I can’t help you, but I will say I can’t do my business without one. There is an expectation of having technology available, so much so that it is on par with my computer in terms of neccesity.

I suppose that’s not an argument for cell phones as much as it’s my expression of helplessness to join any kind of protest against them.

One thing I’ve tried to do is remain concious of when I use it. For example, I would never answer the phone while I’m having a face-to-face conversation. Neither do I get on the phone to pass the time, like in line at the bank. I hope the U.S. allows cell line blocking technology here some day. I plan on using it on the freeway, on the guy in the Tahoe who thinks his conversation is more important than the people he’s endangering!

I don’t know about the situation in the US. If you were in the UK, there would be no need to change your phone (if it was actually yours, rather than just rented). You’d just need to change the SIM card, which is the only bit which changes with the account.

And a good proportion of service providers over here will let you keep your number when you switch contracts. I’m on a pay-as-you-go scheme as you describe.

So it certainly should be possible…

some phones are “locked” to a particular provider.

and providers often charge an “unlocking fee” to remove that.

I belive there are ways to get around that on the internet - but I’m unsure to the legalities of both sides of the issue (them locking you in and you circumventing that locking. It might depend on your contract)
A google search should bring something up.

I don’t know if you can keep your phone but we use Virgin Mobile and are happy with it.

We pay $15/phone every 90 days. No extra fees. The calling cost is high but we barely use the phones so we never use more than that $15/quarter.

Good Luck!

Dan, we use a cell phone like you do—for emergencies only, or convenience if we’re traveling. We use Tracfone (tracfone.com) prepaid wireless with NO contract. Not sure if they fulfill all your requirements, but I do know that we bought a reconditioned Tracfone Nokia several years ago and loaded it with 100 “units” (unit=equals minute, unless you’re roaming, then 2 units=1 minute) and a yearly plan for around $100. (It’s gone up since, but you get more minutes and it’s still reasonable.) Those minutes lasted almost a year, so less than $10 a month, and that included the phone. The next year, we spent about $7/mo. because we already had the phone, and we’re still using the same one 3 or 4 years later. Tracfone is NOT a good deal if you use your phone a lot, but if you truly only use it for a quick call every week or so, it’s perfect.

Hi Dan,

It doesn’t sound like you hate cell phones - but you have a disdain for cell phone providers… which is different. Yes, I could “live” without mine… I could also “live” without a car, tv set, computer, microwave oven, forced heating, running water and inside plumbing.

But I choose not to.

Dan,

If in fact you only use your cell phone for 2 minutes a month and only need a cell for emergencies than you can save even more money than you are now.

By law, cell phones have to be able to call 911 even after they are deactivated.

There you go.

Cancel your contract. Carry the phone for emergencies, for free.

Now if it was not really for emergencies and was actually a convenience that you don’t want to pay more than $19.99 for then this will not work.

Carl

Can’t relate to what you are saying (except for the excessive charges, but those diminish every year as competition increases). We love our cell phones. They are necessary for my husband’s business since he gets service calls.

And why bother with wireless laptop computing if you are still limited by the range of your home or office phone?

The cell phone keeps peace in the family. I no longer find myself yelling at the teen to free up the phone since she has her own now. It helps us keep track of our teenager as she knows better than to igore our calls or we will take the phone away from her (punishment worse than death!). And she knows that with the free mobile to mobile she is allowed to call any of her friends who have the same carrier.

We are even considering getting the cute little Firefly for our youngest so he can reach us at any time at sports, church, and school outings.

The cell phones are cheaper than the land line with its long distance charges. We plan to eliminate the regular phone since we really don’t use it anyway.

And nothing beats the convenience of spotting a great bargain at the mall, dialing one of my sisters to check on sizes and colors for gift giving.

We have had experienced some big hassles with the cell phone carrier companies in the past, but since coverage is improving, service is better, and there are fewer charges, they are still a bargain when it comes to communicating for business and family.

One more thing,

ever lose someone at Wal-Mart or at the mall? It is impossible to have everyone meet at a certain time because they never do. CALLING them is so much sweeter.

Do you have a microwave, Dan?

Deb,

I’ve looked into TracFone but I’m hearing something very confusing from a few other TracFone users.

They’re saying that TracFone dings you with a roaming penalty they subtract from your available minutes if you call outside your Zip code (not area code, Zip code.) Our Zip code is remarkably small, so this sounds bad. Some of the things I’ve read says that TracFone buries this fact so that you don’t know it’s working against you until you see your available minutes going down faster than you thought possible.

Unfortunately, I know no TracFone users personally, so I can’t factcheck what I’m reading online.

As a TracFone user, do you have any info on this?

Dan,

I don’t like cell phone. If you’ve ever read the book The De-Voicing of Society by Locke, you’ll know where I’m coming from on this.

The other hassles of providers and the fact it’s nearly impossible to test features and reception before you buy a phone only makes things worse. I have hearing problems and the quality of what I hear of some cell phones is highly variable. Getting to hear what you phone sounds like before buying it can be difficult. Most places that sell the phones only have non-working models on display. For someone who likes to thoroughly test everything before he buys it, this is the ultimate blind buying. I don’t like that at all.

Darla,

My mom died of brain cancer, so I’m very sensitive to the issue. The clinic that treated her is world-reknowned and when she was diagnosed one of the first questions they asked her was whether she was a heavy cell phone user or not.

That should give all of us pause. It’s another reason why I don’t want a phone with a high SAR rating.

Darla,

As for a microwave, yes we have one, but it’s also situated in such a way that you can’t stand in front of it for any period of time.

We also bought a model known for low-leakage around the doors, even over time.

Right now I’m leaning toward T-Mobile’s pre-paid plan with a Nokia 6010 phone. I put an e-mail into Nokia to see if it will work with my speakerphone/charger base I got for my previous phone.

Anyone out there using the T-Mobile pay as you go plan? Any hidden catches?

Gee, Dan, I didn’t realize that’s the kind of cancer your mom had (and I didn’t want to ask). No wonder you are concerned. Hopefully, the SAR ratings on cell phones will keep dropping.

As much as I love the convenience of the cell phones, I do try to keep calls short, mostly because they are so uncomfortable to use because they are so small. I try to use the speakerphone when I need to be hands free like when I am working but the speakerphone isn’t great either. Despite the inconveniences and dangers I like knowing I can reach my kids and they can reach me at any time. And since the number is not available to just anyone I don’t have to hassle with unwanted calls very often.

I’m not into all the gadgets and attachments (guess I am too cheap!). Does using headsets reduce exposure?

Dan:

Look into simple freedom http://www.simplefreedom.com. I use this prepaid service because I use my phone for emergencies and also for immediate family members. I buy a 25.00 card every three months at Sams Club and it is on the AllTel backbone. It cost me around 80.00 to get started. You can get this plan at Wal-Mart or Sams Club.

Dan, my daughter and I both have i-wireless phones. It’s just like the simple freedom plan mentioned above. You buy a phone, then buy cards for $10, $20, or $50. It’s prepaid, no minutes, no contracts, no BS. You should look into it! You can get it at Kroger’s.

Dan - We’ve got Cingular too and hate it. Had Verizon before and only switched to get free phones. Verizon wouldn’t do that for us even though we’d been with them for years and we were adding a line and upping our minutes. (We don’t have a land line, just cell phones) As soon as my contract is up, I’m switching back to Verizon. We’ve found Cingular’s coverage in the rural areas my wife’s family lives in to be non-existent.

One thing to watch on pre-paid is that you have to buy a certain amount of minutes every so often to keep your number active.

Also, you should be able to keep your number. The new laws have made it so your number is yours, not the phone company’s. We kept our old cell number and old land line number when switching to two cell phones with a different carrier. Have your new carrier take care of it, don’t tell Cingular.

Dontcha just love how technology makes our lives so much EASIER?

Yes using a headset will reduce your risk… heck I have one at home, in all my cars… etc… As a cancer survivor I’m retentive about this… but then I figure God knows… and I pray protection over myself and my hubby… we both have to have cell phones so we are stuck… but for any long phone calls (I have alot of long phone calls on my cell) I use a headpiece… and I keep the phone off my body usually… its in my purse or sitting on a table, I don’t clip it to my body like alot of people.

About Tracfone’s roaming, I think they are upfront about the fact that if you’re roaming, they deduct 2 units instead of 1 for each minute you’re on the phone. (They don’t call them minutes, but units.) We, too, live in a tiny zip code and rarely call within our own zip code, but you can activate the phone for any zip code you choose. So we activated for Wichita, which is where we usually are when we use our phone. Yes, when we travel out of state, we use up 2 minutes/units for every 1 available, but I just make a quick Tracfone call home (cheaper than calling out on the hotel phone) and have my husband call me back at the hotel, which is free because of our long distance plan.

I’ve never seen any “hidden” roaming deductions and in fact, Tracfone has some great deals where you can get free extra units: sign up for their e-mail newsletter and get 20 extra units; buy 200 units and get 100 free, etc.

To add minutes, you can either buy a card at Wal-Mart, or (MUCH easier) buy and add minutes online, which you can do anywhere you can get online.

I’m really not getting a kickback from Tracfone ; ) and like I said earlier, it is NOT for people who use their phone a lot. But for us, their plan is exactly what we need.

And I forgot to add that re zip code vs. area code, Wichita has multiple area codes and we are able to call throughout all areas of the city, and up to several miles outside of the Wichita city limits WITHOUT roaming charges, so the zip code issue hasn’t been true for us.

Dan,

Like a couple of your commenters, I use the Simple Freedom prepaid plan (www.simplefreedom.net). I have a no-frills Nokia phone (model 3975i?)and the initial cost (which included activation and 40 free minutes) was $70-75 two and a half years ago.

SF is about to be subsumed by Verizon, and they have notified me that regular calls will be less, roaming more. But I checked the Simple Freedom coverage map, and it looks like SW Ohio is fully covered. I have no idea about the SAR rating or compatibility with your charger/speakerphone, but my phone will accommodate a headset. It works out to about $10/mo. operating cost currently once you’re up and running. I have used it for emergencies primarily, but I have never been disappointed in the service or phone for any reason.

Correction to my last comment: The phone is a Nokia 3585i.

And then there’s this.

Dan,
I also use a SimpleFreedom Pat as I go phone for emergencies only and it really gets out good no-matter where you are as long as your not in a dead zone, such as Grant, MI. I can go one mile either way of my house and have excellent service, but at my house, its very static, and the availibilty of usage is bad, due to living in a dead zone area. All other times, I find that I get great reception with it, when I need to use it for something away from home. Very happy with my simplefreedom pay as I go phone.
And! Zip Codes are not an issue with this.