[vox] cell phone contracts

[Peter Jay Salzman]

On Mon 27 Nov 06,  8:37 PM, Dave Margolis <dave at silogram.net> said:
> On Nov 26, 2006, at 9:02 AM, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> 
> >Well, that sunk it.  I'm now the proud owner of a Treo 700p.
> 
> Eww...I'm jealous.  Assuming you don't mind sharing, can I got some  
> details on how much you're paying for data access and through which  
> provider?  Cingular wants $45 on top of their regular voice fees and  
> this is just inane to me.  I like T-mobile's $20 charge for unlimited  
> data usage but I've had less success with the reception of T-mobile  
> than Cingular where I live and work.

Phone:

The thing lists at a whopping $650.00, which is totally out of my league.
Sprint had a special 250.00 off, and there was another $100 off for a
mail-in rebate.  The thing only cost me $300.

Contract:

I was getting effed in the ay on my Verizon contract.  $40 for 300 minutes.
Nights started at 9pm.  5 free text messages a month.  The only special
features my phone had was camera/camcorder.  But it cost me money to mail
data files to my email account.  Barebones and expensive.

Sprint's voice service is $30 for 200 minutes (which is fine, since I'm not
really a phone person anyhow).  But nights start at 7pm!  Unlimited text
messages.  The data is only $15/month.  That includes a bunch of TV channels
and apparently Sirius radio (haven't even begun to play with a fraction of
the featuers yet.  I'm still in shock over this thing).

So I'm only paying $5/month more for my Treo (Sprint) than I was for bare
bones Verizon, which includes movies, TV, mp3player, Sirius radio, access to
my email, and a plan more suited to my talking habits.  I get unlimited web
and data access.

Honestly, I couldn't possibly be happier.  I never thought a Treo was within
my reach.

I've heard the 700p rocks over the 700w (people say the 700w screen looks
washed out by comparison, and it's at a lower resolution).

Comparing Sprint to Verizon:

I believe that Verizon's plan was $80/month.  That's a full $35 more than
what I'm paying with Sprint.  Also, dialup networking has been disabled on
Verizon's 700p but not on Sprint's 700p.

Unfortunately, I think the $150 off deal ended on Sunday.  However, the
contract is still great.

Note that if you got a "normal" web/data phone from Sprint, you can get
unlimited web and data for only $5/month.  The Treo needs the more expensive
$15/month, which is still a great deal compared to Verizon's $40/month.

Pete