Cellular Phone Service

Consolidation and competition among the wireless service providers in recent years has created a win-win situation for the consumer looking for cellular phone service. The consolidation of the regional cellular phone companies into a half dozen top-tier providers means more uniformity in feature offerings, larger home network service areas and reduced rates (or even free in some cases) for roaming nationwide. The fierce competition has resulted in calling packages with a greater number of included minutes and in many cases extra perks such as free text messaging and free mobile to mobile calling. 

Choosing Your Cellular Phone Service

Choosing the best cellular service provider for your needs may appear to be a daunting task, but by prioritizing the items most important to you there will usually be a clear winner. First consider the following attributes of service plans:

Airtime: Calculate the number of minutes that you expect to use during "peak hours". (Essentially all rate plans include more than enough free non-peak minutes that you should never run out.) Different cellular providers have varying definitions of what peak hours are, for example 6AM-9PM versus 7AM-8PM, so pay extra close attention to the "peak" definition if you make a significant portion of your calls near these cut-off times.

Call Location: Most providers offer a "local" rate plan where an additional fee applies for calls made out of the local calling area. The "nationwide" plans offered allow calls to be made from anywhere within the US without and additional fee. The downside is that a similarly priced nationwide plan typically includes around a third fewer included minutes than the local plan. Some cellular service providers such as Sprint allow their customers to make calls from anywhere on their nationwide network without an additional fee.

Cancellation Policy: Many providers will allow you to sign up for a service plan and cancel the plan within a certain time period if you are not happy. This provides great flexibility to someone signing up for cellular service for the first time or someone who is interested in trying service with a different company.

Free Long Distance: Free long distance is almost a given these days, but it is always wise to double check if this is an important feature for you.

Mobile to Mobile: Free mobile-to-mobile calling only applies if you are calling another cellular phone user with the same provider as yourself. So, if you have Cingular service and you call someone with Nextel service, that is not considered a mobile to mobile call for billing purposes. If you make a considerable amount of calls to one or more individuals with a certain service provider considerable savings may be obtained if you have the same carrier. In this case, all of those calls would be free rather than counting against your peak airtime minutes.

Walkie-Talkie: Some cellular users love the convenience of the walkie-talkie feature. If this functionality is tops on your shopping list, Cingular and Nextel should be as well.

Now that you are aware of the considerations to be made when selecting a rate plan, begin shopping for your perfect calling plan.

Another Wireless Service Plan?

If you have completed the obligation to your current service plan and you plan to continue service into the near future, should you sign up for a new service plan? The answer is absolutely yes! A portion of the fee you pay for your rate plan each month is to help offset the reduced price of the cellular phone you initially received. After the term of your service contract is completed the phone is completely paid for, but does the cost of your monthly service decrease? Absolutely not! The cellular service providers love subscribers who keep using their old phones. Their profits increase dramatically at this point and your monthly fee is pure gravy to them. Why not get the latest cellular phone with wireless web access, a crisp color display and downloadable personalization choices for ringtones and games when it won't cost you a penny more than you are currently paying for service?

Considering Switching Service Providers?

Wireless local number portability mandates by law that you are able to keep your same phone number when you switch wireless carriers. This means that if you wish to switch to a new service provider you are allowed to keep your old phone number. This removes a big roadblock to many who had considered switching in the past, but did not want to deal with the hassle of updating everyone with their new phone number. Now if you feel you would be better served by another cellular company there is no reason to make the switch.

Get a Plan!

Begin shopping here to find the cellular service plan which best serves your needs.