Best / cheapest cell phone for SMS?

August 15, 2006 7:13 AM

What is the cheapest cell phone options that will be used only for SMS?

I convinced my wife to get a cell phone.. but she doesn't want to talk to anyone really.. she just wants SMS.. What is the best / cheapest - phone / plan that favors SMSing?

posted by cowmix to technology (9 comments total)

Who is the carrier you'll use? Or does that depend upon the phone? US? UK?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 7:25 AM on August 15, 2006

Update: I am in the US. I personally have T-Mobile.. but my wife doesn't have to be..
posted by cowmix at 7:34 AM on August 15, 2006

If you can find one on ebay, a cheap Nokia 6800 is great phone for SMS messaging.
posted by antifuse at 7:59 AM on August 15, 2006

If that's really all she wants it for, then you could consider a two-way pager instead of a phone. You can get a qwerty keyboard that way without paying like you would for a qwerty on a phone.
posted by solotoro at 8:34 AM on August 15, 2006

tracfone gives you free incoming SMS messages. I could never find any official pricing for SMS so they might do tricky stuff like start charging after after a certain number of messages arereceived. Outgoing costs money.
posted by rdr at 8:48 AM on August 15, 2006

You can sign up for one of Virgin's pay-as-you-go plans and add monthly text messaging blocks to it. $5 for 200 a month, $10 for 1000.
posted by cmonkey at 9:02 AM on August 15, 2006

If they're still selling it, you might want to check out the Ogo, which sounds like exactly what you need.
posted by baylink at 9:44 AM on August 15, 2006

Add a 200 minutes/month line to your plan and you can get 100-200 messages/month for ~$2-3, plus she can call you if she ever get stranded by the side of the road or something.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:18 PM on August 15, 2006

Just to add to my previous comment. The costs of incoming text messages from Tracfone varies according to the phone monel. On the model I had, a Nokia 2600, incoming text messages were free.
posted by rdr at 8:21 AM on August 16, 2006