a little better than T-mobile which I have now. T-Mobile had the best family plan rates though. We have two free Motorola Razor phones with 700 shared anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $59.99 a month. T-Mobile phones use a sim card which my Verizon phone didn't. I presume that if T-Mobile phones work in China you could probably buy a prepaid sim card there and be able to use it.

[Sebastian]

my take is a little bit different.

 

I have several unlocked tri-band gsm phones that require a sim card.

 

when i'm in china, i buy prepaid from a service.

when i'm in usa, i use t-mobile.

 

For me, it was never about 'the carrier', but always about 'the phone'.

I made sure they were unlocked before i bought them.

 

they also work with local country sim cards in italy and the uk.

[change2marrow]

Verizon Wireless would be the top carrier in the US. If you want a phone and service to work, choose Verizon Wireless.

 

The down side is international calling and roaming. Vodafone owns part of Verizon Wireless, so once Vodafone becomes more of a presence in Asia, so too will Verizon. They do have dual mode/band phones, but Verizon Wireless locks the phones to only accept Vodafone SIM chips.

 

As for outside of the US, GSM phones (Tmobile, ATT Operating system) will be dominate throughout the world for some time to come.

[change2marrow]

I used to have Verizon and the coverage was a little better than T-mobile which I have now. T-Mobile had the best family plan rates though. We have two free Motorola Razor phones with 700 shared anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $59.99 a month. T-Mobile phones use a sim card which my Verizon phone didn't. I presume that if T-Mobile phones work in China you could probably buy a prepaid sim card there and be able to use it.

 

Tmobile/ATT phone SIM's are locked. FCC passed a law now allowing the phones to be unlocked. So, before going to another country, you want to unlock the phones first.

 

But be careful, often the US phones have a lot of software specific to their company. This sometimes can cause problems or conflict when trying to make a simple call. Tmobile has less issues with this.