<p>soo im goin to college in the fall so and my friends said it would be a good idea to get a cell phone (pretty much made me). i did some research and t-mobile is the cheapest. does t-mobile have good service? what do i need to know about cell phones as someone very far behind the technology curve?</p>
<p>Wow seriously…</p>
<p>I’m kinda shocked actually…</p>
<p>that’s like never having seen fire</p>
<p>t-mobile has pretty good service considering it’s so cheap. i hear their customer service is excellent as well. </p>
<p>Cell phones are basically like mobile computers these days, especially if you get a smartphone (like a BlackBerry). You can use applications on them just like you do on a computer. There are applications for Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, pretty much anything. You can even surf the web from them. But that’s with smartphones.</p>
<p>For basic phones (or ‘dumbphones’) you can basically take pictures, send and receive text messages, and of course make phone calls.</p>
<p>no, the cheapest way to go is tracfone. You buy your own minutes and time. No monthly plan crap.</p>
<p>^Those phones are gnarly</p>
<p>T-Mobile only <em>appears</em> to be the cheapest. That’s because they’re the cheapest contract provider that has lots of advertising. However, you can usually get much better deals with resellers.</p>
<p>Eg. I use PagePlus cellular – $30/mo for 1200min/1200txt/50MB, actually use 700min/300txt</p>
<p>Here are some MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators):</p>
<p>PagePlus Cellular (Verizon)
StraightTalk (Verizon)
PlatinumTel (Sprint)
Virgin Mobile (Sprint)
Boost Mobile (Sprint)
SimpleMobile (T-Mobile)
AirVoice Unlimited (AT&T)
H2O Unlimited (AT&T)
Revol (US Cellular, IIRC)
TracFone (AT&T or Sprint/Verizon, depending)</p>
<p>Buy only a few minutes at first to guage how much you need, spend approximately $40 for a phone, and whatever you do, don’t get yourself into a contract.</p>
<p>they have some ghetto phones though</p>
<p>Doesn’t the quality of service kind of depend on the area? I hear people online complaining about my service all the time, but around here so far as I can tell it’s the best.</p>
<p>I’ve had T-Mobile for 7 years and I love it. It’s probably by far the best of all the major phone companies out there. If you want to keep it simple, just get T-Mobile.</p>
<p>^ “Best” depends entirely on various contexts, not least of which is intended area of useage. E.g. in the Finger Lakes region of New York, T-Mobile will give you 1 bar, if you’re lucky.</p>
<p>^Sorry, I’ve been all over the US with it and never had a problem. All of the other people I’ve traveled with have. Just giving my personal experience :/</p>
<p>letstalk.com</p>
<p>Sprint will give you $30/mo (same as cheapest T-mobile plan) but good phone is free. I guess if you talk a lot then you’ll need more min, but that’s what I use. Just make sure you get good coverage. I don’t know what the complaint about a 2 year contract is–you’re only guaranteeing them $700 bucks or so for 2 years worth of phone coverage. In return you’re getting a $200 phone. 22+% discount and it’s not like you’ll stop needing a cell phone next year.</p>
<p>Essentially you can think of it as $23/mo and you paid for the phone like in those other deals.</p>
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<p>I don’t know what PagePlus is, but that sounds great too. Make sure it’s nationwideminutes, especially if your college isn’t near home.</p>
<p>I like my Virgin Mobile phone. I pay $25 a month for 400 minutes and unlimited web + texts, with no annual contract.</p>
<p>PagePlus Cellular is a MVNO of Verizon. That is, you get Verizon service, but billing and customer service is handled by PagePlus.</p>
<p>The minutes and texts are nationwide, but only on actual Verizon towers. If you wander out of Verizon territory, roaming is $0.24/min, but I’ve never encountered that situation. You probably wouldn’t unless you’re really in the boondocks, several miles away from any interstate highway, or if you’re in Kentucky. I’ve been using it for years and I’ve been happy. Even with the unreasonably awful customer service, I’m still having a difficult time leaving because the price’s really hard to beat and I’ve only had to call them a total of ten times for five lines over the course of three years. Most of the calls were for actual activation of service.</p>
<p>The thing I have with 2yr contracts is that you can probably get cheaper service without the contracts, and the free phone they give you doesn’t make up for the cost differential. Do the calculations for yourself. Eg. compare a 800min/mo plan with nice phone from one of the big-4 to purchasing the phone at full price (or on eBay) + cheaper plan from reseller. Yeah, it may cost $200 up front, but that’s still better than $15/mo extra for 24mo.</p>
<p>As for ghetto phones – does it truly matter? Are you seriously going to pay $50 extra just to have a phone that looks nicer on the outside? Does all that data really matter to you? Eg. I’ve used a $80 StraightTalk Motorola W385 on PagePlus Cellular (both are Verizon, hence phones are compatible, even though these days, they have manual blocks and my phone was grandfathered in). Now, I have a $40 Nokia 2705 Shade – it’s a simple phone, but when it comes down to call quality and battery life, I’m the one who’s smiling. Nobody can tell that I only paid $40 for it, as nobody else seems to have it.</p>
<p>BTW, for the best value, here are my personal recommendations:
PagePlus Celluar (good if you actually talk between 600-2000min per month, or if you talk less than 50min/mo) [personal favorite]
StraightTalk (good for 800min-1000min/mo, $30/mo for 1000min/1000txt per month, $45/mo unlimited)
SimpleMobile (if you’d like flexibility with an unlocked GSM phone, $40/mo for unlimited talk, $5/mo for text)
Boost Mobile (for heavy data users, $50/mo for unlimited talk/text/data IIRC)</p>
<p>These are all nationwide by the way.</p>
<p>Yeah, get StraightTalk or PagePlus if you want the choice between a Razr and some other cheap crap. Plus, small carriers like that don’t often subsidize many of the phones and have weird restrictions with roaming, etc.</p>
<p>Just get T-Mobile or Sprint and you will be happy. They are the cheapest of the major cell carriers.</p>
<p>Verizon may cost more, but their customer service and coverage is well worth it, imo. I could be in the middle of nowhere and still have service. And every time I’ve had to call them, I got to an actual person within a minute. That is commendable, imo</p>
<p>How you should look at it is how much it’ll realistically cost you over 2yr in actual usage, with or without subsidy.</p>
<p>For roaming, you just check the coverage map. Most colleges are in major cities. Just make sure both your home city and college city are covered. Check, done, good. It doesn’t matter that you don’t get to roam in, say, Wyoming, if you never go there in the first place.</p>
<p>First case: Google NexusOne on T-Mobile vs SimpleMobile (same network, SimpleMobile is reseller)
On T-Mobile’s EvenMore Plus 500 (500min / ULTD txt / ULTD web):
$179.99 phone + $80/mo * 24mo + $35 activation fee = $2135 over 2yr
On SimpleMobile Unlimited Everything (ULTD min / ULTD txt / ULTD web):
$529.99 phone + $60/mo * 24mo + $13 SIM card = $1983 over 2yr</p>
<p>Second case: Samsung Instinct s30 on Sprint vs Samsung R810C Finesse on StraightTalk (Sprint vs Verizon network, respectively)
On Sprint’s Everything Data 450 (450min / ULTD txt / ULTD data):
$29.99 phone + $70/mo * 24mo + waived activation = $1710 over 2yr
On StraightTalk’s Unlimited Plan (ULTD min / ULTD txt / ULTD data):
$373.99 kit (phone + 1st month) + $45/mo * 23mo = $1409 over 2yr</p>
<p>See the difference? Now, depending on your specific needs, it may differ, but I have yet to see a case where one of the big four wins in terms of value unless a particular user is really dependent on a subjective factor (eg. customer support, availiability of dealers, etc.). Oh yeah, keep in mind – with prepaid, you won’t need customer service as much: upgrades are your responsibility – you buy phones like candy, almost never a billing issue – you just by the prepaid cards and there’s really not room for their automated systems to make mistakes, coverage is the same as one of the big networks. Eg. with PagePlus and my constant roadtrips, I’ve never had a time where a friend had better coverage than me in 3yr.</p>
<p>For me, I went with PagePlus Cellular because I talk more than I text and prefer to use my netbook + WiFi for the data. My parents are on that plan because they’re the only provider that can do $0.04/min prepaid and have it maintained for just $30/yr. With the right cards, it comes out to $80 + 2 * $10 = $100 for 2200min/yr. They use $10 absolute bottom-end phones with that, but they could care less.</p>
<p>Do your parents have a plan? If so, it’s a good idea to add a line to that. That’s what I do [through Verizon] and it’s only $10/mth.</p>
<p>if you’re not going to talk a lot on your cell phone (like I do), a GoPhone from AT&T (which is pay as you go) might do as well. I don’t use my phone a lot and that’s the plan I use. The phone’s are kinda awful though haha</p>
<p>Again, excel, that’s all fine and dandy but for someone who uses a smartphone (e.g. myself), the MVNOs don’t really answer the call of duty as well as the big four.</p>
<p>And no I don’t NEED a smartphone, but most people don’t NEED most of the stuff they have.</p>