When walking through academic buildings or venturing to off-campus haunts, students often find they suddenly have no cell phone service. Not knowing what providers work best on campus and in the Buffalo area can make it hard to keep in touch, especially when the best plans from home don't even provide service in the Buffalo area.
For Nick Gugino, a junior management major, AT&T (formerly known as Cingular Wireless) seems to be the best plan for his busy lifestyle.
"I've had Cingular for about four years now and I've never really had a problem with them," Gugino said. "I'm from Orchard Park, so the service there and here is about the same. I always have good service and hardly ever drop a call."
While there are many different plans that can be considered "the best" depending on location and flexibility, Top Ten Reviews Inc., has created four specific sets of criteria for determining the plan that will work best for you.
The first set of criteria is that cell phone providers should include a wide variety of options, including call waiting, call forwarding, Bluetooth, text messaging and more. The more options available to choose from, the more students will be at ease when making transitions to and from home. Students like Nikki Rosso, a senior psychology major, picked a plan based on the different options available with her service.
"I have Verizon and it is by far my favorite," Rosso said. "There are a lot of reasons why I like them. They offer free Verizon-to-Verizon calling, unlimited text and picture messaging to other Verizon customers and a wide range of coverage in areas nationwide."
Secondly, because some students struggle with losing coverage or only having sporadic coverage in the Buffalo area, Top Ten Reviews recommends that service providers offer more extensive coverage areas, including nationwide. Metropolitan areas should offer exceptional service.
"You can get service almost everywhere - in the airport or in the middle of the woods," said Steve Makowka, a sophomore chemical engineering major and Sprint customer. "That's really important to me because I travel."
All of the cell phone providers reviews in 2007 offer off-network coverage, which extends to cover the entire continental United States, but this feature often includes additional charges. Students should consider plans that allow them to roam anywhere and not lose service when traveling.
"I live four hours from where I go to school, so I need a cell phone plan that works outside of my area code," said Sarah Weissman, a senior marketing major. "I also have friends that live in different states."
According to Rosso, many plans allow students to keep costs down through features that come with the cell phone service.
"My friends at home, at school and my family all have Verizon. It keeps my phone bill at a very low cost because everyone that I talk to the most, I can talk to for free. I text message a lot at school, so having free in-network text messaging is a major plus," Rosso said.
According to Top Ten Reviews, the ranking for the best service providers nationally from best to worst are as follows: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile, Qwest, Alltel, Cellular One, PowerNet Mobile, Liberty Wireless, and Cricket.
The third piece of criteria that a good cell phone provider should offer are plans with a good minute-to-dollar ratio, Top Ten Reviews states. Overage charges should be minimal and the cell phone plans should offer free mobile-to-mobile minutes, free long distance and similar features. Students should look into a plan that offers options such as free nights and weekends to minimize costs.
According to Patrice Myrthil, a senior exercise science major, AT&T works best for him because of all of the different options available to him.
"AT&T offers a lot of great options for their customers," Myrthil said. "One great thing is that most of my friends have AT&T so I can talk to all of them for free. I like the fact that I can keep my phone bill down, using less minutes, by talking to my friends for free."
One way students can cut down on cell phone costs is to split a family plan with parents and siblings, Weissman said. Family plans can prevent users from going over their allotted minutes per month.
"We've had the same cell phone plan for about five years. My parents wanted a cheap plan that would accommodate four to five lines, so we got Verizon," said Weissman. "We have about 1,500 minutes on a family plan that we hardly ever use, including free nights and weekends."
Other plans offer free calling and texting to other customers on the same network, according to Julie Biter, a freshman nursing major.
"The best feature I have is free Verizon-to-Verizon calling, so I don't need lots of minutes," Biter said. "I have free nights and weekends, but I don't really even need them because of the free Verizon-to-Verizon feature."
Lastly, cell phone providers should offer extensive support, including phone support, an online FAQ's page, live chat and an email contact address, says Weissman.
"You can go into any Verizon store and they will help you," she said. "You can call technical support and do things really easily like switch cell phone numbers."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
