Grrrrr.... cell phone bills

[motion]

We have 4 smartphones, each on a different plan. I'm paying something like $320 a month for the 4 plans, which is just insane. Carriers are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the kid has Virgin pay-as-you-go. I'm interested in one off the off-carriers and their unlimited talk-text-data plans for around $50 per month.

Here is an example: Welcome | Straight Talk

These guys claim to use the best nationwide networks, which I assume they mean that they piggyback off of Verizon, Sprint, etc.

Anyone use these and can vouch for the coverage? I need the same coverage I have with my AT&T & Verizon, but want to ditch the high costs.

[Rusty Heap]

I remember when Pay phones on every street corner had the accordian glass door and cost 5 cents or a dime to use, amazing technology, talking and vocal speech communication..


a smart phone is a privelage, not a right. you want to play, you're going to pay.

you have 4 phones, on 4 provider plans, what was your question again? combine them or cancel some.........

[scottmandue]

Dude, four phones and four different carriers?

Bad on you, get everyone on one carrier and a shared family plan ASAP.

[motion]

I don't think you can have iPhones on shared family plans. If you can, they are still $80 plus per line...

[Teutonics]

Straight Talk is a good deal, uses AT&T network. Many of my techie friends have switched over and are happy, however switching ATT iPhones over is not as easy as just switching SIM cards.

I haven't had to move over since my phone is work provided, but would do it in a heartbeat if I needed unlimited everything.

[jyl]

We have 4 iPhones on AT&T family plan. Two are unlimited, two are metered. I make the kids use WiFi in the house and we don't have a problem with going over. Forget the cost but it is around $160.

[motion]

I found this chart:

Price for 3 iPhones + Unlimited Voice +
Unlimited Texts + 6 GB Data
(before taxes and fees)

AT&T $195
Verizon $200
Sprint $310

Taxes and fees really add up. So, for 6GB, its still $75ish + for each phone. And, not sure if you get the subsidized price on all of the phones.

[krystar]

republicwireless.com

[porsche4life]

If you sign 3 contracts, you will get the good price on all of the phones. Go to an ATT store, a standalone, not in the mall, and they will get you all square...

[motion]

Originally Posted by krystar

republicwireless.com

That's not going to work too well in Montana.

[motion]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

If you sign 3 contracts, you will get the good price on all of the phones. Go to an ATT store, a standalone, not in the mall, and they will get you all square...

Yep, that's what we've done. Phones are cheap.... I don't mind spending the extra coin paying full pop for the phones if we can get each line down to $45.

If Straight Talk is AT&T I think that would be the ideal solution.

[dennis in se pa]

"Straight Talk is a good deal, uses AT&T network."

Yes. I have been using ST for 2 years. Great service for cheap Mon.

[jyl]

The four of us don't even use 700 minutes. The kids text more than talk.

[gprsh924]

Do you want new phones every two years? If so ST isn't really going to pencil out.

Get your phones on one plan. Each live gets the upgrades if they are on the contract. iPhones on AT&T should be $60-$70 per line.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by motion

We have 4 smartphones, each on a different plan. I'm paying something like $320 a month for the 4 plans, which is just insane. Carriers are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the kid has Virgin pay-as-you-go. I'm interested in one off the off-carriers and their unlimited talk-text-data plans for around $50 per month.

Here is an example: Welcome | Straight Talk

These guys claim to use the best nationwide networks, which I assume they mean that they piggyback off of Verizon, Sprint, etc.

Anyone use these and can vouch for the coverage? I need the same coverage I have with my AT&T & Verizon, but want to ditch the high costs.

Straight Talk simply resell AT&T or T-Mobile network services. For cheaper than you can buy it from the carrier themselves. Same coverage (same towers). You do have to change the APN settings; you should research/look into that for an iPhone; the Dark Empire has apparently started (b)locking the ability to edit APNs on non-jailbroken iPhones again.

I switched from T-Mobile to Straight Talk. And ported my T-Mobile & Vonage numbers to Google Voice, using an ObiHai to replace the vonage SIP router. Mobile service works great - because it's the same service.

As someone else said, you should consolidate to a family plan on the same carrier at least.

[jyl]

In my experience a smartphone lasts about 2 years before it starts feeling slow and/or battery life starts to go away.

[motion]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

Do you want new phones every two years? If so ST isn't really going to pencil out.

Get your phones on one plan. Each live gets the upgrades if they are on the contract. iPhones on AT&T should be $60-$70 per line.

We want new iPhones every 18-24 months. Why spend $75 a line for limited data (see my numbers above) when I can get ST for $45 per line with unlimited data?

[gprsh924]

A new iPhone every 2 years at full prices washes out the savings from the ST.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by gprsh924

A new iPhone every 2 years at full prices washes out the savings from the ST.

My wife's a middle school teacher, we get new phones every semester. She has her students sign an agreement to not use phones in class, or she takes them. She takes a lot of phones.

[Rufblackbird]

FWIW, we have 5 lines on a Sprint family plan. The first two lines are $150 with unlimited data, 1500 shared minutes, unlimited texts, mobile to mobile, and nights and weekends (starting from 7pm). My bro and sis in law has an iPhone 5 and 4S on our plan; their lines cost $30 each ($20/line + $10 premium data add on charge). Mother in law has a non smart phone and that's just $20/month. Total each month after fees and taxes we pay around $267, and that's with $22 of equipment protection plan ($11 each for me and the wife's Galaxy S3) and a military 15% discount of $16.50.

In essence you can get four lines all smartphones for $210 plus taxes/fees ($150 family plan + two premium data lines at $30 ea) which will put you at under $240 a month. Only downside currently is we pay for "premium data" since the smartphones are 4G capable, but Sprint has been slow rolling out 4G...