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| Author |
Message |
mary
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Cell Phones for Long Distance
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Oct 9 13:28 UTC 2000 |
My son is going to school in New Brunswick, New Jersey. His girlfriend is
in East Lansing. He doesn't have a land-based telephone in his apartment
but instead has put an answering machine on his office telephone which
takes care of all of his local telephone needs but he can't place long
distance calls from there.
After looking into it some I think his best option (short of continuing
to make long distance calls on our calling card) is to get a Sprint
PCS account, where his cell phone has an East Lansing area code (517).
Right now, with a one year contract, he'll get free long distance
on 500 minutes per month, for $30 a month.
So if his girlfriend calls him she to either have a conversation or
leave voice mail it will be a local call for her. If he calls her
it's simply minutes used toward the 500 per month. If she does
reach him it also uses his minutes.
This comes out to about 6 cents a minute for long distance if
he uses them all. And he doesn't have to deal with Bell Atlantic.
The phone goes with him, wherever. He has voice mail and caller
ID in the package.
Does this sound like the way to go?
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| 30 responses total. |
jp2
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response 1 of 30:
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Oct 9 14:34 UTC 2000 |
This response has been erased.
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jazz
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response 2 of 30:
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Oct 9 14:51 UTC 2000 |
What does coverage where Jamie lives have to do with #0?
Sprint's coverage on the east coast, in general, is pretty comparable
with Verizon's.
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rcurl
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response 3 of 30:
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Oct 9 18:19 UTC 2000 |
There are so many possible services and combinations that it may be
impossible to find the "best". Our daughter is at college, so we
got an 800 number at $0.069/min (6 sec billing, no minimums, monthly or
other fees), and use 10-10-811 at $0.05/min (10 min minimum, no
monthly or other fees). This doesn't have the additional advantages
offered by a cell phone, but it is how we resolved the problem. AT&T
was bleeding us.
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mary
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response 4 of 30:
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Oct 9 18:26 UTC 2000 |
How does that 10-10-811 work? Do you set it up using a
credit or debit card?
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ric
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response 5 of 30:
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Oct 9 19:05 UTC 2000 |
Mary - Sprint would be an excellent solution, provided that he's got coverage
where he's at. Check their web site for coverage maps at www.sprintpcs.com
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gull
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response 6 of 30:
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Oct 9 19:21 UTC 2000 |
If the phone is local to East Lansing, and he's using it in New Jersey,
won't he get socked with big roaming charges?
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tod
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response 7 of 30:
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Oct 9 19:24 UTC 2000 |
Send him some headphones and a mic and tell him to use dialpad.com for
free like the rest of us whitepeople.
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rcurl
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response 8 of 30:
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Oct 9 19:49 UTC 2000 |
10-10-811 is like the other 10-10s - they bill your phone service. We
also have a phone card from the same company as our 800 number - ATN -
for use away from home. That costs $0.14/min, also with no surcharges,
mimimums, monthly charges, and with 6-sec billing. Most of our calls
away from home are usually to home, so then we use the 800 number.
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tod
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response 9 of 30:
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Oct 9 20:24 UTC 2000 |
Tell him to use Net2phone.com's phone card. 1 cent a minute nationwide.
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katie
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response 10 of 30:
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Oct 10 01:14 UTC 2000 |
I have Verizon. It sucks. So does local Verizon.
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ric
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response 11 of 30:
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Oct 10 01:22 UTC 2000 |
r 6 - no, most of the digital carries don't charge any roaming fees as long
as you are within their network. In otherwords, if he buys the phone in East
Lansing and gets a 517 area code number, he can take in anywhere in the
country where Sprint has service. With the right plan, he pays no long
distance when he calls anywhere in the United States (that's the typical
Sprint PCS plan). And since his number is a local number in East Lansing,
she doesn't pay any long distance to call him. Just the airtime minutes,
which are pretty cheap at $30 per 500
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scg
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response 12 of 30:
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Oct 10 02:19 UTC 2000 |
Given the numbers there for Sprint service, even if you use all the lcoal
available minutes, ATT long distance on a residential phone line may still
be cheaper.
The cell carriers let you roam without paying roaming charges now, but if he
gets a phone that's local to somewhere in Michigan, and makes most of his
calls from New Jersey over several months, the cellular carrier is likely to
notice that and assign him a New Jersey phone number instead. Also, you'd
have to make sure that his 517 number is local to East Lansing, and not
Gaylord or some such place. Cell phones aren't local to their whole area code
anymore unless the area code is pretty small.
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mcnally
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response 13 of 30:
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Oct 10 03:16 UTC 2000 |
Definitely check with the carrier to find out what percentage of
calls have to be made from within the phone's "home coverage area"
Even on plans that are supposedly without roaming charges, you can
incur substantial additional charges if you make all, or nearly all,
of your calls from another area.
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eeyore
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response 14 of 30:
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Oct 10 03:16 UTC 2000 |
Mary: Go the route my mom goes with her kids.....
There is a calling card at (I think) Costco. She uses it at home instead of
using the regular in-state long distance or when calling Germany, because it
comes out to *so* much less. It runs her about $17 to add 300 minutes to it.
(she just calls and puts it on her credit card). It's the cheapest card I've
ever seen, and can be used from anywhere.
I can get more details if you want.
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scg
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response 15 of 30:
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Oct 10 06:03 UTC 2000 |
That's about 5.7 cents per minute. My service is cheaper, assuming that's
not 300 minutes of calls to Germany for $17.
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rcurl
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response 16 of 30:
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Oct 10 06:10 UTC 2000 |
Does that Cosco card have any hidden costs? Any call, anywhere, at any
time, is $0.057/min? No minimum? How about use on pay-phones? Any
time limit on card use?
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ball
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response 17 of 30:
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Oct 10 07:08 UTC 2000 |
Re #4: That's Vartec telecom and I would seriously advise
against getting involved with them. Their incompetence
is unparalleled in my experience. =o(
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eeyore
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response 18 of 30:
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Oct 10 12:45 UTC 2000 |
Rane: no hidden costs, works fine on payphones, no limits, etc. Believe me,
I'd have heard about them, with the way my mom was raving about the card last
weekend.
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rcurl
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response 19 of 30:
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Oct 10 16:45 UTC 2000 |
I suppose, then, that they can do it because of the "float" - they have
your money while you are spending down the card. (This is how my online
bank makes its money on its "free" service - they take the payment out
of my account immediately, but don't have to pay the payee until the
payment reaches them.)
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scg
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response 20 of 30:
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Oct 10 17:29 UTC 2000 |
I used to use 10-10-811 to call England, since it was 10 cents per minute and
my home long distance carrier was something like 60 cents per minute to
England. I think ATT is down to somewhere around 10 cents a minute to
England, maybe even cheaper than that, at this point.
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rcurl
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response 21 of 30:
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Oct 10 19:27 UTC 2000 |
ATT has been adjusting their rates to compete, but they are not down to
$0.05/min for domestic calls, yet.
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jp2
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response 22 of 30:
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Oct 10 19:51 UTC 2000 |
This response has been erased.
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ashke
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response 23 of 30:
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Oct 10 20:30 UTC 2000 |
Wow, Mary, I'm impressed. You are trying to find a way for his GF to call
him cheap? Most people I know of wouldn't care. The way I am planning to
go is getting a pre-paid cel. Because my income fluctuates, I would rather
get one I can pay into for use, than have to know I have to come up with $30
a month or more with all my other bills if I use it or not. I'm just planning
to have it for emergencies. However, I'm not sure how old your son is, but
can't you just tell him to get another card to use? LIke Meg said, the
pre-paid ones? There are some as well as Sam's Club, AT&T, .09 a minute card,
1000 for $54. There are lesser denominations.
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scg
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response 24 of 30:
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Oct 10 21:46 UTC 2000 |
I think I'm paying something like 4.9 cents per minute for ATT service, but
I'd have to check.
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