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Cell Phone Plan Recommendations for 2003?
scubacuda asks: "What do techies think about the plethora of cell phone plans out there? (While accompanying a friend at the Sprint kiosk, I couldn't help but dissuade several people from signing up with Sprint.) When I told a friend about my new AT&T "minutes w/o limits" plan ($99/mo for unlimited ANYWHERE minutes), he talked to Nextel and had them match the plan. What plans do you consider to be the best, and when have you been successful in negotiating your plan down?" Ask Slashdot did a similar question during November of 2000. It's amazing how fast cell phones have been adopted by people worldwide, and I think it would be interesting to see how much more you can get for your buck now, as opposed to then.
We get free nights, free weekends, and free calls between family members. When you've got 2 teenagers and one of them's a geek who dosen't like sunlight and the other only calls home to say she's going to be late, we never use anytime minuts, even though we get like 300 a month to share. We got all three phones for free and we pay like $80 per month for all the service on all the phones.
All this from Cingular Wireless.
(discalimer: my father works for SBC Ameritech which owns Cingular but still I think it's good deal any ways)
-Code
---PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE---
"Now, where's the damn 'any' key?"
It's unlimited local calling for $33. I travel too much much to use it (their network is only in certain cities) but I have alot of friends that like it. It's a good replacement for a home phone, even if you talk alot. The bonus is, telemarketers can't call you.
http://www.cricketcommunications.com/default.asp
Me? I've been a sprint pcs customer for over 4 years. Their rates don't seem to be keeping up with their competitors though. If they don't have the ability to have unlimited local minutes and nationwide roam (for an extra fee of course) by next nov when the cell number portability law (finally) goes into effect. I'll switch. Till then, I'll hang on.
I studied these plans, too, until selecting on that seemed more-or-less like what we needed. I know some enjoy the probability analysis and projection involved in picking the best deal, but I don't. And of course many of the plans seem calculated to lure you into paying too much for less than you expect.
.95; (2) people (certainly Americans) hate being nickled-and-dimed to death, preferring even flat rate plans that cost more; and (3) the merchant wants to tempt you to overconsume even for a small incremental profit (i.e., get you to buy a large soda for just 20 more even though you wanted a small).
What I'd like to know is whether there is a secret plan to rule all plans? Is there some published business school game theory logic to the design of these things? Are they arrived at with the same guesswork that we use to choose the plan? Obviously there are a few hard numbers in the actual cost of carrying the calls plus overhead, but beyond that what marketing (il)logic takes over?
If we had that information as consumers, think of valuable insight.
The only rules I know offhand are (1) people like prices ending in
I'm sorry, but this seems to be such blatant advertising that its no wonder that the icon is a dollar bill.
Educate > Enlighten > Evolve http://www.neuroatomik.com
i think in general most cell phone providers are the same, however, if you are looking to extend your cell phone usage beyond talking (i.e. SMS, WAP, MMS, etc..), providers vary.
Earlier this year, I chose Verizon and here's what lead me to convert from Sprint.
1. SprintPCS at the time didn't have coverage where my parents live so I would ROAM. ROAMing is one thing that you don't want. ROAMing is premimum and it would cost me like $.25 just to talk for a minute. (check coverage area)
2. I wanted WAP and SMS. ATT has SMS but not WAP. SprintPCS was already eliminted because they didn't have coverage. (check phone func.)
3. I wanted free long distance. ATT and Verizon non-peak minutes start at 9pm so I have to wait til then to make a majority of my calls. SprintPCS allowed me to make calls at non-peak calls at 8pm. (check rates)
4. Lastly, I wanted a cool phone at the time the Motorola v60 was a kick ass phone. It was smaller than my other phone and supported SMS and WAP. (check phone)
I never considered the other providers like Nextel.
Hope this helps.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
too much exaggeration!
What do techies think about the plethora of cell phone plans out there?
My honest opinion? They all suck. They're a huge number of deliberately convoluted systems designed to part you and your money in any way possible.
And the phones themselves are a pain, too. Toss your cell phone in the trash and be free of people being able to bother you at any time of the day.
The biggest social problem today is stress. Studies show that stress *plummets* when people know that they can't possibly get hit with communications. If they aren't getting 50 emails a day, they're much more comfortable. Same goes for phones.
I mean, there are a couple jobs where you're just screwed and have to be on call, with a pager or cell. Some doctors, sysadmins, some emergency workers.
But why harness yourself with more worries and obligations if you don't have to? And *paying* a phone company for the privilege of people being able to bother you at any time is just silly.
May we never see th
Slashdot asks you!
Um, there's this thing called the Power button. You can turn off the phone if you don't want to be contacted.
I've had it. I'm switching. I mean, why must these people make it so hard for me to give them my money? How many developers did they hire and how much did they spend to create the current monstrosity? Can't they just give me a plain page showing my bill with a simple payment form?
Naturally, the "advanced features" of the Web site also make it totally hostile to text browsers or screen readers. I called them once to ask if they have a text-only version, hoping it would be more usable; they don't. I wonder if this is a violation of the ADA.
I'm not sure what's the best (have Sprint VCS voice and vision myself) but do me a favor, click on my URL, click on 'cell phones', and see if you can buy there. At the very least, I make a few bucks. FWIW, you enter some info on when/where you plan to use the phone, and it makes a recommendation for what plan/provider is best for you. The hardest part of buying a phone is that you are talking about a multivariable equation. I have providers with different coverage and features, phones with different features, then each company breaks out minutes, long distance minutes, network minutes, off network minutes, cell to cell minutes, off peak minutes, etc, etc.
For that matter, there is no 'one size fits all' best plan. I use mine for two reasons. First is for emergencies on the road. Second is in case work needs to get in touch with me. So the cheapest crap is the one I got.
Don't forget the goofy little add ons. I have roadside assistance for only $2 per month, and the product protection plan can be a lifesaver if you dump a soda on your phone (hint for the future: if you carry a soda and a cell phone in the same saddlebag on the motorcycle, put one or both of them in a plastic bag.)
Heck, if you are *really* only using it for emergencies, a prepaid phone may be your best bet.
Or maybe a CB. 10-4 Good Buddy!
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Myself, I've been really happy with Verizon's service.
*ducks*
No, really. I mean it. I've gone all over the country and almost have never had a problem getting service, and since they use other people's networks I don't run in to the problems that Sprint or Cingular or AT&T people that I know have had getting service. So go figure. *shrug*
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
All plans are the same really, although the latest stuff like picture messaging mucks things up a bit. Last year I had vodaphone Xnet 200, with 50 free text's. 200 minutes to any network any time day or night. Vodaphone coverage is fine too wherever I go (but so is orange and celnet (o2). onetoone or whatever its called now can be shakey)
I'll probably go for an orange this year, 200 xnet minutes, £30 a month, with a free nokia 7650 (complete with digital camera, bluetooth etc).
Before vodaphone I had a one2one nokia phone. Wasnt too bad but still spent a bomb phoning people as it wasnt xnet.
Before that, back in the good old days before pay as you go, I had an orange brick.
Pro: $69.95 gets me the family plan, which is up to 5 phones sharing 800 minutes however we see fit. For small/normal family usage (i.e. no business, no teenagers) that's fine for us. An extra $3/month gives me email and net. There's a fair variety of phones available, most of which have the customizable ring tones and all the usual nonsense. Apparently they even have picture phones available. AND, I like their web site, where you can do everything from pay your bill to check your email to see a fullpage version of the customized content that's normally delivered to your phone (i.e. sports scores, horoscope,local weather, and so on).
They also have a variety of internet device options, if you want to go that route. There are a couple of Wince devices that are T-Mobile branded, but I can't anything about them one way or the other.
Con: Coverage sucks. If you're not very near a major highway, then you're pushing your luck. There are plenty of times when I'd expect roaming to kick in, but it doesn't and I just get no service. :( I can go to San Francisco or Chicago (from Boston) and get roaming no problem, but to go to the town 10 miles away where my in-laws live, I get nothing. Also, I think the "no contract" thing is no longer relevant. It's never been a question for me because I assume I was grandfathered in from Omnipoint, but I was recently told that T-Mobile has contracts for new customers.
That's my two cents. My wife was on Verizon when we got married but I switched her over to the T-Mobile family plan, but that was primarily for consistency in paying the bills, not because there was anything about Verizon that I didn't like. (Ok, their web site's a little weak.)
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
Unsolicited plug: I subscribe to CR both the paper and online versions, it saves me money, wasted time, and lots of bad decisions every year.
Making trouble today for a better tomorrow...
A friend of mine had a cellular plan through whatever Baby-Bell services Florida, and he was getting fed up with what he paid. His solution? He called in, and told them about the offer that AT&T had made him, which included unlimited evenings/weekends, tons of daytime minutes, all sorts of perks (voicemail, etc). The catch? It was all BS. He'd never even spoken to an AT&T rep. The result? He got the best cellular plan I'd heard of (still beats mine, actually, and this was three years ago).
So, if you want good service, find a national carrier, or one with decent roaming agreements anyway, and like like a bastard, and hope they believe you. Keep it realistic though.
--Dan
I currently have the Kyocera 6035 and it works perfectly with Verizon: 2-way SMS, free POP3/SMTP access, web. I'm waiting for the Kyocera 7135 that will be offered on Verizon probably within a month. It's a very sweet phone/PDA.
I can strongly recommend against Sprint. Sprint has the largest all-digital network, but it's still smaller than Verizon's digital + analog network. The upshot is that if you're on analog on Verizon, there's no roaming charges since they own the analog towers; with Sprint, any time you are on analog, you are roaming by definition, and pay roaming charges accordingly. Note how Sprint never mentions this in their commercials. Anyway, Verizon is all-digital in cities and is converting the rest.
I was in downtown Sunnyvale, smack in the middle of Santa Clara ("Silicon") valley, and was roaming with Sprint. Also virtually no signal on the bay side of 101 in Mountain View; same on the north end of downtown Santa Cruz.
Sprint doens't offer true 2-way SMS; they never worked right with the Kyocera 6035 (*2 was broken a lot), and no free e-mail/web access.
Sprint does tend to have some cooler phones (and some dumb ones with silly features like screensavers), but do you want a phone that looks cool or works well?
(No, I don't work for Verizon.)
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
I have an ancient motorola flip phone on its last legs. I need to upgrade soon too. However, I don't use my phone much so a plan with many minutes or fancy features is not that important to me.
What I want is very good or even just good audio quality and connectivitiy. I would say that no one I know is actually happy with their phone/service. Everyones calls drop and every phone sounds sounds horrible. I don't just mean in tunnels or crappy locations, I'm in a well-towered region and *nobody* has good service!
So, is there anyone (particularly in southeastern new england) that has a phone they like with a carrier with decent audio quality?
SuperID
I too use Verizon. I definitely concur on the coverage: I've been covered from Rocky Point, Sonora (NW Mexico) all the way to Toronto, and from San Francisco to Boston, with significant gaps occurring only in national parks.
As you may have guessed from that description, I have not only travelled a lot, but also moved a couple of times. And THAT is where Verizon is a nightmare. You have to know the deep history of Verizon to understand its structure; the west coast section is basically a different company from the southwest section, is different from the east coast section; all they really share is a logo.
For about a month after you move, you'll be billed from both divisions; it will take at least 30 minutes on the phone with customer service to resolve this. A month if you're lucky, 30 minutes if you're lucky. At one point I accidentally failed to get mail forwarded from one address (my fault, I admit) and instead of calling my phone or emailing or anything, they sent me to collections over a fraction of a monthly bill. Fortunately, my service wasn't affected since the two parts of the company don't know about one another.
That said, if you *live* in one place and simply travel a lot, verizon is a great plan. Coverage is great, and the $35 for 350+1000 minutes (or whatever - more now?), roaming included, is quite sufficient for my needs. But when my contract is up, if I'm considering moving, I might just switch carriers to avoid THAT hassle again.
Them: "Why couldn't we contact you?"
You: "I turned my phone off."
Them: "The freaking store was on fire!"
You: "Gee, too bad."
Versus:
Them: "Why couldn't we contact you?"
You: "I don't have a cell phone, and I was out having a life."
if you, like my wife and I, have abandoned cell phones after the 2 year contract ran out (just can't justify expense), you may be interested that you can STILL call 911 for free. It's the law.
We just charge them up periodically and keep them in the glove box. Don't pay for emergency service. Also, If I try to make a call I get a prompt to "welcome to cingular roaming." I'm assuming I could enter my credit card in a true emergency. I haven't tried it and I have no idea what the rates are...
the downside? Since everyone has cell phones now, pay phones are harder to find. In my local mall, they have banks of five phones in serveral places, but four of the five are disconnected in all of them (I guess to save money?).
Anyway, I don't really miss the phone.
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
Cell phone plans are confusing intentionally. That means there is NO BEST plan that can be recomended for everyone. DO you own research.
Some companies have email, sms, wap, paging, or several other features that I can't even name off hand. Sometimes voincemail is free, othertimes it costs extra. Decide which you will use, and consider that when choosing a plan.
No company has coverage everywhere in the world. Some have no coverage off of major hiways and cities. Some have cheap roaming plans for those times when you are outside your home area, often at no extra charge. Others have no raoming at all. So you MUST consider where the service area is, which not only includes home, but also work, relatives, friends, favorite parks/lakes, and everywhere inbetween.
Also what do the people you call use? Nobody can do construction today (in service area) without a NexTel phone, because everyone else in that buisness has one, and the mobile-mobil minutes are so cheap (That two-way feature). Most other companies offer similear plans of reduced rates when calling another customer. And of course there are family plans that allow shared minutes, and/or unlimited calling between family members.
One last consideration: Who do you want to call you. With the availability of no roaming/long distance plans (AT&T and Verizon) I know several people who have a phone number that is local to the area where all their friends live, even though they don't live there aremore. This is a little hard to work out, you have to lie to them, and get the bill sent to someone who you trust to forward it to you. Great for those who have moved.
I personally do not find email, SMS, WAP, and such features useless. Your milage WILL Varry. I wouldn't be surprized to say at some point in the future that some of the above are my most used features.
Keep in mind when evaluating providers that if you like one except for one dead spot, if you write them a letter they can often add coverage to that area. The works best if they are already close, they may not have the license to cover a distant city.
It takes months or even years to build a tower, but it they do it all the time. It is worth a shot when you are just mildly annoyed by lack of coverage in some area. Of course if you are majorly annoyed then you should get a different provider.
Note that rich people don't like to see towers, even though they can't legally prevent a tower from going up, they can create enough hasstle that it doesn't get built. (and then complain about lack of coverage...)
...cell phone buys you!
Hmm I must be the minority, but I dont mind sprint at all. I do travel somewhat, but mostly
to major cities (I live in one too) so coverage isnt much of a problem. Of course, I dont get it where I work (I'm in a remote location at work), but then again no other cell phone service works either.
Customer service, the few times Ive had to call it, did take forever to get through, but again I didnt think they were any worse than other telecom places.
The plan I have, 30 bucks for unlimited night and weekends, 300 anytime, seem perfectly reasonable. I even have free wireless web access (for three months at least, 5 bucks afterwards).
Am I missing something?
What a nerd you are. You think you're being smart? Anybody who doesn't call the FUCKING FIRE DEPARTMENT when the 'store is on fire' IS A FUCKING LUNATIC, and someone having a phone on or off is the least of their problems.
Please mod this assfucker down.
Oh, and don't forget, each of the 8 Verizon customer service reps, each of whom will either endlessly transfer your call and/or put you on forever-hold, will always give you the same inane shpiel about how they are going to give you "Excellent Service."
It's analogous to asking the question "what is the best car I should buy?" There are so many sub-questions that need to be asked for the right answer to be found.
Most people when shopping for a cell phone always feel they are obligated to a plan where they can talk forever, and pay about $20 a month. But, with a few simple questions, the answers can be clear.
First, what do you want in a service. Do you want a phone that has a certain feature, such as small form factor or color screen? Do you want a service that will provide you with High speed data services? Do you want a bucket load of minutes? Find out what you want first. This will cut down on a lot of providers. For example, true SMS, bye-bye Sprint. Want color phones, in my area Cingular is out then. Those must haves are going to say a lot.
Second, ask around in your area. I personally have Sprint, and love em. I've recommended them to many people in the area, they love em too. Now, if you don't live in Connecticut, ask someone where you live, and where you will be going. Do you get good coverage where you want to go with the phone? Sprint sucks in many parts of New York and the Midwest to name a few. Yes, we all want that option of going anywhere anytime for one flat fee; but to get those options; it will cost a hell of a lot of cash. So run down a list of people you know are competent with their phones, and ask them
Third, know that Customer Service at any company of over 500 people will vary greatly. From a grocery store to a law firm to a college, you can find someone who hates he/she/it for whatever reason. I go into my bank at times and want to jump over the counter sometimes; because the people there are idiots at times, but; more often than not, there good people who can fix a problem I have, and answer questions I may ask. Look at this sentence: I hate {insert store, utility company, doctors office, Operating system, sex, person, food, day of week, etc} because of this one experience they had. Be skeptical of anecdotal evidence; both for and against the company. Often, they have hidden agendas.
Lastly, go to a COMPANY OWNED and OPERATED store. Often, you can try out a phone for a weekend (with a deposit of course) and see if it would meet your needs. If it does, you come back with the phone, sign-up and your all set. If it service blows, then you can cut your losses without much hurting in your wallet.
Usually, you can negotiate better deals once you've had your service for a while with a company. It is much harder to get a new customer than to keep a new one. If you've been with company XYZ for a year, and call them up to get a better plan, you may get one that is even better than they publish, simply because company XYZ knows it would cost them ten times as much to get someone else on board their service than to keep you.
So, in short, unless you're going to be bringing 50 or so accounts into the fray, sit down, read all the plans, including the terms and conditions, and ask some questions to the companies themselves. If the company is lack luster in presenting their service to you, often they will put forth the same effort in supporting their product in the future.
You know who I think is crazy? All my ex-girlfriends!
"studies show"? Please cite them. Your comments ring true, but I would love to read the evidence that backs them up.
The trick is to get over the notion that you are REQUIRED to answer the phone when you don't want to. I have my cell phone with me 24 hours a day. When I don't want to answer it, I don't. When I see someone calling who I don't want to talk to, I let voice mail get it -- and I NEVER apologize or explain about why I didn't answer or return a call more quickly. If you can get that mindset (and remember to turn the ringer off at night), you give yourself the best of both worlds. You're available when YOU want to be, but you're unavailable when you don't want to be reached.
The thing I was thinking of appeared, I believe, in a print copy of Reader's Digest that I was going through. I'm trying to remember the specifics...they were talking about how vacations intended to reduce stress weren't doing so because people frequently carry their cell phones and check email during the time. However, when they took away all contact, after an initially producing more tension ("I don't know what's going on back at the company!"), stress dropped. I don't remember the date on the thing though, and they weren't trying to identify what particular type of communication (phone/email) was the problem.
Here's the result of a quick Google search mentioning email. [shrug]
This , from the same search, show that email/phones are stressors, though not as harsh as the RD thing I was originally thinking of.
May we never see th
Stress? Stress is being stuck in traffic, 40 minutes late for a meeting with my fiance and our wedding planner and being unable to call and tell her.
Stress is a night on couch.
I'll keep my phone, thanks.
It's SLOW (14.4k), but free is always good.
You just need a phone and a separate cable to connect a laptop or pda via serial or usb port.