Date:         Fri, 5 Aug 2005 12:51:05 -0700
Reply-To:     Ben S <phlogiston420@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben S <phlogiston420@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      a little OT: what is the favorite cell phone plan for travellers
              in north california
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

well this isn't really "vanagon" material, but i think the advice of
this particular community will be very pertinant regarding this topic.
 my cell phone was stolen recently (am i beginning to sound like a
skipping record yet??) and since my contract just expired with the
now-defunct at&t wireless, i think it may be time for a change.

i have been a pretty big fan of the at&t TDMA network up until now,
even as they were pushing everyone towards GSM, i found that the older
network seemed to have more infrastructure, and thus better coverage
in less urbanized areas; last time i got a new phone i was living in
south lake tahoe as a snowboard bum and found their coverage to be the
best in the mountains.  but now i think it may not be the best idea to
renew a 1 year contract for a system that i'm sure is now only going
to become more dilapidated and obsolete as time goes on.... i doubt
anyone will ever repair, let alone install a new TDMA antenna
anywhere.

so i ask of the other travellers in the vanagon community: what
wireless plans work the best?  i split my time between urban areas
(oakland and san francisco, where I and my girlfriend live,
respectively), suburban and industrial areas (hayward and the shipping
terminals of long beach and oakland, where i work), and
rural/mountainous areas where i spend most of my free time.  so i am
not just looking for good metro coverage, but good all around
coverage.  i have been told by several people that verizon is the best
for my needs so i am leaning that way.  my gf has sprint PCS which we
have dubbed sprint POS for it's horrible performance, so i am not
interested in going that way...  but what about cingular's GSM
network?  or tmobile... they are CDMA, right?

also throw in your favorite phone if you reply.  i loved my old nokia
3560.  i have no use for cameras or video mail or any of the other
silly useless features that pollute all the new phones and contribute
to their short lifespan and high cost.... i'm looking for a cheap,
reliable, no frills phone that i can drop a few times.

thanks in advance for any advice...

Ben.