I’ve always had the cheapest cell phone plan available – 200 daytime minutes per month, 1000 night and weekend minutes. I do most of my back home/family calling on weekends. It wasn’t until I moved to Seattle and joined Dodgeball that I made the slightest increase to my plan. I added 200 monthly text messages for $5, bringing my total monthly bill to $35. That may not sound like a lot to seasoned cell phone users, but it pained me to add $5 to something that I’d generally considered a “utility” that I needed but didn’t spend considerable time with.
A few months ago I started creeping over the plan limits, sometimes in daytime minutes, sometimes in text messages. I kept telling myself that “next month” I’d keep it under. Then November came and my bill made it painfully obvious that I actually use my cell phone. 637 daytime minutes, 440 text messages, and $235 later I’ve hit the harsh realization that my cell phone is actually an important part of my life.
Added on to that is the fact that I’ve really been envious of people with real internet access on their phones – an actual browser that you can actually do stuff with. So, it’s time for a change. The problem is: 1) Every provider offers internet access that I’d consider ‘too expensive’, and 2) I have yet to see a device that I actually want to use. The closest thing available is probably the Blackjack. I have my fingers crossed that Apple will announce something awesome, although that doesn’t solve the problem that internet access on the phone seems to be going for $40/month. Can someone do it for $20? I’m not talking about Cingular’s EDGE crap either – I want the good stuff.
Welcome to the bigs, kid. I, on average, use anywhere in the neighborhood of 1200-1500 txt msgs a month. And add that to the roughly 400 that “K” uses and our (shared) plan is hitting nearly 2000. We also have another 700 (shared) minutes, but we typically don’t need nearly that many (last month I think we used 300 total). I also have Verizon’s “Mobil Web 2.0” on my phone (which isn’t a smart phone) for an additional $5.00 a month. I think I could upgrade to their VCast service for $15 a month, but I haven’t found that to be necessary. I can do everything I need with the $5/month “Web” that I get (such as email, movie listings, catching up on blogs, maps, and MySpace).
I think that Verizon’s (LG, actually) enV phone is supposed to be sweet, but what do I know, I used to carry around my Zach Morris phone.
I can only assume you weren’t including taxes in those calculations …
I have 600 min / month w/ free weekends and T-Mobile calls. Add 1000 txt / month, taxes, and random accounting errors and my access costs $54/month.
Through MS (the company and your girl), you may be able to get the Cingular deal, which gives you a significant discount (K uses this)
Yeah, I wasn’t including taxes. I coudn’t find a convenient way to check those out (Cingular’s website is terrible). I think I’m still using the Cisco discount.
I love what T-mobile is doing with WiFi, and that made me really interested in them, but the fact that they don’t offer non-WiFi high speed internet access a la Verizon’s EV-DO and Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA rules them out right now as something I’m willing to invest in.
F5 has a Verizon discount, but they still seem expensive. I may check out that MS discount – thanks for the tip.