Sell me on Verizon and Blackberry

[MM]

My contract with AT&T and my iPhone are coming up in a month. I am seriously considering going to Verizon and getting the BB Storm.

I know I have said in the past on how I have issues with AT&T at my house. I finally talked to an AT&T engineer familiar with my area. He said that there will be no changes in towers for at least 18 months and maybe more. So I will have no service at my house for a long time.

I have been looking into to Verizon and their plans. I really want the Storm, but the reviews have been very mixed. I could get a Curve, too.

It will be hard not to get a new iPhone in July when the new one arrives. I really love mine and will miss it.

Please share your thoughts and plans with Verizon.

Thanks guys.

 

[MAJ Badmotherfarker]

I actually chose NOT to get Verizon and the Storm. I like the storm, but Verizon is almost 50% more than Sprint/month. I went with Sprint and their $100/month, everything plan. Verizon wanted $150 for the same plan. Also, Best Buy was giving away free Blackberry Curves with a 1 year contract, so that worked out well.

 

[MAJ Badmotherfarker]

Oh, and with that said, Verizon is well known to have the best coverage. But, I have no issues with Sprint. AT&T on the other hand... sucks.

 

[MM]

I had Sprint before the iPhone. My wife has it for work and she is in roaming at our house.

I guess I should look at Best Buy, too.

 

[MAJ Badmotherfarker]

I had Sprint before the iPhone. My wife has it for work and she is in roaming at our house.

I guess I should look at Best Buy, too.

I've had my Blackberry (Sprint) in Portland, Seattle, Houston, San Antonio, Sacramento, L.A., Phoenix, everywhere east of Texas, Washington DC, San Francisco.... well, you get the point... and have NEVER been on roaming.

 

[memebag]

I've had my Blackberry (Sprint) in Portland, Seattle, Houston, San Antonio, Sacramento, L.A., Phoenix, everywhere east of Texas, Washington DC, San Francisco.... well, you get the point... and have NEVER been on roaming.

I thought roaming was a thing of the past. I've got an old-school BB on Verizon. Works great, except in my house where the coverage is usually weak. Make sure whatever you get works where you'll be.

 

[xan_user]

no choice but Verizon if yo want to make and receive calls out here. The BB is nice but i kept my sch-i760 as it does way more. (winmobile 6.1)
Samsung SCH-i760 Specs & Features (Phone Scoop)

 

[MAJ Badmotherfarker]

I thought roaming was a thing of the past. I've got an old-school BB on Verizon. Works great, except in my house where the coverage is usually weak. Make sure whatever you get works where you'll be.

My thoughts as well. I pay Sprint $100/month and I use my phone for everything and anything. Last time I saw "roaming" was with Cingular back in 2003 (wait, isn't Cingular now AT-T?).

 

[MM]

My thoughts as well. I pay Sprint $100/month and I use my phone for everything and anything. Last time I saw "roaming" was with Cingular back in 2003 (wait, isn't Cingular now AT-T?).

Yes, Cingular is now AT&T.

Now it's called Digital Roaming.

And I don't live in the sticks anymore. I am 18 miles south of Downtown Boston.

 

[Jon]

I don't understand how they could NOT have coverage 10 miles South of a major metropolitan area. If I were to leave AT&T for any reason, I'd probably jump on a BB Storm or a Curve, and Verizon would be the most likely choice. My Neighborhood is a dead zone, not just for AT&T and 3G, but for all services. Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, whatever, no service works in this part of my block. Everywhere else AT&T is flawless.

 

[semipenguin]

I was listening to Derek Hartley from the Derek and Romaine Show bitch about AT&T's service in the New York Metropolitan area today. How his service dropped off 5 times during a 30min call. The largest metro area in the country and he was getting dropoffs!...:right:

More bars in more places my ass. I didn't like AT&T when I had to use them for mobile internet, and I won't ever go back. I even shut off my home phone just so I don't have to give AT&T any of my money.

I really like Sprints prices, but I would like the iPhone better. Unless the Palm Pre or a BlackBerry is really worth staying with Sprint, I can see myself going to Verizon and an iPhone...

 

[TheScionicMan]

My company is in the process of switching over to Verizon from ATT. They were much more willing to negotiate a good deal. ATT was like Why negotiate? we've already got your business... So they lost a quarter mil a year...

I am in the SF Bay Area, so coverage between the two is about the same. I've also gotten about an equal amounts of users being happy we're changing from ATT as we have people that are concerned about what they've heard about Verizon. Most people don't care.

The first difference I noticed is Verizon Curves don't have GPS. They can give location info based on cell tower which works pretty well, just not as accurate but that's what I used on my T-Mobile bberry before the Curve. Also, the Verizon Curve service is CDMA, not GSM, so you can't use them in Europe if you travel. Only the 8830 World Phone and the Storm can be made to work there. The good news is that the CDMA service doesn't have that electronic buzz like ATT's GSM service or T-Mobile to a lesser extent.

I don't deal with pricing so I can't help you there but I love having my Curve. Besides making my job easier, the other functions are great. I took a bunch of pics at the Marin Headlands today with it since my camera batteries were dead. Also shot a video. They are multimedia capable and I think they even will sync with iTunes altho I don't use it for that. I have a couple podcasts loaded on it in case I'm without my S50, but that hasn't happened yet...

I've only played with the Storm a little but didn't really like it. I type too much for that virtual keyboard stuff. I may be faster on the bberry than on this damn laptop. It also seemed rather heavy, IMO. Plus the fingerprints that I get on my screen now drive me nuts, so I can't imagine what it would be like when I was supposed to touch it...

 

[xan_user]

apparently my phone has a gps chip, but verizon chooses to disable it. they suck on that note and the international thing..but cdma doesn't f-up audio signals in my car like gsm does.

 

[BobBski]

Tried ATT....lost signal too often. Very happy Verizon customer for a year now. I don't have a Blackberry but I have the Voyager and do the internet, email, verizon navigator is great, and everything else I need to do. I even use their mobile internet for my laptop nationwide and in canada...can't remember ever not getting connected and being able to use it. As and over the road truck driver...very satisfied.

 

[tsave31]

I have the Storm with Verizon and love it. I can't really say much else because I've been happy with Verizon all my life. My friend does have AT&T and the iPhone and is equally as happy with her iPhone capabilities, but does struggle with service in the area. Verizon's service coverage is second to none.

 

[MM]

I have the Storm with Verizon and love it. I can't really say much else because I've been happy with Verizon all my life. My friend does have AT&T and the iPhone and is equally as happy with her iPhone capabilities, but does struggle with service in the area. Verizon's service coverage is second to none.

Have you had an issues with the Storm? I'm sure you heard that the Storm 2 will be out later this year.

I really like it, but usually every time I buy something a newer version comes out a few months later.

There is no doubt here that Verizon is much better service wise.

 

[Jon]

apparently my phone has a gps chip, but verizon chooses to disable it. they suck on that note and the international thing..but cdma doesn't f-up audio signals in my car like gsm does.

I must be the only one that doesn't get this. I use the iPhone in the car all the time on 3G to play Slacker and Pandora and I've never heard the GSM noise. I'm not even sure I know what the noise sounds like.

 

[limegrass69]

AT&T is a disaster in the NYC area. I know it first hand, and it is well documented. AT&T claims to be working on it, but their 3G implementation was seriously botched. They took touch and go service and made it horrendous.

Verizon is not perfect (nobody is), but I prefer their service to AT&T. It just works. The usually don't have cutting edge devices. If you do a lot of international travel, you have a very limited lineup with Verizon (as was mentioned earlier).

The GPS thing on Verizon is sort of true. If you are on Blackberry software version 4.5 or higher, you can get the GPS to work on the Blackberry Maps application. The Blackberry Maps application is decent, but does not have a full feature set. Google Maps won't work using the GPS chip, but cellular triangulation works, and usually gets you in the neighborhood. Obviously their VZ Navigator application works (and is very good and accurate). All of the navigation apps are signal dependent. If you are in a fringe area, you may lose it since the device does not cache all that much in terms of maps. You need the data signal to keep pulling new info down.

As far as the Blackberry goes, it's not the sexiest device, but I don't think there is a better email/PIM device out there...especially if you're hooked up to a BES (corporate mail server).

 

[limegrass69]

Have you had an issues with the Storm? I'm sure you heard that the Storm 2 will be out later this year.

I really like it, but usually every time I buy something a newer version comes out a few months later.

There is no doubt here that Verizon is much better service wise.

The Storm is a love it or hate it sort of thing. It was weird for me. I like the full QWERTY keyboard with hard keys. The new Storm will apparently not have the "Suretype" keyboard like the current Storm does. The new Storm is rumored to have wifi too. Go to a Verizon store and play around with it.

 

[tsave31]

Have you had an issues with the Storm? I'm sure you heard that the Storm 2 will be out later this year.

I really like it, but usually every time I buy something a newer version comes out a few months later.

There is no doubt here that Verizon is much better service wise.

I have not had any issues, persay. The Verizon OS (.75) is terrible, but there are plenty of OS upgrades ("unofficial") that you can get that helps to perfect the storm. Otherwise, I haven't had anything. This is my first blackberry and it was a seamless transition. I have heard about the storm 2 but most of the details are fuzzy right now.