Cell Phone Service in the Triangle?? (Durham, Chapel Hill: apartment, chapel, how much)

[firstdoc]

Hello all, this is a great site for info and i have a new one for you:

I will be new to the area in June/July and now have Verizon Wireless...However, I am thinking to moving to an iPhone and was wondering of the many providers, which has excellent service (no calls dropped, no nickel and diming, customer service) and at a great price/rate/package?

For example, with Verizon i pay $70-80 dollars a month for 900 weekday minutes and free nights/weekends and calls to anyone on Verizon is free. (Great since almost all friend and family here in Indiana are Verizon).

However, I will be working long hours for the next 100 years and daytime talking will be at a minimum. So i will appreciated nights and weekend mins for free over daytime minutes. So i plan on getting a small plan with unlimited data on the iphone so I can use the internet at any time.

So, in a nutshell? Which service do you use with your iPhone, how much do you pay, what problems do you find with the service, and what do most people (including non- iPhone-ers use in the CH, Durham area?)

thanks!

[TheAtlantaTransplant]

I think AT&T is the only provider in our area that carries the iPhone. Service from what I understand is good. Don't have any data on plan pricing, etc. Verizon and Alltel also have good service here.

[CHTransplant]

I have both Verizon (personal) and AT&T (work) cell service, and my personal unscientific experience is that Verizon provides better and more consistent coverage than AT&T around the Triangle. But as always, what really matters for you is how the coverage is where you are and where you travel, which may be different than my patterns.

[DanielleNC]

iPhone is only carried by AT&T and I have never had a problem with service except a couple spotty areas in the country. Overall, the past 5 years I have been happy with AT&T (formerly Cingular). I don't have experience with the iPhone, but I do wish on my last upgrade I splurged for it.

[rb79]

Originally Posted by CHTransplant

I have both Verizon (personal) and AT&T (work) cell service, and my personal unscientific experience is that Verizon provides better and more consistent coverage than AT&T around the Triangle. But as always, what really matters for you is how the coverage is where you are and where you travel, which may be different than my patterns.

Correct. I had the opposite experience: ATT>Verizon.
I had Verizon when I lived ITB (near Whole Foods) and the coverage was quite bad inside and near my home. Verizon sent a technician who confirmed the weak signal strength and then let me get out of the 2yr contract to let me sign up with ATT.

Also with iPhone being only available on ATT, you should go with them. GL!

[senalj]

I chose Verizon because they have coverage in my apartment. I had a friend come over with her AT&T phone and she didn't have coverage in my house, neither does my work cell (Sprint), so Verizon won by default. If you know where you're going to live, you should probably see which company has the best coverage in your home or the areas you will frequent.

[firstdoc]

I thought that Sprint/Nextel offered iphones? I have heard that Sprint is big in the triangle but I am sensing via you all that it is not... I have no idea, just repeating what I heard from one of my future co-workers.

[CHTransplant]

Originally Posted by firstdoc

I thought that Sprint/Nextel offered iphones?\

No, AT&T is the only carrier in the U.S. that offers iPhones.

Originally Posted by firstdoc

I have heard that Sprint is big in the triangle but I am sensing via you all that it is not

Used to be. Has been on a big downward slide for the past several years.

[donna78]

Terrible experience with Sprint here, with respect to both cell phone reception and customer service. I changed to ATT for the iphone and better service and I can say that my signal is much, much better. To reiterate, again, the iphone is only on ATT. We had Verizon before Sprint and they were OK, but somewhat expensive considering the features. Of course, it has been quite a few years since we had Verizon so can't really offer a good perspective.

[StoneOne]

I have an iPhone with AT&T (the only official provider - you can use T-Mobile if you have your iPhone unlocked). I've been quite happy overall, although there are parts of Chapel Hill where service is spotty, but I guess that's the case with most providers there. Also, AT&T can be somewhat weak inside large buildings like shopping malls and grocery stores.

One thing to keep in mind with the iPhone is that 3G service drops off fairly quickly once you leave the cities. While it works, AT&T's EDGE service is considerably slower.

On the whole, though, AT&T is very good from a quality and customer service standpoint.