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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?"
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/
Living With a Nerd
Honestly your best bet is probably to purchase a used GSM phone from eBay. There are quite a few of them out there, so you'll have choices. One that was very popular and manufactured for a while (or that uses a battery that's still in production) would definitely be the best.
Then just take it and get a basic plan at T-Mobile or Cingular (AT&T). Pop in the SIM and go.
What you want isn't a brand-new, basic phone like the Motorola one; what you want is a phone from about three or four years ago. It'll be a lot cheaper, too -- and if something happens to it, no problem, just get a new one.
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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!
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
$30 phone, pay as you go. Not terribly expensive. I probably spend $10-$12/month on it.
Q: Where In the US Can You Get Just a Cell Phone?
A: A Cell Phone Store.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
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.
Just get a cheapo phone with a contract from some provider, and tell your mom if she sees something she doesn't understand on the screen then just tap the red (power) button 2 or 3 times until she gets back to the main menu. Speaking from personal experience, it may be a little easier to do that than to limit yourself to phones that are tougher to find.
Forget eBay, the submitter just wants to be told what to do...
./ 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.
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
[/rant]
Technology tips and tricks.
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.
I hear with Verizon you can get 27 free phones of any model, you just have to ask them about the new "Till death do us part" contract deal.
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.
Bill Stewart
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Come to Canada, we have all this stuff
I want an operating system that's not running surveillance on me.
There is this thing we like to call OpenBSD, give it a shot.
I want a car that has better gas mileage than a 1975 Honda.
We got these, see half the time your car would be frozen so you can't use it, really cuts down on the yearly mileage.
I want a health care system that won't send me into bankruptcy if I get sick.
It doesn't bankrupt you if you get sick, it bankrupts yous all the time, if you happen to get sick, it will mostly cure you!
I want a news media that doesn't just pass along presidential press releases as God's own truth.
No president, we have a Prime Minister!
I want a President that has better than C- average and who cares about more than cutting taxes for the rich and not admitting he's wrong.
Weren't you paying attention? I said we don't have a President, we have a Prime Minister
I want a country that doesn't believe that half the population is the enemy.
But girls have cooties!!....er.... I think that's just me......Have you seen our army? We are in no position to have an enemy!
Problem solved!