Suggestions for emergency phone

My need for a cell phone is very low. I may use it once a month or
maybe a half dozen times on a trip a few times a year. I am looking for a
new service as my current service is being discontinued in a couple of
months. I now have almost zero effective monthly fee (one minute every
month minimum use) and a larger than average per minute charge. That
worked great, but that plan is going down.

Any suggestions?

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

---

› See More: Suggestions for emergency phone

In article <[email protected]>, on Wed, 27 Dec
2006 14:37:44 -0500, Joseph Meehan wrote:

> My need for a cell phone is very low. I may use it once a month or
> maybe a half dozen times on a trip a few times a year. I am looking for a
> new service as my current service is being discontinued in a couple of
> months. I now have almost zero effective monthly fee (one minute every
> month minimum use) and a larger than average per minute charge. That
> worked great, but that plan is going down.
>
> Any suggestions?

You were on Beyond Wireless TDMA, IIRC. Too bad Cingular is shutting
down all the TDMA MVNOs in April.

You might consider PagePlus - $2.50 / month minimum cost.
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

They're a Verizon MVNO. You'll get full Verizon native coverage for 12 -
14 cents a minute. Roaming is 99 cents a minute, but you're less likely
to roam off of Verizon than just about any other carrier.

You can buy a phone from Page Plus, or, if you don't like their phones,
they'll activate just about any Verizon phone. (I do think it has to be
new enough to be E911 capable.) You can buy one on ebay, or you can buy
one of the Verizon Prepaid phones from WalMart or similar, and activate
it on Page Plus instead of Verizon. If you buy a Verizon prepaid phone,
make sure you don't let WalMart *help* you by activating it on Verizon
in-store.

If you're in an Alltel covered area, I understand they have some good
deals for low usage prepaid, as well.

If you'd like to do a little research yourself, here's a good chart:
http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm


--
Seth Goodman

"Joseph Meehan" <[email protected]> wrote in news:4592cb85$0$8912
[email protected]:

> Any suggestions?

Is your phone an old AMPS phone or digital? For those only interested in a
911 emergency phone, in the USA at least, I always recommend buying a $1,
perfectly-good-working, AMPS bagphone that runs off a cigarette lighter
plug, not a battery that will always be dead when you need it. AMPS will
die at some point, soon, but you have little to lose until it does. Their
FORCED to give you 911 access for emergencies on ANY phone, even your old
one that's already been shut down. You don't need to be a paying
subscriber to dial 911 from ANY phone in the USA on ANY system. It's a
condition of their license.

If you don't use the cellphone, don't subscribe to anything. Wait until
they dump you and see if you can still connect and dial 611, another thing
they don't turn off so you can buy service. If that phone still dials out
to 611 or 911, just keep using it for that at no charge. The old bagphone
just extends the range by a lot with its real antenna and 3 watt real
transmitter, especially in the country where you have the broken engine or
heart attack.

I don't think AMPS will shut down until the rich convert their GM OnStar
cars to digital...because it's still making money. Time will tell.

Seth Goodman wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, on Wed, 27 Dec
> 2006 14:37:44 -0500, Joseph Meehan wrote:
>
>> My need for a cell phone is very low. I may use it once a month
>> or maybe a half dozen times on a trip a few times a year. I am
>> looking for a new service as my current service is being
>> discontinued in a couple of months. I now have almost zero
>> effective monthly fee (one minute every month minimum use) and a
>> larger than average per minute charge. That worked great, but that
>> plan is going down.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>
> You were on Beyond Wireless

That's right.

> TDMA, IIRC. Too bad Cingular is shutting
> down all the TDMA MVNOs in April.
>
> You might consider PagePlus - $2.50 / month minimum cost.
> http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

That looks like the best I have found yet.

>
> They're a Verizon MVNO. You'll get full Verizon native coverage for
> 12 - 14 cents a minute. Roaming is 99 cents a minute, but you're
> less likely to roam off of Verizon than just about any other carrier.
>
> You can buy a phone from Page Plus, or, if you don't like their
> phones, they'll activate just about any Verizon phone. (I do think it
> has to be new enough to be E911 capable.) You can buy one on ebay,
> or you can buy one of the Verizon Prepaid phones from WalMart or
> similar, and activate it on Page Plus instead of Verizon. If you buy
> a Verizon prepaid phone, make sure you don't let WalMart *help* you
> by activating it on Verizon in-store.
>
> If you're in an Alltel covered area, I understand they have some good
> deals for low usage prepaid, as well.
>
> If you'd like to do a little research yourself, here's a good chart:
> http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm


Thanks much.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Larry <[email protected]> spake thusly and wrote:

>Is your phone an old AMPS phone or digital? For those only interested in a
>911 emergency phone, in the USA at least, I always recommend buying a $1,
>perfectly-good-working, A

We were told by Alltel that they could not re-activate any of our
old phones because they did not have GPS for the E911. The ones
we have are Motorola V.60 phones not antiques.

They said it is a new Federal law.

So don't plan on using older phones for much of anything.

(I believed 'em so we have a rack of new Razors on the way)

Older phones that are already activated are grandfathered in but
you can't change the number or anything.

Steve
--
www.sellcom.com for firewood splitters, ergonomic chairs,
office phone systems, "non-mov" surge protection, Exabyte,
CA, Minuteman, Brave Products, Fisch, TMC, Panasonic and more
http://www.phonelabs.biz cellphone docking now here!

Larry wrote:
> "Joseph Meehan" <[email protected]> wrote in news:4592cb85$0$8912
> [email protected]:
>
>> Any suggestions?
>
> Is your phone an old AMPS phone or digital? For those only
> interested in a 911 emergency phone,
> ...

Thanks for the idea, but I guess the word "emergency" was misleading.
My use includes more than the 911 type emergencies.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

[email protected] wrote in news:vvf6p2tmmgr6ls97rbtpjj5jbtkg18glbn@
4ax.com:

> We were told by Alltel that they could not re-activate any of our
> old phones because they did not have GPS for the E911. The ones
> we have are Motorola V.60 phones not antiques.
>
>

I'm using a V60i I brought to Alltel from Verizon years ago. More power,
AMPS service in the countryside where there's no CDMA....no downside for
me. I have to work in the country, AMPS country.

As to the 911 I was saying, you'll still be able to call 911 on those old
phones after they are disconnected...by law, too. You just won't be able
to connect them for cell service.

Radio Shack closed a big store, here. I bought V60 batteries for $1 and
the same price for the 800 Mhz collapsable antennas. I got a lifetime
supply...(c; My old buddy dave has a better phone, a CDMA Startac with the
bigger transmitter in it. We loaded him up on batteries/antennas/cases,
too. Alltel keeps sending me offers to become a contract slave and have
this wonderful 150mw GPS toyphone so the cops can track movements that
won't work in AMPS country. I told 'em no thanks....

"Joseph Meehan" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> Thanks for the idea, but I guess the word "emergency" was
> misleading.
> My use includes more than the 911 type emergencies.
>

Oops...sorry.

Larry

George wrote:
> In article <[email protected]
> et>, [email protected] says...
>
>> You were on Beyond Wireless TDMA, IIRC. Too bad Cingular
>> is shutting down all the TDMA MVNOs in April.
>
> I'm on CallPlus Wireless TDMA, with the same kind of deal.
> But Ihaven't heard anything about an April shutdown by
> Cingular. Is that official? Do you have a link?

Call Plus is a little different. They limit you to 90 days to use your
minutes (according to their web site) I have some minutes over a year old.
Until they announced the change there was no limit. Just use on unit per 60
days and no problem. Also Call Plus does not appear to be accepting new
customers at this time.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

George wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] says...
>
>>>> You were on Beyond Wireless TDMA, IIRC. Too bad
>>>> Cingular is shutting down all the TDMA MVNOs in April.
>
>>> I'm on CallPlus Wireless TDMA, with the same kind of
>>> deal. But Ihaven't heard anything about an April
>>> shutdown by Cingular. Is that official? Do you have a
>>> link?
>
>> Call Plus is a little different. They limit you to 90
>> days to use your minutes (according to their web site) I
>> have some minutes over a year old. Until they announced
>> the change there was no limit. Just use on unit per 60
>> days and no problem. Also Call Plus does not appear to
>> be accepting new customers at this time.
>
> But is it confirmed that CallPlus TDMA will be shut down 4/1
> like Beyond?

No. Of course looking at the web site of Beyond, you will not find it.
I only learned of it via an e-mail message.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

In article <[email protected]>, on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:42:53 -
0600, George wrote:

> In article <[email protected]
> et>, [email protected] says...
>
> > You were on Beyond Wireless TDMA, IIRC. Too bad Cingular
> > is shutting down all the TDMA MVNOs in April.
>
> I'm on CallPlus Wireless TDMA, with the same kind of deal.
> But Ihaven't heard anything about an April shutdown by
> Cingular. Is that official? Do you have a link?


An official web announcement from Cingular? Not that I know of. But this
thread might interest you:

http://www.cellguru.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=496&sid=
408016cf4eb184c087a690f9ee55a54b

or

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ybgq4a


Google will get you lots more.

--
Seth Goodman

This is what i use for a phone for my car, minutes last 4 months.
http://www.uglyeric.com/pageplus.html



"Larry" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Joseph Meehan" <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
> > Thanks for the idea, but I guess the word "emergency" was
> > misleading.
> > My use includes more than the 911 type emergencies.
> >
>
> Oops...sorry.
>
> Larry