NationStates Jolt Archive

For the last decade or so I've always had at least 3 and sometimes as many as 5 cell phones in my name with at least two different service providers. You know how they suck you in and try to retain you as customer by requiring service contracts that they renew when ever you upgrade your phone, I've been stuck with Sprint and Surewest for a while.

Well I'm officially now a free-agent. No contracts.

My sprint contracts expired and I resisted any offer to get reduced price phones by renewing and Surewest was bought by Verizon and I was given an opt out because they won't offer an identical plan.

So I'm shopping for providers. Tell me who I should consider or dismiss and why. My criteria is this.

I'll have two lines to begin with for me and my lady. We use our phones moderately, don't text a lot but want the option and insist on a phone that travels well. If we go overseas or just across the border I want my phone to work (adding temporary optional service is OK).

I'd like web access and no long distance charges and of course I want my calls to go through and not be dropped whenever I stray off the interstate.

And I want it all for the best possible price.

Of secondary consideration is the ability to add other lines should I pick up my daughters phones again. They are heavy users who text alot and download content regularly. They need unlimited or high limit plans for both voice and text. I can pick up a local bargain carrier for them which is why it's only a secondary consideration but the convienence of all in one bill would be nice.

So suggestions or reviews for US carriers?

While I lived in the US, I was with AT&T. Liked them, never had a complaint. Pricey though.

I like in the UK, and use a pay as you go mobile - works out cheap, seeing as I rarely have to use it. :)

My US cell phone has a plan from Verizon but I honestly don't know how much it costs. My grandparents have a plan that gives them a ludicrous amount of minutes fairly cheaply and they use less than 20% of it so they've put a couple of us grandkids on the plan as well, and as it doesn't cost them any extra they don't ask us for money.

My only recommendation is to avoid T-Mobile because their coverage isn't very good. Obviously coverage varies widely depending on where you are, but I've found that not only does their coverage drop off dramatically outside urban areas, it's spotty in the two urban areas in which I've tested it.

My local Citizens Utility Board has an online cellphone-bill-analyzer (http://www.citizensutilityboard.org/cellphonesaver.html) which supposedly helps you find the best plan based on your current usage. (You upload a recent bill and it analyzes it for you.) It's probably based on plans available in Illinois, so I don't know if it will help you or not but it might be worth a try.