Who is your cell provider?
 

Who is your cell provider?

What cell phone do you have?

Do you sync it with your mac, and how so, isync?

What third party apps do you use with your phone?

What is your overall impression with your cell phone, the service, and the customer support?



I have:

T-mobile
Nokia basic flip phone
yes, sync it via isync
Used it with blue phone elite for a while, need to upgrade to a compatible version with 10.5

Overall, T-mobile service is awesome, I get signal every where, and every where my sprint and nextel don't (my work phones).

I just buy cheap phones because I have lost and broken a few in the past, so I just keep it cheap.

AT&T
iPhone
Yes, via iTunes
None (yet)
This phone is basically Jesus in my pocket. AT&T rips people off for text messaging. Apple support has been great, haven't had to mess with AT&T yet (and I dread the day I do). AT&T's service is on par with the service I had with T-Mobile before I switched: I live in the NYC metro area, which basically means I get service everywhere with any provider anyway, but when I go back home to VA, signal strength can vary significantly depending on general area.

T-Mobile is just great. Some of the stories I hear from Verizon users makes me glad I started with T-Mobile years ago. Never had a complaint.

Tmobile
Samsung Slider
No
No Again
The phone does it's job, but it's a pretty simple phone, soo... I get coverage wherever I need it, so, like I said, the phone is doing it's jobs and so is the carrier. As for customer service, I've only had to deal with them a few times, and each time has been pretty smooth. I never felt like they were disinterested, or worse, actually angry I was calling.

A question of GUI -- and lower call costs abroad
 

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NetCom (our second largest network/provider)
A borrowed Nokia. No synching, no third party apps.

Impressions of my mobile phone? IMHO the GUI of every mobile phone I have seen is that it is dismally inadequate. Which is why I am eagerly waiting for the arrival of Apple’s iPhone to Norway. Hopefully it will be 3G and better by then.

Impressions of my provider? Acceptable for domestic use. Lack of coverage is exceedingly rare even when driving in remote areas. I have, however, experienced an overburdened network -- and not just on New Year’s Eve.

My key gripe is with regards to travelling. IMHO the time is overripe for a far better system for using carriers abroad. The obscene surcharges incurred by trans-ocean or cross-border routing should be made history ASAP.

-- ArcticStones

A Sony Ericsson K750i on Orange UK.

Syncs automatically over Bluetooth once-per-day when the phone comes in range of my Mac.

Don't use any 3rd party apps on the phone itself, but I do use BluePhoneElite 2 on my Mac (purely because Apple inexplicably removed the Bluetooth phone support from Address Book in Leopard).

It's a good phone. I only use basic phone functions which it does well and the user interface, whilst pretty basic, is pretty intuitive. When my contract's up I might look at the next iPhone – but I'd hate to leave Orange. Orange are fantastic. Excellent customer service and never get less than 4 out of 5 bars anywhere I've been in the UK (even sat in the middle of Lake Windermere or perched on a rock off the coast of Cornwall).

thats hilarious....

I have only ever heard of TWO of the providers you have listed...

I'm on O2 with a Nokia 6300... I found a iSync plugin on the net that works perfectly... and I have Nokia Multimedia Transfer also..

Yeah, when I saw the list that was there... It's all American carriers. So I have to wonder how many of the "others" are European carriers :).

On the subject of Mobile Phones...

Americans call them 'Cell Phones'

The British call them 'Mobile Phones'

and I am lead to believe that the Germans call the 'Handies'....!

Alltel for many years, never a problem. LG el cheapo phone, free in fact, that initiates and receives calls just fine and that is ALL I use my cell phone to do. Usual phone options.... message box, caller ID, call waiting, camera, etc. No desire to sync it to anything. No desire to use the phone for anything other than its intended purpose, and would be content if it never rang at all as I prefer to be left alone when away from home.

Currently on the Death Star network with a Samsung SGH-A737. Don't like the phone, so I switch between that and a LG CU500. (Fine phone.)

Though as of late I am settling on a Nokia 6xxx. I don't have it yet so i forgot the model number. It has all the features I need, however.

And sync is a no-go on my current phones. Though a lot of Nokia's are supported, we'll see where that goes wen I get the nokia tomorrow.

AT&T

iPhone

Yes, iTunes

none (on the phone), HandBrake (on the Mac)

I'm very pleased w/ the iPhone and AT&T. Having given up a Moto phone and Verizon when I switched to the iPhone. I've found AT&T's support more responsive than Verizon's, and although I'm paying for it, AppleCare has already bailed me out once on the iPhone, where Verizon/Moto would have made me buy a new device for a similar problem.

I'm in Canada
Rogers
Sony Ericsson w300i
iSync via Bluetooth

AT&T doesn't hold a candle to Roger's ripoff on data and roaming. Rogers carefully removes all software on their phones that would indicate your air time or data usage over time, so I didn't take their the data service and don't ever use the phone on the internet - I use it for phone calls ONLY (use an iPod nano 3rd gen for music), and will certainly not buy an iPhone while Rogers is the only GSM provider here in Nova Scotia.

I am considering getting an iphone, jailbreaking it and using it with T-Mobile.

wait 3g iphoneis comming


anyways, i have a nokia 6131, and im on o2 pay as you go (cant afford a contract)

hopefully by the end of the year i'll have a htc touch, or some other decent wifi phone

Wait, aren't AT&T and Cingular the same thing, now?

Yes, but their technologies aren't 100% compatible, just like the Sprint/Nextel merger, but the sprint and nextel technology is still not 100% compatible with each other.

I have Verizon.

Service is good, but I hate how they cripple all of their phones with that stupid BREW software made by Qualcomm.

We use Verizon. I've got a Razr (personal), Motorola Q (work), my wife and son both have the Krzr, and my daughter has a Samsung SCH_u740. Overall the service we get is very good, esp when we head up into the mountains.

We don't sync as we use Verizon's "backup assistant" over the air, and my Q syncs automagically to the company's Goodlink servers.

AT&T Wireless

iPhone

Yes, iTunes

Jailbroken iPhone, so there are lots of third party apps on the phone. I don't use anything like Blue Phone Elite on my computer, though.

The iPhone is amazing. The service has been fine. I did have to call AT&T Customer Support when my phone minutes in my first month of use were much higher than I expected and I got a horrendous bill. This was basically a "problem" that was completely my fault, and yet AT&T credited my account, raised my allotted time with no hassle, were friendly and helpful and just generally gave a good Customer Service experience.

This was completely at odds with what people have told me to expect from AT&T Wireless' Customer Service. It was also completely at odds with what I have experienced with Verizon and Sprint in the past. Verizon's Customer Service was horrible, Sprint's acceptable, AT&T's was great. (I've never been on T-Mobile.)

Trevor

I had one problem with T-Mobile customer service once, and it really ticked me off. I was about to switch to a different provider. I scoured forums like (howards) and read all the horror stories of all the other providers, and decided to stick with T-Mobile.

I will not be owning any more Motorolla phones ever again though, had enough of those!

TrueMove (Thailand)
iPhone
iTunes
loads

Quite happy with my thoroughly hacked iPhone. GPS would be nice, but otherwise does all and more for me. Have a Berry too.

Telia (one of the larger providers)
Nokia 6630 ("Smart"phone)
iSync (Calendar and contacts); rarely a note or piece of music via bluetooth

3rd party:
Calendar application Aquacalendar. Particularly useful back at 10.4 when Snerdware's GroupCal sync'ed my work Outlook calendar with iCal and then onwards to the phone.
Gmail client, slow but once in a while handy.

Phone is not really good. Heavy, clumsy and slow. Needs restart too often. Service is basically ok (coverage), haven't needed customer support.

Looking forward to iPhones arriving in Denmark...

Sprint

I dunno, some kind of Palm Treo thingamabobble.

No, I just make occasional phone calls with it.

None. Zero. Zip.

Nearly useless and highly annoying, like all cell phones.

I want to be able to hook the damn thing to my computer (USB cradle), be in Excel or FileMaker on in a web browser, select a phone number anywhere and hit a specified hotkey, let's say F9, and the freaking phone dials the selected number.

I want to be able to script Filemaker to dial any string at any point as part of a script.

When attached, incoming calls should pop up a window on the computer showing caller ID, last time this person called, list view of ALL the times this person has EVER called on the left and list view of ALL the times I have even PLACED a call to this person on the right, with a button to optionally record the conversation to .mp3.

I should be able to manage my voicemail messages on the computer, setting up rules:

If [incoming tel number matches List, select, "Employees at MyCompany Inc"]
--> Do not ring
--> Play voicemail [select from list of recorded voicemails, "not in office"]
--> Record and file in, select, "Corporate Voicemails"
Else If [incoming tel number matches List, select, "Special Folks"]
--> Ring [specified number of times before...]
--> Play voicemail [select from list of recorded voicemails, "yo this is AHunter"]
--> Record and file in, select, "Personal Voicemails"
Else If [Incoming tel number matches list, select, "Jerks and Salesfolk"]
--> Do not ring
--> Play voicemail [select from list of recorded voicemails "number is not in service"]
--> Do not record
Else
--> Do not ring
--> Play voicemail [select from list of recorded voicemails, "sorry I missed your call"]
--> Record and file in, select, "Personal Voicemails"
End If

Those settings, along with the recorded messages I create, should be loaded onto the phone and those behaviors operate whether cradled or not.

All messages that folks leave should be played back TO THE COMPUTER i.e., downloaded as .mp3 files that are then filed appropriately according to the rules I set, each time cradled.

Oh WHAT, it doesn't DO any of that? I can't control the phone AT ALL from my computer? All I can do is synch my tel & address book on the Mac with
the one on the phone, and even there it has to be phone numbers I enter in to Palm Desktop or Apple Address Book, I can't choose a FileMaker db or other app that I might prefer?

Fine. I'll keep the little toy around for times I am away from computer & desk and need to make a call — such occasions are known to me by the term "emergencies", by the way —*and other than that, no use for the damn thing.

AT&T
iPhone
Yep, iTunes
Not yet, waiting for 2.0
Love the phone, the coverage here is good. Changing plan options for the iPhone (adding more sms, for example) doesn't always work on the AT&T site, but a quick call to them fixed that (on a Sunday!).

Too late. All of the retail stores are out. Everyone pretty much guesses that this is all for the June release of the 3G iPhone. (Finally the N95 Nokia killer)

My work had a system that did that. If someone left you a message, it would make an mp3 and forward it to your outlook. Vonage does that as well.