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So the Go Phone I was using was ok but its not going to cut it now. I need a good family plan, however, I'm pretty noob when it comes to phones and plans. Hopefully someone here is pretty knowlegable.
The deal is I need a family plan with 5 - 7 lines, in the United States. Not too minute heavy, maybe 1400 minutes/month I'm hoping. Unlimited data and text messaging would be nice, but not essential (I feel paying for text messaging is kind of a ripoff anyways so would consider trying to go without it). Seeing as I don't have internet at home right now, I could use 5 GB/month in data (I'm assuming thats what all 'unlimited' data plans allow?).
The sticking points are price, obviously, but I also hate contracts, termination fees, and unreasonable over-minute/over-data fees. So IF there is some variation in the way fee/contract structure of phone companies, I'd be willing to consider a higher monthly payment.
Also, the phones themselves don't matter too much.
So if anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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On September 15 2009 10:25 fight_or_flight wrote:
So the Go Phone I was using was ok but its not going to cut it now. I need a good family plan, however, I'm pretty noob when it comes to phones and plans. Hopefully someone here is pretty knowlegable.
The deal is I need a family plan with 5 - 7 lines, in the United States. Not too minute heavy, maybe 1400 minutes/month I'm hoping. Unlimited data and text messaging would be nice, but not essential (I feel paying for text messaging is kind of a ripoff anyways so would consider trying to go without it). Seeing as I don't have internet at home right now, I could use 5 GB/month in data (I'm assuming thats what all 'unlimited' data plans allow?).
The sticking points are price, obviously, but I also hate contracts, termination fees, and unreasonable over-minute/over-data fees. So IF there is some variation in the way fee/contract structure of phone companies, I'd be willing to consider a higher monthly payment.
Also, the phones themselves don't matter too much.
So if anyone could help, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Good luck...
But definitely the best way to go about it is to go to your local cell phone service providers and talk to them about it. They have the best knowledge of what will fit your needs.
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So far the basic parameters I've identified are:
1) Monthly cost fo 2 lines for x minutes/month?
2) Cost to add aditional lines?
3) Cost/reduction of cost to add/remove messaging/data?
4) Cost for over-data or over-minutes?
5) Roll-over minutes?
6) Free nights and weekends?
7) Free in-network calling?
8) Activation fee?
9) Cancellation fee?
10) Lost phone replacement fee/insurance fee?
11) Free top 5/10 friends?
12) Service quality in my area? (somewhat not important to me within reasonable limits)
13) Phones available? (generally not important to me)
14) Non-contract plan which uses existing phone?
That last point is pretty interesting. 6 - 8 months ago, I think, AT&T made this anouncement of a new plan that was the exact same monthly pricing as their regular plans, except there was no contract involved, however the customer had to supply/buy their own phone. Then it just evaporated and now no one seems to know anything about it, not anyone in an AT&T store or anything. I'm wondering if its one of those unadvertised options or something, but I don't know...
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have you tried area based phone services, like cricket wireless. its like a solid fee but unlimted everything for a set monthly fee. there is no contract.
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I work for verizon,
Verizon is equal in pricing (including overage and termination fees) to other companies like AT&T, Tmobile, and Sprint (the biggest ones) They all have pretty similar features on their plans too now. It really depends on what plan exactly you want before you can compare pricing. But in general you can expect verizon to be slighty higher prices because of the fact that more people use verizon (and you can call anyone with verizon for free) and the fact that verizon has generally better service overall.
Oh yea, verizon ETFs go down by 5$ every month and starts at like 175$ I believe. This is due to a law that passed a year ago or something and all the companies have to do it by X date, but so far verizon is the only one who asap'd it.
The main thing that sucks about verizon (and sprint and some other lesser companies) is that they use the CDMA network instead of GSM. Which means no sim cards, no unlockability, and generally have to buy phone from strictly verizon (it also sucks if you get your phone wet, can't salvage contacts unless you backed them up previously via backup assistant). So you can't use it in other countries (with exception to some parts of canada, mexico and peurto rico) and you can't buy cheap phones off the internet (unless they are verizon). The only exception would be a few models of phones (motorola z6c and a few blackberries) which have a slot for a sim card and take a verizon sim which roams the world. (i think it's pretty expensive though and you still can't get the phone unlocked like other companies.
Anyways here is a scan I just made of the single and family plans. there are other plans for like seniors and mexican/canadian plans.
As far as the data goes, you can either get an aircard (100$ with 50$ MIR) and a plan that is either 40 or 60 bucks depending on monthly cap. 250mb versus 5gb. The better option imo is to just get a blackberry (the tour seems good, check out www.phonescoop.com ) which requires you to have a BB web/email plan for 30 bucks. Then you can tether it to a computer via usb and use it as a modem. The internet speeds of either option is 600-1.4mbs DL and less on UL(DSL speeds)
Which brings me to another point, depending on what plan you choose and how many lines you are gonna be activating, the deal for phones varies. But generally you can expect to get 150-200$ off the price of any phone when activating a brand new line. So you can get some lesser phones for 50$ with 50$ MIR making them free. The main line is worth more commission though so a 400-500$ blackberry can be brought down to 100$ or less depending on the plan.
If you have any more questions about those plans just pm or whatever.
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Oh yea, forgot to answer these questions:
1) Monthly cost for 2 lines for x minutes/month?
see picture above
2) Cost to add aditional lines?
refer to picture
either 10$ (or 100$ for unlimited plan) plus cost of phone.
3) Cost/reduction of cost to add/remove messaging/data?
refer to picture.
You can add msging to lines individually at 5$ for 250 msg or 20$ for 5000 with unlimted in network text (and there are inbtween options as well). Or you can pay 30$ and add unlimited text to all lines in the plan.
Also you can usually change your plan at any time and there is no fee or anything, its effective immediately.
4) Cost for over-data or over-minutes?
refer to picture
1.99 per mb and depends on plan for minutes/texts (really expensive for any company)
5) Roll-over minutes?
only ATT does this, its pretty dumb though. You usually end up with a stockpile of minutes that you never use. It's better to just have constant unlimited in network calling like Tmobile or Verizon does. Especially since verizon has over 80million (more than this I think now) subscribers.
6) Free nights and weekends?
yes 9pm-5am
7) Free in-network calling?
yes
8) Activation fee?
25-35$ plus all the other fees and taxes from the gov't and shit, expect to pay double what the plan is (probably less though) for the first month's bill. If you have bad credit there may be a deposit also, which can be pretty expensive and you may not even get it back if they apply it to the activation fees.
9) Cancellation fee?
yes, refer to post above
10) Lost phone replacement fee/insurance fee?
verizon uses asurian insurance which is 5-10$ a month per line. The way it works is; you usually pay a deductible on a replacement phone of 50-100$ (depending on model) and they ship you a phone fast after you call them. The phones are usually refurbished from people like you who mail in their old problem phones. (ie they suck) this is a problem with any company though. Most phones have 1 year manufacturer warranty though so that covers any problems besides water damage (and obviously lost or stolen phones). So insurance can help, but it is most definitely a huge huge rip off.
11) Free top 5/10 friends?
yea with red plans, refer to picture
12) Service quality in my area? (somewhat not important to me within reasonable limits)
Most of US is covered (even when not it's free roaming and long distance). Mountainous areas are problematic in any provider. Verizon has the best coverage of all.
13) Phones available? (generally not important to me)
Samsung,Motorola,LG,Blackberry, Nokia,Casio/Starcom, etc. (iphone soon) Verizon has good choices of phones. Cheap plan companies like Boost or amp'd or whatever generally have poor selection and bad phones.
14) Non-contract plan which uses existing phone?
yes you can do this. Prepaid is way too expensive imo on any company but is particularly bad for verizon and ATT (you end up paying 30$ a month at least just to use the phone and then minutes/msg are like 10 cents each) unless you just go flat rate which is 25c.
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Would be nice if you lived near by me (so cal) then I could hook you up and it's win:win
If you want, maybe we can work out some kind of mail delivery deal and do it over the phone/msn/aim?
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Thanks Charlie, I guess there weren't many responses because its basically a monopoly and I don't have any real options.
I think I'm down to just a standard Verizon or AT&T plan, because I don't get coverage from anyone else. The cricket wireless thing looks interesting, but it won't work for me. I don't even get cable or dsl at my house...
It would be nice to get at least 6 lines on a family plan, but it looks like anything more than 5 and you are paying a bunch for it.
btw, charlie CDMA may seem to suck from a phone availability perspective, but it seems to be a superior technology compared to GSM (TDMA).
+ Show Spoiler +I still don't think I'll get text messaging if for no other reason than principle. It costs them pretty much 0 for text message traffic, where do they get $30/month from? If anything they should offer it as a free service as long as you have a phone that works on their network. One single phone call exchanges more data than a lifetime of text messages. It wouldn't be so bad if they lowered their voice only plans to be more competitive using all the revenue they get from text messaging, however somehow I don't think thats true.
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yea text messaging is a huge scam and americans are fucking retarded on even questioning the costs. In europe a lot of the plans have like free incoming calls and free texting either way I got some Irish kids in the summer time and they were tripping out on the costs.
But to be fair, you can send large pictures and ringtones to and from texts (it's still only a few hundred kb though)
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So I think I found what I'm looking for. $29.99/month with 1200 minutes/texts and 50 MB of data.
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/prnewswire/press_releases/national/Ohio/2009/10/07/CL88833
All I need to do is find some old verizon phones.
If I were to get a family plan, with, say, 2100 minutes and 5 lines, that would be 110+10+10+10 = 140/month + activation fees + taxes. No texting included.
With this it would be 30*5 = 150/month (no taxes) That includes texting and even email, and thats 1200 minutes per person, not combined for everyone. Plus, I can get 7 lines if I want. All with no contract.
The downside is there is no in-network calling, nights, weekends, top 5, etc. However, 1200 minutes is 40 minutes per day, which should be enough. If not, they have an unlimited plan for $39.99/month.
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That's really good deal. But the downside (aside from what you mentioned) is the coverage (may not be as good as others, it's probably leaching off some other network /sharing satellites and towers) and the phones available. It probably has cheaply made phones and limited selection. Also what kind of deals do they have for sign ups? Normally with the big companies you can get 200-300$ phones for 0-100$ and mail in rebates.
edit-
Yea, these phones blow (2-3 year old models, mostly refurb) and they are greatly overpriced.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Online Store/Phones.aspx
A refurbed razr for 70$ !
and yea, it looks like they are leaching off verizon's network because they have all verizon cdma phones (so you probably couldn't get a better phone off the internet or something instead of the ones they offer)
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Online Store/Phones/lg vx8300.aspx?tab=2
That's probably the most solid phone of the bunch.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but usually when stuff sounds too good to be true it is. :/
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It uses verizon's network, and it can't roam to any other networks. I don't think there are any phone rebates. You have to use old phones people don't need or buy them yourself.
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so they do some kind of flash/unlock thing with any verizon/sprint phones then I assume? Then yea if you can get your hands on a better phone that wouldn't be too bad.
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I don't think they have to be unlocked. I'm still learning all the details, but I think if the ESN number is part of verizon's network, the phone is unusable. If the phone is no longer part of a contract with verizon, then it is likely the ESN will not be controlled by them. If it is, I think going through the carrier phone number transfer process will make the phone available.
I'm still learning about this and I don't really know all the details so I could be wrong. Just found out about it today.
edit: things that cause the ESN number to be locked are if there is an outstanding bill or if the phone is reported as lost/stolen. I think in that case you can flash it or something.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i28.tinypic.com/9uq6ba.jpg)
