[PLUG-TALK] cell phones

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Sun Jun 5 00:02:09 UTC 2005


On Sat, 4 Jun 2005, Michael Rasmussen wrote:

> My last day with the old employer was Friday and I handed in my cell phone.
> My new job does not provide a cell phone. No calls!!

Mike,

   I hope the move was by your choice and that it's as easy a bike ride as the
former shop.

> It's been eight years since I've shopped for a cell phone.  What advice do
> you have for me?

   Consider what you need before walking in any store. Also, consider the
provider with regard to coverage, reputation, and so on. I'll share my
experience.

   I've been with Verizon since 1996, when they were AirTouch. I have had
excellent service with them and have no reason to spend any time shopping
around. My current plan gives me 300 minutes per month with no roaming
charges in the 11 western states (not in Alaska or Hawaii) and no toll
charges calling anywhere in the US for $35. My fiancee's half of the contract
gives her 100 minutes with no roaming or toll-free long distance for
$20 per month. It works for us. Many months we both have many unused minutes;
occasionally I bump pretty hard against my 5 hour limit. It's 65 cents per
minute over that or when I use the phone outside the calling plan area (e.g.,
Alaska or New York). The only dead spots I've had with them are in the
boonies of southeastern Oregon and north central Nevada (there's no cell
phone coverage beyond 4 miles either side of I-80 down there). But, that's
why I have the satellite phone.

   About four years ago I traded in a perfectly good Samsung candy bar model
for a Kyocera QCP-6035 clam-shell model. This has a Palm PDA built in. I
won't go back to separate cell phone and PDA after using this. I've had as
many as 1,000 phone numbers in there (since pared down to about 350 but
growing again as I move my business to different industries) and can call any
of them. No separate entry of phone numbers and names or looking up the
number in the PDA then dialing the phone. Of course, I use jpilot on the
desktop for the PDA part.

   Now Kyocera has the QCP-7135 which is the same phone/pda but with a color
screen and, I believe, Palm OS 5. A month or so ago Verizon did a free
upgrade on my older model to the most recent Palm OS that it takes (3.x,
something I believe). Both Kyocera and Verizon told me it's a perfectly good
model and they plan to support it as long as possible.

   I don't want a camera, web browsing, e-mail, music, or other (ahem!)
"features" in my phone. You might. My Kyocera will browse the web and do
e-mail but I don't pay for the access and have never used it. I do have the
cable that lets me use the phone as a wireless modem with my notebook, but
never quite qot that working with the old Toshiba Portege. With the new Sony,
I use the WiFi card (or wired connection) so that's no longer an issue for
me.

   My needs may very well be different from yours -- and everyone else here.
But, I'm very satisfied with both the phone/pda and Verizon's service.

HTH,

Rich

-- 
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>   Voice: 503-667-4517   Fax: 503-667-8863



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