Cell service Cost

Scuttlebutt
21
  • 1 x 30 Day- 1000 MOU, Unlimited SMS, 1GB Data GSMA: $10.00
  • FREE USPS Mail no Tracking. Price=$0.00 $10.00
    Taxable amount:$10.00
    Total tax: $0.11
    $0.09 Federal Universal Service Fund
    $0.01 Federal Telecommunications Relay Services Fund (Non-IPCTS)
    $0.01 Federal Telecommunications Relay Services Fund (IPCTS) $0.11
    Total: $10.11
22

I keep hearing about T-mobile. I was thinking about switching mainly to save money. Have Verizon now.

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Three more good things about T-Mobile is they donā€™t require a contract, run us $50 a month & since we have more than 2 numbers with them they give us Netflix for free. My family didnā€™t have Netflix before but we are addicted now so we will have to pay for a Netflix subscription when/if we ditch T-mobile. Itā€™s good T-mobile doesnā€™t have contracts so it shouldnā€™t matter much but you mentioned in another thread you might be retiring in a couple years or less? For me, to save money, I think I will do a cost analysis with Walmart type prepaid phone services to save money once I retire when I wonā€™t need the international plan as much. As KC pointed out, some discount plans advertise domestic services for $10, $20 or $30 a month which are cheaper than T-Mobile.

2 Likes
24

The low-cost plans arenā€™t going to work for everyone. I take a mobile phone when Iā€™m out and about but I rarely use data and not many calls. Maybe a couple texts a day at most.

In the house most calls I use this phone connected to a MagicJack (VOIP). My cell forwards to this number, it has an answering machine function to screen in-coming calls. People I call canā€™t see my mobile phone number. Can change phone numbers anytime

MagicJack is about $30 a year. Name sounds like a gimmick, works good.

image

1 Like
25

Anyone have experience with Googlefi?

26

Phone contracts seem to have fallen out of favor.

I just a got a new unlocked iPhone 12 Pro from my regional carrier. $30 per month for 30 months, or $900 minus a $200 discount, comes to $700. No interest. No contract.

I had planned to buy one of their slightly used phones for cash (people can return them within a week for refund) in order to avoid a three year contract, but was surprised to learn that they no longer have contracts. The used phone was $750, and the new phone at $30 a month with discount was actually cheaper at $700.

What kills me is the monthly bill of about $300, now $330 for four devices sharing unlimited calling and data, and international calling. The other three devices are paid for. Unfortunately, this small high cost regional carrier is the only thing that works at home.

27

Love T-mobile, Did a yacht delivery in the last year from Puerto Vallarta to Galveston. Free text and data every country with great connectivity. Free voice in Mexico, 20 cents a minute everywhere else. Spent time running yachts in British Columbia 2016-17. First year I brought a spare phone and tried for a local SIM. Tremendous PITA, with no local residence or tax #. Plans from 3-4 carriers had restrictions on areas that were difficult and unreasonable. The next year, Tā€™mobile had their free roaming in place. Just wonderful. Free everything.
One thing that happens with international roaming fees is that your phone just calls in to check for calls and texts periodically all by itself. Iā€™ve had roaming fees in the past when Iā€™ve never made or answered a call. The phone rep explained the process, and the SOL part, too. Very nicely.
Living in San Diego and traveling around the county, my phone sometimes grabs a Mexican carrier. No problem, now, with T-mobile.

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28

Sailing msc google fi is the gold standard, t-mobile is next i guess.

29

This is not correct

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Party line.

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31

Party lines gave one a good introduction to Morse code. Telephone numbers would be listed as 87M in the phone book. If you were on the same party line you could ring someone with that number by simply winding the handle to give two long rings.
Etiquette required that only the person with that number picked up the phone but there was always someā€¦
If the phone was being made from outside the district then the exchange sent the correct Morse signal on the party line.
I seem to remember reading that if the US still had the same system it would require every female between 15 and 50 in the United States to be employed as telephone operators.

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32

Of course, we had party lines when I was a kid. I think there were about five houses per line. The old busybody next door was always listening in.

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33

T-mobile has coverage throughout GOM, thanks to a Rignet buyout. I have excellent coverage half the time underway and So-So coverage most of the time.