Welcome to Drako's Wireless Review. We are a wireless review, news, and comparison site owned and operated by Drako's Website Services. We are a website designed to empower customers to make better informed decisions before making their upgrade or new cellular purchases. As such, we are merely a central point of information that is publically available across the internet. We utilize the resources provided by the carriers own websites, other wireless review and news sites, and wireless information sites such as the following:
We understand there are many choices for customers within the wireless industry. In that regard, heres a few things customers should consider when choosing their next wireless phone and service provider.
Region If you live in an area where a regional provider is offering service and coverage and do not travel, then that regional provider may be your best choice. We do not review regional providers because our focus will remain on the national aspect of the wireless industry. However, it has been proven that regional providers can offer better coverage and services in the smaller regional areas in which the provider "exists."
Coverage A big issue is coverage, and for those that are covered by regional providers, the paragraph above is fully correct. Regional providers will offer better coverage and services to customers who live in the smaller regional areas in which the providers exist. However, national providers are better for customers who travel across the nation, or around the world. Unlike the regional providers, national providers will provide at least decent coverage in most major cities and along most major highways. For customers that are in areas where only the nationals provide service, and there is no regional option, the national providers will at least be a decent choice. However, you must check to ensure that the carrier you plan on using at least has "Home" coverage in the area you live and work.
PrePaid vs PostPaid Maybe you don't like 2 year contracts. Or maybe the phone is only for emergency use. If you don't use the phone that often, then a prepaid option would be best for you. You can also take a look at the prepaid options to find the cheapest one available that has the coverage where you would be using it the most (at home and at work) and the device you can see yourself using. On the other end, if you use the phone a lot, you may want to look into the postpaid plans, they may save you some money. If you already have a prepaid phone and are putting more than $100 into it every month, maybe you should consider switching to a postpaid plan. There are even providers of postpaid service that don't require contracts. Prepaid plans allow you to pay as you go, where as Postpaid plans charge you a certain amount each month for a set number of minutes.
Plans and offerings On the national level, the rate plans are all about the same. So the real question is, would you rather get something offered only by all the providers (like mobile to mobile) or get something a little different. at&t offers Rollover minutes along with the mobile to mobile. T-Mobile doesn't offer Mobile to Mobile on MyFaves, but you can talk to any 5 numbers for free. Sprint offers 7PM-7AM Night and Weekend talk time along with the mobile to mobile. Verizon Wireless offers pretty much just mobile to mobile. All the carriers offer Unlimited Night and Weekend minutes, nationwide calling, no roaming charges, and no long distance charges. As for the regional carriers, we don't review them.
Friends and family Another big choice is how many of your friends and family, the people you would talk to the most, are on which provider. If you have more friends and family on one provider over any other provider, maybe it would be a good choice to choose that provider so you can talk to them for free. If you don't have that many friends or family members you talk to often, or its about the same number on each provider, then T-Mobile's MyFaves may be a good choice.
International Calling/Roaming If you plan on calling to other countries, maybe you should see which providers in your area offer calling to the country you would be calling to, and who has the lowest rates. If you travel overseas, GSM providers offer coverage in more countries. However, it is not a bad idea to see which providers in your home area offer international roaming to your destination country, along with finding a provider with the lowest international roaming rates.
Landline Provider If you have landline service, you may want to consider using them for your wireless service as well. There are landline services that offer wireless services alongside. Having one provider for both services could save you some money, and will allow you to pay off both services with one bill.
Store Locations It's important to be able to find a store location near you. There will be times when you may need to goto the store to get the proper service for your phone and/or plan. So having a store close to where you work and/or live is a big deciding factor. Being able to goto a store location will also allow you to get a better feel of the phone, since they will have the phones (or at least dummy models) on display in the stores.
Employer Another factor is your employer. Some employers offer discounts on service with a certain provider. If you want that discount, you gotta chose your employers provider. Employers may also offer employee plans on certain providers, or issue phones to employees at the employers expense. If you work at a retail store that sells wireless service, you may more likely buy the service you sell for the reasons above or other reasons. Those other reasons may also include ease of access to phones, plans/minutes, and/or a decent knowledge of the services you sell-and how they may benefit you over other providers.
Phone and Features Another deciding point is what you want your phone to do. Want to send messages or watch video or TV? Want to download music. Which phone can you see yourself using that has the features you want it to have? That phone might help decide your provider as well. Find the phone that fits your style and does what you want it to, and you're set.
Website Disclaimer
In all due respects, Drako's Wireless Review can be classified as a resource center, or wireless news site. This is due to the fact that we merely gather and post information about the wireless services here. Drako's Wireless Review carries no affiliation with any of the carriers, and tends to remain an unbiased information center. Our official reviews are only to present which carrier can offer the most at any given time. The reviews can contain any and all information pertaining to the carriers, whether good or bad. The only official documents will be those available on each Carrier's own website, therefore there is no carrier official documentation on this site. This also means that, since the information is from public sources, that none of the information can be deemed "internal use only."
Please note this site is merely a site that has put together information from several public resources, allowing users to compare services before they make a purchasing decision. This website is not designed to defamate any of the services it presents information about. The official reviews on this site merely compare services and present infromational reviews of the services. These reviews can contain the positives and negatives to each carrier, based on the information provided by the carrier, on their own website or press releases. For CDMA carriers, some information may be based on the information on Independent PRL Interpretations, which is a resource that compiles data from publically available data sources. PRL Interpretations is also not any official documents from any wireless carrier. As with this website, even though we may contain information deemed official through the public posting on the carriers website, the information on this site is not official information from any carrier.
The discussions on this site are rarely moderated, and will contain information posted by the customers of each wireless carrier. The information on the discussions certainly do not reflect the views of the webmasters of Drako's Wireless Review.
The information in our left panel, the one look infoPanel, has been compiled from the carriers own websites, public revenue reports, and Phonescoop.com. Drako's Wireless Review does not claim copywright or ownership of any of the information on this site, and we tend to cite our resources rather well.
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