Mobile Phone Rental (in the US)

Factual Questions
1

No, I’m not moving to the US! This is for a friend, who does live there…

Anyway, said friend does not own a mobile phone and does not want to start owning one now.
However, she will find herself essentially on her own in the Denver-metro area, for about five days around Thanksgiving. She won’t have a dedicated landline and may have problems getting at a landline at all.
She is considering renting a mobile phone for the duration (not out in the sticks, more a logistics issue, so there is probably not a coverage issue for Mobile.)

What little research I have been able to do to help her comes up with best price at about $25 for a week, which include the first 35 (or so) minutes of air time (Actually it’s rated as: air time @ $0.69/min, $25 minimum total).

Is this a good deal? Can she do better on a daily-basis deal (she only really needs the phone for about 5 days?) How can she tell what system(s) (as in GSM, AMPS, CDMA) have coverage in the area she’ll be staying? How does she determine whether the community she’ll be in has Mobile coverage, and under which technology(ies)? Does it make a huge difference if the rented phone is registered to the local provider or “roaming”?
… and any other important data (or even further questions to ask!) regarding this setup. I just don’t know how the US Mobile Market operates!

Assume the phone will pretty much get used only if an emergency comes up, so the important factor is flat fees and/or minimum usage, rather than air-time costs.
Thank you for any help

Dani

2

Expect all three of those to work in a metropolitan area. AMPS is the old analog technology and has wider coverage in rural areas than either GSM or CDMA, but in most cities and along major freeways, all three systems overlap (as well as TDMA and Nextel’s iDEN).

Ask someone who lives there, or check the provider’s coverage map.

At those prices, probably not. This place has no roaming charges, but I don’t know how their prices compare to other phone rental companies.

3

How can she (or I) find out who provides coverage in the Colorado area, and what exactly is covered? Can you recommend and links to provider sites? Remember, I have no idea how the American market works – including not really knowing who the large providers are.

Thanks for the link! However, they have a 10 min/day minimum charge (at about $1.50 a minute) – not exactly what she’s looking for.

In any case – thanks for the tips so far.

4

The major national carriers are Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

I don’t know if any of them offer rentals, though. I found that other link just by searching for ‘denver phone rental’.