Cell Phones in LA - Best Provider?

[amnesiac]

I have sprint and it sucks gigantic donkey balls. Maybe it's my phone (Treo 300) but the quality of service and support is sliding down to the abyss in a river of sh!t.

Dropped calls are exponentially multiplying, dead zones are growing, etc.

My parents have AT&T digital and it seems to work even here in the boondocks (read: suburbs) near the coast, but they have old first-gen digital phones and I don't know if AT&T's new GSM is as capable.

My choices:

Sprint
AT&T
Verizon
T-Mobile
Cingular

Can anyone in LA report their service quality? Orange County doesn't count, I'm looking for more Beach Cities and suburbs.

 

[Dragnov]

Verizon.

I know my profile says Irvine (Orange County) but my home home is in L.A. county right in the heart of the valley... so I've been all around Los Angles County. Brother goes to UCLA also.

I believe AT&T TDMA network comes in second.

 

[larciel]

LA area, not OC you say?

then

1. verizon
2. ATT TDMA
3. Nextel
rest.

Cingular/T-mobile is upgrading their system/antenna very rapidly. by this year's end, i believe they'll have best coverage in CA/NV.

you can still get ATT TDMA, which worked awesome for me throughout CA. (esp inside buildings) ,

you need to plan your purchase.
1. your budget?
2. your minute spending?
3. what phone do you like?

then you choose the carrier/plan/phone..

but most importantly, no cell phone carrier guarantees 100% coverage, and that mean's there will be sometimes where you pull your hair out 😛

altho it'll be better than sprint ... (our store carries all but sprint... sucks in CA.)

 

[amnesiac]

Budget - for phone, no limit. FOr plan, up to $60/mo
Minutes - 1000 anytime plus unl. nights and weekends would be nice.
Phone - I like the T68i but if there's a good PDA/Phone out there (i.e. nokia communicator) I'll get that. Or something w/ bluetooth.

If ATT had an unlimited cell-to-cell plan I'd get that in a heartbeat. My g/f has ATT and it would be nice to talk to her more.

larciel - where do you work? Can you hook a brotha up? 😀

 

[slikmunks]

i have sprint, works great for me... i go to ucla too... no biggie, i get no service here and there... but hey, sometimes you don't want to be interrupted...

 

[bolido2000]

I am in LA and I think ATT GSM blows TDMA balls off. I am using a Nokia 8390.

 

[brtspears2]

I'd recommend T-mobile or Cingular, but Im usually in Riverside, where theres no one clogging up these networks...

 

[HiTek21]

Anything but Cingular / T-mobile.

Verizon or AT&T Would be best. All my friends switched off Cingular to Verizon

 

[KevinH]

Verizon with ATT a close second. My parent's live in the Inland Empire, I went to school in Orange County, and worked in West LA for 3 years so I've had a taste of all of So Cal and the carrier with the most consistent service is Verizon.

 

[amnesiac]

Wow, verizon seems to be getting an almost unanimous vote.
Do they have any sort of trial period? I'd like to see if they work over in my neighborhood before committing to anything..

 

[Damage]

I am using ATT in LA/OC.. I commute.. never dropped a call.. Hope this helps.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: brtspears2
I'd recommend T-mobile or Cingular, but Im usually in Riverside, where theres no one clogging up these networks...

damn riverside

cingular sucks out in long beach - down a lot 🙁

 

[HamSupLo]

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n

Originally posted by: brtspears2
I'd recommend T-mobile or Cingular, but Im usually in Riverside, where theres no one clogging up these networks...

damn riverside

cingular sucks out in long beach - down a lot 🙁

I work on Pine Ave and we use Cingular at work. I get decent reception. I use ATT in the 626, works pretty well.

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0
Wow, verizon seems to be getting an almost unanimous vote.
Do they have any sort of trial period? I'd like to see if they work over in my neighborhood before committing to anything..

Liek 14 days I believe. Although you lose out on the activatin fee if any...

 

[Yossarian]

Redondo Beach here. I don't know about all that TDMA stuff, but I have a Nokia 5165 with AT&T and I have to say I'm not all that thrilled with the service. I get pretty poor signal fairly often in the south bay area.