[ale] fyi - cheaper way to add a smart phone to verizon account

[JD]

I'm on a pay-as-you go plan with T-mobile.  No data.  It is down to $10/yr in
costs and less than $2.50/month if you look at it over the entire life of phone
and plan costs.  Clearly, I don't talk on the phone much, so if you do, this
won't work. It works perfectly for making new plans with people and when plans
change, however.

I just can't see spending $60+/month for what many people think they need for
convenience reasons. It just isn't me.   $700/yr or $10/yr?

I've looked into getting data when on travel, but I just don't need it around
here. T-mobile has daily, weekly, monthly data plans that can be enabled and
disabled as needed.  When my routine is broken and I'm not at home or work, that
is really the only time where a data plan might be nice. I hven't tried it,
since I mostly travel outside the USA.

Last trip, I stopped into the cellular provider and we tried to get a SIM to
work in my Nexus4. The SIM was incompatible for some unknown reason. A friend
got a SIM at the same place for his Galaxy 3-something and it worked immediately.

BTW, I don't usually buy candy or snacks or drinks at gas stations either.
"Convenience" has a high price. That is all that cellular phones are -
convenience. Sometimes we forget this.

On 07/15/2013 12:43 AM, Greg Clifton wrote:
> Verizon lost the 7 phones my family had with them for too many years years ago
> over exorbitant mandatory data charges. We wound up with an assortment of
> carriers. All seem to work pretty well "in the big city" but Verizon probably
> still has better nationwide coverage than any other, though T-Mobile has gotten
> much better since the breakup with AT&T because they got a bunch of AT&T's GSM
> towers as part of the split. They also offer a "WiFi preferred mode on some
> phones like my Galaxy S2 which extends coverage beyond their cellular network.
> 
> Take a look at Straight Talk and Page Plus. Page Plus offers several prepaid
> plans on the Verizon network for much less than Verizon. I have 2 kids doing
> that now and the cellular service is great, though customer service is a little
> lacking if you do have trouble. Straight Talk (Wal-Mart's offering of Trac
> Phone) used to have phones that ran on either T-Mobile or AT&T and also phones
> that ran on Verizon. You can bring your own phone for the T-Mobile or AT&T plans
> and I expect you can for the Verizon network too, but I haven't verified that.
> 
> If you shop Kroger and Sprint coverage works for you iWireless through Kroger
> has prepaid plans, plus you get an extra 20 minutes talk time for each $100 you
> spend at Kroger with your plus card. My wife is on iWireless and it has worked
> well for her. We have found coverage to be better than expected even in the
> boonies (as in S. GA and FL). I noticed last week that they are now offering the
> Galaxy S4 with LTE service for about $550. The coverage map looks pretty good,
> but that is more than I am willing to spend on a phone at this time.
> 
> There is also Boost, Cricket and Virgin as re-sellers of Sprint service. One
> super cheap option on Sprint is Republic Wireless, which defaults to WiFi
> service where available and only uses the Sprint network when WiFI is NOT
> available. As ubiquitous as WiFi is becoming, that may soon be a viable option
> at least for city dwellers. Unfortunately their phone offerings are still rather
> limited.
> 
> I am on T-Mobile and got a notification recently that they were rolling out LTE
> in the Atl. market (expect service interruptions). They are also merging with
> Metro PCS which already offers LTE service. It will be interesting to see how
> the coverage map will change with the merger. I'll probably switch to Straight
> Talk once my contract is up in Feb.
> 
> I had thought that once all carriers converted to LTE there would be near
> universal coverage, but it seems that every carrier is using a different
> frequency band so they won't be compatible for tower sharing like earlier
> versions of GSM or CDMA service. Also, in times past, you didn't pay the federal
> taxes on the prepaid phones like you do with traditional phones, but that was
> "fixed" a year or two ago.
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 10:47 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>>
> wrote:
> 
>     In my opinion, Verizon is the best for working out in the boonies.  My folks
>     are in Jasper and my wifes' are in north central Ohio.  Verizon is the only
>     thing that works.  (Haven't tried ATT.  Don't like them.)  That's one reason
>     I keep it.  Ting works on the Sprint network.  If they had coverage out
>     there, I might switch.  But, you still pay $ 60 / mo for 3 GB of data I
>     think.  As it is, I still have two dumb verizon phones and a myfi 4g modem
>     that I only pay to turn on when I'm on a trip to Ohio.  Otherwise, I have to
>     stick to wifi.
> 
>     Sincerely,
> 
>     Ron
> 
> 
>     Neal Rhodes <neal at mnopltd.com <mailto:neal at mnopltd.com>> wrote:
> 
>     >I couldn't make the Verizon Shared device dollar numbers work to my
>     >advantage and got my wife a phone from ting.   So far it's just fine if
>     >you consciously don't use the data size much.   (i.e. use wifi when
>     >possible)
>     >
>     >I'm retaining my Verizon unlimited account for the time being until
>     >they
>     >really piss me off.   But it's getting harder and harder to cost
>     >justify.
>     >
>     >On Sun, 2013-07-14 at 18:08 -0500, Brian Mathis wrote:
>     >> I was looking into Share Everything for my parents, and after running
>     >> the numbers (and seeing other comments online), those plans are only
>     >> designed to get more money out of you.  It might be worth it for a
>     >> family of four where everyone has their own phone and some members
>     >use
>     >> a lot while others don't, but for one or two people, it just didn't
>     >> seem to make sense.
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> ❧ Brian Mathis
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
>     >> <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
>     <mailto:atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com>> wrote:
>     >>
>     >>         This message is for those of you, if any, who have verizon
>     >and
>     >>         don't have any smart phones on your plan.  I have an old
>     >>         family share plan with two dumb phones, 750 shared minutes,
>     >>         and 250 text messages on one phone.  I talked to a verizon
>     >rep
>     >>         yesterday to see what my smartphone options are.
>     >>
>     >>         For purposes of this discussion, I'm talking about bringing
>     >my
>     >>         own used device rather than buying one from verizon.
>     >>
>     >>         One option they rave about is the share everything unlimited
>     >>         plan.  For this, the dumb phone costs $ 30 / mo, the smart
>     >>         phone costs $ 40 / mo, and the 2 GB (used to be 3) data plan
>     >>         costs $ 60 / mo.  So, that totals to $ 130 / mo.
>     >>
>     >>         However, the rep said I could actually keep my old plan,
>     >which
>     >>         costs $ 75 / mo, and add a smart phone for $ 30 / mo.  So,
>     >>         that only adds up to $ 105 / mo.  So, while I would not have
>     >>         unlimited minutes and texts, and would still have 2 GB of
>     >>         data, that's $ 25 / mo cheaper.  I don't know if I'll do
>     >this,
>     >>         since I can still use my tablet at wifi hotspots.  But, I
>     >>         thought I'd pass it along.
>     >>
>     >>