I recently purchased my first cell phone, on a pre-pay plan using
Verizon as the service provider. I have looked at some of the on-line
consumer reports. Now I want to read some stories from the "front
lines". I see a lot of people talking and driving...which seems
extremely foolish to me, for what should be obvious reasons. I've also
read about the "radiation" problems. I've read  that cell phones are not
to be used in aircraft because they can interfere with navigation, and
they make "participate" in more than one "cell" simultaneously.
Similarly, they are not to be used in medical environments. I have yet
to succeed in transmitting or receiving a text message, which the phone
is capable of doing, but I have read that this service is not available
in all areas (Saint Joseph County, Indiana). I can talk to a  service
representative, but I'd rather explore for myself (including on Grex)
before doing that. The voice reception is at least as good as any
land-line phone I've used. Questions: while roaming, can an incoming
call from "home base" be received or does it immediately go to voice
mail for retrieval when I get "home"? Again while roaming, can an
incoming call from my vicinity be received or does it also go to voice
mail? I know that while roaming, calls are more expensive if the
network being used is not "mine". It's my guess that the quality varies
too, correct? Am I correct in perceiving that there are a few "big"
providers like Sprint and Verizon Wireless, then there are perhaps
hundreds of local service providers?
 

37 responses total.

This item is a few months old, but nobody has responded, and I just stumbled
upon it, so I will.

I've never heard of a case of cell phone use on airplanes interfering with
navigation.  It certainly seems conceivable that they might (the effect when
holding an in use cell phone near a regular wired phone while trying to talk
on the wired phone is pretty dramatic), but it also seems likely that if cell
phones were causing real problems for airplanes, given the number of people
who don't turn their cell phones off on planes, there would have been lots
of news stories.  Having cell phones turned on on planes does cause problems
for the cellular networks, which aren't designed to have phones visible from
so many cells at the same time, or to have them moving that fast.  Likewise,
there are some hills near here that give line of sight to pretty much all of
Silicon Valley and much of the rest of the Bay Area, and it's amazing how
badly cell phones work up there.

Text messaging is something that has to be supported both by the phone and
the service provider.  Old analog cellular protocols don't support it.  It
may not be well supported while roaming.  Depending on who your cellular
carrier is, I suppose they might not even support it from some of hteir own
towers, but I don't know how common that is.  For the most part, in urban
areas, it works pretty well.

Incoming calls can generally be received by roaming.  The cellular networks
have some routing protocols that tell the rest of the phone networks what
phone numbers to route where, and for the most part it works pretty well. 
Not always, though, especially since phones will sometimes roam onto networks
of carriers that don't have roaming agreements with the phone's carrier,
causing the phone to not even be able to make calls.  Quality tends to varry
depending on whether you're getting an analog or digital signal, and how far
you are from the tower the signal is coming from.  You shouldn't be able to
tell by sound quality whether you're roaming or not.

There are a few big providers that tend to cover all the major metropolitan
areas, where the licenses are expensive and the service is presumed (rightly
or wrongly) to be the most profitable.  They tend to be the only carriers in
major metropolitan areas.  In rural areas, where the licenses are cheaper but
there are a lot fewer users, there tend to be a lot more small players,
although many of them have been being bought out by the major companies.

Thank you for your response. In the months since I wrote that first entry 
I've learned a lot. When I get time I'll write up my experience and post it
here. In the meantime, I found Usenet groups somewhat helpful.

This is doubtless not the best review of cellular service
but when I first made this post I saw nothing on Grex about
the subject. Here is what I've learned in the intervening
months.
 
First, the idea of "privacy" is false. Cell phones are radios,
and anyone with enough ambition can intercept my communications.
With that in mind, I have continued using my cell phone.
 
Next, I refuse to use a credit card, and haven't had a house
phone for years, since numerous "miscellaneous" charges appeared
on my bill, such as a "long distance access fee". So I opted
for prepay service. If the cost gets too high, I will discard
the phone or possibly give to a homeless shelter. The long term
service contracts so far aren't any less expensive than the
projected cost of my prepaid account, which so far runs about $40
per month. Remember, this is my experience. Just like on the
"nutritional information" section of food packages, your needs
may be higher or lower. A review of any cellular service
advertisements will show the monthly cost to be about the same.
 
Before purchasing a phone, I reviewed several web sites, and decided on
Nokia. But I wanted to buy the phone in person, not via the world wide
web. A call to the local Radio Shack revealed they were sold out of
Nokia phones, but Verizon Wireless had Kyocera prepaid packages. The
phone and service provider didn't much  matter as long as the "package"
was roughly the same. It had to be prepaid and the machine had to work.
It did. The added 'extras' included voice mail, short message service
(which I happily found out was another term for e-mail, limited to 160
character messages), a web "micro browser",(more on this later) an
electronic "phone book" which stores telephone numbers and e-mail
addresses, and several utility functions and games. The games I
can do without, but some of the utility functions came in handy, such
has tracking call times and setting up the micro browser. Verizon
of course, is just one service provider. Again by reviewing the
media advertisements, one can find Sprint, Centennial, Nextel,
Trac-fone and AT&T just to name a few of the big providers, plus
hundreds of smaller local providers. The maker of the phone apparently
doesn't have much to do with the service provider, if my interpretation
of the Usenet groups is correct. Kyocera, Motorola and so on will
make sure their phone works on the service provider's network, and
the service provider usually doesn't know much about the phone. If
the end user has a problem (say the micro browser doesn't work),
he or she is going to need a lot of patience...either keep conducting
research via Usenet and web sites or tactfully keep looking for someone
from the service provider or phone manufacturer who can answer their
questions.
 
The first "setup" done was the voice mail function. This required a call
to Verizon's support staff. It was about eleven at night when I called.
Apparently it was a slow time for the technician, because she finished
the task in less than two minutes. I had tried to set up the voice mail
function via Verizon's web site, but the default password was repeatedly
rejected. Apparently this was a bug in their software. Subsequent
experience has shown it is fixed. The voice mail is stored on Verizon's
network. The user guide indicates a limit of fifteen messages of two
mminutes each. The function can be configured to record the time and
date of the call, but the default is without. Every time someone leaves
a message, air time is being used up, so my number is passed out
extremely sparingly. Every time I access my voice mail air time is also
being used up. But Verizon has been generous with the number of minutes
they sell. I wanted to set up the e-mail function myself, but after a
month without success, I called Verizon's support staff again, this time
during business hours. It took about twenty minutes and two technicians,
but it was eventually discovered that the account balance had run to
zero (on the day the account was opened) and the account was blocked.
Again, this was apparently a bug in their software which has
subsequently been fixed. But the experience did cause this lesson to be
learned: Don't let the balance run to zero. A corollary: don't let the
expiration date pass without renewing the balance. As long as the user
renews the account before the expiration date, any remaining balance is
rolled into the new period. If the user uses too much time and the
balance approaches zero, a verbal warning  will be issued every time a
call is made, "Your balance is low." Let it run to zero and renewal
activation fees will be charged, plus there is a chance you might have
to get a new number. Verizon sells renewal [RE-UP] cards a several
locations in addition to their own retail stores. Seven-Eleven is one
such place. Some K-mart stores carry them. Denominations are fifteen
dollars which lasts for thirty days, thirty and fifty dollars which last
for sixty days, seventy-five and $120 which lasts for 120 days. Their web
site lists other locations. Of course, a credit card can also be used
to [RE-UP].
 
More later...

I was like a kid with a new toy with the e-mail function.  Like new
toys, some of the excitement has worn off, but I'm still impressed that
evidently a team of programmers figured out how to send text messages
over radio waves, AND the message can be entered on the keyboard of the
phone. The function has various names, "rapid text entry", ITAP, and so
on. Basically, a program compares the letters typed to possible words
with that combination of key presses. The user is presented with the
possible words and must select which word is desired, BUT, the longer
the word, the fewer possibilities exist. Essentially, any word over
four characters is the only word displayed. Shorter words such as "and",
"the", "is", and so on are usually "guessed" correctly by the software.
Just like playing a piano, some practice will quickly increase typing
speed. Both incoming and outgoing messages are limited to 160 characters,
including e-mail subject. I haven't figured out how to prevent a subject
from being included, and it is always the first few words of the
message. The charge for incoming and outgoing messages is five cents
each.
 
Regarding costs: As I said, since October of 2002 the average cost for
the cell phone has been about forty dollars per month. The rate Verizon
charges varies by time of day and my location, but NOT where I call.
Rates run from fifteen cents per minute to another Verizon customer, as
well as nights and weekends. Weekday rates are thirty five cents per
minute, unless I'm "off" the Verizon network. Rates are then ninety-nine
cents per minute. I live about fifteen miles south of the Indiana state
line. When I visit my parents, about five miles north of the state line
in Michigan, I'm off the Verizon network, and the signal degrades from
digital to analog. No e-mail is possible during that time. This is the
only instance where a long-term service contract might be nice, since I
might be able to specify what "local" calling is to me. I suspect
Verizon has a network near my parents' house, but without a contract, it
is not available to me. For now, I'm keeping things the way they are.
International calls cost ninety-nine cents per minute. As long as I'm
close to "home" (about twenty miles as long as I don't cross the state
line, apparently) anyone can call me, either from a land line or
another cell phone.
 
Sound quality: during overcast days, particularly during snow showers,
there is significant degradation of the signal. There is lots of static
on the line, or the "tenor" of the caller drops, and everyone sounds
like a baritone vocalist. Surprisingly, strong winds alone don't seem to
affect the quality of the sound, and electrical storms also don't seem
to be a problem. It seems to be how many "obstacles" are between me and
the nearast cell phone tower. Quietly falling snow seems to generate
the most interference.
 
The micro-browser: Wireless Application Protocol allows surfing the web
over the cell phone, albeit severely limited, compared to Netscape
Navigator, Internet Explorer and the like. But members of Grex can
relate to my disdain for graphical user interfaces. With the micro
browser I can fetch news, weather, sports, stock quotes and long e-mail
messages. It seems I still cannot TYPE long e-mail messages, which is
probably a limitation of the editor in the phone itself. Search engines
are available, as are some web pages, but for the most part such
experiences are better left to machines with graphical user interfaces,
or at least screens large enough to show more data than the cell phone
display can show.
 
Data connection: I bought a cable which connects the phone to my
computer, and together with the modem driver (sold separately) I can
connect to the world wide web, log into my regular e-mail account
(Grex), and surf the web. I have settled for the "2G" connection, which
the modem driver documentation warns as being very slow. They are
correct...file transfers run at about 1200 bps, even though the phone
display indicates a rate of 14.4K. But for an email connection to Grex,
it's fine.
 
I'm sure there is stuff left out. I'll add more it comes to me.
 
Gregory

Can you fill in forms on the web and use webmail to write mail?

How much does it cost to use the data connection?  Is it
per-minute or a flat rate?  I could get a lot of use out of
a flat-rate connection even at 1200 bps; it might take all
night to download some web pages, but my computer has all
night.

Do they have a privacy policy for your internet use?

Thanks a ton for the very useful information.

Keesan: If I understand your question, yes, you can transmit mail
from web-based pages, but the 160 character limit applies, including
the subject line. Anything over that limit never gets through.
 
Russ: The data connection follows the time-of-day rates. Nights and
weekends are cheapest. Weekdays are most expensive. A digital signal
is required...if you're "off the network" the job can't be done.
 
The privacy policy for internet use: maybe not anything specific,
but the terms and conditions for abuse certainly apply. Check Verizon's 
website. 

A former grexer is paying for montly cell phone service and uses a land line
while at home (which is most of the time).  What is a cheaper way to get cell
phone service, this year?  Can he pay for just the minutes he uses somehow?
Jim's sister in another state does that, pays once a year.  I think his
monthly service is about $40 and is supposed to be 'basic'.  I can get him
longdistance service on a land phone for 2.4 cents/minute.  I don't think he
uses the cell phone many minutes a month.

One can consider a cell phone as an alternative to a land line, or one can
consider a cell phone as an insurance policy when travelling away from the
land line. We don't have many "emergencies" when travelling, but the few we
have had convinced us to obtain cell phones as more insurance than as
regular phone service. 

He does not drive.  I think he wants to be able to get calls at work.
What does your emergency phone policy cost?

$40 per month for two phones (with their own numbers). 

Of course, having met the emergency requirement, we do use the phones
for the conveniences they offer. 

Is there any cheaper way than $40 a month to use a cell phone for an hour or
so a month?  

You could borrow someone else's. For most people it wouldn't cost them
anything, as most people don't use their included minutes. Which makes me
wonder why there isn't some kind of cell-phone cooperative, just for such use.
It might be because *most* cell phone users feel a personal sense of power
owning a cell phone, in addition to the possible personalizations. (We use
it for a phone-number list even if we call on our land line - one of those
"conveniences".)

Our daughter has elected to not have a land-line, even though she can't make
cell-phone calls from inside her apartment due to the poor signal there. 

It turns out that he is actually using all 600 minutes he pays for, at about
$40/month (and he gets free weekend minutes).  Is there any plan significantly
cheaper than this for 600 minutes of local calls?  

Three years later.  The latest owner of the local phone company (AT&T) has 
decided to stop charging me for a party line with 40 calls (they are less 
regulated than they used to be) at a location where we only make a few 
calls a month.  Non-party line with 50 calls/month is about $25.  What do 
prepaid cell phones cost nowadays and how long do you have to use up the 
minutes?  What is the cheapest way to make a few phone calls a month?
Is it cheaper if you only have local service?  

Most of the calls made to that number are from a block away, and we could 
use a cordless phone instead (except I think we recycled them all).

I occasionally use this line for internet but the next door neighbor offered
to share broadband (if we provide the wireless router and set it up).

My cell phone service is around $5 a month.  Works great for my needs.  I'm
with Virgin Mobile on a  plan where I don't get monthly bills but rather they
take $15 out of my checking account every three  months or if my balance goes
below $5.00.  Any money in your account at that 3 month point simply  accrues.
I don't make a lot of cell phone calls but I don't tend to resent the ones I do
either even  though I know I'm charged by the minute.  I mean, as long as I'm
in the $5-$7 range per month - no big  deal.  I'm especially fond of not
getting bills in the mail with lots of additional taxes and fees.

Virgin Mobile is on the Sprint network so I get reasonable coverage.  There is
no roaming which is  fine by me. The plan comes with all the basic stuff, like
voice mail, caller ID, IM,  three way calling, yadda, yadda, yadda. I had to
buy the phone.  I've had this service for maybe the  past 4 years and I'm very
happy with it.

We have not used cell phones and don't know what yadda even includes.  How
much does the phone cost?  Would any used phone work?  Do you get some basic
minutes for your $15/3 months?  

My phone was $80 and takes pictures.  Cheaper phones are available.  I 
don't think just any phone works - you'd have to check with Virgin Mobile.   
My plan works out to 18 cents per minute. 

A friend stopped by who uses the same company.  He pays $20 or $25 a quarter
and 25 cents/minute for the first 10 min or so then 10 cents/minute and gets.
For all short phone calls this would come to about 100 minutes, or 1 min/day.
If he does not use all the minutes they carry over to the next quarter.  $25
or $50 for the phone, he thinks.

Virgin Mobile site http://virginmobileusa.com
Minute plans.  $20 for 200 minutes used in 30 days. 10 cents/min.
$30 for 400, $50 for 1000 (5 cents).  200 minutes is about 6 hours.  Regular
phone is $25 for 50 calls (you can go over 4 minutes each call).

By the minute 20 cents/minute, or pay $7/month for 10 cents/minute.
Text and messaging $5/month=200 (200 messages or 200 minutes)?
10 cent per text, email or IM - is this in addition to the $5/month?
Can you use the phone only for 'text and messaging' (does this include
emails?).

Plus taxes and surcharges except for the 18 cents or 20/10 cents talk.
(Did I miss 18 cents?).

You can send a text message to a telephone number and have it read to them.
Or get sports scores or joke of the day.

They suggest shortcuts awsm and ih8u.  Download ringtones.

Walmart sells various brands - does one have to go to a store?
We don't live anywhere near one.


Net10 phones are $60 includes 300 minutes (equivalent to $30 for the 
phone).  $30 for 300 minutes must use within 60 days.  This is $15/month.

Tracfone phones are $10.  Extra for voice mail or caller ID.  $50 with 
camera and bluetooth.   450 minutes for $80 must use in 90 days.  This is 
at least $25/month (same number of minutes as Net10).

Virgin Mobile phones $30 with text messaging, speakerphone,
and voice activated dialing.  $50 with camera and color screen.
Walmart sells prepaid cards but not the above plans.

For low usage Virgin Mobile is cheapest (nothing, if not used).  By the 
minute 30 min/month = $6, 100 min $20.  By the month $20 for 200 min.

Net10 is $15 for 150 minutes.

Does the phone ring if you get a text message?

$10 free shipping to get a non-camera Kyocera Marbl for Virgin Mobile.  20
cents/minute.  We can call between houses with a walkie talkie for free (a
block away).  Forget AT&T.  DO you have to use one of their phones?  Jim has
a PalmONE TREO that only needs a charger and has a keyboard.

For text messaging (email or between phones) you need to use AOL or Yahoo mail
(meaning you cannot get your regular mail).

Radio Shack is selling the Marbl phones for $8 until Jan 3 - I hope they can
explain how to get them working (how we provide bank info).  Four for the
price of one month of non-party line.  It used to be $17 not $30.  Even if
we talk for 200 min/month it is cheaper ($20).  With two of these I can text
message Jim to come back for supper, for ten cents.  Do they ring if you get
a text message?

On my phone I can select a notification sound for an incoming text 
message, voice mail alert, etc., and they can all be the same sound or 
different.  I bet a bell sound is in there, somewhere, but it won't 
continuously alert until answered.  You do get a visual icon that 
persists to let you know something new is available.

My advice would be to rethink saving money by purchasing the Marbl.  I 
checked out Radio Shack's website and the reviews of that phone say it's 
a piece of junk.  Treat yourself to something that will work well and 
last.  Just this once. ;-)

By the way, Virgin Mobile doesn't advertise that $15/3 month plan.  It 
will only show-up when you are offered a top-up option.  If you agree to 
let VM automatically deduct when your balance is below $5 or you've hit 
the end of a 3 month period, then you can pay as little as $15.  If you 
instead respond to their notifications and manually make a payment, then 
the least you can pay to keep your account active is $20 for 3 months.

Thanks for that useful information.   
I found an online wireless phone review site and Virgin along with most of
the others had terrible reviews.  (Several of them claimed to be 'the worst
in the US').  Did you ever have problems getting through to customer support,
or being overcharged?  I suspect 17 pages of reviews means they are a popular
company therefore more people, and more problems.

I am checking out Pages Plus of Holland OH that uses Verizon network and you
can use any old Verizon phone (or buy a $20 used LG from them).  They got
excellent reviews, and are 6-12 cents/minute expiring in 120 days.  $5 ebay
activation gets you $10 of minutes (or one hour?).  After which $10 every 4
months (half the price of Virgin) and 12 cents/min or less (depends how many
minutes you buy at one time).  Free long distance.  Not much fancy stuff.
Kiwanis has $2 used cell phones.  So for $7 we can experiment for 120 days
(plus 12 cents/minute after the first hour).  Assuming one of the Kiwanis
phones has a chargeable battery (we can test them there or here).

One company's minutes expired in 7 days.  

I've never had to contact Virgin Mobile's customer support so I can't 
report anything useful there.  I do like my VM web page where I can 
monitor and make changes to my account - very user friendly.

I suspect that the large number of complaints is proportional to the large
number of customers.
Pages Plus emailed me back immediately with a list of two local stores
(neither of which was found by searching on 48103 at their site), and they
do cover Ann Arbor.  Today we biked around looking at cell phones - Radio
Shack and K-Mart both have Virgin, T-Mobile, AT&T, Net10, in plastic things
hanging on pegs, with glossy color brochures.  Verizon has its own store. 
By the time we got there it was rather snowy and there were 7 employees
answering all our questions.  They looked up Jim's Treo (it needs a charger
but may work) and explained that the same model phone comes set up for
different wireless services, however this one could not even be set up for
theirs.  I think Virgin uses AT&T, which it would work for.

Their low-use deal was $25 for a phone after rebate, $25 for activation, $100
for a year's worth of 8 cent minutes plus $1/day any day we used the service,
or 0 cents/minute calling Verizon customers.  

Pages Plus is as low as 6 cents/minute, $20 (or less if free) for a phone,
$5 for activation minus $10 for starter minutes, so we could try it out for
the cost of a phone plus $5.

I presume Verizon has excellent customer reviews but it offers more than we
need for a higher price.  They showed us a map of where you can get free
roaming (part of SE Michigan) with pay as you go.  

We don't roam.  We rarely call anyone.  $10 for four months of 'insurance'.

We then walked to Staples, and the library, and Kroger, and back in the snow.
Does anyone reading this have an old Verizon phone (I think it needs to be
GPS-enabled due to some law) that they don't want?  Cracked LCD, scratched...
Just as an experiment.

Someone suggested a $20 pair of walkie talkies that can reach 3 miles.  I
found them for 2 miles (in theory, if no obstructions).  Longer range ones
require an $80 license.  No charge for minutes.  Ideal for calling Jim to
supper from a block away where a cordless phone did not quite reach.  We could
also pay $10/4 months for cell phone for emergency.  Does anyone have walkie
talkie experience?  Barbie kids' phones have a 5' range, says one review.

What does a homing pigeon cost?

I asked for ideas on a washtenaw county mail list and someone suggested
piggy-backing on a friend's Verizon account for $10/month, which provides 700
minutes and unlimited text messages and nights and weekends.  If it goes over
83 min/month I will consider that.  He offered us a used Verizon phone but
it is an hour's bike NE of here in dry weather.  A friend offered a walkie
talkie.  I have never used either before.

We took the kiwanis rummage sale cell phones to a cell phone store to find
out which ones were still usable.  Of about 50, one was new enough and the
others won't work with current equipment.  Kiwanis has used CB radios, same
range as a long-range walkie talkie but no license needed, and they don't need
batteries because you just plug them into the wall (or a car if you prefer).
12V DC.  We tested two, one with 40 and one with 3 channels.  Nobody else was
talking on any of the channels.  These should work fine for calling when the
other of us is online, or for fetching Jim from one block away to supper.
I cancelled my building site phone, which had started at $12, gone up $5, and
was about to go up another $7.  What we save in one month will buy two radios.
You can also get regular radios with CB band reception.

They have either squelch (eliminate hiss, which I think is just high
frequency) or distance control (local or long distance - similar to regular
radios again).  You push something to talk, and unpush it to listen.
Just make sure we leave one plugged in nearby if we are going to be online
and want the other person to reach us.

I, too, need to find a cell phone that's inexpensive, doesn't require a
contract [I need a pay-as-I-go type plan] that works more reliably than my
trac phone... This would be to take with me when I go places so if/when my
car breaks down again or other emergencies, I'll be able to call for help.

A friend of mine has one such plan through MetroPCS--but when she was at my
house several months ago, she wasn't able to get a signal to make a call. My
housemate has T-Mobile that if it weren't for the fact that we have wireless
internet, he wouldn't be able to call out from here, either [but he is able
to use the wireless to make it work]. 

I do have a land line where I have unlimited local calls and for $4.00/month
and 5 cents a minute, I get my long distance calls.  But with living in Ypsi
Township [several miles south of the city] with somewhat unreliable transpor-
tation, I need a phone that I can take with me. Something I can get without
a credit check...

I get long distance calls for 2.5 cents/minute and 59 cents/month fee, 
from ECG.  www.myecg.com.  They have been very honest and helpful. They 
buy service from QUEST, which retails for more.

The hiss on a CB radio, which is FM, is the noise you get on any FM radio when
tuned to where there is no station. The squelch silences the radio until a
strong enough signal is received. 

FRS "walkie talkies" require no license. They usually require batteries.
You're better off with a pair of CBs that can be left plugged in. 

Re 31, thanks for the squelch info.  Two radios had that, and two instead had
a slider switch for local to distant (adjusts output power).  Does squelch
also reduce higher frequency noise when you do have a strong signal?  Our
voices sounded boomy (low frequency emphasized).

We would need to remember to move the CB radios to where we were working or
using a computer, since they don't ring all over the house like phones.

Jim thinks you can plug in walkie talkies instead of bothering with batteries,
which would continue to drain when on standby.

The squelch does not affect the "tone". That's determined mostly by the 
audio circuitry and speaker. They aren't designed for "hi fi". 

If you can get them cheaply, just put CB radios all over the house. That 
makes them intercoms too. 

Our house is not large enough to need an intercom.  You can always open the
door to upstairs or the cellar and yell.

I can get AT&T broadband for $15/month, less than the cancelled phone line.
Maybe some day.  I don't like their website.

Then don't use it as an intercom - just have lots of sets to communicate
between houses from nearly any room.

One set would do my entire apartment, next to the computer, which is where
I would be if I were online tying up the phone.  Just remember to plug in the
transformer.  If I am not online I can be reached by phone.  The building site
is the only place we would move a set around, depending where someone is
working, since there is no longer a phone there.  

  I used to have cricket, which became revol. they have unlimited calling for
about 50 bucks, long distance included. fine. The only drawback is when you
leave lucas county (toledo) you lose your phone. I cannot begin to tell you
how much that reeks.
  I now have t-mobile. Prepaid, 300 minutes a month, free nights and weekends,
and 400 text messages. I never thought I'd need texting. I cannot live without
it. I'm having fun with my texts. 
  I do not lose my phone when I leave lucas county. No roaming. Its pretty
awesome, and I can pay my bill online, thus eliminating the need for paper
bills. I do not like extra useless paper. Oh and my phone is a motorola green
phone. Made from water bottles. entirely plastic, and works really well. No
camera, but I don't need one. I have 2 digicams already.

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