New Phone Service Advice...

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EricMartello

Senior member
Apr 17, 2003
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I have a Blackberry 8800 with AT&T right now. I'm happy with this phone, it still works fine and I have no pressing reason to upgrade the hardware...but the service is my problem. I'm not getting a good value for my money with AT&T:

$40 450 mins National Plan
$50 BBerry Internet + SMS
$10 100 International SMS (10 cents / msg sent - recv msg free)

$100/mo + hidden bonus fees

Can anyone recommend a service where I can use my phone and beat this absurdly high price while retaining those features? Ideally I'd like to just get a new SIM card because my phone is unlocked. I would go with TMobile but they don't seem to offer a reasonably priced international SMS option...35 cents per sent message is a joke.
 
rudeguy

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
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61
cellphone.png
 
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amdforever2

Golden Member
Sep 19, 2002
1,879
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Are you here texting over there or actually texting while roaming internationally? Here texting there is only 20 cents.
 
HannibalX

HannibalX

Diamond Member
May 12, 2000
9,359
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There's always Straight Talk. $45 month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texting and unlimited data, all fees included in the price. You would have to buy one of their phones though. They only have one smart phone, the Samsung Finesse. Metro PCS has a similar plan and more phone options.

www.straighttalk.com
 
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EricMartello

Senior member
Apr 17, 2003
910
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JS80 said:
who cares. you can get the bb curve for $50 or the tour for $99 and you are saving $40 a month ($480 a year).

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/ueContent.jsp?scTopic=textMessaging312

15c/txt for international txt
Click to expand...

How does the coverage quality (both voice and data) of Sprint compare to AT&T, Verizon or Tmobile?

HannibalX said:
There's always Straight Talk. $45 month for unlimited minutes, unlimited texting and unlimited data, all fees included in the price. You would have to buy one of their phones though. They only have one smart phone, the Samsung Finesse. Metro PCS has a similar plan and more phone options.

www.straighttalk.com
Click to expand...

*cringe* I've never even heard of them and I probably wouldn't want to try them out unless they had some established track record in the marketplace. I need reliable phone service. I heard some ads for Cricket and they do have good prices but same deal...I'd rather stick with a more established company.

amdforever2 said:
Are you here texting over there or actually texting while roaming internationally? Here texting there is only 20 cents.
Click to expand...

Texting to international numbers. Ideally I'd just use mobile email but not all people I communicate with can receive email on their phones...so I'm stuck with SMS which can be compared to faxing in terms of its obsoleteness.
 
QueBert

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,947
1,138
126
EricMartello said:
How does the coverage quality (both voice and data) of Sprint compare to AT&T, Verizon or Tmobile?



*cringe* I've never even heard of them and I probably wouldn't want to try them out unless they had some established track record in the marketplace. I need reliable phone service. I heard some ads for Cricket and they do have good prices but same deal...I'd rather stick with a more established company.
Click to expand...

Straighttalk uses Verizon towers and Wallmart is the company behind them. I can't speak on the customer service, but the phone will work just as well as a Verizon, which means it should be awesome everywhere. The price is right and they have no stupid taxes. PagePlus Wireless is similar to StraightTalk, but you can use any Verizon, and most Sprint phones too. I pay $30 a month out the door. 1200 minutes, 1200 text messages, 50 megs of data. I don't use much data so that's fine.
 
highland145

highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,973
6,337
136
Isn't wal-mart selling phones that use the verizon network? I heard $40 for 1K min. no contract.

Edit: Que Bert: you should have answered my question a minute sooner.
 
Last edited:
TwiceOver

TwiceOver

Lifer
Dec 20, 2002
13,544
44
91
EricMartello said:
*cringe* I've never even heard of them and I probably wouldn't want to try them out unless they had some established track record in the marketplace. I need reliable phone service. I heard some ads for Cricket and they do have good prices but same deal...I'd rather stick with a more established company.
Click to expand...

Straight Talk is basically Trac-Phone and runs on the Verizon Network sold by Wal-Mart. Unfortunately there is no international rates since it is prepaid.

I went looking for any smartphone from any carrier not long ago and couldn't find anything for under $100 + various fees per month. Sprint is ~$65 + taxes/fees/etc, but their network sucks here.

For what you want, expect a big ol' dick in the butt. The carriers are colluding on price and people are willing to pay it so there is basically no competition anymore.
 
QueBert

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,947
1,138
126
highland145 said:
Isn't wal-mart selling phones that use the verizon network? I heard $40 for 1K min. no contract.

Edit: Que Bert: you should have answered my question a minute sooner.
Click to expand...

lol I did answer it one minute before you posted this :D It's $45 for unlimited voice/text and I believe unlimited data. Would be better if they let you use any Verizon phone seeing how they use Verizon's network. The Samsung Smooth gets pretty decent reviews for a basic phone. Very cheap too.

No contract + no taxes = win in my eyes. Yes they don't subsidize the phones, but you end up saving more than even a Droid would cost you over the course of a year.
 
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EricMartello

Senior member
Apr 17, 2003
910
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0
TwiceOver said:
For what you want, expect a big ol' dick in the butt. The carriers are colluding on price and people are willing to pay it so there is basically no competition anymore.
Click to expand...

That's the impression that I get. I mean 3G internet, for what it is, is not worth $100+taxes and bonus fees to me. I mean got FiOS 25/25 for $65 a month so WTF do I need to pay nearly double that just for a phone...it makes no sense. Don't tell me it's the infrastructure because we do have and have had the tech to support high bandwidth wireless for a long time now...and erecting towers is not nearly as logistically challenging as running fiber door-to-door, especially in cities.

/end_rant

Oh and one of the big things I hate about verizon is that they load each phone with their shitty OS...I'd rather not be forced to use that feature-crippling garbage again.
 
rudeguy

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Did you check out that chart I posted?

Now that you're in the right forum, I don't mind helping :D
 
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