Plan Types

Disclaimer: Provider offerings really change dramatically with time. Double-check any of the assertions made here with your provider before making a purchasing decision. I endeavor to keep these pages up to date, but it's hard to keep up with the current issues. Cellular plans seem to change more frequently than any other service that I'm familiar with.

All National, No Roaming: Most all national carriers have moved to offering only just one plan type. Virtually all of the carriers have moved to offering national plans with no roaming charges, and nation-wide long distance. Cingular and Verizon have the most included coverage if you care about rural coverage (study their maps to see why I say this) and best feature transparency (i.e. data roaming in many locations). Sprint now includes roaming with most of their new rate plans. Their roaming coverage is very good (easily the equal of Cingular or Verizon), but their native coverage is limited, and they generally do not allow access to data when roaming. In Sprint's affiliate markets, roaming isn't included. T-Mobile lacks certain rural coverage, which may or may not be important to you. T-Mobiles included roaming coverage has gone from zero, to a significant amount in recent years. In other words, all of the national providers seem are trying to provide similar features to a certain extent. Studying coverage maps first, then make decisions based on other factors. i.e. At this point, most of us have more than one carrier that provides all of the coverage we need so we make our choice based on more than one criterion. Admittedly, coverage and ability to use the service is perhaps the most important criterion for most of us. Best roaming is achieved with a phone that supports more bands and modes. For example, on T-Mobile, it's important to get a phone with 800Mhz capability to allow roaming (in many locations).

For historical sake, I'll continue to define the plans types that used to be common. Some carriers do offer more than one rate plan type. i.e. Alltel, US Cellular, and Unicel.

Local/Regional Plan: Local plans may include all coverage (roaming or not) within say two or three states. i.e. Oregon and Washington. These plans are easy to understand and well-defined. The only "gotcha" with these plans is that they often do not include nationwide long distance (and of course, no nationwide roaming). The cost may not be much more to get a national plan with long distance included.

Regional Plan: Some carriers offer a plan similar to local, but covering multiple states. For example, Verizon used to offer "Single Rate West" which included 12 western states (including Hawaii). This plan did include nation-wide long distance, and roaming inside the 12 state footprint. You could still be charged roaming if you headed to the eastern united states.

Network Plans: These plans offer limited nationwide coverage. Users must pay attention to their phone's roaming indicator. These plans have largely been eliminated due to competition sake. Basically "everyone" offers a truly no-roaming nation-wide plan these days.

DOR/SingleRate: Historically these plans included AT&T's Digital One Rate, or Verizon's SingleRate which offer truly no-roaming plans anywhere in the nation. Both have been supplanted with mainstream no-roaming plans (which ironically may include slightly less national coverage, but at a better price). These plans were very expensive in their day, and counted on business travelers who could not be bothered with the details of monitoring their phone's status prior to making or receiving a call.

What I Recommend: Seems like everyone has the national plan these days. The only one I tend to use caution with is T-Mobile. T-Mobile has great service where they provide service, but their remote/rural roaming coverage is limited compared to the competition. T-Mobile has the best coverage maps in the industry, so it's easy to see if you are covered or not. Not everyone cares about rural coverage, so if their coverage area works OK for you, then they are a fine option and tend to reward the smaller coverage area with more included minutes for the same price.

Whatever you do, really test a new provider during the test period (14 days?) and return the equipment during that time if you are displeased with service. After that grace period, you tend to get locked into a contract, so you really need to test things out as best you can.