IN THIS REPORT
•	Cell phones: Overview
	•	CR Quick Recommendations
	•	Ratings
	•	How much phone do you need?
	•	Design details
	•	GSM network troubles
•	Calling plans: Overview
	•	The bottom line
	•	Cost, then minutes

Best calling plans: Small fees add up

Finding the right calling plan is easier than ever. That’s because the plans are becoming simpler. Long-distance, roaming, and calls on nights and weekends--important features that used to add significantly to overall costs--are now almost always folded into the basic monthly fee.

Still, it is possible to get trapped in the wrong calling plan and spend many times more than the $49 monthly average.

To understand how various factors can affect the bottom line on your cell-phone bill, see The bottom line. The table on that page was developed with the help of TeleBright Corp., a Maryland-based phone-rate tracking company that provides data for our interactive plan selectors, available at www.ConsumerReports.org.

Two examples show how seemingly minor details add up:

For families. Nextel’s national Get Connected More 600 plan costs $56 a month; T-Mobile’s FamilyTime plan costs $70. But we estimate that a family of four making 1,800 minutes of regular voice calls monthly would actually spend $65 more per month on the Nextel plan.

The T-Mobile plan winds up costing less because its base price includes two phone lines; Nextel’s includes only one. Each extra line is $10 per month cheaper on T-Mobile. T-Mobile’s plan also provides 200 more peak minutes. The T-Mobile plan is even slightly less expensive than the Cingular FamilyTalk 700 plan at $50, again because of differences in the cost of additional lines and the allotment of peak minutes.

Closely matched. Even plans with the same basic rate can cost different amounts. Consider the Cingular SuperHome 900 and T-Mobile Get More 3000 regional plans. Both cost $50 a month and come with generous amounts of peak minutes. But we estimate that a frequent user, racking up 1,200 minutes of calling a month, would actually pay $6 a month more with the T-Mobile plan. The main reason: It’s one of the few that carries a charge for long-distance calls made from outside the home calling area.


How to choose

Here are the issues to keep in mind when shopping for a calling plan:

Understand the important factors. The basic fee, the home calling area (the territory where you don’t incur roaming charges), and the allotment of peak-time minutes matter greatly with any calling plan (see Cost, then minutes). Be sure those factors meet your needs first. Then look at the other details, such as the cost for additional minutes or roaming.

Stay with the carrier you like. If you’re satisfied with the phone service you have, keep the carrier but change the plan to try to keep the bills in line. It almost never makes sense to change carriers just for a cheaper calling plan. In our view, good service generally outweighs good rates.

So it is that the prospect of better service with Verizon, highest-rated in our 12-city survey, may be worth the added expense of a Verizon calling plan. That’s a decision you need to make.

Think national. National calling plans have become so inexpensive that they’re worth considering first, even if you don’t travel often. However, national plans often include fewer anytime minutes than regional plans do. So if you plan to use the cell phone during business hours--for a lot of daytime, midweek calling--then look first at regional plans.

Try sharing. If two or more family members use cell phones, consider a family plan that lets everyone share a pool of minutes and minimize the monthly fee. Family plans add $10 to $20 to the basic monthly fee for each additional phone. However, it may be hard to keep tabs on overall usage. Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon let you monitor overall usage on a Web site or by punching in a code or calling the carrier’s customer service office.

Watch the extras. Seemingly minor add-ons can add up. They include directory assistance (about $1.25 per call, plus airtime charges), text messages (10 cents each, or about 2 cents each in plans that let you buy them in bulk), “multimedia” messaging, such as sending cell-phone snapshots (25 cents each), and customized ring tones (99 cents each). If you expect family members to send and receive more than a handful of text messages monthly, choose a plan that lets you buy them in bulk. There are plenty of other charges that can increase the size of your bills.

Opt for larger buckets of minutes. If you’re buying your first cell phone, give yourself a generous estimate of the amount of calling you’ll do. Keep in mind that you pay for incoming and outgoing wireless calls.

A $30 plan offering 300 peak minutes translates into an average of 10 minutes of phone time per day before extra-minute charges of 40 cents per minute or more kick in. It may make sense to take a $40 plan with 400 peak minutes. If you take the cheaper plan but underestimate usage by even 1 minute a day, you’ll spend more than if you took the $40 plan in the first place.

If you already have a wireless phone, use your recent bills to help estimate your needs. If you miscalculate, you should be able to switch later to a plan with the same carrier that better matches your calling pattern.

Consider prepaid. Prepaid plans are best suited for parents who want to control their children’s usage, those with a credit problem, or as an emergency-only service. Using a prepaid plan is like using a prepaid phone card; you buy the amount of calling time you want every month or so. There is no long-term contract. Prepaid plans vary widely, but all include free long-distance and most include roaming.

AT&T’s GoPhone, sold in electronics and department stores and on the AT&T Wireless Web site, is more like a subscription service than a prepaid plan. When you sign up for GoPhone, you select the amount of calling time you want and give AT&T permission to debit your bank account or credit card automatically to replenish your account. GoPhone plans range from $19.99 for 80 anytime minutes to $49.99 for 550 minutes, with unlimited nights and weekends.

With other carriers, you generally buy chunks of time--in stores, by phone, or online--as you need them.

Two national companies specialize in prepaid plans: Virgin Mobile charges 25 cents for the first 10 minutes daily, then 10 cents per minute. TracFone offers a wide range of options, from $17.99 for 60 days/30 minutes to $149.99 for 365 days/300 minutes. TracFone’s phones also have a useful monitor that displays the number of unused minutes.

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Copyright © 2004 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc.