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I will admit right here - I know nothing about cell phones. There. I'm from that generation.
I have had pay as you go phones before, however, and know all about them. Now we are traveling all year long. We spend a few months in this state, a few months in another, and maybe a few in another each year, visiting friends and staying with family, etc..
I would like to find a plan that would let me have one phone for everywhere, and from what I read it seems phone plans have you in a certain "home base" and everything outside there is roaming. Or is that wrong? I would like to be able to call from my place in Arkansas, or Oregon, and it be a local call from wherever I am.
Is there such a thing? Sorry if that sounds like a silly thing - I just can't seem to understand the wording of most of these plans, because of course most people stay in one place and don't have a problem if they are mostly calling next door or to the local shop.
I will certainly appreciate any thoughts and help anyone could give me. Thanks!
I will admit right here - I know nothing about cell phones. There. I'm from that generation.
I have had pay as you go phones before, however, and know all about them. Now we are traveling all year long. We spend a few months in this state, a few months in another, and maybe a few in another each year, visiting friends and staying with family, etc..
I would like to find a plan that would let me have one phone for everywhere, and from what I read it seems phone plans have you in a certain "home base" and everything outside there is roaming. Or is that wrong? I would like to be able to call from my place in Arkansas, or Oregon, and it be a local call from wherever I am.
Is there such a thing? Sorry if that sounds like a silly thing - I just can't seem to understand the wording of most of these plans, because of course most people stay in one place and don't have a problem if they are mostly calling next door or to the local shop.
I will certainly appreciate any thoughts and help anyone could give me. Thanks!
I would suggest going to the ATT or Verizon websites. Not only do they and many other companies no longer have roaming in the US, but there is no limit to the amount of talk time or number of texts you can send.
Thank you. Then that means (sorry to be so uneducated) that no matter where I am that I can call anywhere and it will just cost me minutes, nothing else? And no matter where anyone else is, that they can call my number and it's like a local call? Oh no, that doesn't make sense. It would depend on their plan, wouldn't it?
And what about if they have a landline? If they call me on this phone number will it be long distance?
And what about when you call the cable company and get put on hold for an hour? I guess you're paying minutes even though you're calling an 800 number, right?
Last edited by ndcairngorm; 10-11-2015 at 05:03 PM..
Reason: add paragraph
I use prepaid Tracfone. Their phones are on AT&T or Verizon service, depending on which phone you choose. They don't roam at all. So they will only use the AT&T or Verizon towers. I live in a remote area and I have good service almost everywhere, unless I'm in a canyon.
Since Tracfone is cheap I keep two phones going, my Android phone on Verizon, and a flip phone on the AT&T service. If I am travelling around the region sometimes I may get no service in an area with one of the phones, but the other phone will work just fine.
A friend of mine has a phone on Verizon service. There is one town around here that my Tracfone Verizon phone will not work in. Her Verizon phone will roam in that town and get service. She also pays a lot more for her cell service than I do.
The Tracfones are mass marketed all over the US so they should work almost everywhere in the US. I traveled to Massachusetts earlier this year and my phone worked fine there.
I think there may be some plans that only work best in your home area, but I think most plans work all over the US now.
I also want to add that in general AT&T and Verizon have the best overall coverage in the US. T-Moblie and Sprint do not have as good of a coverage area in the US. So if you are travelling arround the US a lot you may want to stick with AT&T or Verizon services. Many of the cheaper phone plans are on T-Mobile or Sprint. Some of the plans don't readily specify which service they run on, so do your homework.
I will admit right here - I know nothing about cell phones. There. I'm from that generation.
I have had pay as you go phones before, however, and know all about them. Now we are traveling all year long. We spend a few months in this state, a few months in another, and maybe a few in another each year, visiting friends and staying with family, etc..
I would like to find a plan that would let me have one phone for everywhere, and from what I read it seems phone plans have you in a certain "home base" and everything outside there is roaming. Or is that wrong? I would like to be able to call from my place in Arkansas, or Oregon, and it be a local call from wherever I am.
Is there such a thing? Sorry if that sounds like a silly thing - I just can't seem to understand the wording of most of these plans, because of course most people stay in one place and don't have a problem if they are mostly calling next door or to the local shop.
I will certainly appreciate any thoughts and help anyone could give me. Thanks!
I think what the other poster meant to say was the days of roaming charges have past. Roaming is an account provisioning issue and roaming agreement issue.
If there is no roaming agreement in place you won't be able to roam. Likewise, if your account is not provisioned for roaming you won't be able to roam.
As far as calling from Oregon and calling from Arkansas, all cell plans work the same. The call will be local or no charge, but most plans (cell and landlines) got rid of long distance and with Internet access there are more than a few ways to avoid long distance in the few cases where there could be a charge.
In other words, if someone calls you from a cellphone there is almost no possibility for a long distance charge. If someone calls from a landline there is a slight possibility of a long distance charge, but I'm not sure how common that is. With Internet access long distance can be avoided, by using something like Google voice.
Its not possible for a person In Oregon and a person in Arkansas to make a call and have it be a local call - even if there is no long distance charge. EX: you get an Oregon number the Arkansas person will be making a long distance call even if that call is free via their plan or via the Internet.
Most people have cell phones, so long distance isn't much of an issue anymore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndcairngorm
Thank you. Then that means (sorry to be so uneducated) that no matter where I am that I can call anywhere and it will just cost me minutes, nothing else? And no matter where anyone else is, that they can call my number and it's like a local call? Oh no, that doesn't make sense. It would depend on their plan, wouldn't it?
And what about if they have a landline? If they call me on this phone number will it be long distance?
And what about when you call the cable company and get put on hold for an hour? I guess you're paying minutes even though you're calling an 800 number, right?
How long do you talk OP? Text? Do you need the phone for an occasional call or more frequent calls?
Verizon and AT&T have basic plans around $25, but if that is more than you need you might look at pay as you go plans that use Verizon or AT&T service and have roaming access. No one cell provider is going to have service everywhere, but Verizon will usually have the best service - most coverage anyway.
If you go to the provider website you should a coverage map that will let you zoom in, so you can see if you will have coverage where you need it. Make sure you zoom in though. The aggregate map makes it appear like there is more coverage than there really is. Also make sure that you look at the map for prepaid I'd that is the route you decide to take; often there is a difference in coverage between pre and post paid.
And what about if they have a landline? If they call me on this phone number will it be long distance?
It will depend on what area code your cell phone has and what area code the landline has, if both are the same area code, then usually there is no charge for a landline to call that cell phone but different home phone plans MAY have different terms and conditions, I do not know the terms and conditions for all home phone companies nationwide.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ndcairngorm
And what about when you call the cable company and get put on hold for an hour? I guess you're paying minutes even though you're calling an 800 number, right?
Right. If you are on a cellphone calling, then you pay by the minute even when calling an 800 number, unless you are calling your cellphone provider.
For all intensive purposes, "roaming" only applies when traveling outside the US with modern phone plans (prepaid and monthly service plans). Domestically (in the US) coverage across is seamless to the consumer.
For all intensive purposes, "roaming" only applies when traveling outside the US with modern phone plans (prepaid and monthly service plans). Domestically (in the US) coverage across is seamless to the consumer.
We still have roaming, just few to no roaming charges (dependent upon ToS).
Sprint and T-Mobile have tiny networks and rely on roaming agreement to deliver service where they do not have towers. Same with Verizon and AT&T, but their networks are much larger, so less roaming takes places.
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