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Mountain Wireless presents an opinionated review of the wireless and cellular services in Texas. This is information gained from personal experience, user interviews, press releases, advertising material, newsgroups and wireless web sites. Click here for Ratings of Texas carriers.
ALLTEL AT&T
BRAZOS CELLULAR |
CAPROCK CELLULAR
Centered on the town of Spur, Texas, Caprock
offers digital service and good coverage.
They are the local phone coop, so we expect
customer service to be better than average.
They show Local, Regional and National coverage
maps, but only offer a "National"
plan. Prices are reasonable but with those
plans, 50% of your calls must be made on
the Caprock network. If you exceed 50% while
roaming your per minute charge is then .20
per minute.
CELLULAR ONE OF EAST TEXAS
Cellular One of East Texas was created to satisfy the requirements of
divesting the Cingular and AT&T Wireless properties around Nocogdoches County.
Their plans and coverage mirror
those of AT&T.
CENTENNIAL WIRELESS
Centennial is a regional carrier with several
flavors of "National" plans. One
offers service virtually anywhere you can
receive a GSM signal, the others are limited
to their own network and "preferred"
roaming partners. They also offer "Local"
plans. Their plans appear to be expensive,
but their web site is hard to navigate and
seems to be lacking some information. Mobile
to mobile and incoming calls may be free,
but it depends on how they define their "Blue"
network. They offer several phones and services,
but most features. like voice mail, caller
ID, etc, are extra.
Get Online Discounts on Centennial Wireless Phones
CLEARTALK
Cleartalk serves small communites in several
states. If you live there, you'll be doing
business with locals. They offer some of
the features of an all-digital system, but
no data. They have a reasonable plan that
give you thousands, or unlimited, minutes.
Some customers have roaming service available
on Sprint. Pros: Good prices and responsive local service,
some digital features, Free Mobile to Mobile
calls. Cons: Limited roaming, No national
plans, poor selection of phones, some plans
charge extra for voice mail.
CRICKET
Cricket offers unlimited wireless usage for
one price, but coverage may be a little spotty.
For the price, it may work well for you,
or your family. They have a variety of plans.
With unlimited usage, the circuits may become
overloaded. Plans with nationwide roaming
are available but those minutes are not unlimited.
Cricket is the largest "Unlimited' carrier
and is adding many new markets, and your
minutes can be unlimited in each of those
markets. You can use Cricket to replace a
home wireline. In some markets, coverage
is being expanded. Pros: Talk as much as you want, no contract,
most data & digital serves are included.
Cons: You must pre-pay, "unlimited"
coverage is limited to just within their
home area(s), roaming is available but at
an extra charge, some dropped calls when
circuits are busy.
Get Online Discounts from Cricket
DIGITAL CELLULAR OF TEXAS
Digital Cellular of texas has been sold to
AT&T
ETEX CELLULAR
A nice local carrier in the east Texas area
around Gilmer. They offer digital service
and National and Regional plans. The plans
are reasonably priced.
FIVE STAR WIRELESS
A cellular provider in the Texas Hill Country
with good coverage and Local, Texas Statewide
and National plans. Except for the Local
plans, they don't offer many minutes for
your money, but their Local plan's roaming
charges are reasonable.
LAMAR COUNTY CELLULAR
Located in Paris, TX. Lamar has plans that
include several counties around Lamar including
Dallas/Fort Worth. No online information,
the link is to info from GSM World. Their
number is 903-785-8852.
LEACO WIRELESS
This carrier covers southeast New Mexico.
They offer Local and Regional plans including
Unlimited Local plans. National plans are
a little expensive. They have plans as low
as $16 and "Lifeline" service starting
at $5 per month. Our information is a bit
dated and their web site does not provide
many details beyond price plans. Leaco is
a local phone cooperative so we expect customer
service to be above average. PROS: Good coverage outside of town, several
phones from which to choose. CONS: Some over-capacity
problems in town, voice mail and the voice
mail indicator are (were?) extra.
METRO PCS
A 'flat rate' carrier in a handful of cities
including Los Angeles. They offer unlimited-minutes
wireless coverage for one price including
text messaging, but their coverage area is
limited. For the price, it may work well
for you or your family. Plans start at $30
per month and Family plans as low as $100
for 4 handsets. Metro PCS allows "unlocked"
CDMA phones from other sources to be activated
on their network. Pros: Talk as much as you want, and feature
all the digital features. Cons: You must
pre-pay, and unlimited coverage is limited
just to in-town. Voice mail and LD are extra
in some plans, roaming is available at extra
cost but is free in other Metro PCS markets,
roaming must be activated and deactivated
each time you travel, they are still growing
so there are still some areas with poor or
no coverage.
Get Online Discounts from Metro PCS
MID-TEX CELLULAR
Good coverage and they offer plans that allow
you to choose the features you want including
Unlimited Local calling and All-Texas plans.
Plans start as low as $15 per month with
lots of "a la carte" selections
to customize your plan. They offer mostly
Nokia and Motorola GSM phones to their own
customers, but also support CDMA roamers.
Their National plans are little expensive
but you can save by adding only the number
of roaming minutes you need.
NEXTEL
Nextel is a part Sprint and in some offerings,
Sprint hides Nextel's features. The combo
has allowed the two networks to start sharing
cell sites to improve coverage. Nextel's
spectrum is made up from a bunch of 2-way
radio channels, and they suffer from marginal
audio in some markets. Their coverage is
more robust in certain areas than others.
They cover urban areas and some interstates,
but there is little roaming elsewhere in
the state. They have an efficient '2-way'
radio feature which is handy for a business
or a family. Some of their plans aren't very
competitive, but they do offer free incoming
calls. They use 850 MHz so they have a strong
signal in most areas. There are rumors that
Sprint wants to sell off the Nextel network,
which may or may not include Nextel customers.
Pros: The Direct Connect is a handy 'walkie-talkie'
service, they are still improving coverage,
good digital features. Cons: Some markets
have poor audio, they also have coverage
limits and very limited roaming, most of
their phones are big and lack variety, Sprint
has not treated Nextel customers as well
as those using the Sprint network.
PLATEAU WIRELESS
This cellular carrier covers much of eastern
New Mexico and west central Texas. They offer
both analog and digital service, and a wide
range of plans. They support both TDMA and
GSM, but we don't know if digital is available
throughout the system. While their coverage
seems to be good, we hear of complaints that
there are problems. They have added many
new cell sites lately which should improve
that situation. Their rate plans are fairly
expensive, but they start as low as $20/month
although not all features are included with
the cheaper plans. Plateau has notified the
FCC they will not be shutting off analog
for the foreseeable future.
PEOPLE'S WIRELESS
This small carrier, based in Quitman, Texas,
has reasonable plans and they include free
long distance and national roaming. Their
plans are reasonable and start as low as
$22. They offer some fairly recent phones.
"Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes"
are available in their 2-county home area
only.
POCKET COMMUNICATIONS
A local PCS carrier in San Antonio and Laredo,
Texas. They offer Unlimited calls on their
own network starting at only $24 per month,
with options that include digital features
and free Long Distance. They are adding new
sites, so expect coverage to get better.
Roaming is available over most, but not all,
of the country. Most notably missing is roaming
on Alltel which covers most of the western
half of Texas. Hopefully, this is a problem
soon to be corrected or just a quirk in their
roaming coverage maps. Some of their plans
includes free Text Messaging to Mexico.
POKA LAMBRO:
The Wireless division of Poka Lambro has
been sold to AT&T.
SPRINT
Sprint has a national, feature-rich digital
network. Their coverage is a little "fragile",
but where it's good, it's very good. You
can roam over more territory than any other
single carrier. Sprint has a good selection
of phones. Their plans include roaming over
most of the country, and work about as well
as any National plan. They offer an inexpensive
"basic" plan for only $30 per month.
They also offer a few Unlimited plans with
lots of features included. Sprint has added
service by taking over parts of some carriers'
networks, and "sharing" spectrum
with others. Sprint PCS merged with Nextel which has created some beneficial network
configurations, including sharing of cell
sites. Sprint roaming often prefers the Alltel network which, where available, gives Sprint
customers excellent data throughput. Many
Sprint phones have the ability to force the
phone to "Roam Only", helping you
use the strongest network, however there
is a limit to how much roaming you can do,
generally 50%. Pros: Sprint gives you good value for your
money, but is not necessarily the cheapest.
Sprint covers every urban area in the U.S.,
maintains local service stores, very good
roaming capabilities, their digital and data
network work very well, good selection of
phones. Sprint has excellent roaming agreements,
while some other carriers are restricting
theirs. Cons: You might find a weak area
right where you want coverage, some of their
plans are not very competitive, customer service is a notch below average.
Click here for more Sprint Pros & Cons
Get Online Discounts on Sprint Phones
T-MOBILE
T-Mobile works very well within their service
area. While they have a slight disadvantage
with their higher PCS frequency, they make
up for it with strategically-located sites.
T-Mobile doesn't serve many rural areas,
but provides coverage along many interstates.
They offer roaming in rural areas, and the
network is still growing, although often
they're just 'filling in'. They offer some
handy features like "My-Favs" which
includes Unlimited calling to your choice
of five numbers, regardless of network, "Kid
Connect" which helps you limit the amount
of charges your kids can rack up, and an
Unlimited "Hot Spot" plan using
your home wi-fi connection. They have plans
that include unlimited voice and messaging.
Pros: Generous included-minute plans, National
and Regional plans, "Unlimited" calling plan available, good urban coverage, good choice of phones,
good pre-paid plans, good roaming capabilities,
including internationally. Good customer
service. Cons: Some weak spots, limited data
bandwidth, high international roaming charges.
Get Online Discounts from T-Mobile
US CELLULAR
This is a good company that offers good coverage,
good plans and lots of features, and a good
selection of CDMA phones. Unlimited incoming
calls are available, it's an extra feature
on Regional and Family plans. In Chicago
they use 1900 MHz frequencies which have
more dead spots. Pros: Their price plans are competitive,
and they offer National and Regional plans,
"Unlimited" calling plan available,
good customer service, National plans appear
to be all-inclusive and roaming has good
coverage, mostly with Verizon Wireless. Cons:
Mobile to Mobile minutes are extra except
on Family plans, and Night & Weekend
minutes are extra on Regional plans.
VERIZON WIRELESS
Verizon's claim to fame is superior coverage,
especially in the west. They use PCS frequencies
only in a few areas, but they have constructed
those networks well. In the few places where they don't have their
own coverage, they have roaming agreements
with other carriers, normally the carriers
with superior coverage. Therefore, their
"National" plans, which include
almost all of the country are about as close
to 'wall-to-wall" as you can get. Their
reasonably-priced plans have no roaming or
long distance charges, and they also throw
in Unlimited Night and Weekend minutes as
well as Unlimited calls among users both
on and off their own network (there are a
few exceptions). They offer fairly competitive
prices, and often have promotions. They also
offer plans that include Unlimited Voice
and other features at various fixed price
levels. Data service is excellent with various
price plans. Verizon forces their phone manufacturers
to offer a "standardized" user
interface, limiting menu and font variations.
This could mean the screen appearance may
not be to your liking or the fonts may be
too small. Pros: Verizon has reasonably-priced plans,
"Unlimited" calling plans available,
extensive coverage, wide-ranging National
plans, excellent customer service, all-digital
service, and 'customer-friendly' policies.
Cons: Some Verizon plans are a little more
expensive, Customer Service closes at 11pm,
but technical assistance is available 24/7,
there are some billing oddities, they don't
offer as many "cute" phones, they
'cripple' some User Interface functions like
larger fonts. Make sure you can read their
submenus before buying. Some of their data
services are not available while roaming.
Click here for additional Verizon Pros & Cons
Get Online Discounts from Verizon Wireless
WEST CENTRAL WIRELESS
Based in San Angelo, Texas, West Central
offers a large selection of plans, with generous
Local plans, but their Regional and National
plans are overpriced. Some plans include
"Unlimited" Local minutes. They
have excellent coverage. Also, there are
a large number of add-on features and feature
combinations, most available at extra cost.
They also have specialized plans, including
"Senior" plans. They have no coverage
maps on their web site.
XIT WIRELESS
They serve the extreme NW corner of Texas.
They have GSM service with Local, Regional
and National plans. Coverage is excellent.
Since they are the local telephone co-op,
we expect customer service to be above average.
Prices are reasonable and start as low as
$29.99 for a "Local" plan. While
their "National" plans are generous,
coverage does not include as many roaming
partners as larger carriers, however, major
highways and cities are covered.
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