# Sprint PCS vs. Nextel vs. Verizon...best cellular service **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 6, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853 "2003-01-06T01:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/1 "2003-01-06T01:47:50Z")
My service agreement is about up with my Verizon mobile phone. I’ve not been the most pleased with the service, and the phone isn’t all that great, so I’m considering other service providers. I am unclear of the difference between PCS and “regular” cellular service, and am unsure who all the service providers are (vs. who makes the phones). In your experience–and your opinion–which company provides the best service?\* \*[sub]defined as: clear sound quality, fewest dropped calls, fewest staticked-out calls, largest area served, best long distance/minutes package, and high quality phones for best buck[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/2 "2003-01-06T03:02:56Z")
Hmm. A whopping 6 views. Does this mean I win the Most Boring Thread Ever award? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/3 "2003-01-06T03:28:53Z")
You might pick up the Feb. issue of _Consumer Reports_ which just came today in my mail. It rates many of the services. Verizon scored quite well overall. It seems to vary a lot from City to City. I don’t have cell myself, so can’t offer any personal opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/4 "2003-01-06T03:47:59Z")
Speaking as a former Sprint PCS, I can tell you that they’re all pretty much equal. The important thing to find out is how the signal strenth is in the areas where you’re going to be using the phone. I don’t know about the other cell phone companies, but if you can actually get hold of a human at Sprint PCS’s customer service line, and they know what they are doing, they can plug in the addresses of where you’ll be using the phone and tell you how close you are to the tower. Any more than a couple of miles and you’ll have problems. Also, if your cell phone is more than a year old, you’re going to have a lot problems with it in most cases. Those things are pretty much slapped together (I should know, I also worked in an assembly plant for them) any old way and after a year’s worth of use, they’re shot. Now, if you’re planning on cancelling your service at the end of your contract, Verizon will be more than happy to extend to you all kinds of special offers to try and keep you to stay with them, so you might be able to get something out of them that satisfies you. ---
**Author:** ![tacosux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@tacosux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacosux)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/5 "2003-01-06T03:59:35Z")
none, get a beeper, stop being trendy ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/6 "2003-01-06T04:21:33Z")
Beepers don’t call 911 when your car has been totalled by a 55-ton semi. Nor do they call the airport to alert your awaiting SO that you’re 1) okay and 2) going to be very late picking them up. When you’ve spun out your vehicle when hitting a large tire tread on a dark freeway, a beeper cannot alert 911–who then cannot alert the police to remove it before someone gets killed. Neither can a beeper alert the authorities when a large dog, apparently in shock, lies quietly (and quite alive) trapped in the dividing center lane of a freeway. They also suck at getting directions when you’re lost or, as I prefer to call it, “misplaced.” _Beepers_ are what I personally find useless and trendy, but that’s just MHO. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/7 "2003-01-06T04:35:14Z")
Damn, **Ruffian**. You lead one HELL of a life! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![wireless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/8 "2003-01-06T05:06:52Z")
I responded at length a while back to a similar question in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=101917). You may find that a place to start. Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions…about wireless stuff, I mean. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/9 "2003-01-06T05:36:05Z")
Nope, **samclem** …I just live in L.A.! (And you know, after my third freeway scare-the-crap-out-of-me episode, I’m ready to move on. Or until then…use surface streets.) ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/10 "2003-01-06T05:43:09Z")
[Epinions](http://www.epinions.com/elec-Comm-Mobileservice-All) is a good place to start your research. Something else I’ve found with determining your coverage is the type of phone you have. I use Sprint PCS and I had a much better experience with it after I switched from a Samsung phone to a Kyocera. I would also read reviews of any phone you purchase to go with the cellular company you choose. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/11 "2003-01-06T07:52:44Z")
All wireless phone companies suck at customer service, at least most of the time. The decision usually comes down to price, features, and coverage. When I had to get new service last year, I ended up sticking with Verizon, for the following reasons (roughly in order of importance): [ul] [li]Coverage: They had the largest nationwide network of no-roaming/no-long-distance coverage that still covered some specific areas where I knew I’d be using the phone. I was contracting at the time and was working on a project in Moline, IL. Verizon’s network covered Moline, and the others that had equal or better overall coverage didn’t.[/li][li]Price: I was looking to add a second line for my wife to my service plan. Verizon’s family plan worked out to be a better deal for us than the other options, especially given the no-roaming/no-long-distance nationwide. I was also able to get two new phones for a total of $79, though I did have to agree to a one-year contract to get that.[/li][/ul] In my case, I knew that I’d be using the phone all over the country, primarily in major metro areas but occasionally in the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t predict, beyond a few specific locations, where I would or wouldn’t need service. I wanted a plan with national no-roaming/no-long-distance so that I wouldn’t have to constantly be worrying about whether or not a call was going to incur extra charges. I also knew that my wife regularly drives herself and our kids from Atlanta to Asheville, NC without me, so having coverage for as much of that trip as possible was also important (there are parts of Western NC where there’s no cell coverage of any kind); again, the no-roaming/no-long-distance bit was important, since my wife’s so cheap she’d sit on the side of the road for a couple of hours until a policeman came along rather than make a cell phone call if she thought she was going to get hit for roaming and long distance charges for it. These are very specific requirements we had; someone who almost never travels outside a specific metro area could probably get a better deal one of the PCS-only providers (Nextel, Sprint PCS, etc.) who covers their area well. You really have to figure out what your regular usage will be, what occasional exceptions you’ll have, where you’ll need the phone, and how good the coverage is there. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/12 "2003-01-06T15:08:33Z")
I use Cingular, I like it. There’s not really a whole lot of difference between carriers. I’ve noticed the no roaming charge claim by most companies say "from anywhere on our national network’. My Cingular coverage says “no roaming charges” period. I really don’t know if that means anything, though. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprint-pcs-vs-nextel-vs-verizon-best-cellular-service/146853/13 "2003-01-07T03:12:12Z")
I forgot to add that the _Consumer Reports_ also rated cell phones.