<p>You could just get the minimum amount of minutes/text (if you even want text) that you can, and get Skype for all your lengthier calls.
It’s only $3 per month for unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S and Canada.
The Virgin Mobile $25 plan sounds like a pretty good deal, you can use that for emergencies or for just when you’re out and about and don’t have time to whip out your computer, and just use Skype for everything else.</p>
<p>Excel’s calculation are VERY misleading. You haven’t used a cell phone–ever! I’m not buying it that you’re going to all of a sudden start using your phone for 1200 min/month. You should be getting the deal that is cheapest to start. If you need more minutes, then you can pay $10/month and up the ante.</p>
<p>An expensive phone–like the ones that 2 year contracts give you for free–are more than just phones. The Sony Ericcson that I got with my plan is an mp3 player, too (with a 1GB card included). I use it instead of an iPod–which would’ve cost you another ~$150. You can buy an 8GB card for like $30 more.</p>
<p>Also remember that 2 year plans give you free nights/weekends, with nights starting at 7 or 9 PM. Some have rollover, free incoming calls, free calls to certain people in a network, etc., These may seem like irrelevant perks, but it means you can be buying plans with less minutes. It’s not fair to compare 800 minutes on a prepaid with 800 minutes on a plan that gives you all these extra minutes. </p>
<p>Here’s a realistic calculation for someone who’s never had a phone and probably won’t use it much:</p>
<p>Sprint (2 years): ($30/mo * 24 mo) = $720/mo. Value of free phone = $200. => You paid $720 for $920 worth of items => 22% discount off monthly rate </p>
<p>Per month: $30/mo * .78 = $23.40/month. This rate includes free nights/weekend, 200 anytime, a phone that has a walkman/other features instead of a regular phone (although this is accounted for in the 22% discount), etc., This DOESN’T include data/texts. If you plan to use those, that could be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>PagePlus looks like a great deal, too. You’ll be getting texts/data instead of a good phone. If you already have an iPod and don’t really need a good phone, this is a great alternative plan because the $200 phone isn’t worth $200 to you.</p>
<p>excel, you can get some pretty nice phones from T-Mobile for free. My G1 didn’t even cost $179.</p>
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<p>Assuming you got the G1 for free, you’d only be ahead by $27. However, I just searched on eBay and a new unlocked G1 costs ~$350. Therefore, you’d be ahead by $200 at the end keeping everything else constant.</p>
<p>Thing is, you gotta consider the total cost of things. Using the argument that the phone is separate from service, let’s say you obtained a similar phone to what you’d get for free with Sprint elsewhere for $200 also. From experience, it’s usually quite a bit cheaper on the open market. Eg. with PagePlus, if you get a $80 card every 4mo, you effectively get 500min at $20/mo with rollover. Hopefully, you don’t talk 300min/mo on night and weekends if your peak usage falls within 200min/mo. Using another provider, say AirVoice (regular), you can get 1200min for $100 – at $20/mo, you’re getting 240min/mo total – still might fit within the usage patterns of that 200min/mo plan.</p>
<p>I’d imagine there are rare cases where the nights and weekends really do beat out any prepaid plan, but I’ve yet to see someone who will simply not use their phone during peak hours and yet talk so long at night.</p>
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<p>Really? I do that all the time. I text during the day and then call at night. I know MANY people who do this actually.</p>
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<p>I do this every day. I catch up with people in evenings–daytime minutes are short calls just to meet up with someone or for the occasional emergency.</p>
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<p>Now you’re talking sense. If you view the phone as a separate item, the question then becomes if paying $20/month and getting poor service/having to activate & buy cards is worth it instead of paying $23/month for a locked in rate with no hassle and good service. It adds up to about $72 for 2 years of ease of mind.</p>
<p>Again, I think the 2 year contracts are only a good deal if you don’t text/use internet. Otherwise, I would also take a prepaid. But I don’t use the fluff–I’d much rather have the phone that comes with an mp3 player.</p>
<p>Just get a Droid and be happy :)</p>
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I am also going to college this fall and need to purchase a phone. I have been awhile without a cell phone although oddly my first phone I was like in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. I am looking at t-mobile, verizon, and at & t. T-mobile is not the cheapest, it’s actually metropcs. I myself have not really considered metropcs because I know very few about their service and phone quality but their price for a smart phone is just $50.</p>
<p>The best provider really depends on where you are. You should check the coverage maps of the big four and then decide. Several of these maps are quite bad, but T-Mobile’s is relatively honest.</p>
<p>Here in California, Verizon seems to have the best coverage, followed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and then Sprint. Based on some friends, MetroPCS has very spotty coverage, especially if you go too far into the suburbs.</p>
<p>The best result is to ask around and find out which network is best for the areas you need to be in. There really aren’t that many (big four + one or two regional providers), and the prepaid providers are simply resellers of the big four.</p>
<p>I forgot, Sprint is another major cell phone service. Also agree with above poster. Example in Iowa metropcs has coverage in nearly the entire state making it the only/ one of the few.</p>
<p>Stay away from AT&T service and you’ll be find.
Seriously, I live in the middle of NYC and have trouble getting service. At my old apartment, I had to either stick my phone out the window to get service, or physically leave my building. It was like that everywhere. </p>
<p>I think Verizon is the one to go with-regarding service. For the actual phone, it depends on your personal needs and how much you can afford.</p>
<p>[AmazonWireless:</a> Cell Phones and Plans](<a href=“http://wireless.amazon.com/]AmazonWireless:”>http://wireless.amazon.com/)</p>
<p>They have phones cheaper than retail, but require a new service plan. Since this is your first phone, you’ll be in luck.</p>
<p>And again, my recommendation is that you stick to T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T. There’s a reason they are the top. They have better coverage, vastly better phones, better subsidies for those phones, better customer service, more locations (in case you need a replacement, accessories, etc.).</p>
<p>Sprint and T-Mobile are cheaper than Verizon and AT&T (at the expense of a weaker phone selection). Go with one of them.</p>
<p>I have unlimited mobile to mobile (on any network) with Sprint. Basically paying $70 a month for unlimited everything, since I rarely call a phone that isn’t mobile.</p>
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<p>They have actual towers, the monopoly, and with it, the advertising budget. It requires an immense amount of capital to build a cellular network, and there are actually only very few licenses that go around. At the end, they are the <em>ONLY</em> four companies that actually have their own towers nationwide. The rest, like Cricket, MetroPCS, Revol, US Cellular, and Bluegrass, only have their own towers for specific regions.</p>
<p>As for the others, namely the prepaid providers I mentioned, Boost, Virigin, etc. – they’re all resellers for one of the big four; that is, you use the network of one of the big four, but they do billing / customer service. You get access to the same towers, and according to FCC regulations, you are given the same call priority as everyone else. Difference is, they usually don’t have roaming contracts with other providers, but in actuality, that never serves a difference, because if you’re in an area with coverage, even if very poor, you won’t be allowed to roam. You will only be allowed to roam in areas with actually no towers.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got my first cell later than most of the people around me also (not college, but like, around early/mid high school). Just, it’s seriously annoying at first and I’m still never much of a phone person though I kinda like texting.</p>
<p>Anyway, I suggest the LG Shine because it’s pretty damn hard to break (I’ve had it in a toilet and it still does fine, I’ve dropped it pretty often and from long heights, and I know others who’ve abused it more and it’s lasted) and it doubles as a mirror. Also I can’t imagine you’ll pay a lot for it, probably like $30 or something.</p>
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Exactly. :)</p>
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I understand the role of a prepaid provider/MVNO. It’s essentially a trade-off of phone selection/quality, customer service, and locations vs price. Maybe I failed to draw the line between my needs and expectations for a phone and the OPs, so I’ll leave it at this:</p>
<p>Get a better phone and customer service (major carrier), or a cheaper plan (MVNO). I still don’t recommend a regional carrier (Cricket, US Cellular, etc).</p>
<p>I had tmobile freshmen year and the first half of sophmore year. it was cheap, and i always had service.</p>