TVCH FORUMS HOME . JOIN . FAN CLUBS . ABOUT US . CONTACT . CHAT  
Bomis   Quick Links   TOPICS . TREE-VIEW . SEARCH . HELP! . NEWS . PROFILE
Wireless Phones....again

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: Buyers Banter (ARCHIVES): Wireless Phones....again users admin

Author Message
Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 4:27 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
OK. I know. Just when you think its all been discussed before....

So, what providers are good, average, or "stay-away-from."

Phones....I look at phones from various providers, and many of them look identical, but have different model numbers across providers. Are they really different models? Or are they just named something different so Joe-Average-Consumer can't cross-check this stuff to compare prices/features?

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 5:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Did ya know that Cingular bought AT&T? We have AT&T and at the end of June our contract runs out, we have no roaming fees, and trying to get the same contract/service was impossible, talk about double talk!! I took mymap and said "I have to call my son in college, my mom in IN and my dh at Boy Scout camp (WI) and I dont want to pay roaming fees, how much will it cost me per month?"

They dont offer that plan... Dh found out that if we hold out till the end of June when all this Cingular stuff goes thru, we may get a good deal to switch... in the meantime apparently AT&T is still signing people up, and is buying time on the lines? - - all that is over my head btw!!

I do love the AT&T tho, for 2 years I've rarely been 'dropped', I only do the "can you hear me now" when up in the middle of top of WI at Boy Scout Camp (and all of us w/ cell service try and figure out which gets the best signal there - its all the same!! lol)

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 5:43 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have AT&T too. I'm happy with my plan- they have changed a lot since I signed up with their newer mLife stuff (I think that's what it was called- either that or mLife was the plan that I got that they don't have anymore)- they have specific phones for it because it's like the thing that's replacing digital (like analog was replaced). Good plans though, I think.

Make sure you check in a store and on the internet because often they have different offers and phones. I also learned from the AT&T store that the kiosks selling cell service can be a bit of a scam. You may remember a few months back when my phone fell into the toilet? The mall AT&T guy said if the phone didn't work I'd have to pay full price to replace it. AT&T store woman said you can upgrade you phone for the price that a new customer would get plus $15 (because I asked what the incentive would be for me to not cancel and restart my service then).

Anyway- I had PrimeCo (which was bought by Verizon) years ago. I'd had a good deal, but then my promotion expired and my bill was huge. Honestly, I'm on the phone maybe an hour or two a month. I don't need the huge minute deals and a zillion night and weekend minutes, and I wasn't aout to pay $45 a month to talk on the phone that little. my current plan is 350 minutes (plus nights/weekends).

US Cellular was okay too but their coverage plans didn't fit with where I travel around the state and I didn't get reception at our cabin. Kind of important since there's no phone line or electricity there.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on it. My biggest thing was the coverage. Some services around here cover Wisconsin (or most of it) plus northern Illinois (I'm never down there), some cover a lot of Michigan (really never there!)- I got one that includes all of Wisconsin plus Minneapolis and Duluth. Perfect because 99% of the time I leave the state, I go there.

I didn't get a nationwide plan because really, how often am I out of my calling area? I don't travel out of state a whole lot. Yeah, it would be nice to have it, but then you get one of those kind of spotty nationwide maps.

Ahhh...anyway :-) That's what I think.

Whoami
Member

08-03-2001

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 6:03 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Interesting. I'm actually considering AT&T, since my sis just signed up with them, and I'm checking them out.

So, are you saying if I sign up now, I might get blindsided after Cingular takes them over? Or I'll be safe for the duration of the contract?

I have T-Mobile now. And while I have no complaints on their service, I do want to upgrade my phone, and they only give discounts to new customers. Now that I can take my phone number with me, I think its time to shop around.

Kaili
Member

08-31-2000

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 6:25 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I don't thnk the Cingular thing will be a bad thing- if nothing else the coverage should improve. :-)

Jbean
Member

01-05-2002

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 7:29 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
i have service through cingular and i LOVE them. they have the plans where you have NO long distance or roaming to anywhere in the country. plus all their phones are gps deviced. i have never had any problems with them, and since their system is devised in such a way that you it actually will pull a signal from other companies' towers, i have a good signal almost everywhere.

my plan is for 250 anytime and 1000 n&w per month and i never even come close to reaching those minutes. i pay $29.99 plus tax. really a good deal i think. the next plan up is $39.99, and that price and up includes the rollover minutes if that is something that you need. like i said, i never even come close to using all my minutes. i think ONCE i came within a few minutes of my anytime. i have been with them for almost 2 years.

on the flip side, i had service with alltel for a little over 2 years and it was a NIGHTMARE. once they cashed my check, but didn't post it to my account, and they shut off my phone...due to their mistake. total bs. my sister had problems with them, too, and recently switched to cingular, too


Landi
Member

07-29-2002

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 9:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
i have m-life with AT&T (it is for GSPS phones that have web ability). there are regular digital phones with service. roaming is not for calling OTHER places, but if you are driving yourself to these other states. i've never had a problem getting other phones with AT&T, most of the time i've gotten them free by upgrading and signing new contracts. i've been with AT&T for quite awhile, and have been extremely happy. now admittedly i have an 1800 minute plan with free nights and weekends, but only pay $100 a month for that. AT&T has stated that nothing of my plan will change when the service goes to Cingular.

Wargod
Member

07-16-2001

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 10:34 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have Boost Mobile and love it. Here's the thing though, if you actually plan to use your phone to talk, this is not the way to go, lol. I pay $20 for 80 minutes, minutes expire after 90 days if I don't use them. It's a great pre-paid plan for me, because I'm not a big phone talker and only use mine for car or kid emergencies, and on rare occassions for people to get ahold of me if they have to.

We used Cingular a few years ago and did like it too. But, we never used the phone enough and every month I watched alot of minutes go to waste that I'd paid for. The one time we went over during a family crisis, we got slammed with overage fees. It ended up being such a waste for us that we went two years without because we couldn't see again paying for what we weren't using.

We had to re-Boost last week cuz our minutes were expiring. I had 2 left on my phone, Darren had 27. Between the two of us, we had used 131 minutes in 90 days. For us, a traditional plan is just silly because we never come close to using what we pay for. But, going pre-paid would cost a fortune for anyone who uses a phone like a normal person, lol.

Sage
Member

07-20-2000

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 11:42 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I just bought a Virgin Mobile phone, and it is similar to War's. It's all prepaid, and you buy cards to "Top Up" your amount. The cost is 10 cents a minute and 25 cents a minute for the first 10 minutes of the day. You have to Top Up every 90 days, and you can do that with $20.00 or more for the cards you buy at participating stores.

There's no roaming or long distance fees. It works for me, because my main use for the phone is for emergencies and for when I need to reach someone or vice versa. Being single, and out and about all the time, I feel much safer with the phone in case my Mom's old car breaks down while I'm out.

I hope that helps, Who. There is a website for Virgin Mobile you can go to find out all the details. I think it's simply, www.virginmobile.com

Katbee
Member

09-15-2001

Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 3:48 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I have TracFone, another pre-paid service. I pay about $30 every other month for 60 minutes and there's always some sort of doubling deal or free time for redeeming a phone card. TracFone piggy-backs on whatever service is closest so I always have a signal. The only drawback is that it takes off two minutes (roaming) for each minute. The best thing is that the minutes roll over from month to month. It works for me because I just have the phone for emergencies and quick calls.

Serate
Member

08-21-2001

Monday, July 19, 2004 - 8:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
We had US Cellular when we lived in Iowa - just a basic plan and 2 phones and it did ok for us there but we didn't travel much. We mainly got it when my mom was so bad in 2000 and I was driving back and forth [3 hour drive] so much. Our bill was around $69 for 2 phones, 300 shared anytime minutes, 3500 nights and weekend minutes - which we barely seemed to touch until the last 3 months when my fiance' was here and I was in Iowa. Then I'd call him all the time.
We're in Kentuckiana now and of course US Cell was ROAM here - $0.80 a minute. We're with Sprint PCS now and we've had no problems and love it. For $79 a month [price just dropped out of the blue from $84 and I'm not complaining!] we're a step up on the calling plan. 2 phones, 600 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends [with nights and weekends being 7pm - 7am - US Cell was 9pm to 5:55am], free unlimited Sprint PCS to PCS calling, and a whole lot bigger area covered. For us it's worth the money because I made so many trips from Kentucky to Iowa, and with very few exceptions I was never in ROAM. Sprint coverages follow alot of the major highways. At my parents house it's right on the Sprint's coverage lines so sometimes I'm in roam and sometimes not. When my fiance' went to DC [which he will do at least twice a year] he wasn't in roam for the majority of the trip. And the places he was in roam there was no signal. AND no bathrooms [saw alot of rundown shacks for homes and outhouses!!!!]. He goes to Reno next month and according to the map he'll have signal. So for us it's great. LOVE the fact we can call each others phones and no minutes are used - great for when he's traveling. No having to wait until evening to talk! And alot of his friends have gotten Sprint PCS so we hardly ever use the anytime minutes.

My brother also had TracFone and it was great for him as he just used it when he went to town and somebody stayed with my mom.

Serate
Member

08-21-2001

Monday, July 19, 2004 - 8:39 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
As far as the phones themselves - we've never shopped around for them. We've had 3 different phones - 1 Audiovaux and 2 different Nokias. Liked all for different reasons, but the Nokia's seemed more advanced than the Audiovaux which seemed more durable than the Nokias. We usually just go with what phone comes free with the plan we've purchased.

Reader234
Member

08-13-2000

Sunday, July 25, 2004 - 8:28 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thank you for this thread - today we went out and signed up for Cingular. Tried to wait till Cingular bought at&t, but FTC put a hold on that, I found out that our contract ended in JAN - I had been so frustrated using less minutes and spending more money (my last bill was over $100!!)

Thanks for your opinions on cingular, does anyone get charged for "roaming"? That is the one stickler that confuses me, dh seems to think all the places we go are covered so its not an issue, hey, I forgot I'm going to Mystic, is it covered or roaming???

Big_sister
Member

08-09-2004

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 2:35 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Hi

I have a Verizon family share plan that includes three phones. Our plan includes 400 anytime minutes w/free nights and weekends. It's a nationwide plan.

The primary phone (mine) has a $39.99 monthly charge with $20.00 for each additional line.

The phone that I use is the LG3200 flip phone. My mother and sister both have a Kyocera KX414.

I love my phone because it can hold hundreds of phone numbers and e-mail addys. For each name that I enter/store, I can include 3 phone numbers and 2 e-mail addys.

Ringtones cannot be downloaded but there are lots of ringtones already on this phone. You can also choose catagories for the entries (family, friends, colleagues,business, school or no group,home, mobile,fax etc).

Verizon also has a decent customer service }} department.