Cellular phone service providers
Cingular
Cingular, one of the top cell phone providers in the United States, offers several plans to choose from. Whether you want a family, individual, data or prepaid plan there is most likely a plan that will fit your needs.
Cingular has excellent coverage in the eastern US and metropolitan areas in the West. Outlying areas, especially in the Midwest, can be sparse in coverage. This isn't a big problem since Cingular doesn't charge roaming fees.
SITE: http://www.cingular.com
Verizon
Verizon ranks right up there with Cingular as a top cellular service provider. Extensive service coverage, generous minutes, standard features and pricing along with a very solid reputation for providing a quality service to consumers make for a safe cell phone investment.
SITE: http://www.verizonwireless.com
Sprint PCS
While Sprint offers some good plans with useful options and standard features, these plans aren't the best available. Search for a service provider's plan with better nationwide coverage and more minutes.
SITE: http://www.nextel.com
T-Mobile
T-Mobile, one of the nation's leading providers, has many options available concerning wireless solutions for business or personal concerns, though the lack of free minutes and a sparse coverage area put them below our top-ranked providers.
SITE: http://www.t-mobile.com/
Nextel
Nextel has a dedicated following because of their walkie-talkie direct connect service which provides easy access and unlimited airtime to other Nextel subscribers or for businesses where several phones are needed. This walkie-talkie service is especially interesting for construction and similar business types.
SITE: http://www.nextel.com
Qwest
Qwest Wireless service is available in Arizona, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming or Oregon. Qwest does provide nationwide service covering over 99% of the two hundreds largest cities in United States. Plan features, options and cost are not as good as those of larger cell phone providers.
SITE: https://www.qwestwireless.com
Cellular One
Cellular One is a network of wireless providers in 35 states. Its home calling network is rather small, and much of the nation is only available at the roaming fee of $0.59 per minute. The Midwest has the best coverage.
SITE: http://www.cellularonewest.com
PowerNet Mobile
Founded in 1992, cellular phone provider PowerNet Mobile works with a lot of the country's top communications agents and affinity groups to offer a wide range of integrated data, voice and Internet solutions nationwide to commercial and residential customers.
PowerNet's coverage is substantially better in the eastern part of the country; in the west the major metropolitan areas have coverage, though some western states have little coverage.
SITE: http://ecare.pngcom.com/site/index.php
Liberty Wireless
Under Liberty Wireless' arrangement with Sprint, customers have access to service everywhere on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network. Now that Sprint and Nextel have combined this arrangement for Liberty Wireless should only get better.
SITE: http://www.libertywireless.com/home.aspx
Cricket
Although the $30.00 Unlimited Basic plan (which includes unlimited anytime, unlimited night and weekend and unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes) is a great deal, Cricket has a very limited coverage area. Their map shows that they have coverage in only 19 states, and even then coverage within those states is largely restricted to major population areas.
If you live within Cricket's coverage area and don't require a roaming feature, a Cricket plan can be quite attractive as reasonably priced on-the-go, run-around-town cellular phone solution.
SITE: http://www.mycricket.com
MetroPCS
MetroPCS's coverage area consists of three states: California, Georgia and Florida. If you live within this area you get unlimited anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $35.00 per month, and not much else.
SITE: http://www.MetroPCS.com
