Kent German,
Senior Editor
April 28, 2008
Which is the best cell phone carrier? Is it T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, or perhaps AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless)? Or is one of the regional carriers, such as U.S. Cellular or Alltel, that is the best? Though many readers ask CNET that very question, it's difficult to give a straight answer. A carrier's reception depends on a lot of factors which can vary greatly, even within the same city, so every customer will have a different experience. So to accurately--and honestly--tell you which carrier offers the best network, we'd have to make calls in thousands of locations across the country. Yet, we can tell you everything you need to know about the national and regional carriers, by detailing their phone lineups, technologies, and the different services that they offer. Also, we invite you to share your feelings about prepaid and specialty cell phone carriers as well. So please help us make our carrier reviews even more useful on a national level by providing your own ratings and sending us feedback. Is your carrier doing a good job?
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| Review date | February 20, 2007 | February 20, 2007 | February 15, 2007 | February 12, 2007 | June 06, 2007 | June 07, 2007 |
| The Bottom Line | T-Mobile offers competitively priced plans and extensive international roaming. | Verizon Wireless is the biggest CDMA carrier in the United States. It was one of the first to offer a 3G network, and it recently launched the first mobile TV network for a carrier. | Sprint Nextel is now a combined company that offers wireless service under two distinct brands. | AT&T is the biggest wireless carrier in the United States, with 62 million subscribers. | U.S. Cellular is a regional carrier covering much of the Midwest. | Alltel is the fifth-largest carrier in the United States. |
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