[ale] Moving my Wife/Kids phones into the 20th Century

[Neal Rhodes]

My meaning was that the Ting process would be more attractive if it
involved getting a GSM phone, rather than a CDMA phone which will
essentially only work with Sprint.  

Still, if we hit the break-even point within 6 months, I can accept
that. 

Neal 

On Wed, 2013-04-24 at 20:38 -0400, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> I don't know what you mean by not really unlocked. Phones only
> effectively work on the network they were intended for. The carriers
> use different frequencies for different tasks and that causes them to
> use different radios and antennas. While you can roam from on GSM
> carrier to the other our from one CDMA carrier to the other, you are
> not going to what to move most smartphones between carriers. You will
> get voice, but the data is going to be at EDGE2 rates. I don't even
> think this is the fault of the carriers. The FCC auctions off spectrum
> as it becomes available. You can't use someone else's spectrum, so why
> increase the cost of a phone to make it work on such wide spectrum?
> Remember "world phones" that can travel international? They charge
> extra for that.
> 
> The iPhone 5 is the first exception to that I've seen in the US since
> wireless data became "a thing". Apple did a lot of magic to save costs
> and found that they could make it work. In their case it's a "saves on
> support cost in the long run" scenario. 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S3 using the Swype software keyboard.
> --Richard Bronosky
> 
> On Apr 24, 2013 2:44 PM, "Neal Rhodes" <neal at mnopltd.com> wrote:
>         Or, I can go to Ting.com, buy from them a used Samsung
>         Transform Ultra (Android 2.3) 1Ghz for $76, and a
>         100m/100texts/100mb plan for about $17/mo with no contract. 
>         
>         And I can expect that their phone will actually work.
>         Meaning they will support what she'd doing.    Granted, it's
>         on sprint's network, so it's not REALLY unlocked, is it.  But
>         compared to a "free" phone from Verizon with a mandatory
>         $30/mo data plan that turns positive in 6 months. 
>         
>         Neal Rhodes
>         
>         
>         
>         On Tue, 2013-04-23 at 14:55 +0000, Mike Harrison wrote: 
>         > > Does anyone know of a carrier that will sell an android smartphone WITHOUT a data plan?
>         > 
>         > You can BUY a smartphone.. unlocked, from many sources. Best Buy for 
>         > example.. Amazon.com..
>         > 
>         > Most carriers want that plan.. they are carriers. ;)
>         > 
>         > I bought my Samsung Note II from T-Mobile, cash.
>         > After the return period (45 or 60 days, I forgot)
>         > they nicely emailed me an unlock code.  No plan was required.
>         > 
>         > I do use and like their prepaid service in urban USA areas.
>         > But I was just in the Philippines and for 550 PHP (Pisos)
>         > got a local sim and minutes (no data), That's $13.00 for a Sim,
>         > Phone# and minutes/text capabilities. As I needed to test the local
>         > SMS gateway system we were installing, I needed a true local number
>         > and SMS capabilities. WiFi worked great for data..
>         > 
>         > The difference is, buying from a carrier with their "less than full price"
>         > requires a data plan because that's what subsidizes the cheaper price.
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         > 
>         
>         
>         
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