Cell Phone of Choice For NYC
 

We're thinking of getting a pay aa you for cell phone for our two week visit. Our AT&T phone would cost a fortune, 89? plus tax per minute for roaming and we don't want to change our plan, for various reasons.

Looking through past posts, I pnly found pertinent posts in 2000. Verizon topped the other companies.

Is that still the case? Any other recommendations from you locals. We only want the phone for this trip.

TIA,

Nina

Everyone knows that the best cell phones in the world are made by Nokia - located in Finland - where cell phone accounts outnumber residents. Second in the market is Motorola.

I am looking for a cellphone company plan, not a brand preference.

Nina, can you help decipher this :
"We're thinking of getting a pay aa you for cell phone for our two week visit"
In attempting to provide assistance to your quest, I plugged the phrase into the world's most powerful search engine and couldn't arrive at a satisfactory result.

IMHO, Verizon has the best service in NYC. I switched to Verizon a year ago from ATT, which was horrible in NYC

I agree with Lori. I have had Sprint, AT&T and now Verizon and the others can't even compare to the service that I get with Verizon. The majority of my friends/family have also switched to Verizon because of the service in the NYC area.

Verizon seems to have the best service in this area. I have had Verizon for about 7 years now in the NJ/NYC area with no problems.

AT&T wireless just got bought by Cingular. Different name, same lousy service, at least in this region.

Call your cell phone company and get a temporary plan for the two weeks you will be in NYC.

I know my plan has free roaming all over the US and free long distance. Most carriers have some sort of deal like this and they will allow you to add features for a temporary amount of time.

I believe Nina is coming from abroad, otherwise asking which company is best wouldn't be that much of an issue.

With that in mind, Consumer Reports has said that Verizon is best overall, and was rated well in NYC. I had AT&T and they are horrible. I now have Sprint with no problems, but in retrospect, should have switched to Verizon.

If there are any Nokia or Motorola phones with Verizon, get them as they work the best. Samsungs are probably the worst.

I also am pleased with Verizon. I tried T mobile, had it for a day and returned it. I couldn't call someone across the street, terrible service.

Most NYers use either Verizon or Sprint and don't seem to have problems with them (I have Verizon). There have been problems with AT&T, not sure if these have been resolved. Almost everyone I know who had AT&T has since switched to Verizon.

No I'm not coming from abroad, unless you consider the left coast 'abroad'. I'm in San Francisco. The reason that we went with AT&T is that we have a vacation home about two and a half hours from San Francisco, and AT&T is the the only company that gets reception both here and there. We had to take a digital TSMA phone (Nokia), as the GSM phones don't get reception in that area. We previously had Spint, but it was worthless up there.

On my current plan I can call NY or any other state, but I would have to pay 89 cents a minute roaming charges to use my phone in NY.

In order to use AT&T in NY, I would have to change to a GSM plan and buy another phone, which I wouldn't be able to use in my vacation area. Not worth it for two weeks, especially as you have told me, AT&T reception is horrible in NY. Then, adding insult to injury, when I returned home I would have to go back to my original plan, and I'd be stuck with the new phone that I couldn't use. Dito for their prepaid 'pay has you go' plan.

It's a 'Catch 22' situation.

It looks like Verizon is the way to go. There are no Verizon stores even close to SF, so I'll see what I can do online with them.

I hope that you understand the above, as I have thorougly confused myself. How did we ever live without cell phones?

** Maxwellsmart - Thank you for proof reading my post. It's nice to know that I'm giving someone without a life something to do. My good deed for today.

Nina, can't your phone company give you a temporary plan for your two week trip? Or rent you another phone for your two week trip?

I'm not saying switch your plan, just alter it for two weeks.

Nina, I just checked my plan and I do have AT&T. One of the reasons I went with this company is that I was traveling so much (and once a month to NYC) I had to have unlimited long distance and roaming. My coverage is $39.00 per month and I get 1000 minutes a month peak and nights and weekends free.

Go Travel - I can't rent a phone from AT&T - I'd have to buy it. As I said above, I'd also have to buy a new phone for the two weeks in NYC which wouldn't work on my current plan, which is the only plan that I can use at home.

Go Travel - is your plan with AT&T a GSM or a TDMA plan? I can't use GSM on a regular basis here. Believe me, I've checked out every way to go with AT&T, and it just won't work for me unless I want to put out the money for a new temporary phone.

It's interesting to hear that your reception in NY is good, as the other posters had a hard time with AT&T. Based on what you say, we may take our phone in case we really need it. Our rental apartment has a phone with free local calls. We mainly wanted something to use if we had to call back home or if we were out and about and wanted to make reservations, etc.. I really think that we can live without the cell for two weeks. Anyone taking bets on that?

Seems to me that it would be cheapest to just use your 89 cents roaming on your present phone, plus get a cheap phone card and make any outgoing calls that might last more than a few minutes from a payphone in NYC.

Not only that, but your friends and family won't have to keep track of a new number.

Or is it that your current phone won't work in NYC?

I think I need some caffiene before I start here.... ~o)

Icuy - At this point I have absolutely no idea if my current phone will work in NYC. Initially I thought that it would, but was trying to avoid the expensive roaming costs. We were originally just going to buy a cheap phone card in NYC, but then DH suggested bringing our phone.

I'm ready to drop the whole thing and go on planning the nicer aspects of our trip.

Thanks to all of you who posted and tried to help - this is just getting too confusing for all of us :-)

Nina