Well after I wrote this I read another story and Quest Communications upped their bid one more Billion. So who knows who will get this... but read on if you want.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...lecoms_mci_dc_8


Thanks to people in my local area and people that work at Verizon here on the forums, I decided to go to Verizon Wireless a year and a half ago.

Since then I have had great service, but with Cingular and AT&T together, people in my town keep raving about the great service Cingular provides now. At the moment I could save a 10 or so bucks each month if I go to Cingular and my contract with Verizon is up in August.

With many companies buying out others the competition is less and less. What will it mean for us when it comes to cell phone service?

I am half tempted to not have a cell phone after August. Then I could go drive, play golf and do whatever I want and be "unavailable".

 

I don't see why this would impact cell phone service. MCI doesn't currently offer traditional cell phone service, at least not that I know of... They're big into Wi-Fi and VoIP, but not traditional cell phone stuff, hence their recent announcement of additional hotspots:

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,...,RSS,RSS,00.asp

That's the stuff all the telecom guys are focusing on these days. I'd expect more acquisitions in the future, too, because the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is getting old and crusty, and there's going to be consolidation in that area as the Wi-Fi networks pick up steam.

In a few years, we're gonna be able to pick up a PDA, make a phone call, listen to music, watch $$$$$$, and do homework all at the same time! Yee-haw!!!

 

It s means little to me because I do not own a cell phone, but you guys are SCREWED!!!!!!!!!

 

whoa haha can't say p-r-0-n here anymo' it becomes $$$$$$

 

i dunno but verizon wireless is notorious for their "wonderful" customer service

 

christople... you wouldn't want to leave vz just because Cingular cost $10 less...
here is the latest article from Wall Street Journal

--------------------------
How Cellular Services Rank on Complaints --- Cingular Tops FCC List With Most
Gripes Per Customer; Dropped Calls, Billing Errors

By Li Yuan and Jesse Drucker
The Wall Street Journal via Dow Jones

WHEN CINGULAR Wireless completed its acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services
Inc. in October, it created the nation's largest cellular-service provider.

It also created the wireless carrier with the country's highest
customer-complaint rate.

The new Cingular Wireless, boasting of expanded coverage from two networks,
has been adding new subscribers at fast clip. It now serves more than 50 million
customers.

But Cingular's rate of complaints -- on everything from billing, marketing to
service quality -- was consistently higher than competitors in the fourth
quarter, the first quarter as a combined company, according to complaints
received by the Federal Communications Commission and obtained by The Wall
Street Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Cingular Wireless had a rate of 4.6 complaints per 100,000 customers. The rate
of complaints for T-Mobile USA Inc., a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, was next
highest at 4.3 per 100,000 customers. Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications
Inc. -- which announced plans to merge in December -- posted complaint rates of
3.6 and 2.3 per 100,000 customers, respectively. By comparison, Verizon
Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC
of the U.K., and the nation's second-largest cellphone operator, had the lowest
rate of complaints, with 1.4 per 100,000 customers. Verizon declined to comment.

Both T-Mobile and Sprint declined to comment on the FCC complaint figure, but
both said they will focus on customer satisfaction. A Nextel spokesman said,
"We're always looking to improve service of our customers."

By the end of 2004, Cingular had 49.1 million customers. Verizon Wireless had
43.8 million. Sprint, including its affiliates, had 21 million. Nextel had 15
million. T-Mobile had 17.3 million.

The FCC provided the total complaint figures, but the rate was calculated by
the Journal. (The rate for Sprint was calculated including its affiliates.) The
FCC cautioned that the existence of a complaint doesn't necessarily indicate
wrongdoing by a carrier.

At the time the Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger was announced last year,
Cingular Chief Executive Stan Sigman said the deal "will mean better coverage,
improved reliability, enhanced call quality and a wide array" of new services.

But with the two large companies just starting to merge operations, networks
and customer databases, some Cingular customers had to undergo the pain and the
costs of the merger. Cingular officials maintain that the problems are few and
far between given how many customers receive their service.

"While we take each complaint very seriously and are always striving for
improvement, the number of complaints represents an infinitesimally small
portion of our customer base," Cingular spokesman Ritch Blasi said. He
acknowledged that there could be some engineering problems during the process of
combining the two systems that may cause worse coverage for some customers, but
emphasized that the issue isn't widespread.

Despite a multibillion-dollar investment by the wireless industry on network
upgrades and advertisements trumpeting the latest features, many consumers
remain frustrated with their cellphone service. Spotty service coverage and
incomprehensible bills are still the bane of many subscribers.

Dropped calls and dead zones can result from a variety of factors:
insufficient investment in the network; heavy calling traffic at busy times of
the day; and complicated zoning laws that make it difficult to place cellphone
towers in areas that would lead to better coverage.

For the industry as a whole, complaints in all of 2004 were up nearly 38% from
2003, according to the Consumers Union, a consumer-advocacy group that released
a study on cellphone complaints yesterday. That increase outpaced the rate of
U.S. subscriber growth, which increased roughly 14% to 180.5 million users in
2004, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

Cellular service has lower levels of overall customer satisfaction than for
most other services the Consumers Union measures, such as hotels, retail outlets
and insurance. In its annual cellular-subscriber survey conducted last fall in
17 major cities, the group found that nearly 60% of those who use a cellphone
frequently said they had a bad connection.

Some industry analysts say that the high complaint rate at Cingular could be
related to the complexity of merging two carriers' networks. However, the most
complaints arose from billing problems as things like roaming charges and
complex fees make cellular bills incomprehensible to many customers.

The complaint rate at both Cingular and AT&T Wireless was higher than
competitors even before the merger, the FCC data show.

Given the size of the wireless market, the number of FCC complaints is
relatively small, as few consumers take the trouble of actually filing a
complaint to a federal government agency. Many consumers instead register their
displeasure with Web sites such as planetfeedback.com or escapecellhell.org by
the Consumers Union.

For Gary Myers and his wife, Nancy, of McMinniville, Ore., their AT&T Wireless
service worked fine until last winter, about the time of the merger.

By mid-March, Mr. Myers couldn't get a signal in some parts of his
28,000-population town. When he called AT&T Wireless customer service, a
representative told him that the Myerses need to get new Cingular GSM phones to
get better coverage. Though the phones are free after a rebate, the Myerses will
be charged for $18 activation fees for each line and their contract will be
extended for another term. "I'm done with both of them," Mr. Myers said.

Mr. Blasi of Cingular confirmed that the company charges a fee to move AT&T
Wireless customers over to the Cingular network. Current AT&T Wireless customers
will get better coverage by upgrading their phones, he said, and many people are
making the move to get slicker handsets.

In areas where Cingular has redundant coverage capacity, the carrier is
planning to remove 8,000 cell sites, or 18% of the total, by June 2006 and
install them in areas where AT&T Wireless and Cingular didn't have any coverage
before, Mr. Blasi said.

Mr. Blasi adds that in very few cases customers may experience worse coverage
than before because their phones are connected to a cell site that may be
farther away than where their original cell site was. He said the problems will
be solved once Cingular finished the integration of two networks by June 2006.

Before the merger, both Cingular and AT&T Wireless were in the process of
upgrading their networks from an older technology, called TDMA, to a new
technology called GSM. Plus, most major carriers have started or announced plans
to upgrade their networks yet again to accommodate higher speed, so-called third
generation, or 3G, wireless services, such as wireless Web browsing.

Cingular is investing $6 billion to enhance its networks in 2005, and the
overwhelming majority of that will be spent on the GSM network, said Mr. Blasi
of Cingular. About 80% of minutes of use for all Cingular customers go to GSM
network while the rest go to TDMA network. Mr. Blasi insists that Cingular will
continue maintaining the TDMA network. But industry analysts believe that
Cingular is investing close to nothing on it because it is more cost effective
to maintain one network rather than two.

With two networks AT&T Wireless and Cingular customers may not experience as
many dead spots, but removing cell sites can be tricky, said Jonathan Atkin of
RBC Capital Markets.

---
Cellular Complaints

Here are the rates of complaints made in the fourth quarter to the FCC as
calculated by the Journal:

-- Cingular Wireless had 4.6 complaints per 100,000 customers.

-- T-Mobile USA Inc. was next at 4.3 complaints.

-- Merging partners Sprint PCS and Nextel Communications Inc. had rates of
3.6 and 2.3, respectively.

-- Verizon Wireless had the fewest with 1.4 complaints.

 

Yeah you were the guy who helped me decide to choose Verizon. Speaking of, I got the LGVX6000, should i get the 7000 or 8000? Or is there a phone that is better than all. I kinda want just a simple phone.

 

i would probably wait until other phones come out. the 7000 is a little better than the 6000, but i wouldn't really get the 8000. overpriced. where are you from? what state? do you k now if you have EVDO?