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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.