CELLPHONES

[southland]

I am with straight talk and like it very well. $30/ Month no issues....
never will sign another contract....

[ZinGirl]

thank you for that info!

[mamelukesabre]

What matters to me is(in this order):

1. superb coverage(no dropped calls or roaming fees)
2. sound quality, reception, and antenna quality
3. battery life
4. phone durability
5. easily readable clock and screen
6. large buttons

I don’t use the internet on my phone, I don’t use any customize features. All I ever use is the alarm clock, and occasional text messaging and occasionally the calculator. I use my cell phone as my watch and my calendar.

I currently use a casio Gz one boulder on verizon with extended battery because it is durable and it has an excellent clock and verizon is supposed to be the best for coverage. criticisms are crappy little buttons, the phone locks up frequently and lags frequently, sound quality is only average, and verizon is way too expensive.

I don’t think I could ever own a smart phone because I really need to have real buttons. I need large buttons. I also find a phone that folds in half when not in use (to protect the buttons and the screen) to be a superior design from a durability perspective.

[ozaukeemom]

We just went in yesterday and signed a new contract (my phone was croaking). The sales associates are not happy about the upgrade fees. Mine was not an upgrade; my husband’s was. But, the fee is not in affect yet. Verizon is the best carrier we have had; hated Sprint and then US Cellular.
We will both have the data plans (I am grandfathered in for unlimited), but can downgrade any time to a basic phone. Didn’t want to sign a new contract necessarily, but figured we would eventually anyway.

[b4its2late]

My cell phone sits in a coffee mug, so I have signal. It’s useless outside of the coffee mug; either indoors or outdoors.

LOL, coffee just shot out my nose after reading that...

[mamelukesabre]

wikipedia says Republic Wireless is in north carolina. Are they available outside of north carolina? JimRob should buy into it and rename it FreeRepublic Wireless.

[Djester62]

Virgin Mobile $35/mo (android, motorola triumph)
unlimited internet (up to 2.5Gb then choke down)
unlimited texting
300 calling minutes but.....

Installing the android app Groove IP ($5 amazon) gives you UNLIMITED calling. Groove IP is a VoiP service and uses your unlimited data plan.

I have a Google Voice phone number that I’ve given to everyone. People call this # and it forwards my calls to my cell phone. I also have the G-voice # forwarding calls to my office. Calls can also be forwarded to my home. I NEVER need to use my mobile minutes.

BTW, Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network. G-voice is also a web page so I can text from my PC. I can finally text faster than my wife & kids :-)

[crusadersoldier]

Same here in rural Georgia.

[Valpal1]

I never understood people who buy cheap cell phone plans and then complain because they never have service.

I’m with Verizon because...it works.

Even in the boonies.

Exactly, We're in the boonies with 3 teenagers with a 4 phone plan. You leave the house, you take a phone, charged and turned on or you are grounded AND I will hunt you down and embarrass you into a near death experience in front of your friends.

Verizon has the best coverage and the best price for my needs. We actually dropped our land line this year because it became apparent that nobody used it to make or receive calls. Basic flip phones.

[TheOldLady]

Click any Horse

Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag You Away From Free Republic
So Why Not Donate Monthly to Keep Things Going Strong?

Sponsors will pony up $10 each time a new monthly donor signs up

[Peet]

I have a prepaid Tracfone. Good service, good rates, no bills.

I don’t make many calls, so I can get about 15 months of service for $77.00
[about $5/month]. When I had the land line it was costing $25/month.

[Just be sure to opt out of Tracfone’s ‘offers’ programs. When I first
tried them, I was getting 2 emails, 2 land line calls, and 2 cellphone messages
twice per week. I complained and complained. They finally got the message
and started the opt-out. I have been completely happy with them since — been
a customer over 3 years.]

Isn't it funny how experiences differ. I had tracfone and they were TERRIBLE (that's not what I wanted to type, but I'd get kicked off FR if I said what I want to). I only got coverage by driving away from home, usually far enough to be outside the very ZIP code I signed up with. I looked up the carrier they'd assigned me and it was some fly-by-night operation that changed hands three times in two years -- started in Springfield MA and ended up somewhere in Fla.

My wife has a tracfone but she got assigned Cingular (they now own AT&T) and gets great reception.

I tried calling customer "service" to see if I could change carriers, but couldn't get an english-speaking CSR. There is a website something like tracfone-sucks.com or similar that has hilarious customer "service" stories from former subscribers.

I just bailed out and got an AT&T gophone (pay as you go) and since the AT&T/Cingular service is just fine in my area I'm OK with the service. (As an aside: Tracfone didn't work in Canada, gophone does, though a little more expensive.)

I'm happy to hear it works for you; just providing an alternate view. (I'll bet there are some horrible AT&T stiries - vive la difference!)

[DustyMoment]

Whew! Tall order.

Starting from #1, depending on where you live, no dropped calls could be difficult to achieve. When I worked in the cell phone industry, the best that any of them would guarantee was ~98% uptime. As for roaming fees, most plans today include nationwide coverage with no roaming fees. And, some companies will even extend that coverage to Canada and/or Mexico.

#2. The best sound covereage available today would be with CDMA technology but, most carriers have dropped CDMA coverage in favor of GSM. GSM is easier and less costly for the carrier to administer and operate. Reception and antenna quality are, typically, dependent on a variety of transmission quality, frequency, environment and phone manufacturer. IMO, the best manufacturers are Nokia and Motorola and Motorola has sold off its cell phone business to someone else (I don’t recall whom).

#3. Battery life is dependent on the phone manufacturer. Battery technology has been a major issue for everyone who uses batteries for anything from cell phones to computers to handheld game systems, etc. While battery life has been increasing, it still remains an issue to be dealt with. Additionally, battery life is dependent on how much you use the phone. The more your phone sends and receives, the faster your battery life decreases. The longer your phone is on standby, the longer your battery will keep the phone operating. So far, to the best of my knowledge, battery life among current manufacturers is relatively equal.

#4. Phone durability is pretty easy, especially with the flip phones. I have used both a flip phone and one with slide screen and have dropped or thrown them (when I get ticked) several times and the phones wouldn’t die. Again, these were Motorola or Nokia phones. They are capable of taking a LOT of punishment without breaking.

#5. This is where the train starts going off the tracks. There aren’t many choices available (that I am aware of) that have easily readable screens. I am sure that SOMEONE must make one to help older people and people with vision issues such as legally blind, but I couldn’t begin to tell you whom. This is one that you would either have to discuss with a cell phone sales person or research further online.

#6. Yeah, I’d like large buttons, too. I haven’t really seen one that has buttons much larger than the head of a pin. I THINK there may be a couple of touch screen models that allow you to control the size of the “soft” buttons, but I wouldn’t swear to it.

Finally, I have used T-Mobile for years. Their coverage, particularly in metropolitan areas, is about as good as anyone’s. We have few to no dropped calls and, generally, good quality reception.

Every cell company has issues with reception and coverage, especially as you get to the edge of the cell. Depending on how they designed their cells and how much overlap they have between cells (typically, not much), you may experience call degradation as you reach the cell edge and handoff to an adjacent cell.

Another significant problem for cell designers is hilly/mountainous terrain and what is known as “urban canyons” - the “canyons” created in large metropolitan areas by lots of tall skyscrapers. All of these things can cause issues with call quality. One factor that affects pretty much all cell phone manufacturers and providers is call quality. The characteristics of RF usually consider an antenna that is either perfectly horizontal or perfectly vertical. When we look at the orientation of a cell phone antenna, it may be anywhere between perfectly horizontal and perfectly vertical. This is VERY problematic from the RF standpoint. As best as possible, most cell providers and phone Manufacturers have dealt with this issue rather well, given the physics of the technology. As of the current state of the technology, cell phones work pretty well, but bandwidth and call quality will probably always dog the industry until someone finds a breakthrough technology that allows them to overcome the currently existing physics.

Good luck. I hope this helps.

[mamelukesabre]

Thanks.

The issue I have with screen and clock readability is in extremely bright sunlight. If the text isn’t large sized and very sharp and clear, the glare from the sun washes out the image and I can’t see it. Those stupid colorful background wallpaper designs make it worse. I need plain black and white screens with huge bold block letters or else bright sunlight makes the screen practically invisible. Also, the screens are not going to stay new and crystal clear very long when I use them. My current phone has scratched and cloudy glass. This makes sunlight even more of a problem.

The problems I keep having with durability are related to moisture dust, grit, and heat...not so much dropping it. I do drop my phone but I’ve never had a phone croak on me from being dropped. I keep the phone in my pocket and I sweat a lot in summer. I am not indoors in air conditioning much. I get dirty. My pockets get full of dust and grit and at times I am completely drenched with sweat...so my phone gets soaked as well.

There’s no point in lugging around a cell phone I can’t depend on. I need a battery that won’t go dead unexpectedly in the boonies. Some phones suck the battery down terrifyingly fast when you’re in a call and are roaming. You can actually feel the battery heat up quite hot. Also, I don’t want to pay for a cell service that only works in the city or near civilization. That would be worthless for me.

as for buttons...when you are sweating in the hot sun and you can’t see cuz there is sweat in your eyes and your hands are covered in grit and/or slimy grime...touch screens won’t cut it. You need real buttons and they need to be BIG buttons.

One thing I really really hate is when I flip open my phone and push a button and then have to wait 10 seconds for the stupid phone to register the button I just pushed. I don’t know if that is the service or the phone that is the problem.

[DustyMoment]

One thing I really really hate is when I flip open my phone and push a button and then have to wait 10 seconds for the stupid phone to register the button I just pushed. I don’t know if that is the service or the phone that is the problem.

Could be either/or or both.

[mamelukesabre]

I think you’ve convinced me to start looking at nokia flip phones...preferrably one with an optional oversized battery. I will shop for carriers based on which ones support nokia flip phones with optional oversized batteries, and go from there.

[Go_Raiders]

Republic wireless is nationwide on Sprint network. I thought about the freeper angle same as you when I heard about them. Smart move not picking the name Democrat Wireless!