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Technology

What's The Best Cell Phone Calling Plan? 291

Posted by Cliff from the stuff-to-talk-about dept.
ChazeFroy asks: "I just got a new job that requires much travel throughout the United States, and this company is giving me $50 per month to put toward a cell phone bill. Although I found this discussion helpful, it didn't talk about cell phone calling plans. Things that are important to me are the company offering the plan, coverage (I will need nationwide coverage, most likely), number of minutes per month, the possibility of free incoming calls, and the price per month. What do you guys have, and what are your experiences?"Update: Wirefly offers a great tool these days to compare cell phone plans.
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What's The Best Cell Phone Calling Plan? More

What's The Best Cell Phone Calling Plan?

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  • today (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    today we ask if people are scared of technology.


    TECHNOLOGY!

  • I've been looking for this too. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The best plan that I've found meeting all of your characteristics is an offer from AT&T Digital One rate plans for 59.99 for 450 minutes. A bit pricey, considering other promotions from Sprint, etc, but from what I hear AT&T reliable, truly nationwide (even more so when they integrate Cellular One into their network), and with good customer service. If anyone has any better recommendations, please post, because I'm about to buy this plan.

  • Re:60K NYC (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    60K in NYC is not good, that is almost minimum wage...

  • Reason for no free incoming calls (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I am a recent American expatriate. I am quite familiar with the non-free incoming call snafu. Why, you ask, can't we get free incoming calls on cell phones?

    Simple. We have free outgoing calls. All outgoing local calls from land-lines are free in the States.

    Yes, it sucks when it comes to mobile phones. We have no infrastructure for billing the land-line for local calls to mobile phones. The phone companies have to charge someone for the call. So they bill the mobile phone user.

    This same thing also is the reason why the US has lead the world with adoption of the Internet. With free local calls, internet usage is cheap. Really cheap.

    We pay for it with mobile phones, though. As a result, you often see mobile phone users treating their mobile phone as a pager. They don't answer incoming calls. If they want to talk to the person, and they recognize the incoming phone number, they pick up. If they don't, they check their messages and call back. It's an inconvenience. But it's the price we pay for free local phone calls.

    What astounds me is that we don't have pay-as-you-go phones. These seem to me to be a fantastic marketing gimmick. They make it acceptable, for once, to give an 8 year old a mobile phone. Or a 70 year old.

    Hmmm. Now that I think about it, is that such a good thing? Do we want our children's brains fried at such an early age?
  • I also have the ability to receive phone calls when I am travelling in Asia, Europe, almost every part of the world. Except the USA :(
    Of course, you mean "except Japan", which is the only G7 country without GSM service.
  • I'm looking for a new pre-paid package, since my old A1018s broke last week. The Siemens C35i offer from D2 is really interesting, but people keep telling me that the Nokia from D1 is the better choice. What do you think?

    You don't care about mobile phones in a strange country far far away?

    So do I!
  • This ain't your problem. Its the co's purchasing managers to sort this out.

    Get them to sort the phone out for you. Then of you make any personal calls own up to them...

    Anyway if the US is anything like the UK this whole things changes on a weekly basis as the different firms fight it out.
  • The only time I ever receive or send a fax is when someone misdials a number for a machinery shop three cities west of here... with email, why do we need fax machines again? :-)

  • wow.. (Score:1)

    by Bake ( 2609 )
    Had this been a GSM phone all you needed to do was take the GSM card out of it and buy a new phone and you would have been back on track within a day.
  • Here in Ohio, Ameritech does offer pay-as-you go cell service. They have for a couple of years.

    http://www.ameritechwireless.com/sbc/promotions/ promotions.detail/0,1042,contentId=648|mar ketId=CLE|navId=11,00.html
  • I'll stick my .02 in ... I had AT&T and now use Sprint PCS.

    AT&T was great, until the promo-deal I signed up on ran out. (I think it included an insane number of weekend minutes.) After the deal ran out, though, you have to commit to another year given whatever their current best promo is.

    After two years, I switched to Sprint and am quite happy. I still have a year contract (allowed me to add extra minutes to their base plan), but the deal you sign up under stays in effect until you cancel service. The deal I have is 200 anytime + 300 evening/weekend all with long distance for $39.99.

    The criticism that Sprint coverage is weak out of the major cities is true ... but I do a fair amount of work travel, and I've never found myself out of Sprint coverage.

    And, the little Samsung phones rock!

    DC
  • I was surprised to read this and realise how much phones cost in the US. I am so used to Americans banging on about their free local calls that it never occured to me that they would put up with being ripped off like this for a mobile phone. In the UK you get a free phone with charger, case, et al and 120 minutes free outgoing calls (regardless of time of day), we would not dream of paying for incoming calls, all for £18 ($27). Unused minutes roll over to the next month.

    I found that too expensive and now use a pay as you go phone. I kept my L7089 and just put a different card in it. They sent me the new card with the first £5 of calls for free as I was keeping my old number.
  • I use Sprint. Not perfect, but it mostly covers where I travel. I like the pricing, lack of a contract (can easily sell old phones on Ebay, or buy them cheaply used), and multiple phones on one plan.

    Likes: Excellent audio quality. Many people think I'm on a land line. The CDMA spec is newer than GSM, and they spec'd better codecs than older systems. Also, long battery life.

    Dislikes: Customer service. They screwed up my multi-phone billing. Took forever to get it resolved. If customer service call centers are hellish jobs, it is karmic justice. If you go outside of cities and off the Interstates, the coverage sucks. This is due to PCS having lower power and shorter range than TDMA. Maybe good if you worry about nuking your brain. I use a headset anyway.

    I have tried lots of types of systems, and this is how I rank audio quality:

    1. CDMA (Sprint, in the U.S.)

    2. PHS (Japan)

    3. DoCoMo (Japan)

    4. tie: GSM and TDMA

    6. Nextel (U.S. only?)

    7. Analog cellular

    Some people I know use smaller cellular companies that operate regional networks for the big guys and have reciprocal agreements on roaming. Thse can be cheaper, but one effect I have seen is that I often get a "try again later" message, indicating the carrier's voice mail system is out of ports. That's one way to cheap out on infrastructure. Also, depending on your carrier, you might not get through to an idle phone if the carrier cheaps out on cell capacity in congested areas or peak drive time. But I have never seen any comsumer comparisons that measure the ratio of users to network capacity.

  • Oh geez! Yeah, there is an ISxxx name for the DoCoMo system, and probably for Nextel's, too, but these are the only major service providers using those systems. Ease up!
  • Oh and while we are picking nits, there is probably a more proper name for PHS, plus the U.S. variant of PHS which is used by *nobody*. I also forgot to break out the variants of analog cellular. Excuuuuuuuuuse me.

  • Gasoline (Score:1)

    by sjf ( 3790 )
    Surely the country that gave the world democracy, the internet and apple pie can get its act together and offer cheap gas to its citizens? Damnit ! I should be able to refill my car by pressing a button sitting naked at my computer. I have to agree. The thread on the US electoral process really shows how far /. has gone up its own ass. -sjf
  • Most of the Ask Slashdot columns can be answered by epinions.com.

    Try here: http://www.epinions.com/elec-Comm-Mobileservice-Al l [epinions.com]

    --
    Steven Webb
    System Administrator II - Juneau and TECOM projects
    NCAR - Research Applications Program
  • move to europe.

  • Re:GSM! (Score:1)

    by IRNI ( 5906 )
    You think that GSM is superior to CDMA and TDMA?
    Could you explain why? I am curious as the GSM phones I have seen all sound horrid. My Verizon CDMA phone sounds so much like my landline phone that people ask me if I am still at home when I call them. Of course one could be better than the other in different areas. All I know is my verizon phone works most places I go. Here in Mobile, AL. New Orleans, LA. Houston, TX. Pensacola, FL. I will have to say my dual mode phone will not work in Atlanta, Memphis or Indianapolis. Though if I upgraded to a trimode phone it probably would work. My friend who uses Digiph GSM sounds all broken up if she goes traveling in any of these places. My phone still sounds clear though it occassionally echos in say houston 10% of the time. Nothing too bad though.
  • All I can say is I hate Verizon Wireless. I live in a smaller metropolitan area (150,000 people) in the midwest. I travel quite a bit for work purposes and used to get decent coverage and limited roaming prior to the Verizon merger (I was w/ Airtouch).
    Now that Airtouch is Verizon they suck big time.
    I broke my phone (do not leave phone on top of car while driving) and had to put down a $250 deposit for a CRAPPY loaner phone (a single band AudioVox that was statick-y as hell) and it took them 3 weeks to give me a replacement phone. They had my exact model in a box new in the store, um trade me.

    My other huge complaint is getting violated on roaming charges. Yah I live in the midwest, but I occasionally have to travel to the coasts and such. Please don't rape me when I'm there. Last time I traveled to San Francisco I rented a pre-paid phone and used it. Saved me like $200 in a week of calls.

    My last complaint is their damn rude customer service people. My damn check got lost in the mail, was like two weeks late in getting there (stamps make envelope delivery faster) and they were majorly rude about it. I stopped payment on the lost check gave them a new one and THEY RAN THE STOPPED CHECK EVEN AFTER THEY SAID THEY WOULD NOT thus costing me like $125 in bank and Verizon charges, and adding the first black spot to my credit report. The Customer Service Reps were all very unhelpful and blatantly rude, accusing me of not wanting to pay. Airtouch service had always been great before Verizon got to them.

    I hate Verizon and am switching to the other guy at the end of this billing cycle!

    VERIZON SUCKS!

  • I've done this for my StarTAC phone:

    [tir.com]
    http://www.tir.com/~sgifford/startalk/

    It includes programs to write to/from the addressbook, and a detailed analysis of the protocol used to communicate with the phone.

    I'd love to take a look at your script, and see how the Samsung phones are different from Motorola. Where can I find a copy?
  • I have Sprint PCS service on a Motorola StarTAC phone, and love it.

    It's coverage is kinda spotty, but where it does work, I can plug it into the serial port on the back of my laptop with a cable from Motorola, and I can use it to connect to the Internet from anywhere. It's slow, but it's fine for reading email, or for downloading a document or program to work on during a delayed flight. Anybody know if other phones/services able to do this nowadays?

    I also wrote a program that lets me manipulate its addressbook from my Linux machine, which keeps me from having to type letters on its terrible little keypad. (see StarTalk [tir.com])
  • Dunno if this'll moderate up high enough this late in the game, but what the hell...

    I have found that Get Connected [getconnected.com] has a huge database of plans, rates, calling areas, etc... Also, they index DSL, Long Distance, ISPs, cable/satellite TV, calling cards, just about any connectivity need. Pretty useful site.

    Regards,
  • You can compare and contrast domestic cellular plans at www.point.com [point.com]. I found it to be useful when I was making a decision with who I should go with; who has tri-mode networks, largest coverage footprint, etc.
  • Good to hear that the company says "Here's your budget, get what you can." My current employer gives all the same plan, and "one size fits all" never does.

    I've used both Sprint and ATT. Sprint has a longer history of No Roaming or Long Distance charges. With ATT you have to make a decision based on your calling patterns, so it is not as clear, but what you are looking for is available.

    I've found that ATT phones work better in areas of high electrical interferance - like trade shows. Mine works seemlessly as I go into elevators. My boss says this is because of the cell frequency assigned to the carriers and was a factor in choosing ATT for our company.

    Sprint phones have a nice benefit of setting their clocks from the local cell towers. This is nice for when you land someplace and don't know the time zone or are just disoriented from too much travel. I certainly used the feature to keep in sync with my surroundings.

    You might also want to Googlize your question, there are web sites that comparison shop for you. My ex employer used one to find that yes, I had chosen well when selecting Sprint.

  • The problem with pre-paid phones is that the "refill" minutes expire, usually too quickly. Some plans may let you roll over minutes when you get a new card, but usually only once for a given set of minutes.

    This might not be a problem if you're fairly consistent in how you use your phone, but if your usage varies widely from month to month, you could end up paying for expired time.
  • Whatever you do, don't get Sprint. They are cheap in every sense of the word. They look great on paper, but in the real world of dropped calls and 3 hour customer service queues in order to be told that they "don't do that" and "can't fix that" and it "isn't their problem" they way way way beyond massively suck. I had the SC3500, and there was a fatal flaw with it as far as I was concerned. When the battery was getting low, it made a ~95dB shreik in my ear. May not sound like much, but typically I ran out of battery life in the evening 2 or 3 nights a week. Sprint is evil enough that I'm just going to get a new phone when I switch over to At&T. They may cost more, but they are the only vaguely competent telco that I have ever dealt with.
  • The other provider with a nationwide (USA) plan and free long distance is Alltel (at least 'round here). Their plan provides free roaming, too but it's more expensive (go figure) and the digital coverage and service aren't their strong suit.

    I just got a Sprint PCS phone, 'cause I mostly stay in town and the promotions were good. If I were doing a lot of driving to small towns I'd still be with Alltel.

    (Ok, I still am, but it's a fill-out-the-month thing.)

  • Careful, though. Chicago has PCS, but not GSM. Unless someone knows differently.
    ----
  • I know several people including myself who have gone with SprintPCS only to be disappointed. SprintPCS has pretty good prices and doesn't lock you into a contract, but I would recommend Verizon wireless (which costs a bit more and locks you into a contract).
    I live in Boston near the Porter Square T stop. Amazingly enough the T stop is a pretty bad coverage hole. I have had my calls dropped driving along Rt. 95 & 93. Where I work 30 minutes North of Boston the coverage goes in and out. I have had people call me at 11AM and leave a message while I am at work; but I never get notified that I have voicemail until I drive 20 minutes South towards Boston. Often I'll only get the message right as I place a call (often to the friend asking why they never called).
    I have friends who live outside Boston, in New York City, and Los Angeles who have similar coverage complaints.

  • Wait, the US Ceel Network still operates analog in some areas! Oh my God, thats almost so funny it's sad!

    I thought the US was technologically advanced. From what i've read here so far, the entire US mobile phone market is a complete and utter farce. Pay for incoming calls? No pay-as-go or phone-in-a-box plans? Multiple phone standards? Analog networks? Ye Gods, it reads like the stone age of mobile technology.

    Jep, you're correct.
    In the Netherlands we have 5 GSM-providers with full coverage.
    And of course I can call from almost everywhere in the world (with exception of the US and Canada).
    GSM rules.
    GSM is the most used mobile phone standard on the world.
    I have a monthly subscription from BEN for Fl 30- (around $ 11,75).
    I also get 100 minutes free (Fl 0,33 a minute).
    Of course we only pay for outgoing call, not for incoming.
    And it doesn't matter if you are calling somebody's else mobilephone or a normal telephone.
    It doesn't even matter on which net the other phone is.
    But well, the Netherlands was the last country where they introduced GSM.
    Bulgary had a GSM half a year earlier (middle 1995).
    Most eastern european country's have GSM.
    So, when you're in Kharkov in the Ukrain you can use your GSM phone without any problem.
  • the possibility of free incoming calls since when were they not free?
  • It really depends on what provider you use. I know that one of them - Tracfone is completely anonymous. You don't have to give a name or any other form of ID when you sign up, and as long as you pay for your cards with cash, they are almost completely untraceable. You can even change your number every month or so if you like.

    I've got some friends that work for them, and they're guessing that something like half the clientele is using it for purely criminal purposes.
  • He'd be commuting from Philadelphia - and that's $482/month on Amtrak. I did this for 18 months (to Newark) and it's very tiresome, especially since the trains run about once an hour. If you leave home 5 minutes late, you have to wait at the station. The morning rush stress alone is not worth it.

    Also, $60k/year in NYC is sort of borderline poverty. :)
  • They were low-balling you.
  • That seems truly odd that you Americans have to pay for incoming calls. They say rapid spread of cell phones in Europe is partly due to no charge for incoming call - you can always answer a phone without worrying about your bill.

    I'm getting slightly peeved at all the messages going "you have to pay for incoming cell phone calls?!" I think it seems truly odd that large portions of the technologically-advanced world have to pay to make local phone calls on a landline. US$55/month for phone service (in North Texas, USA) includes extended metro service, and I can call an area of about 250 square miles.

    Anyway, back on topic: VoiceStream [voicestream.com] has GSM service in good portions of the US, and their phones are capable of roaming internationally. A friend of mine just got one, and she's never going back to SWBell. The coverage where she lives is excellent, and she's out in the Middle Of Nowhere(tm).

    ---

  • I agree with a couple other comments, if you are traveling in the US, then GSM is useful only in some areas. Coverage is good in several Metro areas (near Phila, PA is good). I've flown through San Francisco and Los Angeles and had coverage for the couple hours before leaving the country. The neat thing about GSM is usage outside the US. You'll be able to use your SIM card (mentioned in another reply) all over the world as long as your provider has global roaming and you go to a GSM country. Most of Asia has GSM coverage, Japan supposedly does not, Australia does, I can't speak for the UK.

    As another poster mentioned, the US has a different GSM frequency, so you either need one of the 'world phones' or you can rent a compatible phone when leaving the country. I've used both the Motorola L2000/L7089 and the Ericsson i888 World, both are good phones and work in the US and outside it (they are tri-band, supporting 900/1800/1900 Mhz). Someone mentioned a Nokia, but I think it only covers two of the bands, so I haven't looked into it very thorougly (although that should get you 90-95% of GSM countries.) If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a world phone ($200+), Omnipoint had (now Voicestream) a very reasonable rental plan for customers, about $30 for a month. Although rates went up a bit after the first month.

    The question remains, travel only in the US? You probably need a analog phone at the minimum for maximum coverage. Digital is a little more expense and adds a bunch of handy features like messaging and caller id. If you don't have to travel to non-GSM cities or away from Metro areas then GSM is quite good, otherwise stick to Sprint/AT&T/Verizon.

    Kevin

    PS. I'm a Omnipoint/Voicestream GSM customer...
  • I'm using Sprint PCS right now...

    The good: No contract, 1000 long distance anytime minutes plus 1000 off-peak/weekend minutes for $84/mo. I'm in Southern California and also use it in Maui, Hawaii with great coverage in both areas, very few dropped calls.

    The bad: No free/cheap equipment. Not every city is covered, but they do make dual-band phones so you can always roam if you have to. Roaming fees aren't too bad...

    The ugly: Lousey equipment line. I have a Nokia 6185 that I've had since it came out and I drop it regularly, it's hard to say how much longer it's going to last. I want a new 6260 and they don't offer it. When my phone dies so will my loyalty to Sprint PCS unless they add Nokia back to their line.

    I don't know much about how their equipment works, is there any way of buying equipment from another provider and using it with Sprint PCS? From what I understand their stuff is all proprietory, which of course sucks and this proves it. :)

    So anyways I'm happy with them, I just wish they would offer Nokia again. I e-mailed them over the weekend regarding this issue but haven't heard back yet...

    --SONET
  • Ameritech charged us 5 cents per outgoing call. It really really sucked, and we had no other option. This is in Madison, WI.
  • Hmmm...I have the Samsung SCH-8500. I guess they learned their lesson while designing it. No problem with vibrating (which I use everyday): you can individually set the ringer type (or vibrate) for each kind of alarm: missed call, normal call, alarm, or message. Also it's a pretty compact and light phone, so no problem there.

    No problem either with keylock : all the keys are protected by the phone itself: it closes just like a startac...

    I used a startac in europe for about a year two years ago. I've always hated it, and will never buy one again. But then again, maybe they also improved their phone...

    Maan
  • You might want to look at http://www.point.com [point.com].

    They have a pretty cool site that let's you set different options and filters out the plans that don't match with your selection.

    Good luck,

    Maan
  • asking which cellular plan is best is like asking which computer you should buy -- without some context (games, spreadsheets, giant fea runs) about how you'll use it, it's a meaningless question. that said, use point.com to compare plans. this is how i determined the best plan for me:

    http://www.point.com/default.asp [point.com]

    also, your needs become dramtically different if you travel overseas frequently, but there's tons of good info in here for that too.

  • The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com) had published a comparison list between all the competitors (AT&T, Cellular 1, Verizon, Sprint). I don't know if it's still up there or not, but it's worth checking.

    However, a few tips:

    DO NOT GET SPRINT NOR VERISON'S SERVICE. Sprint is unresponsive with it's Internet service, which drags down everyplace else. Just don't get it. Period. Verison Wireless is still a hotbed since the Bell Alantic/GTE merger and the strike that followed. I don't know if you will be delayed a month to get service to your phone.

    Other than that, AT&T and Cellular One are very competitive for individual users. Nextel is geared towards businesses.



    --
    WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

  • You have to do your own research. I had verizon, and hated it, but not for any obvious reason. They worked okay, except I lived on the edge of a digital/analog zone. My phone always went to the weak digital tower in the next town, and then didn't receive calls due to the weak signal. When in analog mode it would recive calls from the strong signal.

    If you travel the nation, then no raoming is the way to go, but if you rarely travel the lack of minutes on those plans could be a problem. With voicestream I get 600 minutes, a similear priced national plan would give me about 300. (good luck finding that plan though, prices are always different between providers to make it harder to compare!) If you rarely travel, then it might be worth while to pay high roaming fees and hold your calls down when in those areas. My current phone covers 5 states (yeah, slivers into 3 of them), but most of my friends have the same plan, and we have discovered that while we travel right to the edge of the area regularly we rarely cross the line. (It just happens our favorite camping spot has service only on one side of camp, but that is good enough)

    Every provider has a different plan, different in every way they can make it. They don't want to saying "X gives me 500 minutes for $35, while you chrage $40" They want you confused, maybe the $40 plan above has voice mail, and a better covereage area so it is worth it. Verizon and Att both have local, regional and national plans, with different pricing in each. Sprint has national only (but a poor coiverage area IMHO). Many local providors exist with local and regional plans. You might find an out state providor who gives you a better deal, and is local in your city even though your phone says roaming! (But you have to decide if giving your friends a long distance number to your cell phone is good or bad)

    don't foget other featues. CallerID seems to be the norm with cell phones (in area!), but voice mail isn't even though it should be, at $10/month you might decide on a different plan anyway. Will you use wireless web? some people might, I'`ve never tried it. I have an option to get news clippings to my phone, I never tried it, but that might be important to you.

    Bottom line: plans are intentionally confusing. Talk to people where you often travel to find out about local problems (and how long, since towers are upgraded everywhere but not all at once). Decide if you are going to travel enough that a national or regonal plan makes sense. (Too bad there are currently no international plans) Figgure out how much you use the phone, remembering to factor in the increased convience of having it. Only after doing the above should you look at plans.

  • Sprint's network only covers major transportation corridors of major metropolitan areas. You can get out of its network in the area where you live, and then incoming calls won't ring in because they don't have roaming agreements in place. I recently changed planes in Pittsburgh and it didn't even work in the airport there. If you are out of their network you have to use your credit card to roam outgoing, and you can't do anything to make incoming calls work.

    Also, watch out for the silver Motorola "Timeport" that Sprint sells through Office Depot and other stores. It is missing 800 MHz digital mode, which the black, non-Sprint version of the same Motorola "StarTAC" digital phone has enabled. So, on the black phone you have the option to do digital roaming and switch to a digital 800 MHz primary carrier, on the silver one you only get analog roaming.

    Thanks

    Bruce

  • I usually use "aspirate" as a stronger word than "suck".

    And that applies to Sprint. See my other comment about them.

    Bruce

  • I've been a Verizon Wireless customer for about 4 years or so (well, actually I was a Nynex Mobile customer before mergers, but I digress...). Now that they have a nationwide company, I suggest using their SingleRate plan - about $50/month gets you 500 minutes with no separate long distance (all calls are included regardless of destination), and no roaming anywhere in the US.

    They offer a Motorola Startac phone that's tri-band - it operates on 800MHz AMPS, 800MHz CDMA, and 1900MHz CDMA, which are all the various frequency bands they use nationwide (Verizon was formed from Bell Atlantic, GTE, PrimeCo, and AirTouch). The phone works quite well, and they have cheaper dual-band phones also.

    Sprint PCS isn't bad if you're in a Sprint-served area, but you get brutally violated with huge roaming charges if you step outside their calling area. And the Sprint footprint is relatively small.

    - -Josh Turiel
  • With Verizon, it depends on the plan. The SingleRate East plan, for instance (the Bell Atlantic plan they started this with), has no roaming charges in the Northeast Corridor, and down into a few pockets of the Carolinas.

    But the SingleRate National plan really is a no roaming or long-distance plan - the combined companies cover virtually the whole US in their footprint, and they don't charge you in the tiny areas where they use roaming agreements. The roaming just counts against your minute allowance. I'm not sure if the roaming service is analog or digital, though - I suspect it's usually analog (but still no extra $).

    I can't stand Verizon the landline company, but I'm a raving fan of their cellular.

    - -Josh Turiel
  • I just hacked up a perl script that will backup/restore phone book data from Samsung 6100/8500 phones... anybody else been able to do this for other phones? It'd be cool to have a Linux version of FoneSync - anybody interested? :)

    -Eric

    ---

  • There a few critical questions:

    Do you live and or plan to travel in a major metro area? Many calling plans are great until you get out of a large area then its mom-n-pop all the way. For example most cellular (or digital, for the purposes of this discussio we'll call everything cellular) build up are in major metro areas and along major interstate highways so if you live not near those you will have degraded service. The work around for that can be in some areas to prepurchase analog minutes instead of having to essentially roam at that time. One thing to remember though is that a dual band or even tri band phone will suck batteries as it attempts to switch in an out of digital and analog zones if you're in a marginal area that crosses both systems. Next, find out exactly what the up front charges are if you want any additional services. Have you noticed that you haven't heard much about mobile net from the carriers recently? That's because a) it doesn't work and b) they charge some obscene up front setup like $300 plus $5/minute. At least they do here in the Raleigh NC area. Next find out about bundled billing. If you want 2 phone numbers to share the minutes pool you will have 2 basic choices a) No and b) a large block of initial minutes with the corresponding large monthly nut. Sprint will do that for a 500 minute/month plan or higher. Next find out what kind of billing detail they can provide incase you have to provide that to your employer. Next what kind of phone rebate if any are they offering or is the really really great calling plan only available if you purchase a $400 phone. Is the phone replaceable per the contract or is it upgradeable? If the answer is yes probe deeper and find out what they mean by that. Some providers mean yes to mean that you can do whatever you want if you want to buy another phone and then pay some multi-hundred dollar switch over fee to move your phone number to another phone.And make sure that your phone is not Nextel because that is a closed system different from all others and you have to use a Nextel phone in a Nextel area which is why they appear to be offering such great deals. Next of course the usual carry over minutes, plan change options should be reviewed. Oh - yeah, check the online vs. calling a telemarketer rates and plan options, they are usually different and they almost never know about one another. Next check phone insurance and compare it to what you can get ANYWHERE else including your existing homeowners'. Carrier provided phone insurance is close to loan shark rates. Find out if battery replacement canbe included in the maintainance contract - a very few do this. Do you need prepurchased minutes. Some providers have flat rate prepurchased service that shuts off when you reach it. A good thing to have if you're using the phone only for business and the employer won't pay for overages. Can the service be combined with ANI, CallerID, Paging, voicemail and the like which actually are pretty good to have with a business phone. Do they support inbound and outbound faxing? Is that even important to you? Does the service have automatic firmware updates for the phones a-la Startac or do they expect you bring them the phone 6 times a year to upgrade the microcode. Will they give you a loaner if yours breaks. What is their fraud protection?
  • We can count just fine, sir, it's just that the ballots use the metric system nowadays, and that thing always screws everything up. What our democracy needs right now is a strong leader who isn't afraid to show our power in the world and to abolish the metric system altogether. Then we'll never have problems with the ballot system again.

    --

  • Moderators: I really don't see how this post is off-topic. It is pretty short and posted by an AC, but it brings up a pretty valid point (one with which I agree with, BTW). I definitely don't see how it is Offtopic. Perhaps someone isn't too pleased with their salary?

    --

  • Re:Ugh ? (Score:2)

    by pen ( 7191 )
    Also, $60k/year in NYC is sort of borderline poverty.

    Yep, that's exactly what I said. I'll spend all the money on trainfare and/or rent, I'll burn out from the 13-hour work days (if you include travel), and I'll be left with pretty much nothing. The only reason I considered taking it for $60K is because I could then get something better half a year later. But half a year is a really long time...

    --

  • Yeah, I know 'xactly what you mean 'bout beatin' stuff up. I grew up in South Dakota on my daddy's farm... When something broke, we ain't in the situation to go out and gets it fixed, so most of the stuff we jes' duct-taped and glued all over. When momma went out shopping, she gonna fills the truck with two things: shotgun ammo and duct tape rolls.

    And don't even get me started on these flimsy condoms that are put out today... 'Course it give you more feel when tha goddamn thing's busted right when'sya puts it on!

    --

  • I suspect that for someone doing a lot of traveling, something like AT&T's Digital One-Rate would be a good idea. All calls, whether local or long-distance, are charged at the same per-minute rate. Basically it no longer matters where you're calling.

    For receiving calls, that's basically a freebie that some places like Cellular One give you for calls to/from other Cellular One network phones. You'd have to find out who you'd be calling a lot and get on the same network as them.

    You could also skip the long-distance carrier and use phone cards. My phone can auto-dial a card number for long-distance calls.
    ----
  • My time is more valuable to me than spending 2 hours getting to work (and 2 hours back), and $300/mo for the privilege. I can make $60k in a decent sized city, live 1 mile from work (or 20-45 mins to the burbs), free parking... and then spend my vacations in NYC if I really really wanted to.

    Well, here in the Philadelphia area, it's not uncommon to live in South Jersey and commute to the other side of Philly, Valley Forge/King of Prussia/Wayne/Malvern/etc. Those destinations are much closer in mileage, but take 60-90 minutes to drive to. No reasonable mass transit, and only one or two roads that go there. I'll take 30 min easy drive + 90 min of relaxing train ride over a frustrating 60-90 min drive.

    I do agree, however, that $60k in NYC is terrible. If you're any good at your coding, you should be at least getting $80k+. Also, the better companies in the city will gladly pick up the tab for public transit.
    --

  • 50 bucks last me about a week and a half. And that's strictly business.

    What I can recommend is Fido (with the US equivalent being Omnis I think. At least that's what my Fido registers on when I cross the border.)

    They're digital, they're Nokia's and I like it. You even have an analog module option. Just stick it under the battery, and you're in business. Other important thing: No roaming fee, and all your outgoing calls are local to the area you're in. You got an Alaskian phone, you're in NYC, dial an NYC number, and it's local.

    Up here, you get 400 minutes for 40$ CDN, and if you dont use it all, it rolls over to the next month. They have pay-as-you-go, and also 200,300,400,600,700,800,1000 minutes plan.

    'nuff said.
  • actually, headsets might make it worse.

    There was an article (either here, or on BBC - I'm way too lazy to check) about a week ago claiming that the wire for the headset acts as an antenna, collecting and concentrating the radiation that the phone emits. And pumps it straight through your ear into your brain.

    Of course, this could result in a better world, one where all the morons that walk around hotel and convention center lobbies yelling at nobody have died of deep fried brain cells....

    Then again, there is always bluetooth...

  • I had an old cell phone back in the day (1993) through a baby bell (Ameritech) and it sucked. After the contract expired I vowed not use a mobile until they were more in line with useful technology and had reasonable pricing schemes.

    Just recently, I needed a mobile phone that would allow me to not get reemed on long distance/roaming charges in the Midwest. My mobile service is now through Verizon. Yes, I know verizon sucks [verizonsucks.com] but they had the best deal for my needs. :P

    I used the website www.point.com [point.com] to get educated on the current state of mobile phone technology and to price out plans/phones for North America. I recommend this website for getting an idea of what is out there.

  • That seems truly odd that you Americans have to pay for incoming calls. They say rapid spread of cell phones in Europe is partly due to no charge for incoming call - you can always answer a phone without worrying about your bill.

    Here in Finland the prepaid cards are not as popular however.. it costs about 3 times more than in a normal contract (42 vs 14 cents, respectively) and I haven't seen a *real* person with such a card for lo-ong time now.

    Not to mention that roaming in Europe is something you don't even need to know about - it just works. (don't go roaming to Russia, though - the prices are astronomic, I hear. One of the most expensive networks in the world, they say).

    There is still one analog network in Scandinavia (NMT450) which is used mostly in less-populated areas (such as Lapland) due to its vast coverage (it's safe to say that you can still make a call from any point in Finland, however remote it is) but the analog network is being replaced by digital one. It's just as well 'cause it covers all the cities and roads and where else could you be? Analog cell phones are rare, expensive and hard to come by, there's really no reason to buy one, unless you're a hunter or something of a type.

    Oh, that sure helped to answer the original question? Good. :-)

    __________________________________________

  • No pay-as-go or phone-in-a-box plans?

    I don't know where you people get the idea that we don't have this. There's several really cheap phone-in-a-box plans -- I saw one for sale in a video rental store, $20 for the phone, I forget how much for minutes. Of course, the coverage area is pretty bad. I went with the AT&T Prepaid plan, which has nationwide coverage, and a Nokia (6100?) phone, works with both digital and analog, and the prepaid plan is nationwide -- no roaming charges. I think it works out to around 45c/minute.

    --

  • Quick reality check! How much does it cost you to call your next door neighbor from your landline phone?
    _____________
  • Sorry to have come across as so harsh before. Your deal really doesn't seem to be all that different from what I get here in the states. I have a TDMA phone (same voice compression technology as GSM) for this I pay about $25/month and get 200 minutes of talking that I can use anytime I want. For an extra $3/month I could get another 500 minutes to use nights and weekends, mostly I'm home then so I don't bother. Incoming calls are free for the first minute. If it's a telemarketer (note: it's illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones in the US) or wrong number I can hang up and it won't cost me. If it's my girlfriend calling to ask me to pick up milk on my way home, it's still probably free. The difference is that she can call me from home and that's free too.

    The conflict in frequencies is a little bit unfortunate. There's not too much that can be done about it however, 800 and 1900 MHz are the bands that have been set aside for mobile phones in the US, and I do believe that these were set aside before Europe made the 900, 1800 MHz standard. If you know that you will be traveling between the US and Europe (and non-Japan Asia, Japan is a whole different can of worms) then you get the phone that supports it.
    _____________

  • My experience with any CDMA company is that they rape you for roaming charges as soon as you leave a metro area. They will all say that they have a nationwide network with no roaming charges, but it's going to cost you big time when you aren't in a city that has their service.

    My recommendation would be to go with a regional TDMA provider. In my area (Cedar Rapids, IA) it's US Cellular. I pay $25/month for 200 minutes with free longdistance. I can roam to 11 midwestern states without paying extra and if I wanted I could pay an extra $5/month and be able to roam anywhere in the country for free. Another big bonus is that they don't charge me for roaming if I'm making an analong tower. All you euro-snobs can make fun of me all you like, but when I've got a weak signal (remote location, in a steel building, tunnel, etc.) my Ericsson T18d switches right over to AMPS mode and keeps working. With analog you may have to shout over static, but at least you can hear something. So make sure that you get a tri-mode phone, then you really can cover the whole country.

    The last big advantage of getting a national calling plan from a regional TDMA carrier is that AT&T uses TDMA so you are gauranteed good coverage in all the big cities that AT&T serves.
    _____________

  • Hey what do you know. That's the same amount (give or take, exchange rates and all) That it costs me when I receive a call on my cell phone, except the first minute is free. 6 of one 1/2 a dozen of the other. It's not better worse, it's just different.
    _____________
  • <sarcasm>I heard that in Britian they eat their babies! Have you ever heard of such a backward place?</sarcasm>
    I'll try to inject a little truth here. If you come to the US with your GSM phone. It will work. At least in urban areas (Not just the big cities, my city has only about 100 kilopeople and we have GSM). As of right now GSM probably isn't the best choice for someone who does not plan to travel internationally very often. Most of the rural areas are served better by the TDMA digital system. That's right! We do have digital coverage pretty much everywhere.
    We also have analog coverage still in place pretty much everywhere. I see this as a feature not a bug. Analog service performs much better in a weak signal situation. With an analog phone with a weak signal you get static. That's ok, you just have to yell. With a digital phone with a weak signal you get silence. You can yell all you like but you still can't communicate.
    _____________
  • There are several reasons that the US doesn't have as widespread coverage as the UK:
    1. The UK is the size of Kansas and Nebraska. This makes deploying a new network much simpler: less area to cover
    2. Since you can cover all of the UK with a lot fewer towers, Metcalf's law comes into play sooner: the value of a network goes up as the square of the number of nodes. Since it's easier to supply most of the UK with digital service, it makes more sense to have a digial phone. In the US, since you MUST have AMPS to be able to use your phone anywhere other than a big city, what is the point in having a GSM-only phone?
    3. Since you'll need AMPS anyway, what is the motivation to a cellular provider to set up a GSM network in most places? The phones are more expensive (being dual-mode, and frequently dual-band), the infrastructure is more expensive, and the users/MHz ratio isn't that much better (3 users/25kHz channel for the standard vocoder (6/channel for the half-rate vocoders which aren't available yet) vs. 1/channel for AMPS)
    4. Getting frequency spectrum in the 800-900MHz region is a bitch. Getting phones to work in the 1.6GHz region is a bitch (great for short ranges (<2 miles/cell site) but not very good when you have to go long distances)

    I seriously doubt you'll see AMPS die off in the US for another 20 years. The thing that will eventually kill AMPS will be the lack of data services on IS-54, and that won't become important to the masses for another 10 years.

  • Re:GSM! (Score:2)

    by RedX ( 71326 )
    Aerial was GSM 1900, as is Voicestream. See this [voicestream.com] for more details about their network. From looking further, it looks like they have acquired licenses for Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, LA, SF, and other markets but have yet to complete their network in those markets.

  • Re:GSM! (Score:2)

    by RedX ( 71326 )
    This is true. I've been on my current $30/300min SPCS plan for over 2 years and I recently tried to sign up for a 1-year service agreement to take advantage of their offer of free Wireless Web for doing so. I was informed that this couldn't be done on my account because I have first incoming minute free and they don't offer that service on their current plans. I even asked her to make sure that this couldn't be done since I was agreeing to not change providers for a year and I was told that it couldn't be done.
  • My time is more valuable to me than spending 2 hours getting to work (and 2 hours back), and $300/mo for the privilege. I can make $60k in a decent sized city, live 1 mile from work (or 20-45 mins to the burbs), free parking... and then spend my vacations in NYC if I really really wanted to.
  • Watch out for that (Verizon) SingleRate. It says "no roaming" but in the fine print you find that this means no roaming charges WITHIN THEIR NETWORK. Furthermore, to get no-roaming, you need to buy a tri-mode phone.
  • You DO pay for incoming calls in Europe if you are abroad. Example:
    - You have, say, a Dutch phone and contract
    - You go to, say, Belgium
    - You receive a call from Holland.
    You pay for the communication from Holland to Belgium.
  • If you put the phone on vibrate, so that you don't disturb anyone, such as in a business meeting or movie theatre, the phone will vibrate when you get a call, but then will RING to let you know you have missed a call.

    Personally, I just turn my cell off (I have a StarTac, too) when I'm in a meeting, or at the movies, and then I turn it on when I'm done. I figure if I'm not even going to answer the call, or pop open the phone to see who it's from, I don't even need to know that I am getting a call, or at least not at that moment.

  • Yeah, but I wouldn't talk about ANYTHING that should be secure over a cellphone. EVEN digtal cellphones supposed securty can be comprimised. One other bad thing about digital phones is that some people's voices just plain don't go over the digital ones well. The digital phones are nice, but they need a few more bits of data to make it useful to me. Right now they are just on the edge. This comes from a digital phone user (NEXTEL.....I reccomend these for business's big time....if you can get them to go this way, convince them it can replace pagers too. Plus it has wireless internet (ok, I know it's MSN but it's still cool!)). So far as this imaging problem you are talking about this is called harmonics. Almost everything that produces rf will produce a harmonic, but this isn't what you have to worry about. Scanners may hvae the cell frequencies blocked when you buy them from a store, but this can be easily undone and you can scan around MUCH easier then trying to hit a harmonic.
  • From the site that used to bring you News For Nerds, we can soon expect the following:

    "What's the most energy efficient washing machine?"

    "How do I stop my meringues from flopping?"

    "Which is car suffers the least in depreciation costs?"

    "Who gives the most flexible mortgage?"

    "Why is that man in the ski mask trying to break down my door?"
  • Sprint's network only covers major transportation corridors of major metropolitan areas.
    That's about right. I don't even have usable Sprint PCS coverage at my house, in Silicon Valley a mile from US 101 and a mile from downtown Palo Alto. I have to go outside on the deck and get line of sight to the downtown Palo Alto cell site to get it to work.

    There are annoying gaps in Sprint PCS coverage in places you'd least expect it, like Hollywood and the Stanford campus. Don't expect to use a Sprint PCS phone indoors unless you're near a window facing one of their cell sites.

    It always amuses me that Sprint PCS has a faint background hiss. The system is totally digital, so the hiss must be deliberately inserted to mask quantization error.

  • "But what's all the hype because people have been using radios and headsets for over twenty years, so where's the "antenna" effect there? "

    Last time i checked a radio was a receiver, not a microwave transmitter.
  • They are running some specials right now, But when I signed up I got a free phone, free internet for 6 months, and you could get 1000 minutes for $50, with long distance. Only problem, its though I have a dual-band phone, and can use it anywhere, I get charged for roaming if its used outside of the PCS network, which is only the major metropolitian areas, about 300 of them, and most of the major interstates. Hasn't been a problem for me yet, I stay off the phone outside of my service area, and if i ever really NEED it in an analog area, I have it. Plus, logging onto AIM from your phone is so geeky..... I love it. ;)

  • Before I finally decided to get a wireless phone, I watched how well my associates' phones worked out in the field, since I'm often in the middle of nowhere testing aerospace stuff (Yuma, White Sands, Edwards AFB, Utah TTR -- places like that).

    The folks with AT&T service ended up sharing their phones a lot, since they had the only ones which worked just about everywhere. So I got an AT&T Digital One-Rate plan myself -- with my usage level (close to 800 minutes/month) it works out to a bit over 12 cents a minute, which is not much more than what my landline costs once all the standard monthly costs are added in.

    I've never seen anything that can beat it, if getting the call through is your primary concern... and it really doesn't cost that much, either.

    ---

  • Dosn't Hull have free local calls?

  • Wrong (Score:2)

    by sulli ( 195030 )
    If you buy a national roaming plan like AT&T's Digital One Rate, you can't expense business calls, because they show up on the bill as zero billed until you get to the number of minutes you've bought. So unless you never travel for fun, and never place personal calls while traveling on business, you would much rather have this reimbursement plan, because this way you don't have to pay all those damn roaming charges for all the non-business calls.

    My story: I used to pay, and expense, roaming charges for business. Now I have national roaming, and though I haven't figured out how to expense a single call, nonetheless my net expense is much less.

  • Then the second phone had a bad habit of answering calls on its own, and then hanging up on people.

    That's the reason I took the first phone back. It kept hanging up on me. Eventually, it kept turning off unexpectedly. It was completely annoying. After my second phone, I told them I didn't want the same model. I guess the salesperson could see in my eyes, that I was out for blood. She immediately got her manager. He of course, gave me the StarTac. So far, I have no problems with it.

    You might try taking it back, next time it hoses out, and telling them you want another model. If they say they won't give you one (a highly unlikely scenerio), just tell them you'll cancel their service. They're the ones pooching the deal by not giving you a decent phone.

  • I have 2 different cell phone plans here in NorthEastern Pennsylvania. I do a lot of traveling back and forth to Penn State University at State College, which is located in Central PA and I'm always searching for a good cellular plan that will reach that area. I'm paying $40 a month for my current handheld cell right now, which I didn't think was to bad because I'm geting all the bells and whistles. I have a non-detachable carphone in my subaru, which I'm paying I believe $25 a month, but there's no bells or whistles on that puppy. Roaming charges add up very quick, so if your getting only $50 from your company, that's not going to help you out too much ;(

    Cell phone service here can be useful for me because some have their local calling area extended from North East PA to State college, so I don't end up paying the big roaming charge fee when I'm making calls from there. However, outside of NEPA and State college, the roaming fees pile up very quickly. Your $50 will vanish :(

  • That is incorrect. PCS sits on top of TDMA and CDMA, while GSM is an entirely different standard. If they were the same, why would they be advertising "world phones" that do GSM for $200 more than your standard Sprint PCS phone? Here's a link to a discussion of wireless coverage [strategisgroup.com] where they certainly make the distinction.

    Del
  • Nokia cell phones are great. I have two that have been abused all to Hell. The one has been glue-jobbed all over multiple times because the poor baby gets dropped on concrete a lot. Growing up my dear old dad was the "take care of stuff" kind of guy who would wash and wax his cars, even lawn mowers, and was big into taking care of stuff. I thought that "stuff" was around for us, so if it couldn't handle our abuse, tough. Thus, I am really hard on anything (that I own... I do respect other peoples' stuff), no mercy, and I don't mind if that results in glue globs and duct tape. For example, I had an old Audi sedan that was broken into twice and busted up, I drove it through snow banks once to refill my step-sister's snowmobile with gas, etc., and I had even drilled holes in the driver's door because the opening mechanism was shot so I had to use a coat hanger to jigger the door open... but the damn thing kept going and I loved that car(don't even ask about the '76 Chevy pickup with five different colors of paint I had in college)! And I have to say my Nokias are just like that. I beat them up and they still work fine. Don't think that isn't worth something, because if you are on the road and drop one of those wimpy phones with little fragile parts sticking out of them, you are out of luck, and that fancy little feature that sold you isn't worth squat.

  • Re:Ugh ? (Score:3)

    by jcostom ( 14735 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @04:44AM (#628235) Homepage
    I live in Philadelphia, so traveling is not really an option.

    You'd be surprised... Lots of people commute daily from Philly to NYC. If you're just coding, chances are your employer would likely be agreeable to telecommuting 2 or 3 days a week.

    I live in South Jersey (Burlington County), and from August, 1998 - December, 1998 (as part of a contract) I commuted daily from my home to NYC (2 WTC). My days went something like this:

    • Wake up @ 6:00 am
    • Out the door by 6:25 am
    • Drive to Trenton train station - parked by 6:50-6:55 am
    • 7:00 am - get on Amtrak unreserved train
    • 7:50 am - get into Newark Penn Station
    • 7:52ish am - get on the PATH train
    • 8:20ish am - arrive in WTC concourse
    • 8:30 am - at my desk on the 67th floor with time to grab breakfast and start at 9

    The reverse trip was easy too. Back on the PATH about 5:00, catch the 5:30ish train from Newark back to Trenton. Home before 7 every night.

    Oh, by the way, the 50 minute train rides make for great naps. There are also AC outlets if you need to get work done.

    Cost? Work was picking up the tab, but here's what it ran me:

    • Tolls - $1.50/day * 20 days == $30/mo
    • Parking - $80/mo (24/7 garage - unlimited)
    • NJT monthly pass - $160
    • PATH 40 ride pass - $40

    The NJT weekly && monthly passes permit you to ride the Amtrak unreserved trains between certain hours at no extra charge. Nicer trains, more comfy seats too.
    --

  • Re:GSM all the way (Score:3)

    by jcostom ( 14735 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @05:02AM (#628236) Homepage
    First of all, it's a world standard, and you know how we love standards here at Slashdot. Nonstandard networks include AT&T or Verizon (a bizzare TDMA hack) and Sprint PCS, which is a new system entirely (although they get kudos for doing something new, CDMA).

    You're close.

    • AT&T == TDMA (800 & 1900 Mhz), AMPS
    • Verizon == CDMA (800 & 1900 Mhz), AMPS
    • Sprint == CDMA (1900 Mhz), AMPS

    --

  • Don't fall for the 100% all digital hype (Score:3)

    by weave ( 48069 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @08:49AM (#628237) Journal
    Digital coverage is important, but more important is coverage period. 100% all digital plans and phones basically mean "no analog" or "if you go on analog, you roam, and that's big bucks."

    A large portion (square miles wise) of the country is only reachable on 800 AMPS analog service. If you stick to cities all the time, no problem. But if you're driving between Phoenix and Las Vegas and need to make a call, you'll be real grateful for that analog signal you have.

    So when you see an advertisement for "all digital" what they are saying is "no analog" and in my mind, that's a real problem.

    Personally, I'm with Verizon Wireless and with their national plan, the tri-band phones update themselves with current roaming tables so they always pick the correct band or if on analog, the correct side (A or B) and there are no extra charges for calls all over the country. You get CDMA digital calls where available and if not, you'll calls will be delivered or sent over an analog network. Analog is better than nothing...

  • Re:Where do you live or travel? (Score:3)

    by lizrd ( 69275 ) <[su.pmub] [ta] [mada]> on Monday November 13, 2000 @06:56AM (#628238) Homepage
    Next check phone insurance and compare it to what you can get ANYWHERE else including your existing homeowners'.

    This is a really good point. I had to use mine last month and it really saved me a lot of money. I bought my phone from Worst Buy(tm). They charged me $60 for the 3 year protection plan (better coverage than the $3-4/month plan that US Cell offers) and gave me a $50 gift certificate (worked well since I also needed a new microwave). Last month I dropped my phone onto the sidewalk. It landed on it's antenna and broke it off. I walked into Best Buy, told them what happened and kind of waved my service agreement at the kid behind the counter. He didn't ask me any questions or give me the third degree or anything. He just reached under the counter grabbed a box and said "Is this color OK?" Even threw in a brand new battery. 10 minutes later he had the phone programmed for me and I was out the door. This is by far the most impressed that I have ever been with a warranty repair/return. I was really surprised to find it coming from Best Buy.
    _____________

  • Re:GSM! (Score:3)

    by RedX ( 71326 ) <redx AT wideopenwest DOT com> on Monday November 13, 2000 @05:30AM (#628239)
    Voicestream's coverage map can be viewed here [voicestream.com]. From experience, I know that there is no Voicestream coverage in Cleveland or Cincinnati, and by looking at the map it looks like the don't cover most of the SW US, no Chicago, and no California. I'm willing to bet that a job with a lot of travel would be frequenting at least one of the areas. GSM is far superior to CDMA and TDMA, and AFAIK Voicestream is the only provider still offering "first incoming minute free" to new subscribers, but it's too bad that it's taking Voicestream so long in providing coverage to new areas.
  • In South Africa, we have what's called a 'pay as you go' system.

    For about $20 you get a starter kit that gets installed in your cellphone at the shop you buy it from and comes with your PIN number and your Cell Number.

    After that, you buy 'recharge' vouchers of several different denominations - i.e. call time.
    These vouchers have a serial number which you reveal in the same manner as a scratch card - you then simply dial a number and punch in the serial - viola, more call time !

    All incoming calls are free.

    IOW, you call the shots on how much bucks you want to spend.

    This system is only useful if you receive more incoming calls than you make outgoing.

    I can't believe there's nothing like that in the states ? -

    Hmm, come to think of it, I think it was invented in South Africa - check it out :-

    http://www.vodacom.co.za
    http://www.mtn.co.za

  • Relative sizes (Score:3)

    by Galvatron ( 115029 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @03:35AM (#628241)
    I don't want to bother digging up the actual square mileage (or square kilometerage :), but the UK is a LOT smaller than the US. Yeah, the fact that we were early adopters means that we've got a lot of old technology lying around, but the coverage area we have to deal with is a lot smaller too. It would be like expecting all of Australia to have nationwide digital coverage. Some areas just aren't populous enough to justify upgrading the network (note what the man said: 300 cities, and major interstates. About 95% of the US population probably lives in those cities). So, the combination of being early adopters and having a very large area to cover explains the less advanced infrastructure.

  • Sprint: Caveat Emptor (Score:3)

    by empesey ( 207806 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @03:24AM (#628242) Homepage
    If you decide to go with the Sprint plan, here's some things you'll need to know.

    Don't get the Samsung SCH-3500 model. No matter how hard they try to sell you. I've had two of these models quit on me. I finally traded it in for a StarTac and not only can you hear better on them, but they have better glow in the dark readout. And, by the way, are more compact.

    If you put the phone on vibrate, so that you don't disturb anyone, such as in a business meeting or movie theatre, the phone will vibrate when you get a call, but then will RING to let you know you have missed a call. When I called Sprint about this poor design they said there is nothing they can do about it. Samsung designed the software and the hardware. When I called Samsung, they said there was nothing they could do. I would have loved to be in the design phase meetings when they made this phone.

    The phone also has a keylock function. When this feature is activated, the keys won't respond, until you turn it off. This is in case you have the phone in your pocket, or where ever and you don't want to accidently dial people. The problem is, all the keys are locked behind the hard flip-top cover. All they keys, except for two. One of these non-protected keys is the OK key. Guess what it does. It turns off the key-protect feature. Guess what the other one does. It dials your voice mail (for which you get dinged for minutes). Oh, did I mention the keys on the side of the phone? They are a quick-features key. One of these gets you to the main menu where you can do all kinds of dialing damage - again, getting dinged for cell-phone minutes. Just another example of ingenuity in action.

    On the plus side, the voice activated dial worked really well. The only problem is, I used it more to impress chicks, than I did for its functionality. The problems with the phone far outweigh this one little plus.

    My rating: 1 out of 4 stars.

  • Make sure that you do get a cell phone bill. (Score:3)

    by AFCArchvile ( 221494 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @04:55AM (#628243)
    There have been numerous telecom companies who have tried marketing "pay-as-you-go" cell phone plans. You have to "refill" your phone with expensive "refill cards" which go for $99 per 250 minutes (with lower prices for lower denominations). No bills, no credit check, but there's always the threat of having the phone company cutting you off at the worst moment.

    So far, AT&T and TRACFONE have tried this; AT&T recently shut down their program. Sprint is just starting theirs; endcap displays have arrived at many stores already (including my CompUSA).

    Just a caveat: when purchasing a cell phone, get a bill. For an idea of what it's like to run out of cell phone time, type this into your Q3 console:

    cinematic intro.roq

  • useful link (Score:4)

    by vchoy ( 134429 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @02:31AM (#628244)
    This might be useful for you: http://www.wirelessdimension.com
    go to the consumer section then click on "Service Plan Locator". They cover a few good SPs.
    The prices differ a bit, but you should have a rough idea on how much you will use your cell phone...a good start is to check you current/past cell phone bill and work it out from there.
    Good luck.

  • Re:Ugh ? (Score:5)

    by pen ( 7191 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @03:53AM (#628245)
    Yeah, I'll definitely agree here. If you see a company pinching pennies like this over $50-100, don't expect them to be very generous in general. Given the money that they are probably making from your work, I doubt that $50 matters in the long run.

    My own story: Some company in NYC offered me a job for PHP/MySQL/misc. programming. After pulling the price back and forth for a while, we ended up at $60K with some benefits, with them starting at 50, and me starting at 80; A compromise which definitely ended on their side of the line. I live in Philadelphia, so traveling is not really an option. I would have to relocate. I explained this difficulty to the recruiter. He offered to lend me $5K for moving expenses, which would then be deducted from my salary.

    I'm not one to kill someone for a few dollars, but if a company declined to even offer me moving expenses, I doubt that they will be very kind in the future. For better or for worse, I declined.

    Posted with a recent Mozilla nightly, BTW. Just get the UI bugs out, and I'll use it guys. :)

    --

  • Ugh ? (Score:5)

    by Bert Peers ( 120166 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @02:21AM (#628246) Homepage
    So.. you're getting a job which requires that you travel a lot, and in return you get a 50 buck voucher for making your calls ? I'd rather look for a new company that just refunds all business calls, no questions asked, instead of a new plan :)

  • Can't recommend a plan... (Score:5)

    by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @02:31AM (#628247) Journal
    But I can make another recommendation. Whatever network you go with, make sure it's digital unless you want people listening in.

    Effectively cellphones are little more than pocket radios, and despite US radio scanners having the cell frequencies "blocked" (IE, the scanners skip the bands assigned to cellphones), you can still pick them up on blocked scanners due to "imaging" (Check Strong Signals [strongsignals.com] and check their glossary about imaging.)

    So if you want to be entirely secure, and what good Slashdotter doesn't, avoid analogue phones like the plague, or if you have no choice, at least treat them as being as secure as shouting across a crowded room.

    ---

  • A few questions and a recommendation (Score:5)

    by onion2k ( 203094 ) on Monday November 13, 2000 @03:20AM (#628248) Homepage
    Yet another international perspective I'm afraid..

    • Are the minutes you get useable at the times you'll be using the phone? Ignore the free minutes if they're off-peak. What are the chances you'll be doing work stuff at night.
    • Are the free minutes useable to networks you'll be phoning most? Some talk plans don't include free time to other mobile networks, premium rate lines (eg tech support.. or pr0n if you have a weird job 8)).
    • Is the phone billed per-second? I've heard nasty thing about some US telcos rounding a 65second call up to 2 mintues..
    • Whats the coverage like? Is it going to work where you are going to be..
    • What are the toys like? Are the options for things like WAP, email to the phone etc..
    • Whats the phone itself like? Theres nothing worse than having a chunky, poor quality, poor interfaced phone that you need to use quickly and easily everyday.
    I've heard some pretty good stories about Bell Atlantic's SingleRate [bam.com] tarrif, its a good network with coast to coast coverage. A couple of American consulatants I've spoken to are with the network. That said though, I'm fortunate enough to live and work in the uk, our 4 mobile operators are pretty much equal.

  • GSM all the way (Score:5)

    by infiniti99 ( 219973 ) <justin@affinix.com> on Monday November 13, 2000 @04:07AM (#628249) Homepage
    The *G*lobal *S*tandard for *M*obile communications is the phone standard that most of the world uses. Thankfully, it is available in the USA (although strangely on a frequency that no other continent uses for GSM). The GSM system is by far the best implementation of a cellular network, and I highly recommend that you go with it. Some highlights:

    1) First of all, it's a world standard, and you know how we love standards here at Slashdot. Nonstandard networks include AT&T or Verizon (a bizzare TDMA hack) and Sprint PCS, which is a new system entirely (although they get kudos for doing something new, CDMA). In fact, there is no central corporation with GSM, only an alliance of providers and manufacturers which decide on the standards.

    2) GSM isn't a just digital radio transmission protocol like TDMA or CDMA. It's quite unfair to compare "the big three" as GSM, TDMA, and CDMA. That makes no sense at all. Heck, GSM uses TDMA for its radio transmission. In reality, GSM is an entire cellular phone system, from the phones you use, to the radio towers, the whole bit. Everything about it is part of the standard.

    3) GSM was built with wireless data in mind, which is why it has always supported voice, data, and SMS (short messaging service, two way paging) in its network. Every other USA service is just now catching up (read: hacking it in).

    4) GSM separates owner and phone by utilizing a SIM card, which identifies you and your provider. This means that you don't even have to notify your provider when you buy a new phone. Just pop in the chip and off you go. I have several GSM phones, and I just stick the chip in the one I wish to use that day. Hmm, do I want the sweet Nokia 8890? Or the terminal-in-my-pocket Nokia 9000 [nokia9000.com]?

    By the way, amidst the fragmented USA cellular phone market as it is, 1900MHz was assigned as the GSM frequency. This means that for a GSM phone to work here, it must support that frequency. However, some phones do both. The Nokia 8890 or the Ericsson i888 work just about everywhere in the world. And they both have IR ports for your laptops/Psions/Palms. Fun stuff indeed.

    When you decide to go with GSM (and I'm sure you will), be sure to choose Powertel. From my research, they have the best value for data minutes in the USA. 600 minutes of voice (or data, no extra charge) anywhere in the USA to anywhere in the USA for $65/mo. Not bad! =)

    -Justin

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