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Cell Phone Info....
Vortigern
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So it's possible that I'm the sole remaining person in the world without a cell phone. Until lately the need for one has been underwhelming, but lately the need has been growing due to being out of the house more and the like. So I've started looking over phones, carriers, and plans, and the result I have so far is that it's one very confusing mess with lots of little pitfalls in the whole thing. Maybe some of you guys can offer candid advice here.
I'm in Toronto, Canada. I'm looking at replacing my landline with a cell. GSM isn't required, but I'd like to combine my gadgets into 1 item if possible (PDA, MP3, phone), so a Blackberry was the phone I've been considering.
I know all the current providers, excepting Rogers (and Fido) are CDMA, but new providers are due to come online this summer. Can I use a Blackberry on a CDMA network as a phone and not worry about the data stuff? I don't plan to use the web or email, etc from it, I just want the PDA apps and such for use on the phone itself. Even texting is optional. I can't currently see myself texting much, if at all.
So advice? Experiences? Am I better off just keeping my landline?
I'm in Toronto, Canada. I'm looking at replacing my landline with a cell. GSM isn't required, but I'd like to combine my gadgets into 1 item if possible (PDA, MP3, phone), so a Blackberry was the phone I've been considering.
I know all the current providers, excepting Rogers (and Fido) are CDMA, but new providers are due to come online this summer. Can I use a Blackberry on a CDMA network as a phone and not worry about the data stuff? I don't plan to use the web or email, etc from it, I just want the PDA apps and such for use on the phone itself. Even texting is optional. I can't currently see myself texting much, if at all.
So advice? Experiences? Am I better off just keeping my landline?
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landline? that's like a cellphone that's connected to a wire, and can only be used in the house, right?
my parents told me about those... also something about having to walk uphill in knee deep snow both ways to use one, but i'm digressing
serious answer: ask people in your area about which service is best... this really does vary greatly, and will really impact your ability to stay in touch if you pick a shitty service
most companies in the US will not sell you a blackberry without activating the data plan... that said, many will let you cancel the data plan right after you get the phone, but i can't guarantee this
if you're planning on getting a BB w/out a data plan, definitely get one with Wi-Fi... you'll get lots of use out of the phone at hotspots (and when blatantly stealing unsecured interwebs in any city)
So far I'm unable to form a concensus of opinion. Well, beyond the "It doesn't matter, you'll be bill-raped no matter who you pick." theory. Hence my turning to the internet and it's anonymous masses.
I want the BB for the apps and my desire to have 1 gadget, not 3 in my jacket/pack. Otherwise, I'd use it to talk to people. I have multiple computers for almost everything else.
I am envious that you currently have no cell phone. The only reason I carry my BB is it is work provided and my job requires I carry it. My wife and I own no personal cellphones, no GPS devices -- beyond my BB -- and I love being able to go out and not worry about being tethered to tech on the rare occasion I can leave my BB at home.
My opinion is keep the landline, and to hell with all the impatient people who feel they cannot wait to get a hold of you. Unless you are the one who is driving the push, then, uh..get a BB. BB's come in CDMA and GSM flavors, but illig is correct in that most providers will force the data plan on you. If you really do not need the phone portion, I suppose an ipod touch would work.
For example, my boyfriend and I got an iPhone after Christmas. It is an incredible piece of technology, it has a ton of neat apps, it can play music and watch YouTube videos and calculate driving directions on the fly. It also cost us $200 up front, and about $115 every month (for the basic data/voice plan, plus an add-on bundle that gives us visual voicemail and a couple of other things).
To my boyfriend, it's worth it - he gets a lot of use out of the thing, and he's probably going to start developing apps for it soon, so ideally it will end up paying for itself. But personally, I don't much care for it. Oh, it's great when I'm the passenger in a car and need to look something up, but for everyday use, I infinitely prefer to just toss my tiny little Sansa MP3 player into my pocket, tuck my dirt-cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone into my bag, and take off. My Sansa is a better MP3 player than the iPhone because I can actually control it without pulling it out of my pocket to use the touchscreen, and while the cell phone doesn't have nifty-keen features like visual voicemail, it sends and receives text messages just fine.
Is your desire to have one gadget worth paying $100+ per month? Only you can decide, but I know that in my case, I'd rather use the gadgets I have. They work better anyway.
For us Southerners (US), it's pretty hard/impossible to buy a Blackberry or iPhone without signing up for some type of datplan; other than buying one though eBay, etc.
Maybe buy a disposible phone for awhile, and see how much you actually use it.
I have a Sansa (nice Kate) and it works fine. I'm always a bit irritated by having multiple gadgets when I can get one gadget that covers my bases. Taking my mp3 out to chance a track or playlist, etc isn't going to kill me. Now, if getting a Blackberry can only be done with a data plan (I was thinking I'd just buy and unlocked Curve, after I have a chance to look one over for real) then the entire idea is shot since I don't want to pay for that and effectively won't. Then I'll end up either maintaining the status quo or getting a cell and something like an iTouch. The iPhone is a slick means of doing everything I want, but with only Rogers selling them and the requirements to getting it going the iPhone isn't on my list. I"m also not wild about the $600 price tag for the phone (that's assuming no multi-year contract).
So no, I don't NEED a cell, I'd like to have that instead of my landline, but not in addition to. If I don't want people calling me at a given moment, then I turn it off. It's not for work, it's for personal use and I have no qualms about turning it of when I want some solitude. I have no issue letting my answering machine take a message now, I doubt this would be different.
Some people don't mind having multiple gadgets that do one or two things each and having them around as needed. I don't freak out over it either, but I do like the idea of one thing that does it all for me. It's understood that the one thing won't do it all perfectly, but if I can find a model that does it well in my eyes then I'm good to go. I'm been wrestling with the BB solution vs. the iTouch (it's verra slick IMO) and a phone. Also just leaving things as is, but being able to get in touch while onroute or as I'm getting off the bike trail and seeing if someone wants to grab a pint or meet up in an hour for a movie, etc is becoming more and more popular an idea to me since I've moved into the city proper.
It's the existing service providers who trip me up a bit. Seems like there's often a hook in all of it, and I'm curious if people favour one over another and why. This isn't something I'm doing this week, this is me planning a possible change for a month or two down the road.
As for what type of phone, data plans, etc. etc., I'd recommend seeing if you can do what my girlfriend has done. She got an HTC S621 (smartphone, full keyboard, all that good stuff) with a Rogers pay as you go plan. The only thing she pays for is phone call minutes and text messages, and those are only billed when she sends or receives texts or voice calls. She spends very little on her phone bill. When she wants to use data services, she uses wireless hotspots using the phone's built-in Wifi support. Our home has a wireless AP, most of the coffee shops she goes to has free Wifi, and the school where she works and studies also has Wifi all over the place. It's extremely rare for her to find herself in need of some kind of data connection but not in an area where she can get free Wifi. She's actually deliberately broken the 3G data service configuration in her phone so it's not possible for her to accidentally use the Rogers data network.
You can do this with almost any phone that has Wifi support. She uses an HTC S621 and likes it, I have a Nokia E71 (fantastic smartphone) that's paid for through work, but I could theoretically be doing the same thing as her if it was my personal phone. It could be done with Wifi-enabled CDMA phones as well, my previous work phone was an HTC 6800 that had perfectly capable Wifi support. The only phone it can't be done with is the iPhone, because they insist on a contract for that one, unless you start talking about finding a jailbroken iPhone.
Your situation might not be nearly as Wifi-enabled as hers, in which case this won't work. The Rogers Pay As You Go plans cannot be combined with any sort of data plan, and I believe the same is true of Bell's Prepaid service as well. And, of course, the default data rates are utterly retarded expensive. If you've got generally decent Wifi coverage, though, this might work for you.
I had assumed Rogers and Bell were the hardware owners for the cell networks, but I wasn't 100% sure. Nice to know.