NFT: Best cellular price rates...

[The Bad Guy]

My grandmother's birthday is in about 2 weeks and since she is still working a lot at her age, I wanted to get her a cell phone in case she gets in any car trouble and so she can call her friends/family that is long distance.

I think she needs a minimul plan - maybe 250 peak, unlimited off-peak, something of that nature.

I plan on paying her bill every month and getting her a phone that's easy enough for her to use.

Does any cellular experts have any input as to what would be the best carrier to use?

I use Sprint now, not a big fan, so I don't want to get her it. But I'm really not familiar with other carriers.

Any help is appreciated.

[Bowser]

The only carrier I've used is Sprint, but that ends forever at the end of next month. I hear Cingular has really good customer service.......

[Otter]

The only carrier I've used is Sprint, but that ends forever at the end of next month. I hear Cingular has really good customer service.......

Cingular and AT&T just merged, their customer service is actually kinda of nightmare. It's been about 2 months since I've had to deal with them so they may have ironed things out by now but I'd be careful.

Especially if it’s your grandmother who probably isn't too tech savvy just because of the generation she grew up. I'd recommend getting her a phone without all the bells and whistles just to keep things simple.

Probably not an issue these days but make sure the phone is GSM compatable as well.

That advice may cause more problems than it solves but I'd call them up and ask some questions to get a feel how things are running these days before getting yourself into a contract.

[pink]

over the past decade plus plus, i've actually had service from sprint, cingular, and now verizon. had both sprint and cingular in texas. cingular was a customer service nightmare and charged out the wazoo for every little thing they could. in texas, i was always happy with both sprint customer service and reception (and was with them the longest), until i moved here to KC. then sprint reception was soooo bad i fought and fought and fought for months to get out of the contract without having to pay that atrocious fee. i'll bet i am one of the very few who does get out, cuz it was exhausting. moved over to verizon because of being the largest network and the tower technology (vs. the AT&T route -- this was before the merge -- no way would i ever go back to cingular). verizon has been wonderful in both customer service and reception, and as along as that continues, i'm not going anywhere. they are slightly higher, but not enough to say "whoa" ... so far its worth every penny.

as far as phones, (and i've done mucho research here too) -- stick with the basics yes (and no less than dual mode), but don't go Qualcomm or Kyocera or off brands like that. Stick to LG or Nokia or Motorola or Samsung. I've had more phones than anyone I know and have had best of luck with those.

[chiefs4me]

Cingular is the best. And that is SO sweet of you to think of her like that. Happy Birthday to her.

[Skip Towne]

Why do cellphone companies think they need a contract? Is it because they know their service is so shitty they have to take their customers captive? Also, I've heard of them asking for as much as a $600 deposit to "protect them against somebody running up a big bill". Shit, they can shut the phone off as easily as they turned it on. Why don't they use a credit limit beyond which you get shut off. Cellphone companies are nearly as bad as Ma Bell was.

[luv]

I used to have Alltell. I don't recommend it. I switched to Cingular a few years back, and I have loved it. They are really nice, and they are flexible if you need to change plans for some reason. I believe they have the prepaid plan as well as the monthly plan.

[WolfDawg]

I got our phones at www.a1wireless.com

they have some really good deals. I used to have T-Mobile but the service sucked, now I have Cingular and I'm happy with it.

[morphius]

Why do cellphone companies think they need a contract? Is it because they know their service is so shitty they have to take their customers captive? Also, I've heard of them asking for as much as a $600 deposit to "protect them against somebody running up a big bill". Shit, they can shut the phone off as easily as they turned it on. Why don't they use a credit limit beyond which you get shut off. Cellphone companies are nearly as bad as Ma Bell was.
The contract is to help make up for the amount of money they lose on each phone sale, they actually lose a lot of money subsidizing your phone purchase and being they make very litte each month per customer they have to lock you in to help pay off the phone.

[Dayze]

Why do cellphone companies think they need a contract? Is it because they know their service is so shitty they have to take their customers captive? Also, I've heard of them asking for as much as a $600 deposit to "protect them against somebody running up a big bill". Shit, they can shut the phone off as easily as they turned it on. Why don't they use a credit limit beyond which you get shut off. Cellphone companies are nearly as bad as Ma Bell was.

Actually, it's because it costs $X for ever new net subscriber addition to their network (anywhere from $200 - 500 usually); they base their network upgrades, and future expansion estimeates on these numbers. Their budgets are figured accordingly. Companies want to yield a churn ratio (ie; the customers that leave/vs. the new customers) of typically less than 3%. So the 'contract' is to ensure that you're covering most/if not all of the net add dollars it costs to add a new subscriber. Think about it - if you as a business person had no idea what the expected $ value would be for a given amount of time per customer, you'd have no idea who to forecast budgets for the reasons above. Sucks...but it's the truth.

Usually if you buy the phone at full price, they will typically only place you in a 1 year or less contract (at least that's what Verizon did a while back). Their methods are also an effective way to get people nicer phones for cheap/or free b/c they'll recoup those costs over the duration of the contract.

This is another reason why "pay as you go" is so popular in the, um (trying to be PC here) 'urban' areas. They get their $ upfront for a given number of use on their network. It's also popular b/c usually a credit check is not required.

Same reason DSL requires a contract (usually) b/c of the costs of installing the direct line (contract = recovering costs of capital improvements to the network)

[BigMeatballDave]

Why do cellphone companies think they need a contract? Is it because they know their service is so shitty they have to take their customers captive? You mean like Directv?
:p :D

I'm a DTV customer. I'll never give up my Tivo and Sunday ticket...