[helgo]

Hi,

I am looking to get a Treo 650. It doesn't matter to me to much which provider I go with, Cingular, Sprint, or Verizon. I am currently using t-Mobile but I am fine with moving to another company. The most important things for me in the company are as follows:

1) Email and web surfing on the phone.
2) Connect to my powerbook via bluetooth to get on the internet
3) Price....

So I would probably want an unlimited data plan that I could use both with the phone and though the phone on my laptop, the cheeper the plan the better as well as the faster the plan the better...

So what do you think? I live in the Boston area so coverage is pretty good regardless of the company.

Thanks!

[slinky]

If you want Internet do NOT use Verizon. Their service is good, better than the others, but not appreciably better than Sprint in major Metro areas. Sprint will cost you $15 per month for Internet. Verizon will cost you $45. No joke.

[mediasi]

Hi,

I am looking to get a Treo 650. It doesn't matter to me to much which provider I go with, Cingular, Sprint, or Verizon. I am currently using t-Mobile but I am fine with moving to another company. The most important things for me in the company are as follows:

1) Email and web surfing on the phone.
2) Connect to my powerbook via bluetooth to get on the internet
3) Price....

So I would probably want an unlimited data plan that I could use both with the phone and though the phone on my laptop, the cheeper the plan the better as well as the faster the plan the better...

So what do you think? I live in the Boston area so coverage is pretty good regardless of the company.

Thanks!

Be prepared to not have a definitive answer as a lot of us here love our carriers, and a lot of us hate them, so you're going to get a lot of varying results to your quest.

I use Verizon (have for many years) and find them to be the best as far as coverage goes. I use a local store for service and the guys there are totally awesome, yet I've seen poor customer service in other stores. Price? Well, VZW is more pricey, but for me, I'm paying for the vast coverage area.

Pamela

[dheymann]

I just left Sprint after two years and I was with AT&T Wireless (now Cingular) before that. I have been with Verizon for 3 months and they are hands down the best. I did a lot of research and found that Verizon had the best Cell coverage (if you travel) with Cingular a close second and everyone else way behind. Verizon also had the best signal (my experience traveling the last three months has borne this out). But the killer is customer service. Sprint hates its customers and for two years they showed that to me over and over. After I got a replacemnt phone, they could never get my email working again and each hour long tech support call (40 minutes of hold and 20 minutes of supposed fix) ended with the same line: "the fix won't show for up to 72 hours". THus I could never prove to them on the phone that the fix didn't work. With Verizon, the hold is short, the fix is great, they escalate right away and they fix it on the phone. In one case, the Verizon tech support guy phoned me back to check if the solution worked. I was shocked. Verizon is MUCH more expensive than Sprint. But I wouldn't go back to the darkside for anything.

[NRG]

Hi,

I am looking to get a Treo 650. It doesn't matter to me to much which provider I go with, Cingular, Sprint, or Verizon. I am currently using t-Mobile but I am fine with moving to another company. The most important things for me in the company are as follows:

1) Email and web surfing on the phone.
2) Connect to my powerbook via bluetooth to get on the internet
3) Price....

So I would probably want an unlimited data plan that I could use both with the phone and though the phone on my laptop, the cheeper the plan the better as well as the faster the plan the better...

So what do you think? I live in the Boston area so coverage is pretty good regardless of the company.

Thanks!

For what you need it for, Sprint would be your best option IMO. Your needs seem to be data and you figured in price so I would say $15 dollars a month would be right up your alley. I myself have Sprint. Some of the others seem have a faster network (EDGE), but Sprint will be coming out with EVDO which has been reported to be faster. So with that being said I would go with Sprint for the sheer cost of it.

[elder_shawn]

I really enjoy the discounts (15% student + $10 dropped call credit) with Sprint and the cheaper unlimited data than the other carriers. My treo gets great reception even inside (atleast 3 bars.) My only gripe is that the roaming with sprint seems to suxor! I was out 4 wheeling in the 4 corners area (UT, CO, AZ, NM) with my father in law who has verizon...and he could make calls from anywhere while I had nada! My parents have Cingular and enjoy the coverage in the outer reaches of Utah. Basically if you are going to be in a metro area and want data usage / DUN Sprint would work fine.

[grndslm]

SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT!! They've got the cheapest prices (voice & data). Get the fair & flexible plan with pcs vision (ask if they'll charge you only $10/mo by taking off the $5 of free download credits they give you each month, that $5 is a waste). Personally their quality/coverage is just as good as Verizon. You might suffer from customer support, but you can avoid them sometimes by just logging into your account at sprintpcs.com (just found this out last night). Also, version 1.12 of Sprint's update allows bluetooth DUN (no other carrier has this option without a hack).

My main advice is to get CDMA (sprint or verizon)...and if price matters, get sprint (it'll save you like $50/mo at least)....you'll rarely ever get dropped calls, and if you do THEN you prolly live/travel in rural areas where a GSM phone (prolly Cingular over T-Mobile because of EDGE) would be necessary.

EDGE is slightly faster than 1xRTT (CDMA data), but what you're REALLY gonna want in the future is a 3G network (EV-DO versus UMTS, and considering EV-DO comes out before UMTS....you're 18/24 mo contract with Sprint will prolly end just about the time their EV-DO network rolls out to your area.

[grndslm]

I really enjoy the discounts (15% student + $10 dropped call credit)

Hmm....didn't know about either of those!! That's $10 for every dropped call?? How does Consumer Reports know exactly how many dropped calls every user makes?? How do the carriers even know if it's dropped versus a hang up...I take it the signal is really weak when it's disconnected and then you call back within a few seconds?

My only gripe is that the roaming with sprint seems to suxor!

Do you have the $5/mo option where you can roam on Verizon's network up to half of your calls?? That prolly would have helped on your trip.

[aristarchus]

You get what you pay for.

Verizon has great CS, and the best reception in my area. Sprint can't even reach my apartment. And the roaming sometimes works, but too often the phone will use a weak Sprint signal rather than a strong Verizon signal.

If sprint coverage is good enough for you, save money and go Sprint. If Cingulair has good enough coverage, go with them, since GSM versions are probably marginally better. If reception is the most important thing for you, go Verizon.

[mediasi]

Do you have the $5/mo option where you can roam on Verizon's network up to half of your calls?? That prolly would have helped on your trip.

LOL. Do they REALLY have this option? That explains it all...

Pamela

[helgo]

So it looks like sprint might be the best choice for me... It looks like the best deal is from amazon, $319 after rebates. Does anyone know of a better deal?

[elder_shawn]

Hmm....didn't know about either of those!! That's $10 for every dropped call?? How does Consumer Reports know exactly how many dropped calls every user makes?? How do the carriers even know if it's dropped versus a hang up...I take it the signal is really weak when it's disconnected and then you call back within a few seconds?

Do you have the $5/mo option where you can roam on Verizon's network up to half of your calls?? That prolly would have helped on your trip.

Dial *2 and then say "dropped call credit" = 50 cents

You can say it twice per call and up to $10 worth a month. I usually do it when I'm bored. If I had a credit for every dropped call my wife tells me about, then my bill would be free. Atleast here at the Univ of Utah you can get the 15% off if you are faculty, staff, or a student. They also have the 15% discount for being a member of America First Credit Union. Check into it!

I don't have the roaming option because I'm rarely out of the network....they have lots of the towers up high in the mountains I think! I had full signal at Snowbird and Alta Ski resorts last weekend.

[treo_newbie]

I am also in a similar predicament - choosing between Verizon and Cingular - Sprint is out of the picture as I need a GSM phone for overseas travel.
I was checking the specs on Treo 650 for Verizon, 650 for Cingular and the 650 product page on PalmOne. Something related to "object exchange (OBEX)" alarms me. What is OBEX and what are its benefits. What happens if OBEX is disabled on the Treo 650?
The following is from Verizonwireless.com
*The PalmOne Treo 650 supports Bluetooth Profiles for wireless headsets, hands-free accessories, file transfer and synchronization with compatible PC's. <b> It does not support all object exchange (OBEX) profiles</b>. Accessories sold separately. See Bluetooth for details.
link: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...edPhoneId=1741
--------------------------------
The following is from Palmone.com support page

<b>Solution ID: 583</b>
Treo 650 specifications

"Bluetooth technology Bluetooth 1.1
<b>Supports beaming files via OBEX (not FTP) </b>, Bluetooth hands-free headsets, and Bluetooth HotSync
Stand-alone baseband processor, integrated 2.4 GHz transceiver
For details, see Treo 650 Bluetooth features and profiles "
-------------------------------------------
<b>Solution ID: 18358</b>
The Treo 650 smartphone's Bluetooth 1.1 implementation supports these Bluetooth profiles:

GAP (Generic Access Profile: core Bluetooth support)
HSP (Headset Profile: answer/end calls, make outgoing calls, adjust volume)
HFP (Hands-Free Profile: reject call, mute, auto-answer, voice tags, last number redial)
SPP (Serial Port Profile: Bluetooth support for serial data connections, treating Bluetooth links as virtual COM ports)
GOEP (Generic Object Exchange Protocol: vCal, vCard and other files exchanged with Bluetooth devices)
OPP (Object Push Profile)

Is GOEP same as OBEX protocol?
---------------------------------------------------

[palminfo4mc]

If you need GSM, then Cingular is probably your only option. Verizon and Sprint both use the same network technology -- CDMA.

[grndslm]

Yah, treo_newbie....GSM is your only option...either Cingular or T-Mobile. I've heard that T-Mobile has better roaming rates though....you're just gonna have to ask them or wait until a highly informed GSM member passes by this thread and reads your question.

[dheymann]

T-Mobile is being sold and has lousy coverage. If I HAD to have GSM I would only look at Cingular

[grndslm]

Personally though...I don't see how people justify paying the extra money to Verizon. I know tons of people who have them and get dropped calls ALL the time (or at least it's only when they're talking to me; and believe me, I'm not the one droppin' sheet, 'cause when I talk to somebody on a landline, neither of us would guess I'm on a cell phone). Sprint quality is at least on par with Verizon since they use the same network....Coverage has always been excellent to me as I've traveled all over the country and never had a problem except at like 2 places --- middle of nowhere in Oklahoma and Tennesee. I can get coverage if I walk around there enough, but it's not at my bedside and everywhere else I step.

Sprint's customer service WAS terrible, they've gotten much better, IMO. But how often do you need to talk to customer service??? If I saved more than a grand between a Sprint and Verizon contract, I could tolerate talking to a moron. ALSO, as I stated above...you can bypass talking to a sprint rep on the phone at all and going to sprintpcs.com. Could help you save some time and hair pulling if you check the website's offerings first.

[grndslm]

T-Mobile is being sold and has lousy coverage. If I HAD to have GSM I would only look at Cingular

Who's buyin' it?? I'd agree with the lousy coverage in the U.S according to their maps. But in other threads, I've heard people are actually more satisfied with T-Mobile then Cingular (My theory is that they don't travel much, though)....But since the newb's tryin' to find good international rates, maybe somebody could answer his question.

[on1sony]

If you want Internet do NOT use Verizon. Their service is good, better than the others, but not appreciably better than Sprint in major Metro areas. Sprint will cost you $15 per month for Internet. Verizon will cost you $45. No joke.

Where are you getting your facts from... I have unlimited Internet/Text messaging for $24.99 monthly.......

[mediasi]

Where are you getting your facts from... I have unlimited Internet/Text messaging for $24.99 monthly.......

On Verizon? Are you sure that's not Mobile Web? Because Mobile Web is NOT a data plan. You need to use a data plan if you're accessing email and browsing the web on the Treo 650. You should double-check what plan you are on. Unlimited data is $45 a month, but I'll tell ya that they failed to put me on that plan so I had to have a $250 bill adjusted.

Pamela