First Phone

Need advise on purchasing my first cell phone.
Need good coverage throughout the States, relaible customer service, optional
international calling.
Options I've considered:
1)Cingular
Accepts GSM 850/900/1800/1900 quad band unlocked phone so I can also use a
Canada SIMS card.
2)Verizon
?better coverage and customer support? but does not accept GSM phones, so I
would have a second phone for travel to Canada
3)Use a US phone in Canda and pay the international fees
Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you

On 2006-09-06, Rose412 <u26240@uwe> wrote:
> Need advise on purchasing my first cell phone.
> Need good coverage throughout the States, relaible customer service, optional
> international calling.
> Options I've considered:
> 1)Cingular
> Accepts GSM 850/900/1800/1900 quad band unlocked phone so I can also use a
> Canada SIMS card.
> 2)Verizon
> ?better coverage and customer support? but does not accept GSM phones, so I
> would have a second phone for travel to Canada
> 3)Use a US phone in Canda and pay the international fees
> Any information would be appreciated.
> Thank you

If you are only concerned about travel to Canada (and/or Mexico), and you
do this frequently, then Verizon's North America's Choice plans, here

http://mobileoptions.vzw.com/interna...ing_plans.html

might work out. For $20 per month over the price of a near-equivalent
America's Choice plan (which, in turn, is a bit more expensive than
a near-equivalent Cingular plan) you get calls to and roaming in
Canada and Mexico at no additional charge. Of course you can buy
a fair number of prepaid SIM minutes in, and long distance calls
to, Canada for that $240 per year (the plan is a better deal for
Mexico, where the local mobile phone providers charge usurious
rates), so you need to decide whether your expected use makes this
worth it.

If you expect your usage to be more modest, however, or care about
travel to places other than Canada, I would stick with Cingular or T-Mobile
as long as the coverage at home is good. They are generally cheaper
and unlocked GSM phones are useful just about everywhere on the planet.

Dennis Ferguson

Wow! a first phone is something rather personal...


"Rose412" <u26240@uwe> wrote in message news:65e4937f12694@uwe...
> Need advise on purchasing my first cell phone.
> Need good coverage throughout the States, relaible customer service,
> optional
> international calling.
> Options I've considered:
> 1)Cingular
> Accepts GSM 850/900/1800/1900 quad band unlocked phone so I can also use a
> Canada SIMS card.
> 2)Verizon
> ?better coverage and customer support? but does not accept GSM phones, so
> I
> would have a second phone for travel to Canada
> 3)Use a US phone in Canda and pay the international fees
> Any information would be appreciated.
> Thank you
>

"Rose412" <u26240@uwe> wrote in message news:65e4937f12694@uwe...
> 1)Cingular
> Accepts GSM 850/900/1800/1900 quad band unlocked phone so I can also use a
> Canada SIMS card.

The phone you get from Cingular will be SIM locked so you won't be able to
use a Canadian SIM unless you first get it unlocked. Doing so will void any
waranty from Cingular. You can buy an unlocked phone online but I don't
think Cingular gives you a break if you BYO phone. You can pick up a cheap
prepaid to solve the Canada problem and solve your US problem as a separate
issue.

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net