can I buy a smart phone, say from amazon, send it to a friend and have him get it activated etc.

[KG]

how would that work? i'm thinking galaxy S5. is reconditioned safe? any other ideas? a broke friend needs a smart phone.

[progressoid]

1. As long as it's compatible with what ever provider he's going to use, I think it's OK.

Some carriers have phones dedicated to their system. But if you get an "unlocked" one, I think it should work with any provider.

I got a cheap Motorola from Target for 99 bucks. Called Consumer Cellular and got it set up in about 15 minutes. Piece of cake. 45 bucks a month.

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. What about a Lifeline phone?

If his income is under $16K he can get a free phone, with unlimited texts and a certain number of free minutes. He can upgrade to a smartphone for a small amount and add a data plan ($10 for 1GB permonth).

Regarding buying him a phone, if he already has a carrier, you'll need to buy a phone that works for that carrier.

If he doesn't already have a carrier, I would recommend Boost Mobile. You just buy your phone and pay $30 a month for unlimited talk, text and data. The first 2GB of data is high speed. After that, you still get data, it's just not as fast. You can get refurbished Galaxy S5s from resellers (like on Ebay) but if you're okay with other brands and want a new phone, I'm very happy with my LG Stylo 2.

[Ron Obvious]

3. You certainly can if it's an unlocked GSM phone (i.e. with a SIM card)

Which, in most of the US, would limit you to t-mobile and AT&T, I believe. If it's unlocked (i.e. not 'sim-locked'), all you have to do is shove a new SIM card in there and it would assume a new identity and phone number. GSM phones work just about world-wide (unlike CDMA which are VERY limited), and all you have to do is buy a prepaid SIM card in any country for between $5 and $20, slide it in, and your phone now has a new (local) phone number. Anybody who travels should own a GSM phone, IMO. Some GSM phones allow dual SIM cards as well.

I don't know enough about CDMA (Sprint, Verizon) to comment, other than they're only used in North America and maybe one or two other countries.

ETA: As a tip, if you travel to other countries and use local SIM cards this way, make sure all your phone numbers in your contact list are of the form +1 xxx-yyy-zzzz, the + indicating the international access code that works in every country or is ignored as appropriate. +1 is the US & Canada, +49 is Germany, etc. In the US, +1 simply becomes 1, while +49 becomes 011-49, and while in Germany, +1 would expand to 00 1 and +49 would be ignored. I suspect this is more than you wanted to know

[blogslut]

4. I am poor and use a Tracfone

I got an Android with Lollipop, 1.1GHZ processor, 1GB RAM nd 1GB memory for $30. The phone offers triple minutes for life, meaning that if one buys a $20.00/60 minutes card, they'll get 180 call minutes, 180 text messages, 180MB of data and service for 3 months.

180MB of data doesn't seem like much but it's certainly enough to call the occasional Uber, look up map directions or check email. Plus the phone is wifi enabled so it can do more web-type stuff using paid or free wifi.