Moved To D.c. Area. Need To Get Phone. Need Advice.

U

Umera

New member
Hey guys,

I recently (jsut 2 days ago) moved to Northern VA/D.C area in the U.S from Toronto, Canada. I will living in Northern VA (Loudon County) but working in D.C.
I wanted to get a GSM phone, I had CDMA in Toronto (TELUS) and dont want one again. I searched and read some threads and found out that both CINGULAR and T-MOBILE provide GSM service.

I am looking for a plan that gives me evening and weekends free (i know, only during certain times) and also long distance to Canada for free (if possible) or for a cheap rate. Also I would a good amount of day time minutes. Something in the range of lets say 700 (if roll over is availalble, then thats great too).

I dont want to pay anything over $60 a month for a plan like this. Is this possible?

Also what phone do you recommend. I have searched but would really like opinions based on the criteria I ahve given.

I like the RAZR V3i but dont know if either of these cell phone companies sell this phone in the D.C. Area.
Any other suggestions is greatly apprieciated. PLEASE POST SUGGESTIONS. NEED A PLAN AND PHONE SOON.

Thanks guys...
 
Start by reviewing Cingular's plans (they are bigger and they do rollover) and get a free phone. The V3i is not out in North America yet so you'll need to buy an unlocked one from online somewhere (they run about $375). If you don't mind a bar phone, the SLVR L7 is very nice (except it has a VGA camera) and runs $290. It comes with iTunes as well.

Tango Uniform
 
The L7 I tried out had it. Perhaps they got smart and dumped Apple since then(http://engadget.com/2006/01/04/motorola-slvr-with-itunes-coming-soon-from-cingular/).

Tango Uniform
 
Crap...
but I want to get GSM. So its only T-moblie and Cingular...which one??
I need a plan that has great Long distance converage to Canada...and evening and weekends free..
TIA
 
Contact both carriers and find out what they have to offer. It's been my experience that the people running the mall kiosks are older than their IQ. I recommend you surf their websites and call their customer service numbers.

Tango Uniform
 
The only carrier with a plan with long distance free to Canada does not have unlimited nights and weekends and is with Cingular and is prohibitively expensive....why not use VOIP like Vonage for calling Canada (I am Canadian too....well quebecois ;-) and that's what I do.....calling Canada is almost as bad as calling the States from Canada is.
 
I've lived in NoVA area for quite a while, now. The only two A+ services are Verizon and Cingular. I have a Verizon Razr V3c and a Cingular Razr V3.

They both do very well, but in my experience you're only absolutely, positively sure to be able to make a call if you have one of each! The other carriers are way, way behind those two as far as coverage.

Since you are sure you want a GSM phone (for whatever reason), your default carrier of choice is Cingular. They have attractive plans in the area, too.

I am not sure why your friend mentioned dropping calls with Cingular. I don't. I drop fewer calls with Cingular than I do with Verizon, but that's probably just because of the particular long drives I take...up and down 95, 29 and 28, and back and forth on 3.

T Mobile would not be for me, but an advantage with T Mobile is that they have an excellent street-level service map that shows you the towers and relative signal strength for specific neighbourhoods and addresses.

So if you can check that out and find that there's good T Mobile everywhere you're likely to be, then T Mobile does offer extraordinary deals when it comes to the number of minutes/dollar value. Looks closely and be sure, though, because their coverage isn't nearly as good overall as Cingular and Verizon.
 
I've lived in NoVa/DC for 15 years now, and I've had all of the major carriers (for various reasons). By far the best coverage I've had during my time here has been Verizon. AT&T/Cingular gave me fits in a number of places where my personal Verizon phone worked just fine.

In fact, I've had the same VZ # for 10 years now; at first it was b/c they were they only carrier around here, but then I decided to keep it after all of the crappy service I got with other carriers that my various companies chose to use (includes Nextel, Sprint, and T-Mobile).

I work in the Telecom industry (NOT for VZ!!), and have for the entire time I've been in this area. Like one of the other posters said, VZ even works in Metro! It's not perfect here (as with every other provider in every part of the country), but I know that I have a better chance of being able to make, and keeping the calls alive, with my VZ phone than any other (and that is DESPITE all of the stupid s*** VZ does to disable phone features).

Welcome to the area! Hope my $.02 helps.

Sully
 
I was on Cingular using a 6230b in addition to a Blackberry 7290 and had bad service downtown and here in Fairfax...not coverage issues more like text message delivery delays, intermittent data outages, horrid customer service, and random dropped calls. For me, as I don't take road trips anywhere past Loudon, it wasn't worth the extra money since the breadth of coverage in urban areas of the DC area were the same as I find with T-Mobile. Why pay for coverage in rural VA if I don't go there?
 
Ok its Jan 27th now and I still havent gotten my I-mate Kjam from WIRELESS IMPORTS. I ordered it from them on JAN 18th!!!! I called them 3 days ago and they said they had "shipping problems" with FEDEX. The customer service rep (i wont mention his name) who was really nice said that as soon as he gets it he will ship it OVERNIGHT for free because they made me wait so long. I hope I go home today and its there or else something has to be done.
 
Hi!

We live in WI, and my wife is from YYZ. I was just there, and found out how crappy the Canadian wireless plans are! Total crap! I can't believe that Canada, which is pretty cool, can't do better.

Verizon does have a Canadian calling plan, which costs about $10/month. I'm not sure on the details. There are no US plans with Canadian calling built into them-only US calling.

Verizon has the best coverage nationwide, so if you're travelling, I would reccomend them.

I would also reccomend getting VOIP if you can't find a suitable plan for Canada. My wife used to spend $100+ ea. month calling Canada. We now use Vonage, and our total monthly bill is only $25. Very cheap calling to other countries, also.

GOod luck!

Cliff
ABY

PS-I used to live in Bethesda. I loved the DC area, and that was even before the subway. My relatives live in Winchester, Arlington and Rockville.
 
Hi Muggs, welcome to Loudoun County. I've lived here for 3 years. I had to get Cingular because at that time, they were the only provider with a tower in my area. Now I think all the providers have towers. I am SICK of Cingular. I have a dead zone between my home and work and another on Pleasant Valley Rd. on the way to I-66. It's SO frustrating. Plus the Fairfax Co Parkway is a deadzone for several miles south of I-66. AND, though I don't go there often, huge parts of Vienna are dead for me, too. I called Cingular the other day to see when my contract is up. When they asked why I wanted to cancel, I told them about the dead zones near where I live, and they said it was because I have a 2 year old phone and there are plenty of towers in my area. I'm hugely dubious of it. The woman went on to explain that when she upgraded her phone, she can get all the way to the stop sign on a road she used to get no service before. Boy, that convinced me to upgrade with Cingular.... NOT!

So I'm strongly thinking of Verizon and a an E815 phone. They say I can try it out for 2 weeks and can cancel with no penalty.

Can anyone give me a reason not to go with Verizon? Two co-workers had Sprint and they each had troubles with billing.

TIA.
 
Thanks SkwerlG.
I live in near South Riding so thats why I am asking. too bad about the dead zones, but my job has a deal with cingular and i think they will pay for it too....
I am still VENTING ON WHY I HAVENT GOTTEN MY PHONE FROM WIRELESS IMPORTS. ITS BEEN MORE THAN 12 DAYS!!!!!!!
HAVE TO CALL THEM TOMORROW TO CANCEL IF THEY HAVENT GOTTENT IT.
 
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