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Okay, you've lived through a year or two--or three--of cell phone 1.0, and it hasn't been pretty. Your phone seems to have two options: loud, and off. People right next to you are having a great time on their tiny, powerful phones, but your walkie-talkie fades out unless you hold your head at an excruciatingly painful angle. Better call the chiropractor.

Or worse, you haven't yet joined the wireless crowd and you envy the folks who can call someone from anywhere without searching for that endangered species, the pay phone. But you've heard your friends' horror stories, and now you're daunted by the idea of choosing a provider, plan, and phone.

Like the PC, wireless communications is evolving at a shocking pace. Not only are today's phones smaller, almost all of them are digital, which yields clearer sound. Cell phones also increasingly incorporate text-messaging and personal organizer features usually found in pagers and PDAs. To top it all off, you can now use your phone to browse the Web (which is why you're reading a phone story in PC World).

With all the service providers, calling plans, phones, and other wireless devices to choose from, it's hard to know where to start. We began by asking more than 1500 PC World readers about their wireless experiences. With those survey results in mind, we set out to create a guide to going wireless so you'll know what questions to ask when you're shopping for a cell phone. We looked at a sample of popular services and phones, and came up with some recommendations. Along the way, we encountered a few of the pitfalls that can make owning a cell phone a nightmare (see "Wireless Woes"). Finally, we test-drove five of the latest alternatives for wireless Internet--pagers and wireless-capable PDAs.

Choosing a Phone Service

The most important aspect of cell phone ownership isn't the phone itself, but the company that provides your wireless service. Service providers offer different coverage both in your local area and nationwide, separate price plans with varying terms, and different underlying technologies that determine which phones you can use. It's a confusing marketplace to wade through, but our survey provided us with a starting point.

Our respondents told us what may seem obvious--coverage is the most important feature of a wireless phone service. After all, what's the point of owning a cell phone if you can't get service where you need it? Unfortunately, how you find a provider with the coverage you need is much less obvious.

Most carriers provide detailed-looking maps--both regional and local--of their coverage areas. Along with the maps generally come disclaimers, however, stating that weather, landscape, and other factors could block reception within the company's areas of coverage. "My biggest problem is call reception," complains software engineer John Reeves of Keller, Texas. "Very often incoming calls never make it to my phone even though I'm in the service area," he adds, noting that occasionally his calls are dropped as well.

Your first coverage choice is between national providers and regional or local ones. Nationwide firms like AT&T, Sprint PCS, and Verizon Wireless offer coast-to-coast networks that can permit you to stay on your home service as you move from state to state. Regional providers, such as Qwest and Southwestern Bell, may cover only the states where the company provides local phone service. But that doesn't mean you're out of luck when you're outside your provider's network. Your phone may be able to roam, or operate as a guest on another company's digital or analog network. Roaming is better than not being able to talk at all, but it usually entails a surcharge of up to 75 cents a minute and long-distance fees of up to 50 cents a minute.

National providers, then, might seem to provide a better deal, but it's not always that simple. Even national firms usually charge roaming fees on their basic and intermediate plans, which specify local or regional home calling areas, respectively. Inside your home calling area, all calls are considered local. Once you step outside that calling area, roaming and long-distance fees apply. If you travel frequently, consider a national provider and ask about a one-rate plan that turns the company's entire nationwide network into your home calling area. No matter where you go--even if you roam onto another vendor's network--you pay no roaming or long-distance fees. And one-rate plans aren't a luxury reserved for high-end customers. Verizon, for example, offers a plan with free roaming and long distance for $35 a month. No matter what your choice, be sure to find out what your roaming fees are so you'll know the cost of making that call on the road.

Cheaper by the Hundreds

Cost ran a close second to coverage in importance among our survey respondents. Fees for roaming aren't the only charges that can inflate your cell phone bill to alarming proportions, so it's important to choose a calling plan that reflects your calling habits. Over 60 percent of the readers we surveyed who have a cell phone use one of four nationwide carriers: AT&T, Cellular One, Sprint, or Verizon. We looked at plans from these and three other popular carriers--MCI WorldCom, Nextel, and VoiceStream--and found a dizzying array of choices. Every wireless provider we've ever heard of offers a variety of monthly calling plans that juggle a flat monthly rate, a number of included airtime minutes, and a per-minute fee that kicks in when you exceed that limit. In addition, fees for roaming and long distance vary from free to more than a dollar per minute.

Here's a wireless phone math quiz: Which is more expensive, a $20-per-month plan or a $60-per-month plan? Though it depends on how you use your phone, choosing the $60 plan could save you a lot of money. For example, AT&T offers a basic plan with 60 included minutes for $20 per month; each minute after the first 60 costs 40 cents. Talking long distance costs 15 cents a minute, and each roaming minute costs 60 cents. AT&T's $60 plan includes 300 minutes with no roaming or long-distance charges and a 35-cent charge per minute beyond the first 300. If you make only local calls, and don't use more than the allotted 60 minutes a month, the $20 plan might be a good fit. Exceed that limit and things start to get expensive. Simply making another hour's worth of calls will add $24 to your bill. Already, that $60 plan is starting to look better. If you're roaming for that second hour, the additional fee will be $36. Throw in long-distance charges and...well, you get the idea.

If that sounds frightening to you, you're not alone. Of the more than 1500 respondents to our survey, over 200 have refused to join the wireless herd, fearing high costs, hidden extra charges, and confusing service agreements. But the majority of those polled who already have a phone were happy with their monthly rate. One reason could be that about half of them signed up at intermediate rather than bargain levels, paying $25 to $49 per month. At these slightly higher monthly rates, the number of included minutes goes up--often dramatically--and the cost of additional minutes, long distance, and roaming goes down.

If you travel a lot, consider a one-rate plan. For a higher monthly fee you'll receive 300 or more free minutes, additional minutes for as little as a quarter, and free nationwide long distance and roaming. Even if you use only a portion of your included minutes, you could end up paying less per month than under the bargain plans. Of course, there's an exception to every rule. Sprint charges for roaming on all of its plans, which could make traveling and talking expensive, even if you sign up for one of the company's higher-volume plans.

If even $20 a month seems like too much to pay for service, you can economize even further by purchasing a prepaid phone package. Andrea L. Steck, a student who lives in Cincinnati, paid $99 for a Nokia 5160 phone and $50 worth of initial service. "It was crucial to have a phone, since I'm on campus at night," says Steck. Though unused minutes expire after 60 days and the service lacks voice mail, she says she can't complain. "I'm only spending an average of $10 a month," Steck says. "This is a fab plan that works just fine for me right now." If you go for a prepaid plan, check the terms carefully. With just about every plan, you'll end up paying more per minute in exchange for not having to pay a monthly fee, and some plans really sock it to you when you roam or call long distance. Finally, the minutes you purchase won't last forever--many companies treat unused time as expired after two or three months.