|
How to choose your wireless plan
Cellular phones can provide freedom from wires and a convenience which
is becoming increasingly critical. However, choosing your cell phone service
plan is as complicated as doing your taxes and as confusing as reading
an insurance policy.
Cell-phone service offerings vary a lot from region to region, so it
is important to know exactly which carriers provide service in your area.
This will let you know all the rate plans for your area.
If you want to find out which cell phone service is available in your
area right away, visit our partner site Letstalk.com .
If you just need a quick usage based cell phone selection guiding chart,
click here.
When selecting your cell phone service plan, start by asking yourself
"How and Where will you use your phone each month?" Specifically,
consider the followings:
Coverage
Find out who serves your home area
Where you live ultimately determines your choice of calling service.
Cellular phone service offerings vary a lot from region to region. Coverage
is the most important, of course, because it would be a shame if you got
a plan, then found out you'll have to pay roaming,
or get no service where you need to use the phone.
Coverage is the geographical area within which a cell phone can be used
to make and receive calls. Check that the celluar service provider that
you are going to choose covers the areas that you frequently travel to.
You can easily check the service provider's availability in your area
on the internet. You can find which cell phone carriers provide service
in your area by entering your zip code at these sites. Visit our partner
site Letstalk.com,
Do you have family that lives in another area of the state in a smaller
town? You will want to review the coverage map to see if it has coverage
areas that you feel are important to have cellular phone coverage.
Geographical area of usage: where will you call?
Most carriers now segment their plans into local,
regional and national
calling areas. Basically, the larger local coverage area you want, the
higher rate you will pay per minute.
It is up to you to decide which coverage plan will save you the most
money. If you get the local coverage plan and travel to another area of
the state, expect to pay roaming and long distance fees every time you
use your cellular.
Service plans that are limited to your home usage area are the least
expensive, as long as you stay in that area. Make a call from outside
that area (assuming your provider has a usage agreement with the other
service company) and you're charged expensive "roaming" fees.
If you plan to make a lot of calls from outside your home usage area,
select a regional or nationwide calling plan that enables you to make
calls without incurring roaming or long distance charges.
Local Plans
Local plans are generally designed for use within your home area and will
be attractive to the occasional user who wants a low-cost option. The
definition of home area depends on the carrier but is typically the size
of a metropolitan region. If you make long-distance calls, note that you
will be billed long-distance charges in addition to airtime, probably
at a premium rate. If you travel outside your home area, you will almost
certainly have access to roaming capabilities, but also at a much higher
rate than local airtime. Options such as voicemail and caller ID are often
included free with local plans. This setup is also good for the concerned
parent wanting to keep in touch with children who are out (for emergencies,
or occasional bugging)
Regional Plans
Regional plans generally offer a much larger home area than local plans,
often as large as a five-state region. If you travel throughout your region
frequently, these plans typically provide a single, consistent rate for
roaming and long-distance charges within that area. The inclusion of long
distance simplifies your bill and may be less expensive than your landline
service in some cases. Review the coverage maps thoroughly to make sure
service is available where you expect it.
National Plans
These premium offerings let you use your phone anywhere in the country
and talk to any other location in the country for a single per-minute
price. Roaming and long-distance charges effectively go away, replaced
by a single, predictable flat rate. Nationwide calling plans are a good
value for heavy users who are frequent travelers.
Usage profile
Deciding how you are going to use the cellular phone. Is it for emergencies,
general purpose, or business? The purpose of having the cellular phone
should dictate which service plan you are going to choose.
Do you need a phone for personal or business use? A customer that needs
a phone for business use usually needs a plan with a lot of minutes and
flexibility. A customer that needs a phone for personal use is usually
looking for something inexpensive.
Would you use your phone for just the strictest of emergencies or do
you plan to use it all the time? Someone that needs a phone for emergencies,
say 10 minutes or less a month is usually a good candidate for pre-paid
wireless service. Why pay a flat rate every single month if the phone
is going to sit in your glove box?
Do you travel? If so is it all over the state or all over the nation?
This helps determine if a local plan would make more sense for the customer
or if a plan that had much broader roaming range would be better. The
reason to ask this question is because if you do not plan to travel or
if when you travel you will only use the phone for emergencies, you would
be better off with a local plan. More minutes for your money.
Time Usage (Frequency of use)
Most carriers offer packages that allow for different rates based on
usage. If you plan to use the phone only occasionally, select and economy
plan. If you make frequent calls, it may be more economical to sign up
for a plan that provides a certain amount of free minutes of usage. Heavy
users should sign up for a service plan which provides a higher monthly
fee, several free hours and the lowest rate of air time
Minimal usage : For safety and emergency
Minimal usage really means under 20 minutes or so a month. If you want
to have a phone nearby in case of emergencies or want to give your child
a phone in case they are late, then you fit into this category. Most companies
offer plans such as "security plan" which normally keep your
phone active without any included minutes. Per minute costs can be anywhere
from 25-40 cents so you can see that these plans are intended for those
who won't use the phone too often. These plans normally cost fewer than
20 dollars a month. Alternatively, you can seriously consider a prepaid
plan.
Medium usage : To keep in touch with the people close to you
Medium usage would constitute anywhere from 100-500 minutes a month. Although
this seems a lot, you would be surprised how quickly minutes go by. Those
people who start off with the security plan and start using an average
of 50 or so minutes a day are much better off choosing a plan with at
least 100 minutes as you can see the difference. 100 minute plans normally
cost 20-25 dollars a month.
Most plans in the 100-500 minute range cost anywhere from 20-30 dollars,
on average. They are intended for those people who want to use their phone
at least a little bit per month but not extensively.
High usage
Normally, one can consider high usage to be over 500 minutes. Most people
requiring these types of minutes are either using them for business or
really have to stay in touch with all of their friends at all times of
day. Some people actually cancel home phone service and use their cell
phones instead. This normally happens with the higher packages such as
2000 minutes or so. Prices for these plans can range from 35-70 dollars
a month.
If you want to know more about how many minutes
to buy, click here.
Technology Difference: Digital or Analog
In our cellular world, there are two primary technologies available to
wireless users: analog and digital, and your preference for one or the
other depends on where you'll want to do the majority of your calling.
Next consider whether you want analog or digital service. Digital service
? clearer and more secure than analog ? is necessary for features like
wireless Internet and e-mail. But coverage can be spotty. The older analog
network, which transmits sounds like radio waves, has the most extensive
coverage, especially in rural areas. Tip: If you want digital service,
make sure your cellular company has a ''roaming'' agreement that lets
your phone work on an analog system when you are outside digital range.
But beware ? roaming can be expensive, and it requires a ''dual mode''
phone.
Although dropping out of popularity, the analog standard, otherwise referred
to as AMPS or NAMPS, offers coverage for over 80% of the U.S., including
many rural areas not covered by digital technology. Analog offers the
advantage of low pricing and a large calling area. Low sound quality and
reduced privacy or security are disadvantages to this technology.
The digital standard, which encompasses the CDMA, TDMA and GSM platforms,
allows for more callers to concurrently occupy space on each of a service
provider's cells, making it the superior choice for highly populated or
metropolitan areas. Each platform has its merits, ranging from the reduced
background noise and earlier WAP adoption of CDMA phones, to the clearer
sound and security protection of TDMA phones, to the near global roaming
ability that accompanies GSM phones. PCS, the new kid on the block, is
a marketing term for a CDMA digital network. Disadvantages to digital
systems are their lack of unified technology and a small, metropolitan-focused
calling area.
If you go to the country occasionally, you won't have coverage at all
if your phone is digital only. Remote locations are not covered by the
digital network, but using a digital & analog phone makes it possible
to automatically switch to analog when digital service is not available
for a better overall coverage.
Contracts
In addition, you may be required to sign a one year or two year contract
for the cellular phone service. Make sure to find out how many times they
will allow you to change packages within the time of your contract, should
you find a need to downsize or upgrade your cellular phone package, without
charging you a fee for doing so. If you want to know more about contracts,
click here.
To find out which wireless carrier's service is best rated in
your area, go to wireless
provider ratings page.
To find out which carrier is available and compare plans, click comparison
shopping .
|
