I’m buying my first* cellphone. Just a general survey, I’m michigan USA myself, what plan do you use, how much per month is the base, do you like teh coverage, etc. What shoudl I expect in terms of plan costs, maybe getting 2-3 calls per weekday and making the same amount during the daytime?
*I have had em for 7-8 years, the free ones withthe “no minutes” plans for emergencies
With regard to the coverage, the best thing to do is to ask people in your area how good their coverage is. For example, AT&T has great coverage in and around Baltimore, in my experience, but I have to go outside to use my cell phone when I’m back with the Mercotan Elders.
I pay a total of around $60/month for:
300 minutes on a national plan, unlimited nights/weekends
100 text messages/month
1 MB of data sent or received/month
Calling to/from Canada out of my normal minutes
various taxes and fees
I’m extremely happy with my cell phone service, primarily because it means I don’t have to buy phone cards anymore unless I’m going to be someplace where the coverage sucks. And for me, phone cards were a big expense.
Which plan and which company you choose should be based on your particular circumstances. How LONG do your calls, made and received, last? Do you travel a lot? Would you use your phone for sending or receiving email or messages? If your needs are really basic, just a few short calls a day, all made from the same area, it probably won’t make too much of a difference which company you go with as long as they have decent coverage in your area.
I have AT&T Wireless (Metro Atlanta here). My coverage is great all over Atlanta, even down in the train stations and in tunnels, I can usually get something. I’ve used it through Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee and I’ve seen ROAM maybe a half a dozen times. I can get decent/semi-decent reception even in weird places like semi-backwoods Alabama with nothing but road around for miles.
It runs me about $40 a month, $34.99 for the plan plus $5.55 for “Taxes, Surcharges, and Regulatory fees”. I have Unlimited Nights and Weekends with 200 Additional Minutes and have never come close to using them up. I know I have the Nationwide Long Distance thing, too.
I use my phone very little, mostly things like calling my girlfriend to say, “Alright, I’ll be home in about an hour, let’s do pork chops for dinner” or calling Blockbuster to see if they can hold a movie for me. I pay for such a relatively expensive plan (compared to my usage) because my phone is primarily for emergency uses. I don’t have the phone because calling home for dinner is important to me–though it’s nice. I have it for extraordinary things, like the car breaking down, and because it’s just about impossible to find a pay phone anymore. Also, I pay for the nationwide plan because what’s the point of having a cellphone if I can’t use it when I’m out in the middle of nowhere?
I had a crappy plan from BellSouth and the ONE FRICKIN’ TIME I needed my phone to work, it didn’t.
My advice: Investigate, investigate, investigate. Cingular was my first choice, since they didn’t have as many complaints as the others, but their web form kept screwing up. ATT Wireless was my second choice, but I have no complaints.
Middle Tennessee, Verizon.
I have 600 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited national long distance, and the state of TN is my local area. Internet access is included, I can just plug the phone into my laptop or palm, no extra charge. $39.99 a month, plus like $6 other crap.
BTW, I have no home phone. I haven’t gone over my minutes yet.
I have been carrying my Virgin Mobile phone for almost 2 years and my plan is as follows:
.25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes of every day, .10 cents a minute after that, the day starts at 5 A.M.
That is my entire plan, I have better coverage than a lot of people, nationwide long distance and a bunch of features that I never use.
Try www.virginmobileusa.com
My phone “bill” (I don’t get a bill in the mail) averages around $12.00 a month.
unclviny
I’m with Cellular One. Haven’t experimented with the roaming much, but the coverage maps indicate pretty good coverage. This weekend, I’m going from Lubbock to San Angelo, which is still in the digital “home” area even though it’s 3 hours away; I’ll have to check back to tell you how it goes. Reception is quite excellent anywhere I’ve used it in the city.
I’m on the plan you see right now on their home page. That is, 1000 daytime minutes, free nights and weekends, for $40 a month. Of course, there’s also free long distance and 100 text messages a month, plus all those usual cell features like call waiting and whatnot. “Night” starts at 8 PM, which is nice, since some I looked into don’t start until 9 PM.
I re-upped with Verizon.
I pay about $40.oo a month. 300 anytime/1000 nights and weekends. No long distance and I have to go to Idaho to get charged for roaming.
And the largest network coverage area. That was the part that sold me. I don’t want to be on the highway somewhere and not be able to make a call.
I know my plans are going to be vastly different from US carriers but here’s my list:
Main line is a company phone. I pay $4 / month (for “extra” call display).
My GF’s line (which I pay for) is a $35 / month for 100 day minutes and unlimited evenings and weekends (from 6 pm). + $6 for call display and voice mail. With all extra fees it comes out to $48 + tax.
Her brother’s line which is in my name as a company phone is 200 minutes for $20 + evenings and weekends starting at 8 pm free for another 6 months (regular price $20) and free voice mail. Total price is roughly $36 + tax.
I have AT&T wireless GSM in NYC.
It sucks!!!
I get no reception in my house.
I get no reception in my neighborhood. (I think they are against Brooklyn)
Half the time the phone doesn’t work in Manhattan.
I pay $60 a month for 500 minutes and 1 mb of data.
Of course I got great reception in Detroit the other day when I was switching planes. :rolleyes:
Avoid AT&T like the plaque!
I’ve had the same number for 5 years, number portability and someone other then AT&T here I come!
I pay $0.07/minute flat rate through VoiceStream… Sometimes my monthly bill is below $4 total, with the taxes included. Of course, if you do alot of talking on your cell, it could get expensive. I average about 150-200 minutes a month and the bill stays below $15.
I’ve never seen them advertise this deal… some sales reps came to my workplace and offered the deal along with a free phone and most people jumped on the plan.
Where do I sign up?
I’m seriously contemplating switching my contract away from AT&T as soon as I can without major “we’re not done with you yet!” fees. I’m also in need of a new phone, for my Nokia 3360 is a piece of shite. Of course, it’d be nice to be able to have a new phone before May, when the contract runs out. I’ve never gotten a free upgrade from AT&T, and they don’t have cell phone towers in Tallahassee where I go to college. The reception up here is awful, there’s no option for GSM (most of AT&T’s phones are GSM these days it seems), and I can’t get out of my contract soon enough!
I still am a little clueless as to whether I should put up with the crap for the next two years and suck it up, or try and hold out another four months to find a new cellular service company.
Howard Forums have active boards about all the major plans and phones. That will give you a broader perspective. Cell phone coverage differs with each city, so do post a similar inquiry in Howard and you will get responses from folks in your town.
Here my whole family is on T-Mobile (formerly known as Voicestream) family plan. $70 per month, 800 anytime minutes, free calls among us. After three years with T-Mobile, I still like it.
I have Verizon… 400 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, free long distance, and free roaming in most of the country, for about $52 per month after taxes and fees. When my cable modem goes out, the wireless internet access is a tolerable backup (~100 kbps).
Verizon, Miami. Same as [b[spooje** an Mr2001, 400 minutes, 1000 nights and weekend, nationwide roaming, free long distance, free calls to other Verizon folks, plus 2 phones (wife and I). We share the minutes. We haven’t gotten the first bill yet, but the plan is $60 before taxes and such.