Cell phones forum: What would make you want to switch cellular carriers?

I would switch carriers in a heartbeat if there was one that offered truly better call quality. It absolutely amazes me that a device whose primary basic functionality is so mediocre can become so overwhelmingly popular. The reason, of course, is convenience. All I want is a portable phone that comes close to offering near-land line voice quality. I don't think it will ever happen though, at least not in my lifetime. There just isn't enough money in it for the carriers. They would rather just keep adding bells and whistles to their service that they can charge additional money for. True improvement in call quality would probably require significant engineering changes in the cell phone infrastructure, and that would require the carriers to make an investment that would not provide the ROI that the current spate of bells and whistles do.

I want to pay by the minute for outgoing calls.

I don't want all the "extra" features. Someone is telling a fib - land-line people charge extra for add-on services and the cell people give it for "free". If one adds up the land-line fees on the cell bill we should be paid to make cell calls.

I have had the same carrier since the original bag car phone. US Cellular has yet to disappoint. Most of my family use it also. Great reception, decent plans, pricing, and good phone selection. Great service since the beginning.

Canada is still in the stone age as far as choices are concerned. I may be in the "elderly" class...lol. But I am trying to get with the up and coming things. My cell phone is always with me but on my fixed income getting very costly.

It is unfortunate that most carriers cannot keep a signal long enough to get past a short conversation. Locations in buildings and various places that cause dropped calls could easily be improved. i want a steady signal and to be able to know that i can make a call without having to talk into blank air. It would be nice to be able to get improved rates as well. Part of the problem is the lack of good 3g coverage, and competing providers.

randy

For the same thing at less cost, I'd switch in a heartbeat. I, especially, think the access to the Internet cost is outrageous!

Totally agree! I think a lot of the "pulling teeth to get answers" has to do with the fact that they don't know the answers, as well as not being willing to admit they don't know.

Wider slection of phones will give consumers more freedom than other things combined. Rate plans will be more flexible due to growing competiton, and contracts for handsets will be outdated in the next two years. If given wider selection of phones, you can feel absolutely free to switch to whichever mobile carriers anytime and even once a week without dumping your current phones, which is the case in Korea now.
This is the real freedom we are seeking for.

I'll be more than happy to switch to any carrier that could provide me service at a cheaper rate than what I'm already paying. Another factor that I would consider before switching is whether or not the carrier is GSM as per the fact that I use unlocked GSM phones almost exclusively. If they aren't GSM, they had better offer phones without crippled features. I'm sick of carriers taking wifi out of cell phones, restricting data services( i.e. "The walled garden"), and defanging Bluetooth messaging and file transfers.

if i will not get value for my money that will make me to switch my carrier.

I am sick and tired of support from every country around the world except the US. You spend hours on the phone going around in circles and nothing gets accomplished. The Nextel operator from India who doesn't have a clue where Baltimore is and that is the place that she was hired to find addresses for. The Dell people who ask 3-4 times if you have your computer plugged in when you have a hard drive issue and your computer is turned on. I am sick of dealing with outsourced untrained people and the morons that hire them in the first place. I will search out products before I buy and find out where support is before I buy. I bought a Logitech mouse and had to order a part for it. I was scared to death of what it would take to get the part I ordered and hadn't received. To my utter surprise and delight she was American and spoke American English. I had it in hand in two days. Now you can call me a biggot but guess what? I am not native to this country but I appreciate my good direct knowledgeable American help !

IMHO, one should be able to buy any phone at a decent price, buy a per-month service contract with the carrier of his/her choosing, and that's it.

Say another phone comes along that catches one's fancy: buy the phone, call your carrier, make the switch. Say you hear XYZ's customer service is better than yours, make the switch, phone number and all. If you have second thoughts, switch back. It's the carrier's responsibility, not the consumer's obligation, to keep the consumer's business.

Phone discounts should only be incentives to join a specific carrier, not joined-at-the-hip with long service contracts. ALL phones, not just GMS phones, should feature a chip that makes it easy for consumers to switch phones without starting from scratch.

It should be relatively easy to have the phone which better suits one's tastes and needs. For example, a Verizon or Sprint customer should be able to get the HTC Tilt, if they wanted to. A texter should be able to pick from all the available QWERTY and Smartphones, not wait for months or years until their carrier comes up with a dumbed-down, a.k.a. proprietary version of a great phone.

Phone features should be like operating systems, where-in you download what you want and use that instead of the OEM software.

So I've heard of a new company that's starting up and offering unlimited for $25 dollars a month. If it actually happens, I'm totally switching. There's some info at 25dollarcellplan.com. I think the company's LPC Global.