New phone wanted-no contract

[gosmosis]

Can any of you cell phone nuts tell me how is the best way to purchase a cell phone that works with AT&T service without contract upgrade? PLus - what does "unlocked" mean?

PS - I want a PDA style phone with full key pad for text purposes.

Thanks

[sigill]

I'm not sure what ATN-T is we dont have it in the Uk. A unlocked phone is just a phone that will work with any sim card from any network. I persnally have a Nokia E90 which is a PDA style phone. It looks like a regular phone but when you open it theres a 4" screen and full querty keyboard. Its a very good phone.

[tipstir]

Tracfone uses AT&T networks no contracts, just buy the phone with double minutes and that's about it..

[gosmosis]

Hoping I can get some quick final help on this question. Amazon has an unlocked phone I would like to buy. Claims to work with ATT (which I currently have) as long as you provide the sim card (which I can) That being said - pasted below is a small chart showing under which conditions the phone would work. Keep in mind - I have ATT. I don't understand the columns of numbers. Under ATT, they have the 850, 1900 and 3G checked. I have no clue what that means - but it worries me that they don't have all the columns checked. How do I know for a fact that my sim card will work in this phone ALL THE TIME, NO MATTER WHERE I TRAVEL IN THE USA??? Yeah, yeah. Caps - no I'm not yelling

[Jason44]

Check out the blackberries or the new Google G1 phone both are awesome, then of course there is the iPhone but it doesn't have a physical keypad which sucks a little bit.

[gameguru1360]

actually the iPhone whether it's unlocked or not primarily works on the at&t network. You CAN use it on tmobile's network, but eventually the OTA updates will lock it back to at&t's network

[brenner]

Originally Posted by gosmosis

Hoping I can get some quick final help on this question. Amazon has an unlocked phone I would like to buy. Claims to work with ATT (which I currently have) as long as you provide the sim card (which I can) That being said - pasted below is a small chart showing under which conditions the phone would work. Keep in mind - I have ATT. I don't understand the columns of numbers. Under ATT, they have the 850, 1900 and 3G checked. I have no clue what that means - but it worries me that they don't have all the columns checked. How do I know for a fact that my sim card will work in this phone ALL THE TIME, NO MATTER WHERE I TRAVEL IN THE USA??? Yeah, yeah. Caps - no I'm not yelling

850, 1900 and 3G has to do with the coverage area. See here-
AT&T 850 & 1900 MHz and 3G Coverage

Your photobucket image is gone. So I'm not sure what you have.
To cover the largest area your phone should do all 3.

All my phones are unlocked. And if you have a locked phone it can usually be unlocked for $25 or $30.

[NonMcTubber]

There are a plethora of no contract third party phone providers, be it tracfone, various sprint network providers like virgin Mobil that is more network specific, and various similar that only work in some geographic areas and not others.

Somewhat the point being, they are parasites on the major cell phone networks, offer no infrastructure on their own, and if the day ever comes that the the cell phone networks who do have the infrastructure to make those parasite services are cut off, all those third party providers and those that use them will be doomed.

That does not stop me from using tracfone, its a great deal for me, I get less minutes at a higher per minute cost, but only pay $100.00/year. I could get an even better deal with Virgin Mobil, but in the area I live, the sprint network coverage is damn near zero.

My other alternative is a contract with a either AT&T or Verizon, both of which offer at least acceptable service in my particular area.
Which ignores two things. (1) Someone else may live in an area where neither AT&T or Verizon offer anything remotely resembling acceptable service. It is the network cell phone towers that make the technology work, if you are in a location too far away from that network's tower, you are sad out of luck. (2) The network contract model is totally schizophrenic, it basically starts at $25.00 a month and more typically $35.00 or $420.00/yr. And is seemingly based on the premise that cell phone minutes are super precious commodities to be rationed, add in another user and its another $150.00 a year with no more minutes. Now if you are willing to pay $70.00 a month or $840.00/yr, suddenly the same network will sell you additional minutes on the seeming premise that cell phone minutes are super inexpensive and can be sold like water.

But if you will just sign a contract for a year or two, you get a free cell phone and a contract that will cost you a fortune to get out of.

What that tells me, is that contract cell phone providers are spending about $30.00/month on advertising to attract each new customer, and rather than spending it on the infrastructure to provide the actual technology to make their technology work, it goes to advertisers that tell you they have the bestest network regardless if its true for your area or not. As usual, the unwise consumer who does not understand technology and does not do their own research, is just asking to be hosed. A sucker born every minute with too many cell phone companies ready to take advantage.

As it is, I spend $200.00/yr on tracfone, my wife uses a GSM type phone that works on the AT&T network, I use a cdma type phone that works less well at home, but when I travel, it provides better coverage in certain must have areas where her GSM phone would totally fail. And when we travel together, if there is cell phone coverage to be had, one or the other will work.

But something like a tracphone will not work for a phoneaholic, I regard a cell phone more as an insurance policy in event of an emergency while in car, its not going to be economical for someone who wants to live on a cell phone.

And the other thing to mention is that my monochrome cell phone battery lasts damn near forever, my wife's color display eats battery charge and has to be constantly recharged.

[gameguru1360]

Originally Posted by NonMcTubber

And the other thing to mention is that my monochrome cell phone battery lasts damn near forever, my wife's color display eats battery charge and has to be constantly recharged.

not to mention if you have bluetooth always on, that'll also eat up your phone's battery life as well!