[glamourcitys]

Yesterday, I paid my past month's cellphone bill online. $18.00

I was talking to a neighbor who mentioned that his cell bill was getting out-of-hand... over $700.00 just for last month!

He has text, paging, camera, games, walkie-talkie, and some other "features" that I don't understand... and all in a teeny-tiny little skinny cellphone that looks like it could fit on my keyring.

I have the very basic "punch the numbers, hit 'dial' and wait for it to ring" kind of service. The phone has many goofy attributes [ringtones, time-accounting, web access, etc.] that I neither use nor want... but you can't BUY a simple PHONE anymore, like a/c, power steering and electric windows/doorlocks on cars, they don't MAKE a basic model for you to buy. I had them disable the text "feature" of my phone because I was getting text "spam" and being charged for it. All I want or need is to be able to make and receive phone calls... the rest of this icing on the cellphone cake is empty calories to me.

I DO have onStar on the SUV's... it's weird to think that my CAR has it's own phone number...

What is YOUR average cellbill and what features do you really use, which ones are useless to you?:question

[BodeOmissemia]

Jesse's dad pays for ours *grins* Aren't we lucky

And we have a satellite phone too, we just need a sim card that we still haven't bought

[actrisski]

Quote:

[Johnny]

You're right,it's difficult to find a cell phone that just make calls
and nothing else.
The features I use most on my own phone are the SMS and(sometimes)
the camera.
Oh yes,and of course the "voice dialing"feature,where you just tell
the phone who you want to call,and it does it for you.This is very handy
when you're driving (you don't have to look at the phone)
My monthly phone bill is usually between20 and 30 euro.

[newwebstar]

i only spend £10 a month.
i only really use it for textin,which i get 300 free msgs with 02 when i top up a tenner each month.

MJ

[Nabeqiv]

I pay around £10-£20 per month for my ageing phone. I guess my spending is about 50/50 calls and texts. I have WAP, but at 50p per minute for very slow and unreliable service, I never use it. It did amuse me in the honeymoon period (3 months free WAP) that I could send an email from my phone, but it's never been a vital part of the package. I'm considering upgrading, but only because it would be slightly cheaper to have a contract (I use pay-as-you-go), and I wouldn't mind having a camera built in, especially now that phone cameras are around the 2 megapixel mark. If it had decent games (mine has rubbish games that sometimes help pass the time on boring bus trips) then I'd probably play them, and if it had an mp3 player then I'd probably use that too. I looked at a phone the other day, one that does video calls (I've never felt the need to see someone I'm phoning), which has expandable memory for its mp3 player - a nice feature if you like that kind of thing. I still wouldn't want to pay any more than £25 per month for it, though.

As it is, I'm still happy with my old old phone (a Siemens C45), which has the hidden added feature that nobody is going to mug me for it.

[actrisski]

Hey Dip, Bluetooth is handy if you use a camera.

[Nabeqiv]

Yeah - I've used my laptop to help people get their pix before. I can imagine a world before long where my phone tries to say hello to the microwave, but the kitchen light dimmer switch butts in and disagrees, and so the freezer defrosts itself in disgust... setting off the car alarm. In fact, my first mobile phone was the main thing I used to switch off and on the car alarm.

[actrisski]

Your not too far fetched, I have a ceiling light and fan that is remote, and sometimes my phone system will interfere with it.

Living near a Air force base has it's downsides as well, often the frequencies used in Garage Door openers will be reset by a passing Jet or satellite. Folks trying to get in or out of their garages found they couldn't.

My WiFi network is 2.4 mhz which can be interrupted by a 2.4 mhz phone. I now use either 900 khz or 5.8 mhz to overcome the problem.

I really like the VoIP system, most have tools unavailable in any other system. If a call comes into my VoIP and a message is left, the software sends a a WAV file to my email address which I can pickup on the Motorola PEBL on the powerbook a/o thinkpad.

I the past I had a Blackberry, before technology improved and I found it useful but cumbersome, so I switch to smaller unit now and use the new software option to remove the size issue.

[tattcasetle]

Maybe I should step in here and Brag about all the stuff I have or want to make people think I have...

I pay about 70 bucks a month for my cell phone and that's with call any where any time and talk as long as you want..

[peakyesno]

3 phones, 1200 anytime domestic minutes, about 100/mo.

Probably paying for lots of services I don't use. Text, Internet, photo uploads, etc.

[actrisski]

So the winner is 1inch, $70 for 1 phone and he can call himself anywhere, anytime. See sinski, your partner is a real winner!!

[glamourcitys]

Quote:

[tattcasetle]

Well it started out as a cell phone thread but Burger-Flipper said he had everything anyone has ever told him about... Next he will be saying he knows the people that invented all that stuff...

[actrisski]

Rain? Today is the first rain we've had in 6 weeks, the ground is primed for a long fire season.

Actually oneinch your right for the second time in your life, I did over post in an effort to educated. To show a broad spectrum of options to sinski who might want to relay them to his neighbor. For example, VoIP is $25 per month period, call as you will (including Fax). Skype on a computer is free. T-Mobile offers the best rates, and though MoTo PEBL's are a bit spendy, they just might be the best buy on the market. OnStar, IMHO is over priced, and over rated.

From my observation of his post there were two issues concerning communication, one was options the other was price.

By adding OnStar to his post he opened up the field of utilities.

Now get on your Cheap Cell phone and call yourself an as$

[Xutrsavf]

Family plan 3 phones, 1000 min, 7pm-6am talk all you want, long distance in the States, free weekends, moble to moble free, no roaming, one phone has a camera, all have text but only so many before it costs for $80 month plus tax. I just use mine when away from a regular phone. Once my g-daughter downloaded $85 worth of ringtones without even thinking they cost money. I came un-glued and layed the law down about the usuage of the phones. My employer got one for her grand-son and he ran the bill up to $185 and she came un-glued, so watch giving a kid a phone. A friend of mine talked over 6000 minutes on his last month for a bill around $3,000. He happens to know somebody that fixed that and brought it down to about $300.

Pretty neat you can talk with a microphone now online to somebody in tim buck two if you want. My daughter talks to somebody in Ireland.

[glamourcitys]

I got this one through the NRA... It's called "The Lost Angeles Special", and it has some features that I think I can use.

Nokia and Glock teamed up to make it... Comes with matching noise-cancelling earphones.