Comments on: Ridiculous cell phone rates

By: Tom S

Tom S — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:15:52 +0000

Five months later and things still suck. I am so upset at the closed architecture of the iPhone and how expensive all data plans are. I personally am getting 3000 (local) minutes on T-Mobile with GPRS/Edge connection for $79 after taxes which people consider good. Seeing Dan Hesse, CEO, of Sprint commercials makes we want to reach out and punch the guy especially when he says all for around $100 a month, isn’t that amazing? Or something along those lines.

It’s totally price gouging and the shiny toys, iPhone, Samsung Instinct, etc. are fake fronts to make us pay more in monthly charges. I just want to use my N810 to make free voip calls over a data plan and cut out the “voice” part of a cell phone plan.

By: sick of paying for cell phones

sick of paying for cell phones — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:47:50 +0000

We should all demand for cheaper rates. Do you know how many billions of dollars the cell phone industry is making off of our payments? Its ridiculous.

By: Waste of time n money

Waste of time n money — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:06:27 +0000

I had Metro PCS in the Bay and was satisfied. I hate contracts in general. I remember when contracts were for one year so now we’ve experienced contract inflation as well?

I am so dissapointed that my T-Mobile phone crapped out. It was just a vanilla clamshell Nokia on T-Mobile but the one yr contract had expired so I was month to month. No data. T-Mobile worked well for me in the Bay Area – at least for call reception. Here in Upstate N.Y. not so much. Couldn’t get a call out at home except through WIFI and no reception at work!

In shopping for smartphones it seems there is always a drawback – no WIFI on this phone, or WIFI but the phone is lacking in some other way.

The rate plans represent dizzying array of confusion for many consumers, myself included. The guy at ATT actually told me I could use every internet feature with the 39.99 plus 20.00 plan. I’ve since found out that may only include txt messaging?

I’m confused. Maybe I should just go back to my month to month and pay full price for a wifi T-Mobile phone with no internet access?

By: Roberto Com

Roberto Com — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:37:23 +0000

In SF, try Metro PC. Fixed rate, unlimited use.
Sprint just turned off one of my shared numbers and they won/t tell me why unless I am a police officer.

And they only keep text messages for 14 days then they purge them.

Metro PC just barely gets to the Mont Peninsula, but I have one. Great when within cell distance.

Good Luck

By: skierpage

skierpage — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:42:03 +0000

I’ve got the discontinued Sanyo MM-9000 and apparently Sprint can’t tell that when you’ve plugged it in to your computer to use as a modem. So with any Power Vision plan you get what I think you’re calling tethering for free, until/unless Sprint mysteriously detects what you’re doing.

This is a glitch Sprint/Sanyo have “fixed” in later phones. For other reasons the Sanyo MM-9000 is better than more recent phones like my Katana DLX: a flash, bigger screen, better sound quality, etc. So people horde supplies of fine discontinued phones! It’s maddening that phones don’t simply improve with each generation as laptops do. I hope Google Android breaks the whole crummy system wide open. You can (and should) install Opera Mini and Google Maps on your phone, but improving core features is impossible.

You’re right-on about the worthless phone reviews and the beyond-awful built-in music players (I have 340 songs on a 2GB card and I can’t even press ’8′ to jump to songs starting with ‘T’ ?!!).

By: Havvy

Havvy — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:25:31 +0000

I haven’t looked for phones to buy, and I’ve noticed the prices…

By: Orrin

Orrin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:17:11 +0000

Wired has an interesting perspective on the “evil-ness” of Apple. Maybe 20 years ago they weren’t so evil (when you had IBM to compare them to) but when you compare them to Google or a leaner, even-less-evil-then-Google competitor, Apple can look like the spawn of Satan.

By: Robert Accettura

Robert Accettura — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:31:47 +0000

I completely agree. It’s sick how much this stuff costs.

What’s even more interesting is that text messaging has actually increased in price over time (when generally prices drop). Sending a few bytes of data is so expensive it’s insane.

I’ve got a nearly 2 year old LG, no data service (not even text messaging). I think I’m the last holdout. I think it’s absolutely crazy to pay so much for that service. As far as cost per character goes, it’s cheaper to call and hire a telegram service to deliver your message. Don’t have plans on changing that yet. The iPhone is the most tempting I’ve seen, but still not good enough yet.

By: Justin Dolske

Justin Dolske — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:38:32 +0000

(Oh, and Windows Mobile? Ugh.)

By: Justin Dolske

Justin Dolske — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:37:48 +0000

The “unlimited data” on the SERO plans (which is what I’ve been looking at) is only for data from the phone itself; tethering can result in extra charges. There seems to be a lot of confusion around this point, because apparently Sprint will *sometimes* not charge you as long as you don’t use too much (see “sekret rules” above). Some people say they get away with it, some people say they’ve been charged. I really don’t feel like risking ~$30/MB charges on an EVDO connection… Ever see those national debt counters, where all the digits below the $1 million mark change so fast you can’t read them? Yeah, that.

Some of the older phones let you disable the “Secondary NAI” (which is how the network differentiates between on-phone data usage and tethered usage), but that sounds like borderline fraud to me.