AT&T

AT&T cell phone service offers both individual plans and family plans that contain features such as voice mail, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile to mobile, caller ID and other nice perks that are comparable to all other service providers. AT&T does offer no roaming or long distance as part of their base package as well just as Cingular used to do. This means that a subscriber will never incur any roaming charges in the nationwide coverage area. Nor will they pay for nationwide long distance. Family plans have the option of adding additional lines for $9.99 per month. There is a limit as to how many phones can be added depending on the plan chosen. Additional features like unlimited Internet access or unlimited AT&T text messaging can be added to these plans for extra fees.

AT&T breaks their plans down further between two distinct features. The first set of plans offer rollover minutes that were so popular with Cingular customers. This feature allows customers to take any unused minutes at the end of the month and store them in a bank. Should they use up their allotted minutes for the month, they may then use minutes stored in the bank without incurring any overage charges. The other plan, the AT&T unity plan, is much newer and allows AT&T customers to call any other AT&T phone number without the call being counted against your monthly anytime minutes. Plans are tailored towards the customer's geographic location.

For a pre-paid program, AT&T offers what they call the GoPhone. Like their traditional plans, GoPhone has no roaming or long distance fees and offers a rollover balance. The GoPhone requires no annual contract either as it is a pay as you go service. The customer chooses either the unlimited talk for 10 cents a minute which incurs a one dollar a day access fee every day a customer uses their phone, or 25 cents a minute with no access fee.

For data services, AT&T offers plans custom tailored to BlackBerry or SmartPhones. At the BlackBerry level, there are different plans for individuals and corporate accounts and SmartPhone plans are broken down by data downloads and email capability. All AT&T cell phones allow connection to the AT&T media net where customers can access ringtones, news, WAP enabled sites, email, instant messaging, and other media. There is generally an extra charge for data downloads depending on the plan chosen.

AT&T wireless cell phones include: Nokia, LG, Sony, Motorola, Samsung, and Cingular. PDA and smartphone manufacturers include Sony, Nokia, BlackBerry, Palm, and Motorola. Unique to AT&T are the FireFly and iPhone models.

Cingular made the FireFly, a small phone made exclusively for children, available to its customers and AT&T has continued with this model as well. Calls on this phone are limited to 20 preprogrammed numbers. Also, there are two hotkeys that will auto dial important numbers. The iPhone is new from Apple computers and is exclusive to the line of AT&T cell phones. The iPhone combines a cell phone, iPod, Internet, and other media tools in one device. The iPhone requires a special plan that is available through the AT&T website.