OT Re: Cell phone opinions/options

[mark at buttery.org (Mark J. Dulcey)]

nmeyers at javalinux.net wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 27, 2005 at 01:35:36PM -0500, Mike Gorse wrote:
>> I originally only got this thing for emergencies, and now I'm stuck paying 
>> $47/month for it.  Are there other companies that offer lower prices than 
>> what I'm paying?  Perhaps I should look into some of the prepaid phones?
> 
> I picked up a bunch of brochures for prepaid plans yesterday, looking for
> an alternative to that seemingly large monthly bill for phones my wife
> and I badly underutilize. Most of the choices are quite costly when you
> work out all the details, although TracFone looked like a decent deal
> if you buy the right goodies up-front.
> 
> In general, these services seem to be marketed at those too poor
> to partake in the credit economy. Like furniture rental stores and
> check-cashing outlets, they end up charging you dearly for the privilege.

T-Mobile To Go is a pretty good deal if you can live with the coverage 
limitations of the T-Mobile network. You can buy a 1000 minute prepaid 
card for $100, and the minutes last for a year. (The smaller cards 
aren't as good a deal, so go for the $100 card.) Their least expensive 
phones sell for about $50, or you can use your own unlocked GSM phone 
with 1900 MHz coverage if you have one.

The biggest drawback of T-Mobile is that GSM phones have no analog 
capability, so if you're ever in an emergency in the extreme boonies, 
the phone will be useless. You might be able to force the phone to do a 
911 call through Cingular, if you're in range of a tower with digital 
service (which should be most of theirs by now).