cell phones

[digitaldiscipline]

okay, office shakeup seems to be taking place, including remote work environment. this means i might need a cell phone.

i do not grok the ways of wireless.

what do i look for? what do i avoid?

i figure i need voice mail and basic address book capabilities. beyond that, i want it to be relatively non-draconian in terms of costs.

yes, this means i might finally be shedding the last vestiges of my Luddite-hood.

Comments

[el-diavalo.livejournal.com]

ive been with sprint for a coupla years now. pretty happy with it.

my plan:
500 daytime(weekday) minutes.
unlimited night + weekend.
long distance is treated as a local call.
free sprint to sprint calling.
free voicemail.

costs about $50 a month.

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[el-diavalo.livejournal.com]

actually just looked at my plan, and its $55/mo.

and, most of the people i know whith cell phones use sprint.

roger sold alot of sprint phones to us quarter people.

[ivy]

Are you ever planning on going out of the country and talking on your cell phone, or using your phone as a data modem? If so, get a GSM phone (Cingular, AT&T, T-Mobile). If you don't care, go for the best deal, and ask locals what has good coverage near you.

Data point: I have T-Mobile, and have had them for about four years now. I like them. $60 a month gets me 600 anytime minutes, free nights (9 PM - 7 AM), free voicemail, a wireless HotSpot account so I can get online from any Starbucks or Borders or other HotSpot while traveling (knock $20 off the bill if you do not care about this), free long distance and roaming. Have taken the phone to Canada and used it wtih no additional hassle, and to Ireland and used it with a few fiddling changes. Two settings. Has worked in every major city I've been to and most of the minor ones. Best GSM network in the US.

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

T-Mobile. I've been on every plan out there (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Cingular)and T-Mobile is my favorite. If you get Kim a T-Mobile phone, they have a plan where all your minutes to/from each other are FREE. Plus, free roaming everywhere. I'm thrilled with my new plan.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

The most important thing to figure out, aside from what features you need in a phone, is about how much time you'll think you need and how much you'll be travelling out of your current area. Most providers offer a range of plans from $20/mo for 100-200 minutes per month within your home area only (extra charges for long distance and making calls from outside the home area (roaming)), up to $100 or more for lots of minutes with everything included. And there's even the prepaid option if you only plan on using the thing in emergencies.

I'm not a phone person in general, but I've taken to using my cell for those long distance calls to Mom and hubby when he's away, since it's essentially already paid for, and I travel a bit, so I'm on an AT&T plan that lets me call from most anywhere in the US for free (as long as I'm on an AT&T network, and they have _excellent_ coverage), with free long distance, 200 minutes per month with unlimited nights and weekends, and outgoing text messaging and voice mail included, for $30/mo ($35 after all the taxes and fees). I rarely use all 200 minutes, but I regularly go over 100, so it's a decent plan for me.

Most any plan should offer voice mail, though some will make you pay extra. Pretty much all phones have plenty of memory slots for phone numbers and email addresses, so that's not a big concern. As for the phone itself, look for a deal on the provider's website. I'm a big fan of my Nokia 8260 phone. It's not data-capable, but it's still the smallest overall profile (no antenna sticking out helps a lot) at 4 years old, and it does all the basic stuff I need. Plus it's a pretty blue. ;) I think my particular model can be used with AT&T or Cingular.

Something else you might look into is a Sidekick (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000A0AZC). It's basically a hiptop wireless computerette, with a keyboard and 2" or 3" screen, and you can do email and browse the web and do AIM on it, plus use it as a cell phone. T-Mobile is the provider, and a couple of my friends have data-primary plans with minimal phone options for maybe $35/mo.

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[etcet.livejournal.com]

roger who? *blink, blink*

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[el-diavalo.livejournal.com]

roger used to hang out alot more in the past than he does now.
big tall guy, hispanic looking, plays drums, dresses very well.

now he just works.

anyway, he had his own company whose primary function was to re-sell sprint.

he and diana sold alot of us sprint phones.

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[etcet.livejournal.com]

i guess where i get confused is which phones work with which service. i can see finding a phone with the features & look i like, only to find out it's not compatible

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[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

The T-Mobile page shows what they support. Most services will support most phones.

[onezumi.livejournal.com]

Holy shit have you picked a subject I can talk about at length.

My friends' business is knowing cell phones and hes tested over 50 of them on various networks.

Avoid T Mobile.

I did a lengthy article about why they are the bottom of the barrel on my site awhile ago. In short, you have to pay more and dont get nights free, and dont get voicemail. The connection is markedly bad compared to sprint or verizon. The one month my birth mother had t mobile was the month I was unable to contact her.

I swear by sprint, they have free and clear which means you don't get crackly static. But I know some people don't like them either. My friend had tried them all and rates them as such:

1. Sprint
2. Verizon or Cingular
3. Nextel (They were a walkie talkie network RETRO FITTED for cellular.) They are ok but expect to pay out the ass for basic phones, and their plans are more expensive than mine.

The rest he has such an awful time with and paid so much that hed not even list them. And he becomes VIOLENT about t mobile.

I test verizon phones at my job and they are ok in this area. But I'd not give up my sprint for it..verizons data network is much slower than sprint and the phones inferior. I'll be testing another wave this week and none of them we can stand. Also verizon is crackly.

If I were you I'd look at Sprint, Verizon or Cingular. It really depends on the connection strength in your area. Here cingular is TERRIBLE since its not really here. Its renting space from another provider and my friend got a $6000 phone bill for one month because he was double charged or something from both providers. They never fixed the problem and she had to pay.

Note that a big issue that people do not realize is that it does depend on your phone. If you buy a shitty nokia or samsung for sprint you will have a terrible time, but if you opt for a sanyo, you will most likely have a good signal.

The T Mobile article on my site is here: http://onezumi.com/oni/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=67

[onezumi.livejournal.com]

Ack..wrote that too quickly. Another thing you will notice is that with cellular stuff there are a lot of conflicting views. Just because in on area, the network I regard as crap may be the best one. If you google you should probably be able to come up with a chart of cellular coverage in your area.

And, if you aren't worried about data connection, then a lot of the issues I have with different ones, you won't have. :)

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[netgoth.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are a hell of a lot of phones that t-mobile's service works with that *aren't* on that page. ;)

Anything GSM that operates at 1900MHz will work. Has to take a SIM chip, which is the hallmark of GSM carriers (AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile)

I can give you the ups, downs, ins, and outs of T-Mobile, if ya decide to go that way. Best deals and alladat.

They didn't train me for nothing, yanno. ;D

[netgoth.livejournal.com]

I will swear by T-Mobile, and that's not just because I worked for them.

GSM is the new tech. Most of Asia has been on this standard for well over 15 years. We're just now catching up. Here's a quick overview:

GSM carriers - Phones can be changed between carriers, so you don't lose your investment in a phone. Yay SIM card standard. (think of it as a branded processor. You upgrade your service by swapping chips. Easy.) AT&T, Cingular, and T-Mobile are currently the only GSM carriers in North America. (although with Sprint's recent buyout of AT&T, I can't speak for them...) Phones can easily be taken overseas with a simple change of SIM card/MHz frequency (North America is 1900. Asia/UK is either 900 or 1800.) GSM is becoming the new currency in certain areas. For example, there is a town in China where they are currently beta testing the ability to use your GSM SIM chip like a credit card. - i.e. wave your phone in front of a coke machine, and out pops a coke.) Wireless Data transmission rates are highest on GSM frequencies. (although still slowish if relying only on towers for signal - ergo the mention of HotSpot, which is much nicer, giving you a local dedicated node.) The signal is also fully encrypted, and the SIM chips are extremely hard to spoof. The down side? Tower signal strength is max 3.5 miles from a strong tower, 1 mile from a weak (or overpopulated) one. The signal strength decides the entire experience, honestly. Another up (or down) side to this, depending on your level of conspiracy theorist: GSM data transmission works on a frequency called GPRS. Much like GPS, when a GPRS device is used, you get a listing of what tower exactly the service was being used *from* last on that call/data connection. Proven useful if kidnapped - although I will note that the only case I am aware of this being used as a location device was in Germany, where a young man was found due to his periodically calling from his phone - this was last year. Oh, one other down side; GSM is microwave-standard. Great system, but much like any other microwave, you can't get terribly good signal in boxes (unless there's lots of untinted glass around) And there are no long term studies of nuking one's head. (I'd still recommend it, though, but maybe I just nuked my head too long. LOL)

PCS - two words: Digital Radio. This means you can be overheard by anyone with a decent enough digital reciever, and if they've got a strong enough system, voila - Crosstalk! Or worse still, their conversation or "blurts" of stronger signal will cause you to drop calls. A lot. As will most any other weather-based phenom that will affect digital radio signal. All PCS phones are hardwired, proprietary phones. You leave Sprint or Verizon, your phone is now a paperweight, have a nice day. Verizon, Sprint, and Nextel are all operating on Digital Radio. Yes, it's high frequency, but those lovely mobile HAM operators so common in the south will cause problems. :) The upshot? PCS signal has a radius of 7 miles from it's base station. The downside? Don't try to get signal in range of any type of military base, or any other location where higher-powered similar frequency radio equipment is in use.

Analog/Digital - Love Those Walkie Talkies. See everything I said about Digital radio above, and then remember the old analog phones. Yeah, it's like that. I will give Nextel this much, though - they do saturate the hell out of the markets they are -in- as far as signal strength, but once you're out of that area, prepare to have huge stretches of America where you won't get signal. Their patent expired on one level of the walkie-talkie phones (they altered it slightly and repatented the nationwide ability) so expect to see other carriers tinker with that bleepy walkie-talkie thing in the not too distant future.

If you decide to go with T-Mobile, let me know. I can advise you as to what plans are good, what are good values, and what phones to avoid. ;D

HOpe this helped.