Help me out BlackBerry users!

[musicman]

My wife and I are planning to leave T-Mobile on November 8th, when our contract expires. She doesn't get coverage at her school in Murfreesboro, and that's becoming more and more of a problem for us. Neither my Samsung cheap-o, nor her Razr get good signal there, if any.

I've been looking at devices and I think we are going to go with BB Curve 8330s. I was thinking abot touchscreen phones, but I hate touchscreens, so there goes that! What do you guys think? What phones do you like, and what providers?

I've called around and so far Sprint is the best deal for us. We can get both lines, unlimited everything (text, data, minutes, GPS, etc) for $127.49/month. The phones are $100 each, and they will give me those prices without doing any mail-in-rebates. There should be no start-up costs besides buying the phones, and our numbers will change over with no problem, or so they say!

What advice do you guys have? Anything I need to watch out for? Thanks!

[TripleDigitRide]

I've been a Sprint user for as long as I can remember. I have the Palm Treo 700WX, and really like it. The unlimited everything for $99/month+taxes is an awesome plan.

IIRC, you can still choose between Windows OS and the Palm OS. I didn't do much research, and decided on the Windows. The only complaint I have is, it's not possible to forward those cool text messages that include video, photo, or audio. It would have to go through your email, and you can only forward them to another email account. Sending, receiving and forwarding regular text messages is no problem at all. Other than that, I love the Palm Treo.

[Guest canynracer]

the curve rocks...I have it with AT&T never have probs with signal...the wife and daughter has sprint, they are good too....but you will like the curve..I love mine.

[Guest eyebedam]

My wife has the curve on AT&T its a great phone. I had sprint for about 3 months. Hated the service so bad I paid the extra to get out of the contract. Ive never had as bad of service as I did with Sprint. I would suggest looking at another provider for service.

[Curiousgb]

My wife and I have BB Curves through Verizon and have been very happy with the phones and coverage.

[Guest Bronker]

My wife and I have BB Curves through Verizon and have been very happy with the phones and coverage.

DITTO!!! Been with Verizon since 1995 for good reason. My wife and I have the 8330's. She has a web development / graphic design business and van even conduct some of that on hers. I'm even using mine now to respond to you. I've grown reliant on it in business and personal needs. PM me if you have specific ???'S

[musicman]

Hm.... I can get service from Sprint for about $45/month cheaper than through Verizon, and I even get corporate discounts! I am weighing your advice about Sprint, EBD. I'm going to look around and see if I can find more bad reviews about them.

I'm pretty much settled on the 8330. I've just spent three hours reading about them all over the web, and I have friends that have them and everyone seems happy.

Does anybody "know somebody" on the inside of any of these companies who can give me a crazy good deal?

[strickj]

Ive had about one of each ofem,and Verizon beats them all with reception.

My old job had me going out in the sticks allot,and it was the only service that would always pick up

[Guest canynracer]

he is not around much anymore...but GlocknTN seems to have some good connections...

[bubbadavis]

I've got a 8310 on AT&T. I love the Crackberry. My service with AT&T has been great.

They are addictive. My wife laughs at me over being so accessible. Now I expect to receive my email within seconds...

[TripleDigitRide]

Hm.... I can get service from Sprint for about $45/month cheaper than through Verizon, and I even get corporate discounts! I am weighing your advice about Sprint, EBD. I'm going to look around and see if I can find more bad reviews about them.

I'm pretty much settled on the 8330. I've just spent three hours reading about them all over the web, and I have friends that have them and everyone seems happy.

Does anybody "know somebody" on the inside of any of these companies who can give me a crazy good deal?

I've heard some folks complain about Sprint service, but I can honestly say that I've never really had an issue. I travel all over the Middle Tennessee and Kentucky areas, and it's quite rare that I ever run into connection issues. I get into some pretty remote areas, and I will rarely lose signal. I'm not saying that I NEVER lose signal, but it's not nearly as common as some I've heard complain.

I would think you can expect to lose service with just about all carriers if you get out far enough, but never using any of the other services, I can't say for sure.

[Guest Bronker]

Hm.... I can get service from Sprint for about $45/month cheaper than through Verizon, and I even get corporate discounts! I am weighing your advice about Sprint, EBD. I'm going to look around and see if I can find more bad reviews about them.

I'm pretty much settled on the 8330. I've just spent three hours reading about them all over the web, and I have friends that have them and everyone seems happy.

Does anybody "know somebody" on the inside of any of these companies who can give me a crazy good deal?

We had AT&T service for about 2 days and took them back. I've never had Sprint, but one of my partners has it, and hates it. He never leaves Hendersonville/Madison either. Oh...and I have a 'guy' at Verizon, but he doesn't do retail. He's a regional manager and does mostly new product/service education to the retail managers. But...that is where I get the 'hook-up'!!!!

[musicman]

Hey TDR, do you know how Sprint works around London, KY and that area right around I-75 through to Bowling Green on Hwy 80? My wife is from that area, and she's wondering about coverage there.

[TripleDigitRide]

Hey TDR, do you know how Sprint works around London, KY and that area right around I-75 through to Bowling Green on Hwy 80? My wife is from that area, and she's wondering about coverage there.

I am in Bowling Green, Russellville, Hopkinsville, Cadiz, Beaver Dam, Dundee, Owensboro, Central City, and Madisonville Kentucky on a regular basis, and I usually have no issues with signal. I have lost signal, but it's not very common. It may go into Roam for a while, but not too many loss of signal issues. There is no extra charge for Roaming, so I wouldn't sweat that either.

[Guest eyebedam]

Well Getting off @ the Glasgow Exit can remember the num now but my work sprint phone loses complete signal. On the other end if your between lewisburg & Pulaski count it out no roaming either. If you going down Hobson pike between Mt. Juliet & Mboro Rd you will drop calls atleast 5 times & Certain places in Mt. Juliet you wont have service @ all & I llive 2.1 miles from the Interstate.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

I've called around and so far Sprint is the best deal for us. We can get both lines, unlimited everything (text, data, minutes, GPS, etc) for $127.49/month.

Is that plan price for a Blackberry specifically or just their smart phones in general? I know that with the non-unlimited plans, Blackberry service is an extra $15 a month or something like that, which was part of the reason I went with a WM6 phone (HTC Touch) instead. I don't get the push email, but I get by just fine.

If you can find someone who works for Sprint, you can probably get yourself a SERO (employee referral) plan. Should save you some cash.

[musicman]

I think that price is for the actual BlackBerry service and the Simply Everything plan.

Thanks for the tip on the SERO plan! I found crackberry.com yesterday and just posted in the Sprint forum. I'll probably post up on the Nextel forum tomorrow.

[strob2000]

Musicman, I too travel to London,Ky pretty often, actually just got back from there tonight. I've got Sprint on my Blackberry, and it works fine there. However, it can be pretty spotty coming across the Cumberland Pkwy, but works fine around Bowling Green also. I am tied down to Sprint because this is an employer provided phone, but my previous phone was with Verizon and it had better coverage to me.

[fizik]

My wife has the curve on AT&T its a great phone. I had sprint for about 3 months. Hated the service so bad I paid the extra to get out of the contract. Ive never had as bad of service as I did with Sprint. I would suggest looking at another provider for service.

Good thing one case doesn't show anything but itself.

I'll bet the farm yours was a handset problem, period.

And even though I once was emloyed by them, I've also worked for 3 of the major 4 companies, and here's the bottom line. T-Mobile and AT&T are GSM. Good distance per tower on flat terrain, not so much in hills/mountains. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA. Better transmission throughout hills, less distance per tower on flat land. CDMA is more appropriate for most areas of TN. Sprint is cheaper than Verizion, and better than it's GSM competitors in most local markets, therefore it's the logical choice.

[Guest eyebedam]

Good thing one case doesn't show anything but itself.

I'll bet the farm yours was a handset problem, period.

And even though I once was emloyed by them, I've also worked for 3 of the major 4 companies, and here's the bottom line. T-Mobile and AT&T are GSM. Good distance per tower on flat terrain, not so much in hills/mountains. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA. Better transmission throughout hills, less distance per tower on flat land. CDMA is more appropriate for most areas of TN. Sprint is cheaper than Verizion, and better than it's GSM competitors in most local markets, therefore it's the logical choice.

Well at the time I had there supposed top of the line phone & my wife had a mid line phone. I only went with them because she had already had there service and my contract with verizon was up so I thought I'd save a little money. In a 8 year time span with verizon I may have dropped 5 calls total. With sprint I was atleast 2 a day. I go with either AT&T or verizon.

[TGO David]

Curve 8330 on Verizon here. Flawless. Absolutely flawless.

[Guest db99wj]

Wasn't at one time the Blackberry's were really just a very powerful and effective mobile email device that worked best if you had the hardware, at your office, to support it while also having a phone capabilities and some online capabilities?

Has the BB improved all the other aspects of the phone for the normal user that really doesn't need super strong email/document capabilities?

My wife is in need of a new phone as well. I have the Palm Treo 680 and love it. Hopefully by the time I need a new one, Palm will have a better touch screen model to compete with the Iphone. At a minimum I will upgrade to the Windows OS.

[Guest sermon8r]

Ive had about one of each ofem,and Verizon beats them all with reception.

My old job had me going out in the sticks allot,and it was the only service that would always pick up

Sprint Stinks...

[Curiousgb]

I don't know how the Sprint coverage is in TN. In Charleston SC I has Sprint as a company phone. I always had my Verizon for when Sprint Crapped the bed, and it did often.