by
justeps » Tue Jul 03, 2012 11:49 am
Good luck with that. Let us know how it works out for you.
Seriously, though, a lot depends on your needs and your preferences.
Let's start with some basics. There's a lot of ground to cover, so I'm going to refer you to San Francisco-based nonprofit Consumer Action, which recently revised their Cell Phone Savvy Training Manual. You'll find it, and several related articles, here:
http://www.consumer-action.org/english/library/C32/
Caveat: AT&T helped fund this, hence it's not as impartial as it could be. (It's still a pretty good introduction.)
You could be looking at a major purchase, especially if you're considering locking yourself into a two-year contract that will end up costing thousands of dollars over the course of its term. Do your research! I can't stress this enough.
Do your research!
See whether traditional postpaid service works for you. This is my personal opinion, but "all things considered," I rank the major players thus:
Sprint ("best")
T-Mobile
Verizon
AT&T ("worst")
They all have brick and mortar stores; go in and browse. Ask questions. If you find something you like, don't rush into a purchase. You could get a better deal online through the carrier's own website, or by picking up the phone and talking to a telesales representative. Or, you may find attractive special offers at Best Buy, Costco, Radio Shack, or Walmart, or online through Amazon or Wirefly. Also, see if you're eligible for any discounts based on employment or organizational affiliation. Even doing something as simple as joining a credit union can qualify you for a monthly service discount, waive activation fees, etc.
A lot of people are very happy with prepaid services, which can be subsidiaries of major carriers (e.g. Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile), or Mobile Virtual Network Operators (e.g. TracFone, CREDO Mobile). You can potentially save a lot of money here, but you need to pay close attention to detail; there are a lot of "gotchas" that can end up costing you.
There are a whole bunch of second and third tier companies, including some pretty exotic alternatives, such as Republic Wireless. Do your research!
Things change very rapidly in this industry: follow
http://www.bgr.com/ for a mainstream perspective;
http://www.dailywireless.org/ may be a little too technical for non-geeks.
--Eric
