Anyone know anything about the Sprint/Nextel merger?Thanks Scott and Danielle

I am looking at switching cell phone companies. My DH had Sprint before and loved them. We have Verizon now, and although their coverage is good, their customer service is not so good.

And...does anyone know if there is any way to get out of paying the fee for cutting off your service?

There is no way of getting out of the fee for cutting your service you have now. I would not switch over to sprint now if I were you. You will regret it. Sprint was better in the past but lately has been having its problems. That is why the merger is very important. Afterr this merger Sprint-Nextel will be the second largest Wireless company. The first being At&t and Cingular...Which is now Cingular. The sprint Nextel merge wont mean anything until late 2006 when they release the first Sprint Nextel phone...which will no longer be running on the IDEN network and will now be running on Sprint PCS CDMA network. I dont know how the service will be until then but I am sure that they will have their problems. If you want to switch from Verizon, I would go to Cingular GSM. With Cingular GSM you have the largest area of coverage....You get roll over minutes which means what ever minutes arent used at the end of the month, they get rolled over to the next month and this lasts the lifetime of the cellular contract. You also get free calls to any customer that has T&T and cingular, free nights and weekends, free roaming, and right now Cingular has promotions going where you can receive around $180 in rebates.

So before you make this decision, look around at other web forums and read some articles on the service providers you are interested in. If you want to know more about the Sprint nextel merge, I would check out www.fiercewireless.com That is where I get all my information about cellular issues.

If you need any more info, you can fm me or post here.
Scott

I had Nextel for 3 years and then DH switched to it from Sprint..he hated it and we switched to Verizon and were very happy with it. my best friends husband works for Nextel....

I believe yes you will be charged for coming out of contract...should be about $175-200.

Nextels' cust. svc was AWESOME when I first got it...it slowly went downhill. Verizons' isn't much better, but the coverage is better. DH had a limited edition Nextel phone that was stolen from his job, and they told me even if I HAD the insurance, it wouldn't have mattered because it was a Limited Edition. I then had to shell out another $200 for a phone for him...all they gave me was a lousy $100 off the price.

I also believe anytime you change your plan, it extends your contract. They don't tell you that...Verizon doesn't do that.

Scott
Do you know how much they (Cingular GSM) plan on expanding their coverage over the next year? There seems to be little coverage over much of the west coast.

We are going to go with Cingular now. I am going to try and order online. I will be paying the extra money to cancel Verizon.

Thank you so much for all your insight.

I have Sprint and the service is kick-arse.

Rollover minutes are overrated. If you are constantly rolling over minutes every month... uh.... you selected a poor plan in the first place.

Sprint's Fair and Flexible plan is a better option. Why roll over minutes and stockpile them while you are paying a high monthly fee when Sprint will lower your monthly bill for the next month if you don't use all of your minutes?

Its also very foolish to pay an early cancellation fee... why give a cellular company free money?

But hey... thats your decision.

Oh... and Cingular aquired AT&T wireless... perhaps the worst company out there for Customer Service. They will nickel and dime you whenever you have a problem.

My FW had them and since then... we learned to avoid them like the plague. Truly HORRIBLE company.

---

Posted by DjPiLL

I have Sprint and the service is kick-arse.

Rollover minutes are overrated. If you are constantly rolling over minutes every month... uh.... you selected a poor plan in the first place.

Sprint's Fair and Flexible plan is a better option. Why roll over minutes and stockpile them while you are paying a high monthly fee when Sprint will lower your monthly bill for the next month if you don't use all of your minutes?

Its also very foolish to pay an early cancellation fee... why give a cellular company free money?

But hey... thats your decision.

---

Hey Pill....Sprint is Known to be the worst service out there...That is why it is merging with the second worst service so they can actually dig both companies out of the ground.

As far as Bad cellular companies go the list from worst to great is Sprint, Nextel, T Mobile, AT&T, Cingular, And Verizon. Verizon is the best but they dont offer the best plans with the most minutes. Cingular GSM so far has been excellent. We always have service, the calls are clear, and we even have service in our apartment. I have never had service in my apartment not even with verizon. We live in a basement and I can actually make a call from my V180 GSM phone without the phone getting static or without me losing a call.

Check out this article from Fierce Wireless:

Rumor Mill: Will T-Mobile bid for Nextel?

Merger mania isn't over yet. Insiders at Banc of America are now speculating that T-Mobile will make a play to acquire Nextel. This latest merger rumor suggests that T-Mobile may make a counter-offer for Nextel, in part because the carrier desperately needs more spectrum. By acquiring Nextel, T-Mobile would be better positioned to continue its play as a nationwide carrier. T-Mobile also needs more business clients. Integrating Nextel's network with T-Mobile's might be trickier than integrating it with Sprint's, especially since T-Mobile has no immediate plans to transition to 3G. T-Mobile has yet to comment on the rumor.

The rumor mill has been hot since the Sprint, Nextel story first broke. Earlier this month, some suggested that Vodafone might make a play for either Sprint or Nextel, but the company quickly came out to dismiss those rumors. Then The Wall Street Journal reported that Vodafone had given its blessing to Verizon Wireless for a bid to acquire Sprint. Vodafone also quickly denied that report. Last week, insiders were guessing that Verizon might make a play to acquire Sprint, while yesterday some insiders suggested that Verizon might make a bid to acquire either Alltel or US Cellular.

customer service in any orginzation will never get a good rap as its the only factor that differs them from other companies.

I had sprint - no problems but wanted to save more...
had cingular - no problems but wanted nextel

nextel expensive for 1 little feature and - yes, their customer service gave me a ton of problems cause their billing is F'ed up but once i got to coparte, it all got resolved.

currenlty, verizon... i get really pissed with them with my employee rate that after 4 mths of service is not on the account. besides that, i pay a good amount even w/o my discount and the coverage is great.

i wish i lived in europe cause cells phones are so much more advanced

---

Posted by Danielle&Scott

Hey Pill....Sprint is Known to be the worst service out there...That is why it is merging with the second worst service so they can actually dig both companies out of the ground.

---

Known by who? Thats a very subjective thing to say. Known by you? A lot of people say Sprint is 'known to be bad'... but have no facts to back it up. They just say it cause they think its 'the way'.

I know that ive had Sprint since 2001 and I haven't had any issues. I never miss a call... rarely drop a call. Plus I have gotten tons of freebies from their customer service as far as free phones, plan reductions, retention, etc.

Their data network also kicks the crap out of Cingular and AT&T. Sprint's Vision network is VERY fast when I connect my phone to the laptop like I am connected now. In fact I believe they have the fastest nationwide 3G data network out of all the providers.

They are looking to merge with Nextel... solely to aquire their Direct Connect service. Sprint launched ReadyLink (Their 'directconnect type' service) this year. They want Nextel's subscriber base.

It has nothing to do with one bad company merging with another. Nextel is hugely popular in the business sector. You may not be aware of that... being a personal user. However, its definitely 'Widely Known' that Sprint wants a piece of that action.

ok Pill....You seem to know a lot about this and I dont want to argue with it over you..Afterall it would just be your opinion against mine. I am not saying anything that is just mmy opinion, I am saying from what I hear from within the Industry and from what I read. But whatever.
Scott

---

Posted by DjPiLL

I have Sprint and the service is kick-arse.

Rollover minutes are overrated. If you are constantly rolling over minutes every month... uh.... you selected a poor plan in the first place.

Sprint's Fair and Flexible plan is a better option. Why roll over minutes and stockpile them while you are paying a high monthly fee when Sprint will lower your monthly bill for the next month if you don't use all of your minutes?

Its also very foolish to pay an early cancellation fee... why give a cellular company free money?

But hey... thats your decision.

---

The only reason I am going to switch companies and pay the termination fee is because, I no longer have a phone. Someone stole mine, and my DH's is broken--he has been paying service for my phone only for the past couple of months basically-- so we are both without a phone and no insurance. The insurance is worthless if you can only use it once a year,which we found out the hard way this year. So I am at a loss either way. Either pay for brand new phones with my contract being up in 7 months or switch companies and get brand new phones but pay the termination fee.