Mobile Phone Service - Insight/Experience/Opinions Appreciated ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. Well, I'm finally breaking down and considering getting a mobile phone since my personal "$30/mo or under" [sans taxes, etc.] limit has been broken in my home area.

A. GSM is the Global Standard for Mobile(s) telephony, so if you want to use your phone abroad, or interact with foreign callers (for text and multimedia messaging, etc.) you'd be better with that- AT&T has a pretty good number of roaming partners as well. US GSM operates on a different frequency to most of the rest of the world though, so you'd need a phone with the requisite number of different bands. Phones like the T68 or T610 are tri-band (GSM 900/1800/1900) and would work with nearly all US and other GSM systems. TDMA is a good system actually, but hardly works anywhere abroad. It also currently has a wider coverage area, though AT&T's GSM network is rapidly expanding. I researched cell phones last year, though ended up not getting one then. AT&T was at the top of my list until I talked to my next-door neighbor. She said she couldn't use her phone in her house or in her office, and it was just generally flaky. I would recommend researching phones in your area and talking to people you know that have one. Cingular, for example, was also under consideration until I read local comments about how their service was "undergoing upgrades" but was currently awful. I ended up getting a pay-as-you-go phone. I have the Virgin Party Animal (dude!) and have no complaints. It works fine in the house and I've had signal loss only once. I have to spend $20 every three months to keep the phone active but there's no contract, no fees, and very little fine print. Since it's only for emergencies or rare occurrences when I absolutely *must* speak to Tony about something *right* *now*, that's just fine. David gave you some excellent answers here, but the more you research this stuff, the bigger headache you will get. I would find a phone you like (do you want one that takes pictures, for instance?) or a provider you want to go with, and then go into the fine details later. Your choice of carrier may force you into one or the other, depending on how much you want to pay. Unless you travel a lot or have specialized needs, it probably won't matter much.

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