| Vic Smith 2007-09-24, 10:33 pm |
| On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:35:19 -0700, Bob Fry <bobfry@mailinator.com>
wrote:
>SMS has been hard-selling PagePlus on another group, claiming it is
>the only prepaid plan worth squat...and that other plans are never any
>good.
>
>I say that given the variety of ways the prepaid plans charge for
>their service (connection fees, daily use fees, minute fees, monthly
>charges, and expiration of minutes), the best plan depends on a
>person's usage pattern.
>
>But SMS can't see that. Kinda a black-and-white view of a colorful
>world.
So I've noticed. I don't spend much time on this, because I hardly
ever use a cell, though in the past I paid for a few various plans for
the kids. I've come to see cell selection as having only 2 major
components; coverage and cost.
COVERAGE
I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
backwoods area he frequents, where other carriers don't work.
Fine. For him. Others might not care about that.
My phone is used locally, and where I vacation, namely Chicago,
Florida, and points between. I don't care about anything else.
But for anybody, adequate coverage - for them - is the FIRST
consideration.
COST
Determined by usage, but I call it cost, because like coverage, it is
basically out of your hands. Sure, you can adjust your usage to
change the cost, but from what I've seen, that's not much of a
consideration when one gets a cell phone. Since I'm reading/posting
in the frugal group my thoughts are mostly on the frugal tack that
has been discussed here, for limited cell use.
Before that, what I've seen on the cost side in dealing with the
monthly contracted plans I initially bought for the kids, and their
current ongoing plans that they pay for, is that it is a fluid market,
and costs change fast. It is best to keep contracts as short as
possible, no matter how attractive they may seem.
Keying on "limited use" prepaid and my own usage, cost per minute is
virtually meaningless if you can lose the minutes you initially paid
for.
I went with T-Mobile prepaid 2 years ago, and my fist year cost with
new phone was $150. That got us 1200 anytime/anywhere/no roaming
charges minutes. The phone worked fine everywhere we went from
Chicago to Florida (remember, coverage, coverage, coverage.)
Since I bought a $100 fill that made me a "Gold Member." An extra
200 minutes got tossed in as some kind of bonus.
Last year near yearly expiration I loaded up another $100 minutes.
The old minutes were still valid, so we had about 1300 minutes.
Last month it was time to re-up, but since we still had 638 minutes
I just paid $50 and we now have about 1200 minutes, so my yearly
cost is minor, and the cell is great to have.
Anyway, I look at this as a pretty cheap way to have a cell phone.
It looks like we use about 600 minutes a year - mostly while on
vacation - and I realize others might use this much monthly.
10 hours a year on a cell phone is plenty for me.
But one of my kids had a U.S. Cellular contract and is currently
in Tennessee incommunicado because of the roaming charges.
Of course he has no problem paying $60-100 a month to yak at somebody
1/2 mile away who he will be seeing in 1/2 hour and do useless text
messaging.
As you said, lots of colors out there.
--Vic
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