🚀 go-pugleaf

In git.ads EE Lab <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
>  Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
> area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
> please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you
>  Cornelius

  Powertel has been good to me since fall 1998. The main drawback for
their service is that they don't normally offer analog roaming
(i.e. the analog stuff isn't built into most of the phones they
sell). You can get it as an option (i.e. hardware add-on for Nokia
51xx and 61xx, don't know about others), but I've never felt the
need. Lots of my friends complain about Sprint, but it still seems to
work most of the time.

-Peter

-- 
Peter Jensen 
http://www.diff.net/peter
CS/ee undergrad ^ jensen@cc ^ 6-1111

In git.ads EE Lab <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> alleged:
->   Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
-> area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
-> please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you

So far no complaints with Sanyo 4500 and Sprint PCS.

-- 
John Cronin
mailto: `echo NjsOc3@SgtPfA.orMg | sed 's/[NOSPAM]//g'`

"EE Lab" <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote
>   Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
> area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
> please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you

I am on Sprint PCS with my Sanyo 4000.  Overall great phone and service.

--
Brian Bell           CmpE
Georgia Institute of Technology
Email: gte619j@prism.gatech.edu

In git.ads EE Lab <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
>   Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
> area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
> please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you

i just got the nokia 3390 with powertel's 600 anytime/3000 weekend
minute plan for $40 a month. the 3390 is a great phone, and service
as been great so far. powertel also offers a $50 service credit
and if you buy at best buy, you get a $50 best buy gift card.
the 3390 is $99 plus $20 activation.

i'd definetely go for sprint pcs.

"kei" <whyaskwhy@innocent.com> wrote in message
news:9a808a$k0s$1@news-int.gatech.edu...
>
> i'd definetely go for sprint pcs.

agreed, i've used it for 2+ years now and not had any problems....great
phones, great service.

dm

On Sun, 01 Apr 2001 13:02:18 -0400, EE Lab <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu>
wrote:

>  Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
>area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider

I've been with all the local carriers except Nextel (and Southern
Linc, who doesn't market to individuals) so I should be more than able
to answer your question.  :)  However, your question is hard to answer
without some additional information.  

Do you travel very much, and if so, exactly where do you travel?

Also, where in the metro Atlanta area do you plan to use your phone?
(If you need your phone in Newnan you want to skip Cingular; if you
plan to use your phone in the north GA mountains you're probably best
off with Cingular [but Verizon is acceptable, and is excellent in the
northEAST GA mountains], if you need coverage in Rome skip Powertel,
etc.)

That said, I personally recommend against going with AT&T unless you
want prepaid service or are outside of the Atlanta area more than
you're in it, mainly because of bad coverage.  If you stay mostly
within the Perimeter and near Northside suburbs, any other carrier
should serve you well.  Personally, I've found that Cingular and
Sprint have the best *quality* coverage in the immediate Atlanta area,
with Verizon not too far behind.  (Powertel still has too many dead
zones, including I-75 between Wade Green and GA 92 and one on Holcomb
Bridge just east of the old Wal*Mart, and AT&T just plain sucks.)  On
the Southside, Verizon and Cingular have far better coverage than the
rest.  If you need coverage in outlying areas, it gets more tricky.

As for me -- I currently use Verizon's SingleRate plan, which includes
all roaming and long distance anywhere in the US (600 mins for $75/mo;
plans with fewer and more minutes are available.)  Other than the fact
that caller ID doesn't work when outside of north GA, I'm quite happy
with them.

-SC
-- 
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
...
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  There might
be a law against it by that time."  -/usr/games/fortune

On 1 Apr 2001 17:56:25 GMT, Peter Jensen <jensen@cc.gatech.edu> wrote:

>sell). You can get it as an option (i.e. hardware add-on for Nokia
>51xx and 61xx, don't know about others), but I've never felt the

The only phones that are compatible with Powertel's analog roaming are
the Nokia 5190 and 6190 (with analog module) and the Ericsson CF888.
I don't think that Ptel even sells the CF888 anymore...

The other problem with Ptel's analog roaming is that there are MANY
areas where they have no analog roaming agreements, meaning that you
can't receive calls in those areas and must use a credit card to place
calls at $2/min.  I used to use Ptel but after having no service in
New Orleans (now resolved) and Lafayette, LA (still a problem), I
switched to Verizon.

>need. Lots of my friends complain about Sprint, but it still seems to

Sprint's *coverage* is very good in Atlanta (especially compared to
other cities such as Chicago) but they have had a lot of problems with
voicemail as of late.

-SC
-- 
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
...
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  There might
be a law against it by that time."  -/usr/games/fortune

On Sun, 1 Apr 2001 16:05:04 -0700, "William J. Meyerbeck"
<meyerbeck@softhome.ncrap1.net> wrote:

>If you travel away from interstates then BellSouth should
>be considered as they have the most towers.

Again, depends on exactly *where* away from interstates you go.

If you travel a lot in east Tennessee, the Carolinas, outside the
Southeast, etc., I do *NOT* recommend Cingular (you're best off with
Verizon or AT&T; Sprint charges too much for roaming in rural areas
and Powertel and Nextel are out of the question.)  OTOH, if you travel
a lot in the north Georgia mountains, I strongly recommend Cingular.

-SC
-- 
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
...
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  There might
be a law against it by that time."  -/usr/games/fortune

One item for consideration is where will you travel? If you are
staying in the ATL area then all the providers have coverage.
If you travel away from interstates then BellSouth should
be considered as they have the most towers.


"EE Lab" <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote in message
news:3AC75F1A.8F9B9487@prism.gatech.edu...
>   Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
> area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
> please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you
>   Cornelius
>

In git.general Stanley Cline <sc1@roamer1.org> wrote:
: New Orleans (now resolved) and Lafayette, LA (still a problem), I
: switched to Verizon.

Gah! As  long as I have a chioce, I will never use verizon. I've lived in 
Seattle like all of three weeks and they already managed to unimpress me 
with their service.

Tigress

-- 
The root cause of problems is simple overpopulation.  People just aren't
worth very much any more, and they know it.  Makes 'em testy. ...Bev
    |\    _,,,---,,_          Tigress
   /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_     http://havoc.gtf.gatech.edu/tigress
  |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'    tigress@havoc.gtf.gatech.edu
 '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)         Cat by Felix Lee.

Well, I guess I will be the first one to say something about Sprint 
PCS.

I find that their coverage has a few holes around the Atlanta area.
Specifically, when I am out in Kennesaw (close to N.Cobb High) I get
bad connectivity frequently (if any)

There is also very spotty service (poor, if any) service in Acworth,
and out by Stone Mtn.

I am fairly certain that it is Sprint, and not problems with my phone
because friends with other providers (Nortel and Powertel... which is now
Singular(?) ) seem to not have problems in those areas.  


I have a StarTac phone.  Maybe that's why? (Though StarTac's using
Powertel worked find in Stn Mtn)



:> i'd definetely go for sprint pcs.
: agreed, i've used it for 2+ years now and not had any problems....great
: phones, great service.





-- 
                             _____  ________ _______
,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_|_______/     /    _/   |       '\_____________________
|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|______/     /   _/|    |        |____________________/
'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-|-----/     /  _/--|    | ______/--------------------'
                         /        /    |    |     |
                        /     /   |    |    |      \
                       /     /     |==_|    |__    |
______________________/      /     |        |     |___|_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_,
\____________________/      /.      |       |    /____|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|#|
 '------------------/______/-|______/_____''____/-----|-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-"
                   http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gt9532b
                         kjs@liberator.gt.ed.net

"Nathan Greer" <gte381f@prism.gatech.edu> wrote in message
news:9a7vaf$jf4$1@news-int.gatech.edu...
> i just got the nokia 3390 with powertel's 600 anytime/3000 weekend
> minute plan for $40 a month. the 3390 is a great phone, and service
> as been great so far.

I recently switched to the 3390, and although it's a good phone, and has a
lot of features that are handy, the one drawback is the battery life. If you
don't care that much about customization, and just want a regular cell
phone, then stick to the 5190.

MHB

On Sun, 01 Apr 2001 18:47:36 -0400, Stanley Cline <sc1@roamer1.org> said:

> I used to use Ptel but after having no service in New Orleans (now
> resolved) and Lafayette, LA (still a problem), I switched to
> Verizon.

I've been thinking about switching to Verizon from Powertel.  How's
their coverage in Atlanta?  I had heard bad things about Air Touch in
Atlanta, so I was hesitating.

Drew

In article <3AC75F1A.8F9B9487@prism.gatech.edu>,
EE Lab  <gt0445a@prism.gatech.edu> wrote:
>  Can anyone give me advise on a good cellphone & plan for the atlanta
>area. If you are having good experience with a particular provider
>please reply with a recommendation and prices. Thank you
>  Cornelius

You really have to decide what kind of usage you are going to have on the phone. Are you
planning to use it to replace your home/dorm phone? Then you need a plan with a lot of
minutes and good reception everywhere. Are you planning to use it while travelling
across the US? Then you want a plan that won't ream you when you are out of the base
area. Are you going to use it soley for emergencies? Then
a bare-bones plan or prepaid is the way to go. For me personally, I wanted the phone solely
for safety reasons and wanted the cheapest option I could find that would work over most of
the country. For that reason, I went with BellSouth's prepaid. $20 cards are good for 6
months, so that makes my cellphone cost only $40/year. The Motorola phone I got for it was
cheap, no bells and whistles, but reception is fine. I took it out to Texas with me
and was able to get reception there. I could have spent another $30 and gotten the Nokia
5130 which is a decent phone as well with a few more bells and whistles. 

For my plan, coverage over the entire Atlanta area is fine (no holes found so far), and $20
buys me about 60 minutes of calling time. 

Catherine

-- 
Generic Lame-O Signature Follows:
Matos, Catherine Anne Moseley
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~cm85
Yes, I love being a graduate student! Really! I mean it!

On 02 Apr 2001 09:38:31 -0400, Andrew Hobson <ahobson@infloop.com>
wrote:

>I've been thinking about switching to Verizon from Powertel.  How's
>their coverage in Atlanta?  I had heard bad things about Air Touch in

Overall, Verizon's coverage is better than AT&T and Powertel (I don't
understand why Powertel still has the dead spots on I-75 and Holcomb
Bridge; I know I'm not the only one who has complained about those
two), but not as good as Cingular and Sprint.  In particular, indoor
coverage can be a bit irritating, but is not "bad" by any means.  I
have had a few dropped calls with Verizon, mostly in Buckhead and one
or two at home in Dunwoody, but I've had more dropped calls in more
places with Powertel.

Most of the complaints I've heard about the old AirTouch are about
customer service and billing and having an overall very "arrogant"
attitude; I have had no billing issues and the one or two times I've
called CS (seriously!  I've had to *hound* other carriers), they've
been knowledgeable and helpful.  I think that Verizon (Bell Atlantic
and GTE)'s people have made the AirTouch people clean up their act.

-SC
-- 
Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/
...
"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.  There might
be a law against it by that time."  -/usr/games/fortune