Cell phone only plans

Posted on May 2, 2005 4 Comments

People get fed up with cell phone-only users. My mom, for instance, insists on leaving me voice mail messages saying “NIC, PICK UP YOUR PHONE! PICK UP, PICK UP, PICK UP!!!” I keep telling her it doesn’t work like an answering machine, but she thinks I should be accessible at all times on the cell and must be ignoring her if I don’t answer. Sigh.

Though land lines offer much more consistent service than most cell phone providers, many people I know choose not to use them, opting for cell-only coverage. For me, it makes the most sense. Why would I pay for two phone services?

Currently, Brian and I split a Sprint plan for roughly $90 per month ($45 for me) which includes free unlimited Sprint-to-Sprint minutes, no roaming in the U.S. and I think 400 anytime minutes (which we never use because all our friends and family are on Sprint). It actually ends up being way cheaper than a land line, since I basically make all my long-distance calls for free.

In Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, Carolyn Bigda makes the case for wireless-only plans. Find the article here (free registration required):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/sns-yourmoney-0501gettingstarted,0,3833846.story

For those of you familiar with the site, you’ll know that Carolyn is one of my favorite journalists to link to. Her “Getting Started” column is right up my alley and offers great stats and research (while most of my writing is strictly anecdotal). If I ever met her, I’d thank her for the content.

Share
Category: Old Posts

Comments

4 Responses to “Cell phone only plans”

  1. wannabe_ceo
    May 3rd, 2005 @ 11:40 pm

    I too am wireless only although the VoIP market is looking very interesting.
    If my phone signal bars stopping randomly dropping from 3 to 0, I’d be a lot happier.

  2. Chloe
    May 4th, 2005 @ 2:04 pm

    I was wireless only but found I couldn’t get reliable service in my apartment at all. So I got a landline and I’m much happier.

    I do get very aggravated though when people think that just because you have a phone (cell or land for that matter) that you should always be there to pick it up.

    A cell phone is for my convenience, not yours :)

  3. Budgeting & Personal Finance
    May 13th, 2005 @ 2:27 am

    I use voice over IP (Vonage) and it is very cheap and has every feature under the sun included. Sometimes the technology is a little raw though. I find that the traditional telephone IP and the cell phone is the cheapest combination. Eventually when the cell phone doesn’t charge you for incoming calls, most everyone will just go to the cell phone

  4. Joe Muka
    October 3rd, 2005 @ 2:29 pm

    Just checking out blogs for ideas to add to my site about based business home opportunity voip and other voip stuff. (I know its a boring subject) I liked your site

Leave a Reply





  • Sponsors