Checklist for Researching Cellular Service Providers


When signing up for cellular service, here is a list of some of the things you should check (and what this web site will advise you on):

  1. Equipment
    1. Available phones (including the option of buying a phone separately, especially for international GSM roaming)
    2. Available accessories (ensure that the accessories you want are available NOW, not promised in the future).
    3. Warranty issues. Unless you buy the Verizon warranty with no exclusions, the extended warranties are a very bad deal because of all the exclusions. Be especially wary of third party extended warranties from authorized resellers such as Radio Shack.
    4. The risks of buying from anywhere other than the carrier's web site or company-owned stores. If you have problems with your equipment, even under warranty, you may have to endure a lot of hassle if you bought from an authorized agent, including from chain stores, rather than from the carrier's own stores or e-commerce web site. However in some cases it may be worth it to take this risk (if their is a significant price difference or if the phone you want isn't sold in the carrier's own stores or e-commerce site).
    5. If you are buying a tri-band GSM, so-called, "World Phone" be certain that the carrier will unlock it so you can buy inexpensive prepaid SIM cards when traveling in Europe or Asia (versus paying huge international roaming charges).
    6. Check local newspapers, including Chinese newspapers, for better deals on equipment (but beware of the risks).
  2. Cellular Technology
    1. AMPS capability. AMPS is the old analog cellular system. It has the widest coverage of any cellular standard. Never sign up with a carrier that does not offer AMPS capability. Large areas of the U.S. have ONLY AMPS coverage. If you travel outside of urban areas you need AMPS capability. AMPS also fills in dead spots in digital areas.
    2. Cellular Technology Evolution. Do you want to choose TDMA which will eventually be shut down, but for now provides excellent coverage, GSM which is what will replace TDMA but presently has very poor coverage, or CDMA which has excellent coverage as well as the high speed data capability that TDMA lacks? Or iDEN which provides the two-way radio feature?
  3. Coverage Area
    1. Do you need a local, regional, or national calling plan?
    2. Does local coverage area have any gaps, especially on the fringes?
    3. Is there coverage in the areas that you often travel to (even if it's roaming)? A phone and carrier without AMPS capability means lack of coverage in many rural areas.
    4. Will you be using the phone inside buildings? Verizon and AT&T TDMA work much better inside big buildings (i.e. big box retailers such as Home Depot, Costco, etc.).
  4. Quality of Coverage (this is one of the most important considerations and it is not even mentioned on sites like wirelessadvisor.com)
    1. Dropped Calls
    2. Capacity Issues
    3. Voice Quality
    4. In-building performance. 1900Mhz systems, such as Cingular & T-Mobile GSM, and Sprint PCS, have much worse indoor performance than 800 Mhz systems such as AT&T's TDMA network and Verizon's CDMA network (note that in some areas, but not New York City, Verizon uses 1900Mhz for CDMA).

    Quality of coverage is difficult to determine. Fortunately there are many surveys, tests, studies, evaluations, etc. that are available. Anecdotal evidence is also valuable. Watch out for sales pitches that try to rationalize indoor coverage issues with statements like: "No carrier guarantees indoor performance," or "No carrier has 100% coverage;" both are true statements but the issue is which carrier provides the best coverage, not that no carrier provides 100% coverage.

    Also, be extremely careful in using Usenet postings to determine quality of coverage; i.e. there is one individual in the Cingular newsgroup who delights in lying about Cingular coverage, but who never can provide any evidence to support his claims.

  5. Capabilities
    1. High speed data
    2. Wireless web
    3. Short Messaging
    4. Games
    5. Ringtones (I guess I'll never understand people spending money on ringtones, especially when it's easy to key in your own)
    6. Paging
    7. Voice Mail
  6. Contracts
    1. One year versus two year contracts. Cingular doesn't let you sign up for one year contracts on-line.Most carriers waive the activation fee on two year contracts. Some carriers charge less for phones when you sign up for a two year contract. Weigh the risk of paying a termination fee versus the net savings (subtract the difference in the phone price and the activation fee from the termination fee to see what the actual cost of terminating would be during the second year of the contract, i.e. with Verizon you save $30 on the phone price and the $30 activation fee, so the net termination fee during the second year is $115, not $175. Still, I would advise going with a one year contract unless you are positive about coverage and that your job location, home location, etc., will not change for two years.
    2. Termination fees for early contract termination.
    3. Ensure that the features of the plan you select remain in effect even after the term of the contract. Some carriers explicitly state that features such as bonus peak minutes, N&W minutes, etc., are only in effect for the term of the initial contract. Other carriers explicitly state that these features are in effect until you change plans.
    4. When your contract term is up, most carriers will offer you a new handset at a reduced price (or free) if you sign another contract. Be careful! The new contract terms will be for plans that they currently offer, not an extension of your existing terms. For example, a Verizon subscriber that has the old 8 p.m. start time for off-peak will lose it with a new contract. If you had a great promotion you will lose it with a new contract. It may be better to pay full price for a new phone in order to keep your existing contract terms.
    5. Note that with all carriers except AT&T, when your contract term is over you will continue with the same contract terms on a month to month basis.

    Note that you do NOT have to sign up for a one or two year contract to get service. The advantage of signing a contract is that the carrier offers free or low-cost handsets when you sign a contract, and often will waive activation fees. You are perfectly free to purchase a handset at full price from the carrier, or from another source, and sign up for service without any long term commitment.

  7. Rates
    1. Limited time promotions
      1. Discounts
      2. Employer
      3. Trade or Professional Organization
      4. Military
      5. USAA
    2. Prepaid options (will your usage be better suited to a prepaid plan, which is usually more expensive per minute, but much less expensive for light users than the cheapest regular plan?). Carriers routinely hide their prepaid plans because they don't make much money on them.
    3. Directory Assistance Charge (AT&T and Sprint just raised this by 25%)
    4. Roaming charges
    5. Long Distance charges. Long distance. Many rate plans include free long distance. You can save on your regular landline bill by making your long distance calls during off-peak hours with your off-peak minutes, or with mobile to mobile minutes.
    6. Messaging charges
    7. Web access charges
    8. Fees for checking usage
    9. Fees for talking to customer service
    10. Fees for Local Number Portability (only T-Mobile, and Verizon do not add these odious fees)

    Not all rate plans are necessarily on the carriers' web sites. Cingular, T-Mobile, and Sprint, for example, omit some of their rate plans from their sites. Sprint has a plan where you can use up to 50% of your minutes for roaming, but it is not offered in all areas, and you have to call them to sign up for it.

  8. Nights & Weekends, Mobile to Mobile, and Holidays
    1. Off Peak Weekday Hours (this can make a big difference in the usefulness of your off-peak minutes, all carriers now begin at 9 p.m.; Verizon was at 8 p.m. until October 15th, 2002).
    2. Are calls on national holidays considered off-peak? On Verizon and AT&T they are; on Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile they are not. Check with your carrier as to which holidays are included, as it may vary by region for Verizon (on AT&T it's New Years Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).
    3. Mobile to Mobile Minutes. If your plan includes a lot of mobile to mobile minutes (which are usable at any time of day) then you may be able to choose a cheaper plan with fewer peak minutes if a lot if your peak calling is to people on the same network.
  9. Roaming
    1. Nationwide roaming (including the trade-offs of paying more for a plan that includes roaming versus paying less for a regional or local plan and then paying for occasional roaming, and the benefits of a plan that includes off-network roaming versus one that includes only on-network roaming)
    2. International Roaming Capability, GSM phones can be used in Europe and in many countries in Asia (not Japan or South Korea). Verizon will soon offer CDMA roaming in South Korea. iDEN networks exist in South America, Israel, and the Philippines.

You Can't Always Roam, Even if You're Willing to Pay to Do So

Even though your handset may pick up another carrier's signal, there is no guarantee that you can actually make a call on that carrier's network, even if you are willing to pay hefty roaming fees to do so.

On digital networks a carrier will have roaming agreements with other carriers in other geographic areas. But just because a network exists in a specific area it does not mean that your carrier has a roaming agreement with it. For example, CDMA phones are programmed with a list, by location, of carriers that you are allowed to roam on. In some cases the roaming is included as part of your calling plan, in some cases it costs extra. Not every carrier is available to roam on in every location. For example, if Verizon serves a specific market, even if their coverage is poor, they usually will not allow your phone to roam onto Sprint's network. If Verizon doesn't cover a specific market then they will allow roaming onto another CDMA or AMPS carrier in that market, if one exists; in some cases the roaming will be included, in some cases it will cost extra.

GSM carriers are especially bad about this. For example, in Mendocino County, an AT&T GSM phone can roam onto Edge Wireless (an AT&T affiliate). A T-Mobile or Cingular GSM phone will see the network but cannot use it to place a call (except for 911 calls).

Cingular has carried the roaming issue to ridiculous extremes. In some of their markets where they have GSM, TDMA, and AMPS coverage they offer a phone that can use all three technologies (GAIT phones). GAIT phones were introduced to ease the transition from TDMA+AMPS to GSM. But in some areas if you sign up for a calling plan that includes off-network roaming then they won't allow you to use it with a GAIT phone for fear that you'll be doing an inordinate amount of off-network roaming that they'll have to pay for. On the other hand, if you sign up for a calling plan where off-network roaming is paid by the subscriber then they'll be happy to allow you to use a GAIT phone. In New York City, Cingular is GSM only and they do not offer either a GAIT phone or a calling plan with included off-network roaming. It's understandable that they are reluctant to offer GAIT phones with included off-network roaming, but it's a mistake that they at least don't offer GAIT phones with subscriber-paid off-network roaming since it would negate the big coverage disadvantage of GSM service.

As usual, AMPS is the big equalizer in terms of coverage. Even if your carrier does not have a roaming agreement with the AMPS carrier you can usually place a call by using a credit card. Just force your phone to the AMPS network and try both A & B carriers. Not all phones allow manual selection of an AMPS carrier. This is one more reason to NEVER sign up with a carrier that does not offer AMPS capability. Credit card AMPS calls don't always work; according to one Usenet poster, Verizon does not accept credit card calls on their AMPS network, though I have not verified this personally.

Above all, remember that price is just one small part of the big picture that you need to look at. A low-priced carrier with poor quality coverage is no bargain! If your car breaks down and you can't call for help because your carrier happens to have no coverage in the place you need help, you're out of luck. Especially with the new MTC plan to begin eliminating roadside emergency call boxes (click here), having good coverage is more important than ever.

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