I’ve recently relocated from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. As I understand it from my Roommate who has had Metro PCS for some time, Metro is ONLY Basic Cellular service. No data, web, or roaming access outside of your home area. Long distance is .05 per min in US (prepaid only)
That said the up side is the price-- $35 for unlimited usage anytime, just like most peoples land line telephone.
Voice Mail, caller id & call waiting is only with the $3 per month fee, bills are not sent-- only a text message is sent to your phone to remind you to pay your monthly bill. If you want the paper bill an added $2 per month charge applies.
2 Way Text is Metro to Metro only $5 per month.
He has loaned me his phone while away and driving all around Ft Lauderdale has experiences no problems at all over 1 weeks usage. No dropped calls, network unavailable. etc. He has said that voice mail sometimes has problems with not picking up, but it is infrequent. I did call their customer service department and did not have any complaints, although they do seem very busy, and unlikely to want to hold your hand to the technically unsavvy. (Note: Sprint PCS is worse in this regard and harder to get through to)
Comparing Metro with other systems (I personally have had Sprint & T-Mobile/Voicestream) there is no comparison for choice. Metro is clearly the leader for basic cellular service. If you travel frequently outside of your home area or want to use your phone for email, metro may not be for you. Also from friends of mine that are in Atlanta and San Fran the service is spotty in some areas so I would check it out by calling around from different areas where you normally would use your phone, but I would do this with any Cell Provider.