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Quality of Service

Next, you'll want to consider a carrier's service quality before locking yourself into a contract. Unfortunately, wireless quality is tough to research. Problems are often hard to predict and even harder to resolve. Keith Zornes, a customer service and sales representative in Bothell, Washington, has given up expecting reliable wireless service while driving around the Seattle area. "My cell phone signal can go from full power to no power in about 60 seconds," he says. Zornes says his employer, a large utility company, complained to the wireless provider, which said it was installing additional cell towers to reduce dead areas. But nothing has changed, according to Zornes, and he remains puzzled by the inconsistent service. "You're on top of a hill one day and getting good reception," he says, "but the next day it's gone."

Switching to another provider might solve reception problems, or it might not. Online wireless reseller Decide.com shared with PC World the results of more than a year of wireless service testing it conducted in dozens of U.S. cities. Though the numbers don't reveal a consistent pattern of wireless reception quality, a few truths shine through. First, in a given area, one provider may be better than another, so switching to another service could remedy reception problems. Decide's testing in Seattle showed that US West and GTE (now a part of Verizon) made good calls around 80 percent of the time, while the good-call rate at AirTouch (also absorbed by Verizon) and AT&T came closer to 90 percent. Second, some cities--like Las Vegas--are just bad places to use a cell phone, regardless of the provider. For some reason, no provider in Las Vegas managed more than a 71 percent success rate. Third, even though a particular provider may not be great in many cities, it could provide the best quality where you live. Sprint, for example, fared poorly (around 79 percent) across most of the country, but in San Antonio and Austin, Texas, it ranked as one of the best.

Talk to friends and coworkers who use their cell phones in locations or along highways you frequent. Are there dead zones or cell boundaries that could interrupt service? Things may not be as bad as you think: Nearly 75 percent of the cell phone users we surveyed said they were happy with their phone's audio quality.

Paging, Messaging, Browsing

Talk may be cheap, especially if you pick the right calling plan, but wireless phones are good for more than talk these days. Many act like pagers, displaying the phone numbers of calls that come in while the phone is turned off or busy. Some cell phones can send and receive text messages, retrieve voice mail, and perform familiar tricks of wired phones like call waiting and Caller ID.

Such features may be useful, but don't assume that they'll be included with your phone--some are dependent on the calling plan you choose. Often, services such as voice mail and numeric paging are included without extra charge in higher-volume plans; in others, they can cost up to $10 per month more. Read the fine print carefully before signing on the dotted line.

Paging and messaging are all well and good, but what's really creating a buzz these days is the ability to browse the Web on your phone. Combine the right phone and service plan, and you too could be surfing the Web on your cell phone, using an application called a microbrowser. Currently, your provider will offer either Phone.com's microbrowser or one that uses the Wireless Application Protocol. There are some slight differences between the two technologies, but they provide essentially the same things: lists of commercial news, weather, sports, finance, and shopping sites formatted for your phone's tiny display and poky, 9.6 kbps download speed, and the ability to send e-mail through your provider or a third-party site like MSN, AOL, or Yahoo.

But before you rush out to get your phone browser, consider this: More than half of our survey respondents who already have a Web-capable wireless phone report that they never use their Web service. One reason is undoubtedly the quality of the browsing experience. Netscape it isn't. Surfing the Web on your phone is like pedaling a toy car down the freeway--it's a lot of work just to get to the next off-ramp, and you know that people with real cars are enjoying a lot more scenery. Opinions may change as the standard cell phone's screen size grows, navigation controls improve, and the content becomes a must-have for mobile folk instead of a stripped-down rehash of existing sites.

The wireless Web isn't cheap, either. Though AT&T's basic PocketNet service (which offers access to partner Web sites) is free, additional capabilities like e-mail and access to any URL cost as much as $15 a month. Nextel's wireless Web services are even costlier. When shopping for a service, find out whether the time you spend browsing comes out of your calling minutes or not. AT&T's PocketNet lets you browse without using talk time.

You've probably heard wireless service horror stories--rampant overcharging, missing bills, and so on--and maybe you even have a few of your own to tell. But while our survey respondents had their fair share of nightmare situations, they gave their current provider's customer service and technical support each an average of about 7 out of 10 points. More than a quarter had experienced billing errors such as late or missing bills, or incorrect or duplicate charges, but three quarters of those people reported that the problem was resolved to their satisfaction.

As with any human endeavor, accidents will happen. But there are a few things you can do to make things easier on yourself--and your customer service representative--when the steam starts shooting out of your ears.

First, look for a plan that offers long hours for customer service and technical support. Some, like VoiceStream, are available 24 hours a day. And itemized billing can preserve your sanity by showing each incoming and outgoing call. That way, you can compare the total number of minutes, or locate any mischarged calls before you even pick up the phone. Sandy Obenshain in Roanoke, Virginia, says she has to call her wireless provider almost every month, and has refined the process into a science: "Customer service reps try, but they don't always accomplish what they say they will do. I usually just start off by asking for a supervisor so I won't have to constantly repeat my problems." And rather than demand service improvements when dropped calls and static interrupt her communications, Obenshain came up with a more satisfying solution: requesting that additional minutes be credited to her plan.