The current state of consumer Cellular and PCS systems is truely amazing. The Cellular systems still have coverage areas and power output advantages but PCSs win on power consumption (100's of hours on a charge), features (e-mail to your phone), and pricing.
As usual, certain limitations are not technical. For instance, ATT PCS has coverage (of sorts) in the Albany/Corvallis/Newport region, but the FCC has not yet licensed them to sell here. They can sell in Portland and Salem, but not here ;-(
The following is a brief synopsis of my last 2 days on the phone and web.
| Company | ATT Wireless PCS | Cellular One | Air Touch | Worldcom | MCI | VoiceStream | Sprint PCS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | Digital One Rate | 350 Calling Plan | |||||
| Base Cost | $89.99 | $49.95 | $50.00 | $52.95 | $39.95 | $29.99 | |
| Avalible in Corvallis/Newport | No. In Portland and Salem | Yes | Yes | No. In Mass, Penn, NY | Yes | Corvallis-yes, Newport-No | Corvallis-yes, Newport-No |
| Monthly Minutes | 600 | 300 | 350 | 120 | 400 | 150 | |
| Coverage | Essentially Cellular One | Large | Large | ??? | patchy | Eugene to Seattle | |
| Additional Airtime | $0.25 | ??? | $0.25 | $0.32 | $0.20 | $0.26 | |
| No Roaming Zone | 50 States | Yachets to Linclon City | Oregon and Washington | Van, WA - Eugene | |||
| Roam+LD from Wash | none | 0.75+0.13 | 0.00+0.25 | 0.49+0.20 | |||
| Roam+LD from N. Calf | none | 0.99+0.28 | 0.99+0.?? | 0.49+0.20 | |||
| Roam+LD from Dutch Harbor | coverage ??? | no coverage | 0.99+0.?? | ||||
| Other plans | 1000 min, 1400 min | 120 min, 60 min | 75 min, 120min, 150min, 600min | 0 min, 45 min | 60 min | 15 min | |
| Notes | No roaming, no LD in 50 states | can switch plans monthly | Can mix and match and switch | Buy down LD. First min of incoming FREE | |||
There's also some exciting news for Palm Pilot users. ATT Wireless Data has a Palm Pilot / Minstrel Modem package.