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By Sanford Brooks When shopping for a cell phone, the first thing you will find is that there are many different models and features to choose from. Some phones you can get for "free" while others you will have to pay for. Now the term "free" is not exactly accurate. You see, while the phone itself is given to you at no cost, you do however have to subscribe to a 2 year or a 3 year airtime contract. Some plans may be monthly or a pre-paid agreement. These airtime plans vary depending upon what type of cellular phone you buy and the different options you choose with each individual airtime plan. With some cell phones, you can buy the phone and save a few dollars with a reduced sale price. If you shop around, you can get certain bonuses. But to find those bonuses you might have to do a little leg work.
It is easy to fall into a common trap when on the road to purchasing a new cellular phone. As a consumer, your initial thought is to assume that the only thing of real importance is the phone's airtime plan covering rates and the minutes spent during each conversation. The phone that you ultimately decide to purchase will make a huge difference in your overall satisfaction as a cell phone owner. Here are some things you should familiarize yourself with before you set foot in a store, open your wallet, and take home your new phone: DIGITAL SIGNAL VS. ANALOG SIGNAL: Digital and Analog means that the cell phone supports both the digital and analog technology. Analog is much more useful in North American locations where a digital phone signal technology is not as sophisticated as in other places throughout the world. An example would be Europe. The problem is that some remote locations are not covered by the digital network. A handy phone feature is having both digital and analog capabilities. This enables the user to switch between digital and analog when a digital service may not be available at the time. Having a phone feature such as this allows for a better overall phone signal coverage. One drawback is experiencing no service whatsoever. (See the digital vs. analog paragraph.) What does this mean? Depending upon where you live and the type of lifestyle you lead, if a certain cell phone model has no analog roaming capabilities you may experience a loss of service. I'll get to roaming in a moment. Especially in North America, on an average yearly basis, digital networks have greatly improved their cellular coverage. However, signals are still primarily concentrated to urban areas. This means that if you travel to the country for a weekend get away, you won't have any cellular coverage if your particular phone is of digital technology only. ROAMING: Roaming, as the name might suggest, is the service offered by pretty much all cellular service providers which allows customers to use their phone even if they are not in their home coverage region. Generally speaking, roaming does cost you additional fees. On some cellular service plans, providers offer roaming nationally for free. You will know when your phone is in roaming mode by some type of indicator in the LCD screen. The icon might be an antenna logo or the word "roam" might appear. Each phone has a different method of indicating when the phone is roaming. Some phones offer Global or International Roaming, hence it permits the user to receive and make calls from basically any country. FREQUENCIES: The frequencies that your cell phone supports is highly important especially if you travel a lot because you might not have access to cover all cell phone areas. In Canada for example, in its area, Bell Mobility has two types of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) antennas. One is an 800 Mhz band and the other is a 1900 Mhz band. If your phone uses the 1900 Mhz band it won't work in a digital 800 Mhz area. CDMA TECHNOLOGY: CDMA is the most common and the most recent digital cellular technology in North America. Without getting too technical, basically this is how CDMA works. Multiple conversations are carried over one frequency. All communications are sent out at the same time as one mixed chunk of data. Each data chunk which belongs to a specific communication is tagged with a different CDMA code. This enables the communications at the receiving end of the conversation to be separated and reconstructed in its correct order based upon the unique identifying codes attached to the certain groups of data chunks. There are a variety of airtime plans available. But to lead a path towards your selection, here is a basic overview of what is offered out there in the market. BELL WIRELESS: Bell offers the LG 5400. This sleek phone comes with an internal antenna and supports fantastic reception. Small enough to be taken anywhere comfortably , it fits nicely into a purse or pocket. This phone offers customizing the display and much more. You can easily change the menu style, backlight options, greeting and colours. This versatile phone comes complete with Java, GPS and Internet enabled features. With Internet access you can even download screensavers, ringtones and games. Never miss an important date with repeat and timed alarm notices. Bell's airtime package offers 10 popular phones to choose from and you can even get another phone for another family member for free. You can choose between a 12, 24 and 36 month package. If you prefer a 36 month term, you pay $49.00 a month for this service. For the best airtime value, Bell suggests going with an all in one, unlimited nights and weekend plan. For $35.00 a month you get 20 unlimited local calls per month, call waiting, call forwarding and conference calling. Unlimited talk time Monday to Friday from 8pm to 7am. TELUS MOBILITY: Telus has the LG 6190 Trimode 1X Camera Phone. Equipped with an integrated 300K-pixel (screen resolution) digital camera, a 4X zoom and built in flash. Pixel resolution is a 262K display. These versatile phones allow you to access the Internet, share text messages and even interface with your laptop computer. You can send email, receive instant messaging, plus check your banking and stock information. Want to know what has gone on in the world today? Use your phone to access all local news including business and national affairs including the latest sport scores. Connect your phone to your laptop computer to send and receive email including file attachments. This phone is best suited to a busy person always on the go who wishes to send a fax or just surf the Internet. Telus offers some attractive airtime packages. They change from time to time, so new information is always available. The LG 6190 sells for $299.00 with no package plan. With some promotional discounts you can save anywhere up to $200.00. If you sign up for one of the package plans, highly flexible to suit your cell phone needs, you can save even more money. It's best to talk to a Telus Mobility agent to find out what plan is best suited to your needs and requirements. FIDO: Fido has a variety of plan options similar to Telus. They offer monthly and pre-paid services. At their low-end service, Fido offers their "Anytime" plan. The cost is $20.00 per month and includes 200 Anytime Minutes. This plan gives you more talk time with per-second billing. Their long-distance rate within Canada and to the States is 0.10 cents per minute. It should be noted that depending upon the serive you choose or if you subscribe to a monthly package, additional charges may apply. Check with a customer service representatitve to get the full details. With Fido there are many phones to choose from as there are many different airtime plans you can subscribe to. The Siemens A65 and CF62, Nokia 3100B, Sony Ericsson P910i and T610 are just a few of the cell phones which offer a lot of the bells and whistles. These phones have colour screeens, integrated camera, GPRS handset capabilities, picture messaging and polyphonic ringtones. As with any significant purchase, if you decide what specific features you want your phone to have and if you research the airtime plan carefully you will be successful in buying a phone you'll be very pleased with. |
