Rate these 3 Cell Phone Companies: Cingular, T-Mobile, Virgin Wireless?

[insharc]

Rate them from one to five, of those you have experience with.
On the key issues like coverage, drops, reliability of phone, customer service, etc.

[loretta]

cingular 5
tmobil 3
virgin mobil 1-2

[kpjimmy]

Based on personal usage, I use T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) and have been with them since it was Voicestream. I have had multiple upgrades to phones that are unlocked. IE: Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) phones are relatively rare in the US, but I love the UI (user interface) and features. Back to the carriers. Cingular, which I hear is good, because of course they are also ATT. Virgin Wireless, I havent heard a single good or bad thing. Not really popular in my circle. As for Cingular and T-Mo, I can say that Cingular is pretty expensive when it comes to plans. But you do get "rollover" minutes, if you use them. For me I do not use my mobile for the full plan minutes. If I did, I would just upgrade to the next level in plans. Coverage-wise, I would say Cingular/ATT has the most at the moment. Even though some TMobile areas use Cingular towers.

Now comes to the phones which gets commonly confused with how their carrier performs. You cannot base your opinion on a specific carrier if the phone you have is a lower end "free" phone you get. So my opinion is to pay a little for a decently reviewed phone, like a Samsung or some models of LGs. Nokia's have been better and Motorola, I place them right next to each other. I am bias though. I have been a Sony Ericsson fan since the T28 days.

Customer service. I cannot vouch for Virgin or Cingular but Tmobile has been extremely helpful. No complaints.

Bottom line, it comes to personal usage. If you talk a lot on the phone, text, browse the web, or whatever you do there is a plan for it. For the rare user like me, I use the minimalist plan and add on the phone internet (AKA: Wap) for an additional fee per month.

1-5, 1 being the BEST.
1-Tmobile
3-Cingular/ATT
NA-Virgin (sorry no experience to base an opinion)