Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Tough Call: What's the Best Cell Phone for You?

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Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 14:32:00 -0500

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Personal Finance : Eric Gillin

Tough Call: What's the Best Cell Phone for You?

By Eric Gillin
Staff Reporter

11/09/2002 10:58 AM EST

Click here for more stories by Eric Gillin

The six major wireless service providers all sell the same thing, but they go about it in very different ways. While it's impossible to recommend one company for all people, knowing how each of them is positioned and what people say about them can help you whittle down your list of potential providers.
Here's a quick handicapping of the field, with comments from the experts.
Sprint PCS

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Sprint PCS
(PCS:NYSE - news - commentary - research - analysis) could be the most difficult wireless carrier to gauge. It is reviled by customers for shoddy service, but it offers some of the most innovative phones and services around. In a study of wireless carriers from J.D. Power and Associates, consistently finished near the bottom of the rankings.
Not only does the company have a bad reputation for dropped calls, customers often complain about the myriad fees it charges -- something the company recently addressed with a simplified pricing plan. That doesn't mean its new pricing is straightforward. A just-announced low-priced introductory offer on plans under $60 will jump by $10 after three months of use.

Cell Phone Superlatives

It is impossible to recommend a single service to suit everyone's needs, but a quick look at the list below can give you a nice idea of who does what best, generally speaking

Best Overall Network

AT&T Wireless, Verizon

AT&T's TDMA network is an old reliable, while Verizon ranks high with customers in surveys.

Best Phones

Sprint PCS

Experts say that Sprint's commitment to its next-gen Vision service gives it the edge on the hottest phones, especially ones with color screens.

Best Prices

T-Mobile

In an attempt to gain customers, T-Mobile tends to have the lowest prices, especially on the low-end.

Best for Business

Nextel

Nextel's core competency is the business customer, which is one reason why it offers such a variety of plans with loads of minutes.

A Little Bit of Everything

Cingular

Cingular doesn't have the best network, the coolest phones, the lowest prices or the most features, but consumers rarely have anything to complain about.

Complaints about PCS network may be legion, but the company's just-launched Vision PCS service is the first national data network, which means you can finally do cutting-edge tasks no matter where you live. Experts also say that PCS tends to have the best selection of phones.
"All of the other companies went live on a regional basis," said Charles Golvin, wireless analyst for industry-tracker Forrester Research. "They're going after early adopters now, offering new color screen phones and camera attachments."
T-Mobile

T-Mobile is the newest of the six providers, a rebranding of VoiceStream after Deutsche Telecom
(DT:NYSE ADR - news - commentary - research - analysis) bought it about a year ago. To make a splash, the company not only traded pitchwoman Jamie Lee Curtis for Catherine Zeta-Jones, it also reduced prices to some of the lowest in the entire industry.

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