Verizon is touted as having the best overall coverage nationwide. However, each carrier dose have dead spots. The best way to check in your area is to talk to people close by you who use the different carriers available. And Yes, good service is FIRST because without good service those rollovers aren't going to mean a thing to you if you can't use your phone when you need it. Most of the carriers offer great Share Plan Deals, with unlimited nights and weekends. Verizon also has unlimited mobile to mobile as well.
Share Plans depending on the area and second line will be a minimal fee. A word of caution! So many teens (even the best) sometimes do not get the concept of minimal use during peak hours.Going over your plan on peak minutes can be EXTREMELY expensive. If you are not sure that they can handle the heavy respondibility, consider starting them out on a pre-paid phone.
They come in nationwider as well. If you are not one to use the phone alot then you might consider getting a pre-paid cellular, should be your best bet. You can get by on a minimal fee per mouth after you get up and running. Right now you can start a new national verizon FREEUP (pre-paid) for a minimal fee and a mail in rebate.
Outbound calls from anywhere in the U.S (network) to anywhere in the U.S.
and Canada are included at not extra charge. You may buy more cards as you need them. They can even sell them over the internet. The size of card you buy determines how much you are paying per minute. There is no CONTRACT! You own your phone and can proceed howver you would like within the following perameters.
Your minutes will expire within 60 days unless you buy another REUP card. If you buy more minutes, any minutes you have left will rollover and a new 60 days start. If you do not replienisn for 6 mouhts you will loose your phone number and probably have to pay a small fee to get your phone reprogrammed with a new number if you want to start it up again next year. The way all national plans work is this: As long as you are using minutes incoming or outgoing, you are only using minutes.
In verizon case you can also call out of the country to Canada at no extra charge (Canada and Puertp Rico are the only exceptions). I can not be sure of specific locations. A fee for the main line will get you 500 peak minutes to share, another fee per line for anyone else that you would like to put on the same plan as you, will also be sharing family calling and unlimited nights and weekends all with national coverage and national long distance.
However I can tell you that the phones cost the carriers Verizon, AT&T, etc. anywhere from $100-$400 each so the only way they can generally afford to offer you to them for "cheap" to "free" is for you to sign up for a contract. Along with the contract they all run credit checks to my knowledge.
The only answer I'm aware of without credit check is Pre Paid where you pay for the phone up front. Usually around $100. The good news is that I found that Cingular seems to have the best pay-as-you-go plan around. So what you can actually do is to change your plan to a pay-as-you go plan and use the phone you already have (and not have to buy a new phone or get a new phone number).
As long as the phone you have is a GSM device (not TDMA), you shouldn't need anything new. I would suggest going into a Cingular store when your contract is up and telling the salesperson that you want to convert to a pay-as-you go plan. There are two different ones, but the one that I would suggest is the one where you would put a certain dollar amount on account, say $50.00 and then your calls are $0.10 per minute.
As you use minutes, the cost is deducted from the card. You also pay $1.00 a day on any day that you use the phone.
So, if you have a day where you have to make 20 minutes of calls, it is still just a $1.00 for the day and then the 20 minutes would cost you $2.00. You also get free mobile-to-mobile calls. My second choice would be Verizon. As far as coverage goes, theirs is the most extensive in your area.
Their InPulse plan is the pay-as-you-go and is roughly the same price as Cingular ($0.10 per minute and $0.99 per day when you use your phone).
Free in-calling minutes (within the InPulse Rate and Coverage area). With Verizon, you would need to buy a phone. The three phones they have available for this plan are between $89 and $119.
Victor Epand is an expert agent for BuyCellularPhones.info, a huge cellphone superstore featuring great prices and rebates on cellphones including Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, Audiovox, LG, RIM Blackberry, Sanyo, Sony Ericsson, and others.
