What Cell Phone Carrier(s) Did You Have Before T-Mobile?

[tmobilefan]

What cell phone carrier(s) did you have before T-Mobile?

[AndrewD]

I recall, Cellular one was the first comapny I had. $10.00 a month then like 34 cents a minute. then they got bought out by at&t.

[SoMuch2S@y]

My very first company was a company called PrimeCo back in 1997, I believe (1st minute of every incoming call was free LOL) that was bought out by Sprint, which I held onto for a couple of years but dropped bc the CS sucked. Then tried AT&T in 2000, cancelled within the 1st 30 days and STILL am disputing a $200 termination fee they say I owe! Then I came to my senses and came to TMobile!

[Matt]

at&t years ago, Sprint, T-Mobile. Now I have an at&t line as well.

[greenblood]

At&T Wireless (2000-2001)
Cingular (2001-2002)
VZW (2002-2004)
T-Mobile (2003-now)
Tracfone CDMA (2005)
at&t prepaid (2006-now)

[CSI_Nut]

Verizon, AT&T, Nextel, Centennial, not necessarily in that order. Also Tracfone, Cingular prepaid, Net10, XEMobile, Beyond WIrelessGSM. I think it might be easier to say who I've never used: US Cellular and Alltel... LOL.

[tmobilefan]

Verizon, AT&T, Nextel, Centennial, not necessarily in that order. Also Tracfone, Cingular prepaid, Net10, XEMobile, Beyond WIrelessGSM. I think it might be easier to say who I've never used: US Cellular and Alltel... LOL.

Wow!!

[dethl]

Soon to be an ex-Sprinter. Had them since 2002 (attached to parent's family plan), got my own account at the beginning of the year.

[terryjohnson16]

Pretty simple. I had Voicestream in 2001 and T-Mobile in 2002. Then in 2002, I got a plan from T-Mobile. Have kept them ever since.

[greenblood]

terry, VS is considered same as T-Mobile, that you are still with Voicestream if I want to name ;)

[terryjohnson16]

terry, VS is considered same as T-Mobile, that you are still with Voicestream if I want to name ;)

I know that. I put Voicestream since they were a seperate company at the time, plus to show the time line. Just like people who had Omnipoint before Voicestream bought them.

[Alex]

I've tried Cricket and Verizon.

[greenblood]

Wow!!

because it's well-known PAYG user, the names shown are PAYG service

[anfrey]

my first carrier was Entel (http://www.entelpcs.cl/)... they are an absolutely amazing provider, rolling out a PCS network across the country in the mid-90s. yes, this is back in Chile (south america), where i grew up...

then i spent a few years without a cellular phone, and about a year or so without a telephone line at all. after a while, i signed on with nextel for 2 years... it was handy at the time because lots of people i knew had nextel and it was really inexpensive for me. but i wasn't satisfied. a week before my 2yr contract ended, i signed up with t-mo :)

[christyxcore]

Had all of them :)

Had Sprint a few years ago, then Cingular, then Verizon (still with them actually), and now T-Mobile

[CSI_Nut]

because it's well-known PAYG user, the names shown are PAYG service

Yeah, I listed my contracts first, then my PAYG services. I think the contract order was actually Verizon, AT&T, Nextel, T-Mobile, Centennial. We got our first cell phones back in 1995 when we were transporting our little boy back and forth to Chicago for chemo treatments in an old unpredictable Chevy. We considered it essential at the time, and it did save our butts a couple times.

[chokaay]

Cingular (2001) = Promotional 500 Shared Anytime Minutes + Unlimited 8pm N&W = $49.99/mo. + Additional Line + $0.15/min Domestic Long Distance + Lots of Overages (but we were "stuck" with this plan since the "promotion" was over and we would have to pay more than the overages cost to upgrade our plan to 750 minutes).

However, after numerous dropped calls, failed calls, network busies, and garbled/robotic voice calls in the Los Angeles area ever since I got my phone... as well as getting "Network Busy" errors 30 times in a row while trying to make a 911 call after I got into an accident in downtown LA at 5:30pm... then calling Cingular CS the next day (since they close 6pm on weekdays) only to be accused by the arrogant CSR that I didn't know how to dial 9-1-1 properly on my phone, and that NONE of the issues I had was Cingular's Network problems because it was working fine in "Kentucky"... :mad::mad::mad:

...I quickly jumped to T-mobile the FIRST MONTH they were available in California, and never looked back. NO network busies, NO dropped calls (at that time... now it's about 2/mo +/- 1), NO failed calls (at that time... now I'm out of LA so depends on if there's signal at my location), NO garbled/robotic calls (still usually none now, but there MIGHT be 1/mo at most), and CHEAPER (per minute rate since each line got the ORIGINAL Get More 1000 Promotional Plan = 1000 Anytime Minutes + Unlimited N&W + FREE Nationwide LD + FREE Roaming = $39.99/mo). :D


EDIT: After digging through my old records/contracts, it's pretty interesting to see how cellular plans and their pricing has stayed approximately the same over the years (2001 - 2007). Although back then the plan I had with Cingular was a "promotional" plan, and $49.99 regularly bought you a 400 minute plan (or something like that), the pricing is roughly the same as the "industry standard" nowadays. In fact, it looks like the Cingular plan I had in 2001 actually is BETTER (in some ways) than the AT&T/Cingular Family Plans today (except for the Domestic Long Distance part)! :D;)

[tmobilefan]

I had Sprint, then Verizon, then Virgin Mobile (Sprint Again), and now, T-Mobile!!
(T-Mobile is the best in my opinion).

[PortPowerKS]

I had AT&T Wireless when they rolled out their prepaid service (To dial a 916 area phone number from my 916 area mobile, I needed to dial a 1; I call from a random payphone to my mobile, I get an AT&T Direct Operator instead).

After that, I went with metroPCS cos I loved the Unlimited LD & Local, plus Unltd Texts for 5$... until they decided in May '04 that they wanted to charge 3$ just to pay your bill over the phone, 4$ at a corp store, and 5$ at an authorised dealer.. Also, I specifically asked if I could use the same service when I went on holiday in Atlanta, they said "Sure, you can use your phone in Atlanta, we work there.." 2 minutes after landing in Atlanta, no service... at all.. throughout Georgia. Once I called them back in California, they said "You can use it... if you get an Atlanta number programmed for it." Seems once I leave the Sacramento/SF/Chico area, I was SOL for coverage.

After researching phones & services, I joined T-Mobile before Labour Day 2004 and haven't changed since. =)

[Railroader]

Currently I have T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, my former carriers are-

AT&T Wireless (the old one), Pacific Bell Wireless/Mobile (merged into Cingular), Cingular Wireless, Commnet Cellular (later became part of Airtouch), GTE Wireless/Mobilenet (merged into Verizon), Contel Cellular (later merged into GTE), Airtouch Cellular, L.A. Cellular. My first phone was with Contel Cellular of California in 1995, which was later merged into GTE.

[redwildebeast]

powertel, bought by voicestream, then t-mo. all the same company really.

[Alex]

Verizon. I love Verizon.

[~Evil~|~Steg~]

back in like 1995 i think it was i had cingular, then i had alot of probs with them, stiffed them on the 500 buck early termination fee for breaking the contract, told them wher to stick it, and took their fone and went to ameritech, then after 6 months of running up 1500 buck fone bills a month, i decided to not use cellfones until the technology improved, then in 2000 i got a cheasy tracfone, then didnt like them any at all, so then again i stopped using cellfones, then in 2005 i got a boost and nextel fones, then got tired of reception, then switched to tmobile in late 2006 early 2007 and been with them eversince...