<p>As we don't live in the States, I have no clue about the ins and outs of picking a cell phone plan and what one looks for, other than coverage. Just wondering if any one could give me a few pointers on the details to research when picking a plan for my son when he goes to school in September, or good plans that you know of. We don't know exactly where yet, but it will be Northeast/Eastcoast most likely.</p>
<p>He has an idea to get the AT&T and the iphone....</p>
<p>You really have to know where he is going before deciding on the wireless carrier. We live in New England, and we have been to some colleges in the East Coast where my current wireless carrier hardly works. I, too, may need to change our carrier, depending on where my son will attend. Once that's decided, I'll plan to post on the college forum to find out from current students what carrier works best. And since you don't live in the States, I would think you may want to make sure you go with a GSM carrier so you can communicate via cell. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>There will usually be special deals offered on campus at the start of school so it's best to wait and sign up then. For some reason it was difficult for international kids to get phones at my d's school so I had to get her phone in my name (maybe due to not having a driver's license? or any credit history?). A lot of kids had to pay a $300 deposit in order to get on a plan.
Students</a> find hassles in getting cell phones - News</p>
<p>She didn't need a GSM phone because she will just use her old phone when she returns to visit. She opted for one of the free phones but I have since heard from other expats that Motorola phones have the best sound quality with overseas calls. She uses a phone card to call us that I purchased online from nobelcom - works fine on her cell phone.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posters, and would add that, at least in my D's world, people text message a lot more than they talk. So I would recommend unlimited text message capability, as well as talk-time minutes. We miscalculated that, and got a slew of minutes, most of which we don't use. But we didn't know that before she went. The best is unlimited nights and weekends, as that's when they do the most talking and most, if not all, cell plans include unlimited nights (after a certain hour) and weekends. But texting seems to go on all the time! I have it on my phone too, so that I can text her without worrying about bothering or embarrassing ( :) ) her.</p>
<p>Good post about the unlimited texting - we did that thanks to reading posts on CC last summer. My d found that she didn't need the plan with unlimited nights and weekends because all call to other subscribers are free - since most of her friends have ATT she doesn't need more minutes than her plan. She has 450 rollover minutes plus 5000 night/weekend minutes plus the unlimited texting. The unlimited texting costs an extra $19.95 a month so it's not a cheap addition to the plan - especially if you are used to other countries where texting is practically free.</p>
<p>I know that the unlimited texting is costly! But, the daughter of good friends texted so much during one month a while ago, that the bill was $800! I can't imagine having that much to say, but this girl--- absolutely! They immediately switched to unlimited and I think they are withholding her allowance for the rest of her life!</p>
<p>OTOH Mathson has never sent a text message in his life. :)</p>
<p>We got our cell phone from Verizon because we wanted a PDA and a phone that worked in Europe. We did check to see that coverage was okay in Pittsburgh before we made our final decision.</p>
<p>We find out after our D was on her campus that her cell phone service we had (family plan) didn't work in her dorm room! She had to go outside to get/receive calls. We switched to a different carrier who's insfrastructure was better in the area. Fewer dropped calls, clearer reception, etc.</p>
<p>I highly recommend waiting until you know what school your student will be in. Once you find out, go to the discussion boards on this website for that particular school and ask which carrier has the best reception in the area where the school is. I did that for S when he went off to college after D.</p>
<p>We learned our lesson after having to break a contract with one carrier when we couldn't reach our D.</p>
<p>I have friends who have AT&T with the iphone SOME (emphasis on some) have had trouble with reception. Again, this is just what I am hearing from a few people who have one.<br>
Our son is on our AT&T family plan. Last year he had the same problem with reception in his dorm room...had to go outside or to a hallway. This year he has the blackberry pearl and it seems to get better reception.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all the posts. very helpful! especially about texting, wouldn't have even though about that. We will wait until he knows where he is going, since we're not there anyway, but I guess it is one thing I can research among the many! I hope we won't have any trouble getting him a plan as he does have a US drivers license ( and passport). But good to know it is a possibility!</p>
<p>One tip. There is typically an academic discount at most schools and a dedicated rep who can answer questions. It may be burried in the schools website but also look in the staff benefits section. </p>
<p>RV</a> Insurance Review</p>
<p>I second (or third) the posters about unlimited texting. DD went to school w/ her old phone that was on our shared minutes family plan but didn't text. Before we got her a new phone we wanted to see how the reception was, and how/what time of day or night she used her phone the most. Before we really had a chance to track that, her phone broke. Since the reception was fine, and our family plan is amazingly inexpensive, we sent a new phone, w/ text capability. It didn't take long to realize we needed to put her up to unlimited texts -- even when she was trying to be very careful about limiting her texting, her friends (all w/ unlimited) were sending her tons, that also counted towards her monthly limit. Clearly a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."</p>
<p>The cost of unlimited texting varies from carrier to carrier. Sprint, and plans that use the Sprint network, charge $10/month for unlimited texting. I think that Verizon also has a cheap plan for unlimited texting and sending pictures. We've gotten burned by the cost of picture-sending and picture-receiving; next time I'll know to get a phone that allows me to directly download pictures without incurring web-acce$$ fee$. Of course, if your son gets an iPhone, that's hardly an issue!</p>
<p>expatme, I believe a credit card in combination with a driver's license will work just fine for those purposes. </p>
<p>Other posters already gave you excellent suggestions, and I'd like to add one thing: try posting your question on the appropriate college's forum or contact current students for their opinions rather than the provider. For instance, we were told by our carrier that they had excellent coverage on College X campus, but in reality D's phone did not work at all in College X dorms.</p>
<p>I added texting for the whole family to our cellular plan a few months ago for $20 per month. </p>
<p>I did it so I could take full advantage of a free online calendar I found out about. By logging in on the computer, the whole family can see and make changes to the family calendar. It integrates with text messaging to make it more user friendly, which can be a less intrusive way to communicate--no answering the phone, no retrieving voicemails... With this online calendar I can text from my computer using a normal keyboard. (Of course, the kids can text at a billion characters a minute, but for me it takes a bit longer.) I've been using it since early September to send myself my grocery list and to send the kids occasional reminders ("Pick-up @ 2:35 sharp, Dr. appt."). </p>
<p>It also taps into my "my pictures" file and randomly displays a collage of my pix as a screen saver or on demand, which is cool 'cuz I would rarely see them otherwise. (I don't mean to sound like a commercial--I just like it!) You don't have to use the texting feature, of course; it's still a great way to communicate what's going on in each other's lives. I think it'll be pretty handy when my daughter's away at college next year.</p>
<p>I'm guessing it's okay to post the name of the calendar since it's free??? It's Cosi.com.</p>
<p>Another vote for unlimited texting/pictures. When my oldest went to college last year I got a family plan and phones for both kids. Got the unlimited texting for the youngest right off the bat but waited to see on the college student who had never texted a day in her life. It took a couple of months for the texting charges to reach $10/mo, and then we switched her to the unlimited plan. Guess students do a lot of texting to friends who might be in class.</p>
<p>Agree about waiting until the college is chosen as there are definitely dead spots, even just within certain dorms on a campus. So if they are going on a registration program in the summer, that's often the best time to figure out which carrier works best.</p>
<p>I agree with the need for unlimited texting on the plan...BUT we actually make our college kids pay for that service. We pay for their phone...so they can call us. We don't pay for texting. </p>
<p>Now...off my soapbox. Your best bet is to check cell providers where your child attends college. The service varies in some places and one provider can get great service while another's is spotty.</p>
<p>Ask several people at the new school which provider is best. We got advice, and found out that the person was very much mistaken as to which provider worked best on campus.</p>
<p>If your expat mailing address is a p.o. box (as is son's school address), ATT will not accept that. We had to put down Grandma's address, and then switched it to the p.o.box later (online). S could not have the account in his name, as he had no credit history.</p>
<p>It took a lot of phone calls to ATT to get the calling overseas and global roaming for when he travels. For some reason, they couldn't set those up for us when we got the service in their offices. </p>
<p>Finally, if you are used to what a cell phone plan costs in Asia versus the U.S., you are in for an eye opener. The cost is obscene for services that are available here for 7-10 dollars a month.</p>
<p>Equally irritating- if you do find that you need to change providers, surprise, you have to buy a new phone! We are used to buying the phone we want and putting in a sim card from the provider we want. </p>
<p>Sorry to vent, but researching and organizing the cell phone was the most frustrating aspect of getting the kid launched 10,000 miles away from home.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Ask several people at the new school which provider is best. <<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>This was the single best advice we got about phones at college. Although we were on ATT, hands down the best coverage for D's campus was Verizon. So that's what she's got. We got her a plan that didn't have unlimited texting, but did have a goodly amount that she never goes through. Total cost a month: $55.</p>
<p>The cost is obscene for services that are available here for 7-10 dollars a month.</p>
<p>I agree - my d's phone plan - with the college discount - runs $65 a month after you add the texting and all the taxes. Here in China I use a pre-paid program and top up my phone every 2/3 months for $14. Of course I bought my own phone.</p>