Cell phone service

For data service it is much cheaper to sign up on a month to month contract with millenicom.com and use the Verizon towers across the USA. All you lose is accurate usage tracking but you can use a Cradlepoint router to take care of that and have real time usage information at your fingertips.

We saved by buying out of our Verizonwireless contract and switching to Millenicom. We were even after 3 months and then saving money each and every month.

I agree $300/ month is crazy. After seeing someone said they were paying about $10 less than we were for an att plan, I went back and looked and they have added the plan the other person mentioned since I last updated our plan since December. Saved me $10/month. But then we went and got my daughter a phone. So not sure what our bill will be now for 3 phones. But should be less than $175 for 3 iPhones, unlimited talk and text and 10GB shared data.

legolas--$100 per year for 1000 minutes--Tracfone. Can't see why anyone would use a phone for downloading movies, tv, etc. Phone is for talking and I don't talk on the phone a lot. If all cell service disappeared today, I'd hardly notice. Currently, I'm out of the USA and will have no phone service for 2 months. There are plenty of other ways to waste $3600 per year. And yes, $300 per month is a waste.

Just a pointer on a hardware issue we experienced with a new phone . . .

When we got a new iPhone, the thing was burning through data like a wildfire. Oh! And yes, yes, yes, we did make sure apps weren't running in the background, etc. Even the phone reps were stumped at the excessive usage.

It appears the phone may have been flawed, because we swapped it out and the new one is performing fine and going through data at a normal rate. In the last 30-days, my wife used about 250-mb.

cpaulsen wrote:
Verizon here....1 iPhone.....1 regular cell....Verizon Jetpack....6 gigs per month..$125.00 a month.

I am awed at the variety of plans and prices all of us are paying.
We have this same plan and pay $180/mo., with tax. Must be dependent upon location.
Since I live in a rural area, wireless service is the only thing available to me for internet connection. We bust through the 6GB of data about 30% of the time and pay $15/GB over that.
I envy my kids in Houston that download unlimited Netflix movies for $8/mo. Unfortunately, out here in the sparsely populated area, we may never see that.
One other thing --- Don't believe the coverage maps. Last August when I upgraded to a 4G Smart Phone I was assured by two different sales persons that 4G was available to me, according to their map. When I called Verizon technical service to program my phone cause I was only getting 3G, the technician did an exact address check and stated that the nearest six towers to my home address were all 3G towers. Lied to again.

Verizon here....1 iPhone.....1 regular cell....Verizon Jetpack....6 gigs per month..$125.00 a month.

We have att. Have two iPhone 4S's. Just went out of contract in December. Switched to their share plan and have unlimited minutes, text and we share 8GB of data for $150/month. Probably would be cheaper if we had their home service as a bundle, but we ditched that for phone through cable tv service at a much lower price than att could offer us. I use the data on my phone a good bit, but have only been using a few gig per month between the two of us. I am thinking of dropping it down to 6GB to save a few bucks, but my wife reminded me that once camping season picks back up that we might use more data. So I will leave it the way it is for a while and see how much we use. Never had a problem with our service. We had verizon before and got tired of their "holier than thou" feeling. Plus when we were ready to upgrade att had a better plan for us.

TOMMY47 wrote:
$300? $200? $100 . . . What in the heck type of stuff could be worth that type of money? . . . My plan is $100 per year for 1000 minutes.

I am also completely stumped by the fascination with cell phones and the amount of resources spent on the service - not to mention the increased risk on our roads due to the distraction caused by these devices (that's a whole other topic)!

The past couple years we were also paying just over $100 per year. Just recently, we changed to new pay as you go plan to integrate a bit. So, now we're at $50/month, unlimited talk and text and 1GB. Although the price is beyond my comfort zone, my wife is enjoying it.

I don't have or want a cell phone and am amused at the horror expressed by friends and associates when they first learn I don't own one. Instead, we dedicate the resources to our travels. We just carry my wife's phone when on a trip.

legolas wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I have a Trac Phone where you have to buy minutes. I use about 25 dollars a month worth of minutes.

Oh, and it works everywhere there is cell service provided by anybody's tower.

Is that a statement of fact ....or A QUESTION

I can honestly say I have not tried it everywhere. When I go to there website and enter my phone number it tells me it will work almost everywhere in the U.S.

I know my cheap trac phone is not for everyone. I can make calls with it but, it does not get on the internet, or do many of the things a lot of people what their phone to do today. For me, making the occasional phone call with it is all I need to do. I understand that's not for everyone.

TOMMY47 wrote:
$300? $200? $100--You guys have got to be nuts. What in the heck type of stuff could be worth that type of money? Talk about unhealthy addictions.
My plan is $100 per year for 1000 minutes. Even that is too much. Insane.

Who do you have? Is it 1000 min per month or per year?