Cell Phone

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ronbo613 · #1 Post by **ronbo613** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:36 pm

I know you won't believe this, but I've never owned a cell phone. Before I sort through the barrage of plans and phones, if you were going to use a cell phone between San Diego, CA and Hood River, OR, with an occasional trip back east, which company would you go with?

JHEM · #2 Post by **JHEM** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:39 pm

Verizon, widest coverage.

James

#3 Post by **rkawakami** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 7:59 pm

ronbo613 wrote:I know you won't believe this, but I've never owned a cell phone.

What? A technophobe! Stone him!

Pac Bell Wireless, no wait... Cingular, no that's not right either... AT&T. Have had the same phone number for years and it's now on its third "owner". There was a YouTube clip from Comedy Channel where Stephen Colbert pointed out how AT&T has re-assembled itself to resemble the pre-divesture Ma Bell but it looks like it has been pulled due to copyright infringement.

Some coverage maps:

http://www.cingular.com/coverageviewer/
http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/
Verizon link

A good resource for cell phones:

http://www.howardforums.com/

A recent column which seems to have good data:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/3554?c ... t_count=20

jamiphar · #4 Post by **jamiphar** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:03 pm

I recommend Verizon, free internet on nights and weekends if you know how.

My Samsung A930 can dial-up at 921kbps via bluetooth, it simply counts as minutes.

ronbo613 · #5 Post by **ronbo613** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:34 pm

I know, pretty darn lame. I've got two computers, phone, fax, even a VHF radio, but when I leave my office, I only want to hear the ringing in my ears.
I have to move from my shop, where I've been for fifteen years(a heck of a long time by SoCal standards), so I've got to take the T30 and cell phone on the road and look for a new home town.
I appreciate all your advice, I'll check it out.

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:37 pm

rkawakami wrote:Pac Bell Wireless, no wait... Cingular, no that's not right either... AT&T.

No, at&t.

ronbo613 · #7 Post by **ronbo613** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:49 pm

Yeah, AT&T is getting all my internet and phone money right now, taking over the world I reckon.

skitty4gzus · #8 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:27 pm

verizon definitely the widest coverage and they are constantly upgrading their towers.

ronbo613 · #9 Post by **ronbo613** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:30 pm

Life on the road is really tough and I haven't even left yet.

joester · #10 Post by **joester** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:50 am

A "temporary" fix:
Tracfone.
$20 = buy phone
about $100 = 1 year of coverage
Add the applicable "coupon" code, and double your minutes.

So for about $120, you have a GSM network compatable phone that is good for a year and has 500 minutes of airtime. That's about $10 a month.
For someone who's never had a phone before, diving in to the full blown plan might not make sense unless you plan on using all the bells and whistles.
I traveled the country a few years back with mine, and only lost signal in a few remote areas.
Tracfone uses verizon, cingular, almost all towers regardless of carrier.

ronbo613 · #11 Post by **ronbo613** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:02 pm

That sounds like something worth checking out.

joester · #12 Post by **joester** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:27 pm

If you go Tracfone, let me know via PM with an e-dress for you. I can refer you and we both get 100 extra minutes.

ronbo613 · #13 Post by **ronbo613** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:14 pm

Thanks for the offer, I'm still looking into it.

tvsjr · #14 Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:09 am

ronbo613 wrote:Yeah, AT&T is getting all my internet and phone money right now, taking over the world I reckon.

They're puttin' the band back together!

(Bonus points if you know the reference...)

#15 Post by **JaneL** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 6:54 am

tvsjr wrote:They're puttin' the band back together!

(Bonus points if you know the reference...)

Oh, c'mon now - give us another hint! Are they on a mission from God or looking for Ori?

dsigma6 · #16 Post by **dsigma6** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:48 am

jamiphar wrote:I recommend Verizon, free internet on nights and weekends if you know how. My Samsung A930 can dial-up at 921kbps via bluetooth, it simply counts as minutes.

I'm aware of using free dial-up services during free minutes, but what are you using to connect with bluetooth? I have T-Mobile and a $5.99 unlimited internet plan (altered proxy settings), but I wouldn't mind upping the speed, unless you're somehow running through Sprint network.

jamiphar · #17 Post by **jamiphar** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:40 am

dsigma6 wrote:I'm aware of using free dial-up services during free minutes, but what are you using to connect with bluetooth? I have T-Mobile and a $5.99 unlimited internet plan (altered proxy settings), but I wouldn't mind upping the speed, unless you're somehow running through Sprint network.

I'm using bluetooth to make the data connection to the to the phone, instead of using a USB serial data cable. This allows me to get speeds up to 921kbps instead of the 115 or 230 I would get through the cable. Also, it seems that the Samsung phones are best for this, I've tried my mom's LG VX8300 and it can't get as fast of a connection, but the A930's and A870's work fine.

With this, I don't have to change any proxy settings, and the computer simply recognizes the phone as a modem and makes a direct internet connection.

dsigma6 · #18 Post by **dsigma6** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:04 am

OK, gotcha. For some reason, I was thinking about doing this without being tethered (wired or wirelessly). Of course, if you were using bluetooth, obviously you're connecting to something! For that purpose, my phone has WiFi so using bluetooth wouldn't be much of an advantage.

ronbo- If you are looking for info on coverage, check out www.howardforum.com . There are plenty of topics on each carriers coverage in specific areas.

edit: Oops, Ray already linked to hofo, but I'll leave it anyway!

tvsjr · #19 Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:45 am

nonny wrote:
tvsjr wrote:They're puttin' the band back together!

(Bonus points if you know the reference...)
Oh, c'mon now - give us another hint! Are they on a mission from God or looking for Ori?

They're on a mission from God, of course.

ronbo613 · #20 Post by **ronbo613** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:00 pm

I was thinking, which is something I try not to do, and since I'll be moving, before I sign into a yearly contract with a provider, I should probably know which area I'm going to be in so most of the calls won't be long distance. I might go with the Tracfone until I figure out where I'm going to be.

#21 Post by **rkawakami** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:37 pm

Not having looked at a new cell phone contract in a number of years, you may want to see if there's any wording in there about having a "home" area where you make the majority of your calls. I would have thought that most of the cell plans now include long distance so that wouldn't matter, but I'm not familiar with Tracfone or other pre-paid services.

It used to be that if you made most of the calls outside of your "home" area, the phone company could charge you more or change your number.

ronbo613 · #22 Post by **ronbo613** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:32 pm

I'll have to check into it, I really don't know much about it. I'm sure there's plenty of fine print.

bigtiger · #23 Post by **bigtiger** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:21 pm

joester wrote:Tracfone uses verizon, cingular, almost all towers regardless of carrier.

Really? I am currently on Tmobile pay to go plan. One year 1000 thousands minutes. If Tracfone is that good, i think i want to switch.

Verizon, Cingular, ..., they all use different technologies. I wonder how tracfone can use their towers with only one phone.

ronbo613 · #24 Post by **ronbo613** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:35 pm

I'm all ears........

ronbo613 · #25 Post by **ronbo613** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:22 pm

Well, I settled on a Tracfone. Motorola C139 GSM phone I got at Walmart for $15. I don't know how it sounds, but it's got little blue lights and a color screen so it must be good.
I'm still trying to figure out the airtime plans, but it seems that unless you go for the "Double Minutes" plan, it costs roughly .25-.30 per minute.
Thanks for everyone's cellular input.

NorrisCell · #26 Post by **NorrisCell** » Fri May 25, 2007 12:15 am

bigtiger wrote:
joester wrote:Tracfone uses verizon, cingular, almost all towers regardless of carrier.
Really? I am currently on Tmobile pay to go plan. One year 1000 thousands minutes. If Tracfone is that good, i think i want to switch.

Verizon, Cingular, ..., they all use different technologies. I wonder how tracfone can use their towers with only one phone.

Tracfone cannot use Verizon towers. Two totally different types of technology. Tracfone was originally an MVNO of AT&T utilizing TDMA, which then became an MVNO of Cingular utilizing GSM. There are a couple dual-technology phones available that utilize both GSM and CDMA (Most notably the upcoming Blackberry 8830) but you'd be hard pressed to find one of those phones for $29.99 at Walmart with $10 free airtime.

#27 Post by **jdhurst** » Fri May 25, 2007 5:05 am

I finally broke down and bought a Blackberry. I really like it and wish I had done it sooner. ... JDH

#28 Post by **gator** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:52 am

COngrats, JDH! How do you like it?

#29 Post by **jdhurst** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:06 pm

gator wrote:COngrats, JDH! How do you like it?

Excellent. I am out of town, and have limited access. In the meantime, the Blackberry is picking up my email. Phone quality is excellent as well - better than my (now retired) Motorola Timeport.
... JDH

dsigma6 · #30 Post by **dsigma6** » Sat May 26, 2007 6:12 pm

jdhurst wrote:better than my (now retired) Motorola Timeport.
... JDH

Were you the one with the P280?

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