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Tactically Inept

Cell Phones & Service


kuhla

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I was looking today at what it would cost to move to someone like Verizon, get a new phone, service, etc. For a family plan of 2 lines and the most basic services amazon wireless said I would have to pay $139.97 a month.... wtf is that really what it costs nowadays? The data plan is what really raped it by adding $60 a month ($30 a month for each phone).

 

How much do you guys pay per month?

 

My mom and I currently pay $60 a month for our 2 lines.

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Typing from iPhone so I won't have any links for you but I was talking with a coworker about this and he said he had a friend who's $25 a month for data text and 300 minutes with virgin mobile. I briefly checked their site and they do seem to have such a plan but it looks like they don't do much in terms of phone rebates. I Aldo have idea if they are even in this area. I'll look into it more in a while once I finish with my dinner break.

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Typing from iPhone so I won't have any links for you but I was talking with a coworker about this and he said he had a friend who's $25 a month for data text and 300 minutes with virgin mobile. I briefly checked their site and they do seem to have such a plan but it looks like they don't do much in terms of phone rebates. I Aldo have idea if they are even in this area. I'll look into it more in a while once I finish with my dinner break.

I looked into the Virgin Mobile thing.

 

* They list coverage in my area and most of socal.

 

* The ONLY "decent" phones they have are the LG Optimus V ($150) and Samsung Intercept ($200). The lack of phone selection seems to be their biggest weakness.

 

* Their plans are all essentially prepaid. No contracts on any of them. $25 a month gets me "unlimited" (I really doubt it is) text, email, data, web and 300 "anytime" minutes. The very small amount of minutes is fine by me. I don't even use that many now.

 

* They have pretty much little/no phone rebates as you may have noticed from the prices I listed earlier.

 

I've done some preliminary research into those phones. I'll be considering it. EDIT: Maybe not so much... the two phones they have are just so mediocre compared to what everyone else offers... if that is not a big deal though the $25 a month thing is awesome...

 

just basic service

i dont have a smart phone

Got it.

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isnt metro pcs unlimited everything for 50 with tax and fees

their socal coverage isnt that bad according to the map on their website.

 

vs everything data family in sprint is 130 for 2 lines.

Same problem as Virgin with only 2 mediocre phones regardless of their decent plan deals and I've heard nothing but bad things about metroPCS from other people at work.

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My mom has the Spring equivalent of the Optimus V, and my Dad has the intercept. I definitely suggest the LG phone over the Samsung. That's not a bad price for a no contract phone so I would go for it based on your desires. The other place to consider is Metro PCS.

 

I'm paying $213/month for

 

5 Smartphones (Unlimited Talk, Data, Text, premium features)

3x 4G data charge ($10/each)

1x Insurance ($7/each).

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....and then of course I could go bat-shit crazy and just upgrade my part of our current AT&T service with a Motorola Atrix for $150 (+$15 a month base data plan) and then get the $430 Laptop Dock and have an android laptop at the same time lololololol

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I assumed family, 2 line, prices. However it's probably fair to consider it as half of that or just my portion.

 

AT&T

* Free phone. Good phones.

* Total 2-year cost: $2400

* Emotionally disinclined to staying with AT&T.

* Price breakdown:

$60 a month: AT&T FamilyTalk Nation 550 Rollover Minutes (2 lines)

$30 a month: 2x DataPlus 200MB for Smartphone data plan (mandatory minimum)

$10 a month: Messaging 1000 - 1000 Text, Picture & IM messages (optional, on MY line only)

 

TOTAL: $100 a month.

Verizon

* Free phone. Great phones.

* Total 2-year cost: $3360

* Price breakdown:

$70 a month: Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk Family Share 700 (2 lines)

$60 a month: Unlimited PDA/Smartphone Web Browsing and Email (mandatory minimum)

$10 a month: Unlimited Mobile to Mobile Messaging PLUS 500 additional messages (optional, on MY line only)

 

 

TOTAL: $140 a month.

Virgin Mobile

* $150-$200 for the phone. Poor phone selection.

* Total 2-year cost: $1500

* Price breakdown:

$300: 2x LG Optimus V

$50 a month: 2x $25 a month for 300 "Anytime" minutes each and "Unlimited" text, email, web.

 

TOTAL: $50 a month.

Sprint

* Free phone. Mediocore selection.

* Total 2-year cost: $3600 EDIT: Forgot to add this...

* Price breakdown:

$130 a month: Everything Data Family 1500 (2 lines)

$20 a month: Premium Data for Smartphones (mandatory minimum)

 

TOTAL: $150 a month.

MetroPCS

* $150-$200 for the phone. Poor phone selection.

* Total 2-year cost: See below.

* Price breakdown: I can't actually figure it out from their website which is ass terrible. For family plans it says "See Store for details" which doesn't help me at all. Combined with bad things I've heard from multiple people about MetroPCS I'm also emotionally disinclined to consider this option.

 

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

 

If Virgin Mobile had some better phone options this would be no contest whatsoever. $25 a month is rediculously cheap and a pretty perfect match for my needs compared to everyone else. In fact if my mom and I both moved we would be paying less and getting more serivces. The up-front-no-rebate phone costs would pay off easily over a pretty short term. I may still end up going Virgin Mobile but I would have to put a damper on my fancy phone aspirations.

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whaaaaaa how you do this?

im not sure how they work but, if a sales man really want you to join. they will help you to get the biggest discount.

 

i went to the sprint store in harbor, downtown Fullerton. his name is David Clemente (714)449 8888.

give him a call and ask if he can do the same thing if you're interested. the discount only apply to the first 2 lines. it doesnt go to your insurance and premium data stuff.

but 27 % is pretty big discount.

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3 things:

 

1) After thinking about it, I don't think it was fair to not account fully for the cost of the phones after rebates. The price of the phone without contract is subtracted from the 2 year total cost. Opinions on this? I figure that with VM I'm fully accepting the cost of the phones but not in the other plans making them look perhaps unfairly expensive by comparison. I should be comparing the service cost. Paying more for "better" phones should be a given and not added in to service cost.

 

2) Even though T-mobile pretty much means AT&T now, they still (at this time) have slightly different package offerings. I don't think the change will happen overnight so it may be safe to still consider them. Opinions on this? I called a T-Mobile store today and they said they plan to continue offering their plans for the near future and they have no plans to roll people over to AT&T rates/plans. I'm assuming this will change eventually.

 

3) After much discussion, texting apparently needs to go on both phones ಠ_ಠ

 

As usual, cheapest absolute mandatory minimums below for 2 lines.

 

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

 

AT&T

 

2x Samsung Captivate = $550 off contract each, free after rebate

$60 monthly - AT&T FamilyTalk Nation 550 Rollover Minutes

$30 monthly - 2x DataPlus 200MB for Smartphone

$20 monthly - 2x Messaging 1000 - 1000 Text, Picture & IM messages

TOTAL 2-YEAR: $2640 - $1100 = $1540

 

Verizon

 

2x Motorola DROID X = $560 off contract each, free after rebate

$70 monthly - Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk Family Share 700

$60 monthly - 2x Unlimited PDA/Smartphone Web Browsing and Email

$20 monthly - 2x Unlimited Mobile to Mobile Messaging PLUS 500

TOTAL 2-YEAR: $3600 - $1120 = $2480

 

Virgin Mobile

 

2x LG Optimus V = $150 each, no contract, no rebate

$50 monthly - 2x 300 "Anytime" minutes each and "Unlimited" text, email, web.

TOTAL 2-YEAR: $1500 - $300 = $1200

 

Sprint

 

2x Samsung Transform = $410 off contract each, free after rebate

$130 monthly - Everything Data Family 1500

$20 monthly - 2x Premium Data for Smartphones

TOTAL 2-YEAR: $3600 - $820 = $2780

 

T-Mobile

 

2x Motorola CLIQ2 = $450 off contract each, free after rebate

$60 monthly - T-Mobile Even More Family 750 Plan

$20 monthly - 2x 4G Web - 200 (200MB)

$20 monthly - 2x Unlimited Messaging

TOTAL 2-YEAR: $2400 - $900 = $1500

 

- + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +

 

T-Mobile looking fairly competitive factoring in phone costs. Virgin Mobile obviously still is the cheapest by a decent margin. Possible other factors counting against Virgin Mobile: No nearby stores (closest is in Paramount City, 30 minutes away) and CDMA network setup (via Sprint) which I consider a negative.

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The Samsung Captivate is nearly a year old now and is due for a refresh within 2-4 months...actually that goes with just about any phone on the list except the Optimus from Virgin Mobile. Most phones have a 6 month to 1 years refresh cycle and its getting close to the end of the year for most of these. Only the Optimus series has been around for less than 6 months.

 

Not that you were really considering Sprint but I wouldn't even consider the Transform on Sprint if you want do any sort of 3D gaming. It's also using a Arm v6 architecture for the CPU versus the v7's, from the Cortex series.

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btw.

for sprint why dont you get a 4g phone since they now charge that $10 fee per line for data aniway.

 

before they only charge 10 dollar per 4g phone, but now they charge on every phone with data. (my mom has unlimited data [3G] but she dint pay the 10 dollar only me and my brother.)

 

 

sprint 1500 shared min is only to land line. mobile to mobile is not counted.

 

and if you port your number http://shop2.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/c...125_popup.shtml

 

try to see if you can get discountl cause i got it 27%.

 

not trying to sound like a sprint salesman but just fyi.

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btw.

for sprint why dont you get a 4g phone since they now charge that $10 fee per line for data aniway.

before they only charge 10 dollar per 4g phone, but now they charge on every phone with data. (my mom has unlimited data [3G] but she dint pay the 10 dollar only me and my brother.)

sprint 1500 shared min is only to land line. mobile to mobile is not counted.

and if you port your number http://shop2.sprint.com/en/stores/popups/c...125_popup.shtml

try to see if you can get discountl cause i got it 27%.

not trying to sound like a sprint salesman but just fyi.

It's not the minutes. According to my iPhone's "Lifetime Usage" statistic I've had 483 minutes of talk. I've had it since Jun 19 2010.

 

The data plans and texting extras are what is killing many of these deals. If I could avoid a data plan all together I would and just continue leeching wifi whenever I can.

 

I went to Costco today and talked to the Verizon and Tmobile people at their booth. There is no discount. Going through costco they said means you get a discount on activation and a car charger. That's it. I had a tmobile salesman yesterday on the phone say the same thing to me so that doesn't sound like a deal at all.

 

Still not sure which way I'm going to go.

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Just talked to a guy on the phone at the fullerton sprint store. Super strong accent with poor english, had to confirm with the manager about everything I asked and started talking about SIM cards and in the end finally said "Nooo is nod posible to make a sprint phone on the virgin mobile is too different." Oh boy.... I'll try to contact the brea store tomorrow to see if I can at least get someone more understandable.

 

Out of curiosity I looking into "changing ESNs numbers on CDMA phones" to make two phones look transparent from the company's point of view. Fancy business........

 

EDIT: Example: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=...58f5021afbf0802

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Virgin Mobile is like 99% decided on now after thinking more about it and discussing it with mom. A number of reasons. We will both get LG Optimus Vs and then down the road, maybe after new phones come out, I'll look again into all this ESN hacking, upgrading, etc. I'll have to put my fancy phone dreams on pause until then.

 

I'm going to go to the Sprint store in Brea tomorrow. Talk to them. They (fullerton sprint store) said [sprint stores] they handle Virgin Mobile stuff.

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