| VERIZON SPRINT (Nextel) AT&T (CINGULAR)
WHAT SERVICE IS MOST BLACKBERRY FRIENDLY OUT OF THE AMERICAN BIG THREE?
I write this having used all three services with Blackberry phones and am currently using Sprint (Nextel) and AT&T. This said each service has its ups and downs. I will rate each service in four categories: Call Quality, Services and Choice, Customer Service and Price. T-Mobile is GSM and has a SIM card like AT&T, other than that I will not comment as I have never used their service. I should also state that these are the big three for America and GSM networks are much more prevalent throughout the rest of the world.
CALL QUALITY
Call quality and call drops will change from one area of the country to another and in most cases will be different throughout neighborhoods. This said, I can tell you having traveled with all three of the services that VERIZON is the best. It used to be that they were best by leaps and bounds but not anymore. Sprint in the last couple years has improved their network and in most locations you won’t drop calls. AT&T (Cingular) has promoted that they have the least drops but I have found the opposite to be true.
Make sure that the service you are going to purchase performs well in the area you live and commute in. Ask friends how their service performs. In the past, before I became a Crackberry addict I found that some phones didn’t perform well and you had to take that into consideration when buying a phone. Thankfully, Blackberry users don’t have that problem (with the exception of the first line of Storms). All Blackberry’s seem to perform well in regards to call quality and dropped calls. Maybe this is why Forbes magazine recently ranked Blackberry as number one in growth and ranked IPod thirteenth.
Services and Choice
All three plans have many services you can buy although one of the big pluses of owning a Blackberry is that you can download your services and apps directly from the internet or rims app store.
One thing I like about AT&T is that when you are around an accessible wireless router you can Wi-Fi, speeding up your browsing greatly. Verizon and Sprint disable this feature at this time. AT&T phones are GSM and have SIM cards so when you buy a new phone you can just pop your card into it and you are up and running. You can put your card in any GSM phone and it will work even if it was bought from a different service provider. Sprint and Verizon phones are CDMA and are tied to whatever network you buy them from. The drawback for AT&T is the GSM network is slower than the CDMA network of Sprint and Verizon.
All three services make you purchase a Blackberry web access plan when you sign up. AT&T is the only one that lets you drop it after the first month. To me this is not an issue because the heart and soul of a blackberry is the connectivity and interaction you can only get through using it in conjunction with internet access.
As of now Sprint is the only one that will give you free navigator. You can purchase it as an extra through Verizon and AT&T. I have found I like sprints navigator better than Verizon’s, although neither is as good as a full GPS system.
Each carrier has specific Blackberry’s and none of them have them all. Check with each service to see what Blackberry’s they have. For instance if you want a Bold, you can’t get it at Sprint at this time or if you want a Storm you have to deal with Verizon unless you have it unlocked and use it on GSM (SIM card) network as it works on both. Below is a list of the Blackberry phones each of these three services carry as of now but each of them has new models coming soon, so don’t go by just this list check their websites or call their stores if you want a specific model and you aren’t sure who has it. I have found www.crackberry.com to be a great place to find out both about phones out now and phones that are coming out.
AT&T has The Pearl, The Curve, The Bold and the 8820 at this time.
Sprint has The Curve 8330, The Pearl, Curve 8350i and The Tour 9630 at this time.
Verizon has the Curve8330, The Pearl, The Tour and The Storm.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Having dealt with all three there is no doubt in my mind Verizon has the best customer service. This may be in part because the supervisors seem to have more authority to change bills and to override policies.
Sprint who was known for their awful service has made a huge push to better their customer service and it is by far better than it used to be but when you ask for an early upgrade etc, they tend to have very strict guidelines that in their view they can’t sway from. For instance, I had purchased an app through them and later decided I didn’t want it. I canceled it on the phone but kept getting billed. I then called and the girl said the app wasn’t through them. I informed her I pay for it through Sprint and expect them to be responsible for taking it off. I couldn’t get through to her that if they are the ones who charge for it even though it is through a vender they have to take it off. After talking to a supervisor I was told it would be taken off and sorry about the problem. Needless to say it was on the next month’s bill. I called back and asked why and she said they needed to restart service on that phone in order to make their computer stop billing me. I’m waiting on next month’s bill. Lol.
AT&T is somewhere in between and the closer you are to your renew date the more they are willing to give in. All in all if you watch your bills and don’t mind explaining things more than one time any of the three are willing to help.
Cost
All three services run specials and you should look at all of them before making up your mind. Things change quickly in the cell phone world but at this time Sprint has by far the most Blackberry friendly plans for people who want more than one blackberry on their plan. They have several plans that give an amount of minutes to share on up to five lines per account. You are thinking to yourself that all the companies have these plans and you are right. What makes Sprints different is they have plans with the Blackberry shared web connection built in.
Verizon and AT&T you have to pay $9.99 plus $30 per extra Blackberry user. On Sprint, you only pay $19.99 per extra Blackberry user. That saves you $80 a month if you have five Blackberry Phones on an account.
Another thing I have learned I can’t live without is the navigator program. I don’t think Google maps and the other free ones you download are as good as any of the ones AT&T, Sprint or Verizon provide. This said Sprint gives you the navigator package for free where AT&T and Verizon charge $9.99 a month.
With the plan described above, the free navigator and their already low package rates, Sprint is in my mind the best deal between the three by far. Verizon and AT&T tend to be priced about the same with Verizon being a little higher depending on the package you want and what specials they are offering at the time. I will tell you that I was able to cut $150 a month off my bill when I changed from Verizon to Sprint with the same amount of phones and minutes.
PS. Check to see if your employer has special discounts with a specific carrier. Some unions have a discount also. I get 23% through my employee discount. That’s over $300 a year for my plan. It is definitely worth the time to check!
TO SUM IT UP
· Take the time to compare pricing for what you need (how many lines and minutes).
· Compare all the Blackberry’s to decide what one is best for you.
· Ask friends and family how their service performs.
· Decide if you want CDMA or GSM.
· Decide if you want keep web service (AT&T) is the only one you don’t have to.
· Decide if you will want Navigator service.
· IF you don’t like the service or phone take it back within 30 days!
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PHONE HUNT
Robbin
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