I am in the market for a new cell phone and carrier. As much as I love AT&T (their customer service is my favorite to date) they are bleeding me dry in the cost of having a smartphone. Seriously we spend over $150 for two phones a month.
We hope to find something that will enable us to spend less and pick up internet/cable without spending more than we currently are. Which means we are looking for a savings of about $50 for basic internet and maybe basic cable (you know the one that includes a bunch of PBS and a couple local news channels). Tethering is nice and we currently have unlimited data through AT&T, but it can be a bit slow for upload/download times.
So today we drug ourselves to the Sprint store, the Verizon store and to Best Buy. It was a rather disheartening experience, just as it was two years ago, although I can’t say I didn’t get the service I expected from AT&T.
We had a nice chat with the guy at Sprint, and learned about their switchover credit (running until 6/23-up to $125 per line regular and $175 business). Very tempting but after the smartphone data requirement we’re only looking at $20-30 in savings plus more minutes than we could hope to use. We currently have a couple thousand rollover minutes. They expire by the hundreds every month. We tend to talk at night (when the husband is working) or text.
Next up was Verizon, mostly for giggles. Our local store was built in the past year, is as pretentious as a Rodeo Drive boutique and as confusing as filing your own taxes using a long form. The same phone is in multiple locations, depending on type. Walked around, did NOT sign in, grabbed an info book and ran. Last time we stopped we were there for 30minutes before a associate mentioned you have to sign-in before they will help you. Youch.
Last was Best Buy. Its nice to be able to see phones from each carrier next to each other. All the Android phones, all the Blackberries, etc. Hard to keep track of which ones you want and don’t want by carrier though. Plus the general chaos of the store and tweens and teens dragging their parents and significant others all over and wow, what a nightmare. Grabbed another info book and ran away.
I have to say I really don’t need a smartphone, although having one is very convenient. Having an Android run phone would be infinitely even more convenient. My current Nokia E71x runs Sybian which is not the platform of choice when making Apps. I love the cuteness of the iphone but the draw of Open Source is strong.
What really kills me about the extra $10/month for the 4G phones is the fact that we do not have 4G coverage up here. Not even close. Boston does, but if you ever catch me in Boston I doubt its to use 4G. Its likely to do whatever is needed and run back out to the country as fast as I can.
have you checked prepaid plans. they have android phones straight talk at walmart . boost.virgin mobile . you buy the phone up front. the plans are 25 to 50 dollars depending on your minutes. but all have unlimited data and text
Yeah we were originally looking at Virgin, but they do a tiered and choked bandwidth for their “unlimited” data. Plus the husband’s discount doesn’t apply to the prepaid plans. The problem is finding a plan that is adequate for our phone needs but isn’t going to cost an arm and a leg. Just doesn’t seem to exist.