Where In the US Can You Get Just a Cell Phone?

arakon writes "I am looking around for a cell phone for my technically challenged mother and all she wants is just a phone, and yet there seem to be no carriers in the US that carry a plain cell phone with good reception and battery life. All of them bundle cameras, PDAs, MP3 players, and a kitchen sink with a battery life of 2 hours, all for the low price of $350 or more... Having looked around, the Motorola F3 is exactly what she wants but it doesn't seem to be available in the US. If we order it online will it work on US carriers? Are there any comparable products out there with a similar feature set and price range available for US networks?"

Comments

Jitterbug

[Pojut]

Don't know anything about them, but check out JitterBug...saw a commercial on TV...have never even ben to the website though, so no guaruntees(sp) http://www.jitterbug.com/

Re:Jitterbug

[Abalamahalamatandra]

Yep, my folks (pushing 70) have one and like it. You can get one with predefined buttons even, much like the Firefly-type kid's phones, and can talk to an operator if you need to call someone else. Probably a good fit for her, unless she plans to call a lot - the Jitterbug plans seem somewhat pricey.

Nokia 1100

[Nightspirit]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_1100

F3 won'r work in the US

[winkydink]

The US uses 850MHz & 1900Mhz for GSM, most of the rest of the world uses 900Mhz & 1800Mhz. The F3 uses the latter 2 frequencies and won't work in the US.

Assuming you are a Cingular/T-Mobile customer, you can just buy an unlocked GSM phone (remember to check to make sure it works with US frequencies) and stick your SIM card in it.

For a cheap, dependable model, may I suggest the Sony Ericsson T637? Yes, it has some of those features you don't want. But you can get one as cheap as the aforementioned F3.

Good luck!

VirginMobile

[YrWrstNtmr]

$30 phone, pay as you go. Not terribly expensive. I probably spend $10-$12/month on it.

Re:VirginMobile

[jamar0303]

In the UK, maybe. In the US, Virgin Mobile = Sprint PCS rebranded. To be honest, I'd go with them if they were on the T-Mobile network since their service plans seem so much more simple, but I have a GSM phone and Virgin Mobile in the States is CDMA, so sucks for me (I have AT&T GoPhone and coverage sucks in my area).

Virgin Mobile at Target oe Best Buy?

[sillivalley]

Virgin Mobile, phones available at Target or Best Buy, starting at around $20 for a phone that doesn't have a camera, mp3 player, or corkscrew. Just a phone.

Prepaid plans, pay-as-you-go, or monthly plans.

Re:Get thee to eBay

[wytcld]

If you're buying a used phone, get a new battery right away. Phone batteries fade off rapidly after a couple of years, in how long they'll hold a charge.

For a new phone, Tracfone sells simple, modern models cheap. You have to prebuy a block of minutes, which end up costing 40 cents if within a few counties of home, and 80 cents beyond that - but there are no other charges. The difference between Tracfone and Virgin is that Virgin's home network is Sprint, and if you're not in range of a Sprint tower it won't work (or so I'm told). The Tracfones don't care whose network they're on.

Motorola V195

[mparker762]

Great battery life - talk time of 8 hrs or standby time of 2+ weeks. Don't know about the talk time, but I *do* get the specced standby time. Get it for $20 with the cheap ($30/mo) T-Mobile plan, or with their pre-pay plan for $40 (includes a $25 refill card).

Get thee to 7-11 FFS

[mashade]

Forget eBay, the submitter just wants to be told what to do...

Even 7-11 and WalMart have pre-paid bare-bones cell phones these days! Did this really have to be asked? I know there's a big movement on ./ for simple, long lasting phones (and I'm sympathetic to the idea myself) but honestly, it isn't hard to find a simple cheap phone.

[/rant]

T Mobile to Go is a good option

[Mal Reynolds]

If your mom won't use her cell phone more than 1 to 2 hours per month, she does not need a cell phone plan, she needs a pre-paid cell phone.

I've researched this for some relatives of mine, I decided on T Mobile's pre-paid plan. It's called "T Mobile To Go". T Mobile pre-paid plans don't have any monthly charges and only require 1 purchase per year to retain unused minutes. For those who make seldom use of a cell phone, it offers an aggregated monthly rate of $12 per month or less.

T Mobile always has deals for pre-paid phones. Often you'll be able to get a basic phone and 1 year (1100 minutes) of service for less than $130. You can purchase online or at one of their stores.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/prepaid.aspx

Most pre-paid cellular plans charge a monthly fee by burning minutes whether the phone is used or not. T Mobile's pre-plan doesn't do this. And under T Mobile, once a customer has purchased $100 worth of minutes, those minutes won't expire for 1 year. More importantly, after that initial $100 purchase, any future minutes purchased will not expire for a year from the date of last purchase.

So to keep a T Mobile pre-paid account active, one only needs purchase another cheap, $10 card before the year expires. All existing minutes will be carried over. (after having purchased those initial $100 of minutes)

I'm not huge fan of T-Mobile, they have issues just like the rest of the carriers. But their pre-paid plan is superior to any of the others I've researched.

For someone who uses less than 100 minutes per month, the aggregated monthly cost of a pre-paid T Mobile phone can be less than $12 per month, even less after the first year.

Jitterbug is great if that's what you want

[billstewart]

My mom has limited vision, and while she has good hand dexterity, she couldn't read the little menus on her previous cell phone to know which button to push. We got her a Jitterbug last year, and she's been using it a lot. The screen's pretty big and bright, and instead of using the space to display lots of tiny menus for lots of useless features, it's big numbers with minimal menus (like "Bob - Dial?".) Sometimes you need to scroll through a few more choices than other phones, but they're all Yes/No, and you can voicedial or just call the operator to get connected if you don't want to dial. It's not the *same* kind of simplicity as the iPhone (:-), but it's really good.

It's designed for older people with varying limitations - one model has number-pad buttons and yes/no, while the other just has three fat buttons for operator/towtruck/911. They're both a bit clunky, because they're designed for people who care more about making it easy to push the big buttons than about having the phone be really small. I don't know how the battery life is - my mom hasn't had problems with it, so I suspect standby time is pretty good, but she doesn't talk on the phone much. One advantage of a larger phone is that there's room for a larger battery.

It might or might not be the right phone for your mom - does she want a phone that's small, or is clunky ok? Does she want GSM so she can use it anywhere in the world, or is having one US-only carrier ok? Does she want a "simple" phone because it's harder to use fancier phones, or does she really just want a *cheap* phone that works ok and can ignore menu items she doesn't use? There are lots of choices for cheap - getting a used unlocked GSM phone may be a good choice, or getting whatever rate plan is the best price for the amount of calling she'll do and includes a zero-price phone.

Re:Jitterbug is great if that's what you want

[Richthofen80]

You make good points in the last paragraph, about used phones. When I first got a Digital/Analog handset in 1997, I had one of the classic Nokia 5100 models. It had an LCD display with big numbers. It had a long battery life and was incredibly rugged. It had big, tactile buttons and a strong backlight. It might be exactly what an older person needs. Most older people don't use the address book, instead they have most numbers memorized (or for older women, they carry a phone number journal in their purse). My mom, whose not quite as old (50s), always ended up getting the last-years model phone because it was easier to use (less features) and cheaper.

I, on the other hand, am willing to live with a small learning curve if it means the device is sleek and glyph-erific like my iPhone

Re:Jitterbug is great if that's what you want

[Zapped.Info]

OOOPS...I just checked with "Jitterbug" You CANNOT just purchase the phone: You've got to purchase their service as well and from what I could see on thier website, the pricing did not seem very competitive. They basically piggy-back on existing carriers to provide their service, so they're never going to be able to compete by price point. So we are back to square one...Where can you just find an UNLOCKED PHONE? Seems to me like theree is quite a huge market for unlocked phones. Are there any companies taking advantage of that yet?

Re:Jitterbug is great if that's what you want

[Brickwall]

I have a fairly new Nokia which came with a lot of bells and whistles - camera, MP3, FM radio - which I don't use. Since I'd been with the same carrier for three years, they offered me the phone for free if I signed on for another two years. My big beef is even though the screen is quite large, you can't adjust the font size, and the font is just too small for my aging eyes to read. I only need glasses to read small print, so using the phone often means fumbling in my jacket for my glasses' case, putting them on, and then doing whatever it was I wanted. I would gladly give up the MP3 and radio and camera if they would just let me make the font 12 pts instead of 8.

Re:Get thee to eBay

[queequeg1]

Do a search for the Nokia 6030 at fatwallet. You should be able to get it free after rebate without any contract (with a $25 calling card tossed in as well). You can also get 1000 minute cards for around $90 at cheaperphonecards.com (depending on what specials they are running on a given day). The 1000 minutes last for a year. I use my phone only for emergencies or to let me wife know when I've been caught in traffic. I had to buy another 1000 minutes after just ten months but it is still a the best deal I have found for light use.

Clarification

[arakon]

Should have thought to put this in the ORignal post,
A. She already has a plan, options involving getting a new plan to get another crappy free phone like she already has is not an option.

B. She is replacing a POS sony Ericcson flip-phone that has horrible reception, sometimes it never rings then it will buzz telling her she has voice-mail...

C. She uses the phone for work, she's in the medical field and is on call a lot, so the phone does get regular use. No they didn't give her a phone from work that isn't the question. Just need a good GSM phone that doesn't cost 300+ dollars to buy unlocked and is ready to use.

No I'd never heard of any services called jitterbug or anything like that. I do not live in the US, my mom does. I've noticed that a lot of google searches tend to come back with results based on your region you are searching from...

But I'm sure this will be ignored and the flamers will continue...