Help me pick a phone.
August 31, 2010 3:15 AM   Subscribe

Please help me pick a mobile phone/carrier in the US.

I know nothing about mobile phones or technology so please go easy on me with the tech-speak.

I need to find a cell phone and provider in the USA. My current phone is a Nokia 5800 which I like for the very basic things I use it for. I also like and probably prefer the touch-screen. The main things I need in a phone/provider are as follows:

- probably unlimited calling and texting
- internet access (mainly facebook and gmail but also the occasional search or Wikipedia usage)
- good international rates (to UK, texting and phone calls – very important)

I would like these things at as reasonable a rate as possible. This will probably be my only phone (no landline) and the main providers where I am moving to (Midwest) seem to be Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Nextel.

Things I don’t care about:

- camera
- music, mp3
- voice activation or any other fancy features
- apps

Please could you give any advice you might have on what phone or plan would be best for me in the US. Or if you know of any other options for international usage on a cellphone, I would very much appreciate any information you could give. I am absolutely clueless when it comes to these things. Thanks for your help.
posted by and hey Charlie to Technology (11 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: If you're able, I'd ask friends and neighbors what they use in the area, just because a provider has coverage where you'll be doesn't mean it's good coverage

Even though you're not into all the bells and whistles, I'd recommend an Android powered phone, just because of how easy it is to use Google Voice with one. A bunch of new android phones came out recently, so I'd think you could pick up one of the older ones for a reasonable price.

Not sure how Google Voice handles international texting, but voice calls to the UK are 2 cents a minute with no connection charge, and i think they bill in 1 minute increments.
posted by sary at 3:50 AM on August 31, 2010


Where exactly in the midwest are you going to be living? Saying you're moving to the mid-west is like saying you're moving to western Europe - it doesn't really help anyone answer your question.

Outside of the large metro areas not all the networks are going to have the same level of coverage. If you're lucky, someone on here will live in the particular town/city/suburb where you're going to be living and will be able to give you the low-down on what network coverage and service quality are like in the place you'll living. I'd trust local word of mouth over advertising spiel any day.
posted by davidjohnfox at 4:06 AM on August 31, 2010


If you want to do a little work you can get a used HTC Touch Pro 2 (or any of a number of other Sprint phones) off Craigslist or eBay and set it up on Boost Mobile. $50/month unlimited talk, text, and 3G data, no contract, and use something like Google Voice for international calling and texting.

I'm using the HTC TP2 on Boost with their $.10/minute talk and text rate , but that probably won't work for you. They're on Sprint's network, no roaming, but far cheaper than going with a bigger carrier. I highly recommend them.
posted by monkeymadness at 4:15 AM on August 31, 2010


Do you really, really need the unlimited voice? If not, I'm on Virgin Mobile, unlimited text/web with 400 minutes for $25/month. There are other plans, too - the point being that they don't have a set data limit and cost half of Boost's plan. Boost phones are iDEN (push to talk) on the old Nextel network and Vigin's are the "regular" (CDMA) phones that work on Sprint's old network. My phone works exactly where my family's Sprint phones work, at 1/3 the cost. They get sparkly green envy eyes whenever the topic comes up, even after I point out that my BIS access is $10 more.

I don't have experience with anyone else here (central Ohio with lots of driving to Chicago, Pennsylvania, etc.) except TracFrone, whose phones are not as cool as the Blackberry I have now, but whose reception in remote parts of this state is unbelievable.
posted by SMPA at 5:25 AM on August 31, 2010


Seconding asking people who live in the area. A carrier might technically cover Omaha, but coverage may be frustratingly spotty. That's probably the most important research you could do besides for calling rates. If you want to know calling rates (especially international rates), call the providers directly.

Verizon and AT&T are probably the biggest players, and they're the only two I've dealt with. AT&T has acceptable coverage, but not great. And their 3G coverage drops off very rapidly when you leave a city, and isn't great in small town. Verizon has excellent 3G coverage, even outside of cities. With Verizon I can drive for 7 hours straight and rarely lose 3G service. So if you anticipate travelling much, especially by car, you should think about that. If you're generally going to stay in a city, it's not as big of a deal.
posted by Tehhund at 5:36 AM on August 31, 2010


Best answer: International calls on mobile phones are a rip-off. I would not pick a plan based on that; I would just use Skype or Google Voice or a calling card that has a US number that you use to relay out. Inconvenient, but if you are trying to save money, not too inconvenient.

If you want to go prepaid, AT&T is the only US carrier that offers prepaid Internet access, but it is quite pricey at $20/100M. (On my Sprint data plan, I theoretically get a terrabyte for $60.)

On the other hand, as soon as you get a month-to-month plan with "unlimited" Internet and the minimum allowable voice minutes, you are spending over $70 a month with taxes.

I would recommend T-Mobile. T-Mobile has some of the cheapest plans and has a decent network with non-evil customer support. (I have Sprint now because I get a good discount through work, but they are definitely not customer-friendly. I had T-Mobile before and liked them a lot.)
posted by jrockway at 6:14 AM on August 31, 2010


Response by poster: Sorry - Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

I currently have T-Mobile in the UK and am going to phone them later to see if they can give me any good deals for being a loyal customer and transferring my account over.

jrockway's advice is just what I'm looking for re: international calls. I know I can use calling cards, I was just hoping that I would be able to find a good deal with a carrier. If I can't, and if calling cards end up being a huge hassle, I may just get a landline for that purpose.

Also, thanks for the suggestion re: Google Voice. I know nothing about it or Skype (told you I wasn't tech-y!) so I will look into it. I have a gmail account so it looks like I should be able to get it easily.

Also, to answer SMPA - I don't need unlimited voice. I don't talk on the phone very much right now and I never use near my 400 minutes or whatever I currently have but I also have a landline that I use and I don't know how my situation will change when I move - I might be using the phone more than I do now for work/family reasons etc.

Thanks for all the helpful answers so far.
posted by and hey Charlie at 6:28 AM on August 31, 2010


Best answer: If you like your 5800, you should be able to use it with both T-Mobile and AT&T here in the US, though you'll probably only get 2G data speeds (which should be enough for Facebook/GMail/Wikipedia). Assuming it's unlocked. Just pop in the AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card. This way you don't have to either pay a lot of money for an unlocked phone or be forced into a long contract.

For international calls calling cards are definitely the way to go. There's lots that you can find online. With mine, what I did was set up an entry in my contacts that dials the US access number, pauses, and then dials the PIN, so all I have to dial is the actual international number. For the international numbers I call a lot, I have the whole thing programmed into a contact so it's just as easy as a regular call, though there's a bit of time delay compared to direct dialing, obviously.

Another consideration when choosing a provider is if a lot of the people you're going to be calling are on one particular network, since in-network calling is free with most providers. All my family and 95% of my friends use AT&T, so I pretty much am stuck with AT&T unless I want to increase my plan minutes a lot.
posted by kmz at 7:24 AM on August 31, 2010


I was a T-Mobile customer for 5 years and I didn't want to leave, but I wanted an iPhone more. T-Mobile has awesome customer service over the phone, but it's kind of sucktastic in the shops. They're really good about offering better rates to keep you as a customer, so it really wouldn't hurt to contact the US side of things and see what they can do for you.
posted by elsietheeel at 11:05 AM on August 31, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks everyone for your responses, they're all very helpful.
posted by and hey Charlie at 2:08 PM on September 1, 2010


Best answer: Hey, welcome to the Twin Cities! I hope you'll like it here. Most of my family and friends in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area use either T-mobile or Verizon. I've used and been happy with both - the only exception being that our current house seems to be in a mysterious dead spot in the T-mobile network, so when our contract is up we'll be switching to Verizon. Seconding elsietheeel's suggestion of contacting T-mobile to see if they will give you a deal - I have heard of them giving loyalty discounts to longtime customers upon request.

For international talking, Skype is super easy to set up if both you and the people you'll be calling have internet and webcams.
posted by beandip at 8:58 PM on September 1, 2010


« Older Looking for old black and white cartoon featuring...   |   Find me a route . . . Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.