Cell phone providers?

And I thought I was over paying! Alltel bills me $19.95/mo. I get 500 minutes and a new phone every 2 years with a choice of 4 or 5 models. But, I it only covers parts of 3 states with no voice mail, no caller ID, no texting...just incoming and outgoing calls. The plan is grandfathered and they keep asking me to upgrade. I use twenty minutes of "Do we need milk or bread?" and "Stop and get this or that on the way home." I only turn it on when on the road.

Thank you, for the tip about the $100 dollar per year Prepaid pricing. I was not aware of that pricing plan. I am going to use it next time I need to re-up. It does explain how customer service re-upped me, last fall, for a whole year, when I had a problem renewing my legacy prepaid account.

Russ

The truth re. cell hones is (approximately): They are all about the same except for the little piece of plastic you hold onto. The various carriers share the use of sites. Did you ever wonder how "roaming" away from your home area works? Service in one area, or another, is a function of the particular site you are in range of. As you move about, you are handed off to other sites - which may, may not, be your home carrier company. Cell phone service is spotty by design. It only seems "good or bad" depending on the concentration of sites in any given area. The illusion is that service only seems better, or worse, as you meander among the various sites - some your home carrier, some foreign carriers. Competition among the carriers drives the concentration of sites in any given area. This holds true for MSAs (metro service areas) and for RSAs (rural service areas).

Bob (not a cell guy) Swinney

And I thought I was over paying! Alltel bills me $19.95/mo. I get 500 minutes and a new phone every 2 years with a choice of 4 or 5 models. But, I it only covers parts of 3 states with no voice mail, no caller ID, no texting...just incoming and outgoing calls. The plan is grandfathered and they keep asking me to upgrade. I use twenty minutes of "Do we need milk or bread?" and "Stop and get this or that on the way home." I only turn it on when on the road.

I had Verizon, for a while. And then went to Cingular. The phone I had, didn't work dependably. And after several visits to the repair shop, still not dependable. Went back to Verizon.

My present phone is a LG "flip" phone that's kinda like the old Star Trek Communicators. My LG has been dependable, though I've not yet dropped it.

I suggest to talk wtih contractors and repair guys in your own area. They will know more than scattered around the country Usenet posters.

I pay $20 as well, for 240 minutes of anywhere-in-the-US calling, of which I tend to use about 10 minutes. My total (higher rural rates) for landline with long distance package, 6meg unlimited broadband, cell, and unlimited international Skype, is about $115.

I'm always amazed at how much deadbeats spend (or in this case claim to spend) on frivolities. $400 a month for 3 unemployed's cell phones! WTF do they have to talk about anyway? Why didn't they think of googling "cheapest cell service"? A perfect example of why some people get ahead, and others never will.

Wayne

It seems that Gunner's family are all leftists mooching off the "system" with no incentive to fend for themselves or do anything but take from those that DO produce something. Gunner should become a leftist and ignore his family, quit even trying to work and find some conservative to mooch off of.

Power to da Pipple!!

Gunner

More of your "original thoughts", eh? Whatever their political affiliation is, it has nothing to do with anything. They're simply deadbeats and you know it as well as any of us.

Exactly.

Become? According to your self-contradicting definition, he's been a leftist for 3 decades already!

The entire family is on the dole, plain and simple. If the gummer clan depended on his support, then the whole lot would have been dead long ago. His idea of being the breadwinner is that taxpayers provide the millions, and he does the driving so that his family can apply and collect. Here's the thing - if gummer's next ambulance adventure includes a flat tire, his family will carry on as usual except perhaps that their power bill will go down, and one keyboard will last years instead of months.

Face it: Fact 1. There is no credible way to claim that gummer is "trying to find work". He started saying that he was "working really hard" to find a job... eight fu%king years ago! Nobody who really wants to work goes 8 years without a job. He wouldn't take one, not even when *you* offered it.

Fact 2. You and he both despise what he is. You'd be all over his deadbeatitis if not for one single thing - that he shares your cockamamie and hypocritical political views.

Wayne

Verizon sucks.

They purchased Frontier, my provider since 1995, and kept hiking hte rates until I was forced to find another carrier. At the same time I liquidated my real estate holdings and moved.

I paid my "closing bill" and forgot all about Verizon. They claimed I owed more and, without my knowledge, dunned my credit for like $70. When I found out I paid the bill but their bad debt remained on the books, still does. They say that they cannot remove it.

Fuckheads...

To avoid problems, never give a provider a credit card number. Use prepaid. This also gives you control of the account plus a degree of privacy.

And don't forget to devise a way to disconnect the battery within the phone when ultimate privacy is needed.

I pay $15 a month for more service than I use. NET10

I paid $60 for the phone but you can get the same model reconditioned for $20.