Cell Phone Fun!!

[OZMDD]

Not everyone wants to be tied to a contract, particularly if you own a perfectly good phone already. Being able to move between carriers at-will is a strong consumer position. I have virtually no contract services (electricity, alarm, television, internet, streaming video, etc) and its been very effective for keeping the best possible rates with my services. They don't really have to work to hard to keep you happy once you are contracted. I view it as an outdated model of consumerism. When the provider was a monopoly, or the cost of equipment was significant for the provider, it benefited the customer to sign a contract and guarantee the provider would recoup the investment. Now that there is little to no investment for the provider outside of marketing, why reward them with a contract that only benefits the provider?

Take a look at your electricity rates if you have a "locked-in" rate. I'll bet its higher than the 5.9 cents/kwHr I'm paying this month on my M-T-M deal, which I can transfer anytime for free. I've been on it since May, and I have yet to go over 6.4 cents. Why would I lock in for 6-24 months at $0.08+?????

[VFR750]

I have had Sprint for at least 15 years, coverage is good in the big shitty be spotty in rural, esp in my work travels, we pay @ $185 month for 3 iPhones with shared 1500 minutes and unlimited data. Out of the hundreds of adjusters I have helped all over the southeast and midwest Verizon almost always has the best coverage. When I am working my company phone is AT@T, coverage is OK, I have not noticed it to be any better or worse than my Sprint phone.

[apex2apex]

I am with OZMDD. And with Google Voice, I can change provider anytime without worrying about porting my phone number.

This of course only applies if you are using unlocked GSM phones...

[POS Racing]

Good stuff kids! My Sprint experience has been "meh" no better that the AT&T service I had before but not awesome. I know Sprint have been refurbishing and adding to their infrastructure which can't hurt.

Decisions, Decisions, I'd like to go cheap since it looks like $40 a month over a year is $480.00 vs. $91.00 a year at $1,092.00.

Dumb question but what is an Unlocked phone? I see the term often but don't really get what that means....

[OZMDD]

It means it is not tied to a specific provider, so it can be used on any compatible network. There are two main network types: GSM and CDMA. Gsm uses sim cards, and are pretty easy to swap phone around. I know less about cdma, but I think sprint is one, so phone portability may be limited.

Unlocking a phone is easy, and doesn't cause any problems as long as you are out of contract. ATT actually unlocked my iPhone for me after my contract was up.

Sprint and Verizon are both CDMA, and boost and Virgin are no contract CDMA carriers. Not sure about straight talk.

[sammm]

FWIW, Virgin requires you to buy/use one of their phones.

[apex2apex]

Last time I checked, Straight Talk has both T-MO and AT&T SIMS. But if you are going with T-MO, I would do T-MO own prepaid plans or Simple Mobile.

I always use GSM phones because they are easy to swap SIMs and can be used oversea.

You don't need an unlocked phone if you know which Carrier you going with. An AT&T locked phone will work with AT&T network regardless you getting your service from AT&T, ST or other resellers.