need help with cell phone choice

[freecia]

A few points
1) You'll need to upgrade/update your plan to a data plan with most smart phones. This means your plan will change and have a new 2 year agreement.
2) Since you're at 7 years, you should shop the other carriers as well to see if you like what they offer in terms of price. You can "port" your number to other carriers.
Billshrink.com will help compare different phones and phone plans.
3) Most smart phone plans will be over $60 a month, just something to keep in mind.

Youtube has a lot of phone preview/review/demos. You can watch people use them and their opinions before narrowing it down to a few and stopping by the store to poke at them.

 

[marsh0013]

question for those of you that switched to virgin mobile - did you get to keep your same phone number? i read somewhere that that was an issue. i'm seriously considering switching as i don't really use the phone to call, but text a whole lot. going from ~$75-$80/month with verizon to ~$25 with virgin sounds real good to me

 

[SarahKate]

Have had AT&T for a number of years and never any reception problems. I think it all depends on where you're at. If you've had AT&T all along and have been happy with the service, no reason to change! ALL the carriers have their issues. Any opinions that people have are subjective - plenty think AT&T is evil, while others think that about Sprint, Verizon, etc.

I got my iPhone almost 2 yrs ago - and just about a month ago I upgraded to the iPhone 4. If you're wondering about which version to get, 4 is the most recent. With technology, I definitely would not recommend going backwards! There were some issues when it was first released this summer, but I've not had a single issue. There was a reception issue, but if you have a case (which you HAVE to have!), then you shouldn't have the problem.

It's fast, beautiful display, and I don't know what I ever did before my iPhone! Unless you will be on the internet NONSTOP, you would be fine with their data plans. They aren't truly unlimited from what I'm told, but for a normal user should be more than adequate.

There's also texting which AT&T charges you for, but there are also low-cost apps (the one I have is 3.99 for a yr) you can purchase which allow you to send free texts.

Very, very happy AT&T customer here! The iPHone is very easy to use, intuitive, etc. Some people don't like the touch screen for sending emails/texts but I got used to it fairly soon.

 

[torinsmom]

question for those of you that switched to virgin mobile - did you get to keep your same phone number? i read somewhere that that was an issue. i'm seriously considering switching as i don't really use the phone to call, but text a whole lot. going from ~$75-$80/month with verizon to ~$25 with virgin sounds real good to me

I kept my number. You have to call VM and have them help you program your phone for the port. DO NOT call and cancel your service with the other provider first, because it has to be an in service number for them to port it. I called and set it up, and within 2 hours, my AT&T phone stopped working and my VM phone was activated. I was told there could be a few hours where neither phone worked(there wasn't), so I activated DS' first and then once his was done, I called back for mine. No problems at all.

 

[crazelion]

I have unlocked Nokia E63 smartphone and only pay 15.00 dollars for the internet.

I went this because I refused to pay 30.00 dollars for a data plan.

 

[marsh0013]

I kept my number. You have to call VM and have them help you program your phone for the port. DO NOT call and cancel your service with the other provider first, because it has to be an in service number for them to port it. I called and set it up, and within 2 hours, my AT&T phone stopped working and my VM phone was activated. I was told there could be a few hours where neither phone worked(there wasn't), so I activated DS' first and then once his was done, I called back for mine. No problems at all.

thanks so much. can't wait to switch and save money!