FINALLY!!! I have been waiting, patiently, for quite some time for the ability and opportunity to switch from AT&T Wireless to something more reliable. So at this point I give fair warning to those concidering the possibility of picking AT&T Wireless, think twice. Now you may say that I’m just an uninformed consumer who’s just unhappy with a specific issue that I never took the time to resolve properly. To keep the story short and simple, AT&T has made some really bad decisions regarding their upgrade to GSM and 3G in Colorado Springs area. They convinced everyone to upgrade their phones, while making the CDMA phones sparsely available in their stores. Additionally, the phones that they provide are not compatible across the varying signal types, so for example a GSM phone is not compatible with the CDMA signal. At the time of this posting, even if you bought a phone that worked on multiple networks you had to manually switch between which signal you wanted to use. Does this sound like the kind of things an average consumer wish to be concerned with?
As a result I have waited patiently, doing a lot of research, and taking peoples advice. The conclusion that I came to was to switch to Verizon. First, I know a lot of people already on or who have already switched from AT&T to Verizon and have been VERY happy with the results. Second, I found that out of Consumer Reports (for all regions), Verizon was rated the highest. In regards to a phone, I’ve decided that the LG VX6000 should do what I want. Despite the fact that it is a picture phone it is one of the highest rated phones ever sold (just under the success of the old Motorola V60 phone) based on CNET customer reviews.
After having spent some time with this phone I would have to say that the reception is great, and the user interface is phenomenal, however the battery life could use some work (our previous phones could last almost a full week on a single charge). This is an extremely small price to pay compared to the lack of quality signal and service we had with AT&T.