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There is so much texting going on with our family that our last bill was 121 pages (double sided, though)!! I may have to request no more paper copies of the bill; I feel bad about how that much paper and the postage.
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One time we had a bill longer than that. I don't remember how many texts I used, but it was over 3,000 and I didn't have a texting plan (we called and added it right before the billing period ended and then we didn't have to pay for them--we only had to pay $15 for unlimited). They actually sent it in certified mail. Since then, they haven't included the texting information in the bill.</p>
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True, you're not allowed to spend the majority of your minutes roaming, but if they cancel you for excessive roaming, you don't pay an early termination fee.
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I'm worried that my phone won't work at my new school. I didn't test my phone out many places (and when I did, I only looked at how many bars I had). I'm just worried since I got a new phone and a 2 year contract a few months ago. If it's true that they won't charge you termination fees, that is great news and I'm not as worried anymore!</p>
<p>If this is Sprint you're talking about, Sprint loses money for every minute you spend roaming. However, Sprint phones will automatically assign themselves to a Sprint tower if one is within reach, even if the signal is very poor. Most phones, however, support a "Roam Only" option, where it will only select roaming towers, some of which might give you stronger signal than the Sprint tower.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how it works for AT&T, but that link seems to indicate the same thing will happen. I haven't ever seen a 'roam only' option on a GSM phone, though.</p>
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Although I've never considered switching to Sprint... and probably still won't.... the plan you describe for $30/month certainly caught my attention.
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<p>Upon further research, I realized that this plan is no longer available. It was part of the SERO plan which is no longer offered effective 7/10. Rumor has it that you can still get on it by requesting for it when cancelling; the retention department has a lot of pull, as Sprint is bleeding customers.</p>
<p>Ditto on knowing your kid for plan needs. Son doesn't text, uses few minutes (I think a lot of communication is via computer). Most seem to keep the family nationwide plan- an advantage for parents calling/receiving calls. Especially useful is voicemail. With phone capabilities they don't even have to worry about all the diverse area codes. The only problem is for people using landlines needing to dial long distance numbers for people in town, but since every college student seems to have a cell phone that is not an issue. It is nice for kids to keep the same phone number during the summer and for all of their college years.</p>
<p>Just saw the post regarding roaming- someday they will have to work things out in the industry regarding towers. I personally think a lot of texting habits should be changed, but then I also see no need to have an ipod or other device glued to one's ear at all times...</p>