Phone and Carrier Recommendations

We have been with T-mobile since they were VoiceStream, probably 10 years. We've always had good service with them. My husband is a truck driver aand he's usually on the road so the unlimited mobile-to-mobile with our family plan is definitely necessary. And the coverage has been pretty good. But all service providers have their +s and -s

I'm not sure about the phones. I use a simple RIZR, but my husband has one with all the fancy bells and whistles, and I know they have even more sophisticated ones - he had one that was a PDA, had some sort of internet availablitiy, even had programs like Yancy where he coud download material for reading - he had the entire LDS standard works, hymn book, and lesson manuals on his phone! Plus it was an awesome camera. If you want more details about what kind of phone it was let me know and I'll ask him next time we talk (it'll be today).
Good luck!

I had a Blackberry Pearl and it was deifinitely a pain. We had to constantly (few times a week) remove the battery, let it sit and reload it...5minutes later since it seemed to get "foggy brained" and stop working after so long. Also the keyboard was way too small and annoying. I now have the Lg VU and LOVE it!!!!!!!! I am with AT&T and have been for 10 years now with rollover mins for the whole family with unlmtd texting and pay about $130/mo. If you wanted the internet service I think it is anpother $25/mo. and we share over 1200 mins a month with rollover credits.

Hi, K., I'll be up front and let you know that I do work in the cell phone industry (though not in sales). You mentioned the iPhone and the Blackberry. I wanted to let you know that while different versions of the Blackberry are offered by various carriers, the iPhone is offered only by AT&T. Since AT&T carries both phones, they are the ones that would be able to offer a Family Plan (minute sharing) with both of these Smart Phones. AT&T, like most other providers, offers the ability to walk into one of their corporate stores and actually check out the handsets prior to purchase. I actually went into the store at BelMar recently with a friend who was going through the exact same debate about which Smart Phone to purchase and which plan to consider. We told the salesman that we were just looking but had a lot of questions. He took us on a "tour" of each of the phones that included all of their features. My friend got his card and then went home and thought about it for a week. He came back to the store and purchased the phone of his choice after having this time to consider it. (The purpose of getting the sales person's card is that, because they work on commission, he wanted to give the sale to the individual who took all the time to explain.) Anyway, perhaps a similar strategy can work for you. If you have any questions about AT&T, please do not hesitate to ask. If I cannot answer the question, I will be happy to find someone who can.

We are excited for our contract to end with T-Mobile because their technology in Utah is so slow. They keep talking about their speedy 3G technology, but it is not here in the valley yet. My husband had a blackberry pearl and it had tons of problems. It couldn't do 2 things at once. For example, if he was on a phone call and someone emailed him it would drop his phone call. Or another problem he had was that he would go all day not recieving an phone call, email or text and he would have to hard reset his phone by taking the battery out, letting it sit for a while, putting it back in, and waiting for everything to reload. It was a pain and we would definately not recommend that phone. He got a new blackberry about 2 weeks ago (not the pearl, the bigger one) and it seems to be working a lot better, however it is still slow with all of the data stuff. Anyways, as soon as our contract is up, we are definately getting off of the blackberry plan and switching to the iPhone. They are so cool and hopefully their service will be a lot better. Hope this helps :)

I totally didn't see this until today. I've been sick and haven't checked my email. Anyway my husband lives off his phone and has found that the one that he loves best for calendar and business is the Palm Treo. Some of the other smart phones are fun but he hasn't liked the calendars etc. Anyway if you're looking for the whole package with internet etc. Sprint seems to be the cheapest for internet. Be aware that if you decide on a Blackberry that you have to buy the Blackberry's internet service unless you get unlimited with Sprint. I'm no expert I just have watched my husband and listened to some of the things he has said. My husband runs an online cell phone store (and other services as well) and has some sweet deals so check it out -- we just saved a friend over $80 on his phone last week and my husband always sends out little extra incentives to his customers (like gift cards and stuff.) Anyway his website is: http://www.brinksnation.acnrep.com/a_products.asp?CO_LA=U...=
just click on WIRELESS
His number is also on there if you have any questions. Hope that it helps and that you can maybe save some money and get some sweet phones. Good luck with everything.

--C.