Cell Phones

[skypilot]

This post is not to criticize cell phone users I am simply curious about something. How many of you have no desire or need to own one? And for those of you who do own one, what makes it worthwhile? I ask because I know people who don't need one for work, who don't drive, so they don't need one for emergencies and breakdowns, who don't have children, and some who, frankly, don't have that many friends. Yet some of these same people have a cell phone, carry it around, somehow run up huge bills, get screwed by their service provider, have the phone break on them, etc. I have a phone in my apartment with voice-mail and my phone bill runs me between $25.00 and $30.00 a month. I have friends with cell phones who complain about poor service, poor reception, somehow getting stuck with $200.00+ worth of charges on their cell phone,etc. When did making and receiving calls become so expensive and when did people just start accepting it. I'm not talking about people who need these phones for their job. Why is a land phone (I think that's what they call them) not enough anymore?

[LiberalVoice]

1. Well...

I moved to pittsburgh and have few friends here...Most of my friends live 1200 miles away in Tampa, Fl. It's nice to have a phone that I get free long distance on...I drive to work and class. Both of which are at least 15 miles away from my house.

All of that is really irrelevant when I think about it. It's not so much that a land line isn't good enough anymore. It's just more convenient to have a cvell phone.

[Bunny]

12. Hi Liberal Voice!

And welcome to Western PA! :hi:

Didn't you make the move in reverse? Most folks move FROM Pittsburgh TO Florida! :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Don't have one, don't want one

I'm an office manager for a pest control company, and the techs have cell phones so that they can be called in case of an emergency, change of schedule, etc. Half the time I can't hear them or understand them. There are places in the Ozarks where the mountains make it impossible for them to receive a signal. And I hate to think that there will be a time when the beauty of these ancient hills will be marred by telephone towers.

I've also heard that the radiation or microwaves or whatever that come from these phones isn't healthy. Another reason to avoid them. I like a phone that is tethered, thank you.

[RushIsRot]

3. I have a girlfriend in another state.

I got a plan with unlimited nighttime and weekend minutes which means I can talk - long-distance - to her for hours on end at the designated times.

[skypilot]

7. OK, so I see that the free long distance minutes thing...

..is a selling point. So now I'm really wondering how some people end up screwed, getting stuck with huge cell phone bills. Are some providers/plans just shadier than others?

[Katarina]

11. I can answer that question!

Are some providers/plans just shadier than others?

We had cingular. With their family plan, you have unlimited calling within your area, which worked great for us. At the time if my husband wanted to call me from work to talk at lunch he would use his cell phone. He works about 15 minutes from where we live. Same town, but we live in the country. We started getting our bills and the charges were extremely high. (over $200) It took them 3 months to figure out that my cell phone was picking up from a tower in the next county over from us that was not within our calling area. So even though I was in my county and my husband was in the same county it was charging me for being out of my calling range. Cingular couldn't/wouldn't do anything about it so we dropped them and went with AT&T and have not had a bill like that since.

[skypilot]

15. Thank you for that post.

I know that not all companies are that shady but things like that are what make me curious about cell phones. I guess I just REALLY hate unnecessary hassles and I fear that a cell phone would bring many my way.
I still have my land phone and it's been working for me so far. I guess a cell phone is something that hasn't become necessary in my life yet.

[Atlant]

22. The land-line phones now offer this as well...

New England Tel, err, Nynex, err Verizon now offers a $60/month
"unlimited usage" plan for their land-line customers as well.

I wonder if this is a reaction to their finally seeing traditional
households dropping their one-and-only line in favor of going
wireless?

(We didn't pick up the plan because our pay-as-you-go plan costs
us less per month. We did help things along, though, by just
dropping our second phone line.)

Atlant

[Katarina]

4. 2 cell phones here.

One for me and one for my husband. My husband uses his mostly for work. I have mine because I want my children to be able to reach me at any time. If they are in school and I am not home I am still only a phone call away. So for me it's just peace of mind. Once my son starts driving, he will get one as well. We pay about $70 a month for them so thats not too expensive. I don't run up huge amounts of minutes though because I'm very selective about who gets my number.

[skypilot]

9. You are the kind of cell phone owner...

...that I understand. It's the ones who don't use it for work and who don't have children and who don't drive that I don't understand.

[Bronco69]

5. I've asked those same questions myself.

My partner works for a HUGE mobile phone company so the only reason I have a cell phone is because he insists that I carry one for emergencies. We are friends with several couples and keep in touch with them often, but I can't imagine who I would talk to long enough or often enough to run up a $200 phone bill. I don't even use the minutes I have. Nothing bugs me more than going into a store or gas station etc. than to see someone walking around with that earpiece hanging out acting like they are the most important person on the planet. And don't even get me started on talking on the phone while you are driving...

[RebelOne]

6. I never saw the need for a cell phone until I started doing

volunteer animal rescue transports and would have to travel 50 to 75 miles from home. And I decided if my car broke down while traveling, that I would need a cell phone. So I bought a pre-paid TracFone, but I rarely use it, so it doesn't cost me much at all.

[Intelsucks]

8. I have one, but I should just have it cut off.

I'm paying ~$35 a month to make just a few calls. I never receive calls, because the damned thing is never turned on. I get sick of keeping it charged up, carrying it, etc. I'm just too easy to get a hold of... I really don't need it.

My favorite bumper sticker is HANG UP AND DRIVE!!! But that's a whole other thread.

I was standing in line at the Best Buy Customer Service Desk the other day, and a customer decided that his cell phone conversation was more important than the 15 people waiting in line behind him. I've never come so close to going off on a complete stranger in a public place before. :mad:

[onehandle]

10. The phone booth plot....

Phone booths used to be incredible money makers. However, the telecoms got greedy (surprise!). When mobile phone use started increasing in the 1970's and early eighties, they got an idea. Kill off phone booths. Even though they were profitable, issuing a bill to everyone, every month for a portable phone would be even more.

So even though they would lose money in the short term, they started getting rid of or not fixing phone booths. And it worked. Not that cel phone technology would not take off anyway, but they wanted to grow it faster than would naturally.

And the truth is many people do need quick access to a phone either for emergencies or simple communication. Ironically, the advent of email slowed cel phone growth, but that was ok. ISP bills were just another money source for the Telecoms.

The big trend these days is having No land line at all. I only keep a basic phone line for our alarm system. I give most people my cel phone or work number.

[Carlie]

13. Favorite bumper sticker:

Hang up and drive!

Seriously, I can't stand trying to shop (groceries, clothes) and having all these people carrying on conversations as they walk up and down the aisles.

I can certainly understand it if people need it for work. I also think it's a good idea for driving emergencies.

Other than that, it just seems like another yuppie toy to me.

[SheilaT]

14. I finally got a cell phone several years ago

when twice in two weeks my kid's school couldn't get ahold of me when he was ill and needed to go home. I'm "stay at home" mom, and that means I'm not tethered to a job and I'm often on the run during the day. So I got the phone, and the very first time it rang several weeks later was when the school was sending kids home because of a power failure.

I started with a minimal plan, only 20 minutes a month and only went over that amount once on a trip to Arizona -- I knew making the trip I'd have a large bill for that month and it was well worth it.

In the years since I've gotten new, better phones, and vastly upgraded the amount of minutes. Now there are three of us sharing some phenomenal amount of air time (myself and both sons, husband has separate phone and plan) and the huge appeal is the free long distance and effectively unlimited night and weekend time.

I also travel just enough, several trips a year, that using the cell phone to call home is often easier and cheaper than using a hotel phone.

But not everyone has these same needs. And I don't use it just to chat, or to make local calls when I'm home and can use the land line.

It's also very nice to be able to contact either of my sons when they're off somewhere. I realize they could be lying to me about where they are and what they're doing, but at least I can keep in touch. Works for me.

[lcordero]

16. don't have one, don't want one

I feel that I lose too much power as a consumer by signing any kind of a long term contract.

[pippin]

17. Hate them. They are an addiction

What the hell do people have to natter about any way? At the unversity where I work students walk all over the place with the damn things glued to their ears. In the classrooms the ones with stupid songs are tusually the ones that jangle away in the midst of lectures. Even in the bathrooms in the next stalls there's usually someone gabbing away while on the john.

My fellow teachers and I have to virtually order a total ban on the damn things during classes, and the moment class is over out everyone rushes outside, digging into backpacks for their cellphones. At restaurants, you wonder why anyone bothers having dinner with friends who spend most of their time talking to someone else. Generally, it's the person with the cell phone who talks loudly, oblivious to the irritation of the other diners. And then there are the jerks in grocery stores: picking armfulls of stuff off the shelves with a cell phone tucked between head and shoulder while pushing a shopping cart.

Ever listen to these conversations? "hi, I'm here, where are you?" "hi I am at Mcdonald's, where are you?" "and then I said to her . . ." he said, like . . .and then I said like . . ." Really deep stuff.

There's something really neurotic about all this. What's the matter with silence?

End of rant.

[elfwitch]

18. Have one but held out...

I got a pay as you go one for emergencies. I really don't give out the number. I held out for a very long time.

[DS1]

19. Had one, it was fun for awhile, dumped it

The highly pornographic text messages my girls (no, not my daughters!) would send where thrilling, but that's where the fun stopped and the headaches with work began.

[MissMillie]

20. Kids + long commute

It helps to have a cell phone in my circumstances.

I left my office one day and as I was getting to my car I got a call from the emergency room near my home (some 45 miles away). They had my son... seems he injured his arm playing football. If I had needed to go home first, it would have been another 30 minutes (and that assumes I would check the answering machine right when I got in the door--not likely) before I got to him.

Since then, I also got my son a phone. Now I can find him no matter where he is.

[fishnfla]

21. I have one the business pays for

I never use it. I dont even know its #! (sad, I know) I hate the damned things.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

23. It's my only phone.

But I never use it while driving.
Or in a restuarant. (Always on vibrate or silent)
Or in a movie theater. (Again, on a quite setting)
Always had great service, (with AT&T).
And I'm a freelance graphic designer, so I like to get the calls when I can.
Anyone who racks up $200+ in monthly phone bills shouldn't have a cell phone.

[nini]

24. I got one after my car stalled in the middle of no where

It was at night, I was alone and it was a pain in the butt to get to a phone to call AAA and it was a bit scary because of the area I was in.

I got a cell phone the next day and was extremely thankful I had it when my freaking timing belt blew between Barstow and Las Vegas because of the heat. I would have died of dehydration out there as no one stopped to see if we needed help and a Highway Patrol car never drove by in the couple hours we were waiting for the tow.

As far as cost, you have to keep up with current plans and pay attention to the time you use. I don't use my phone unless I need to or I know I have enough time. I rarely go over my minutes per month.

They're also good to bring on vacation - this of course if you're in your plan area which mine is all of North America.

[geniph]

25. I have severe phone phobia

so a personal cell phone would be a rather absurd thing for me to have, since I cannot abide speaking on the phone. I do have one from work, but no one uses the telephone part of it - when the techs need to reach me, they use the two-way radio feature of it. I carry it when I drive in case I have an emergency, but I don't use it.

The only time I had a personal cell phone was when I was working in a job that paid for a pager (which I had to carry 24/7), but not a phone (this was some years ago, when cell phones were expensive). I got the phone because it was so stressful to get an emergency page from work and not have a phone available that I could return the call on. Pretty much ever since, I've worked somewhere where work issued me a cell phone. I have to pay $.10 per minute for any personal calls on the thing, and I think I paid less than a dollar for all of last year, so that tells you how much I (don't) use it.

I won't use the two-way feature in the car while driving anymore. I used to answer it when someone beeped me, but now I wait until the car is stopped. I ran over a squirrel while I was distracted by a question on the two-way a few months ago, and still shudder at the thought that it could as easily have been someone's pet or their child. So any beeps have to wait until the car stops now.

My husband got cell phones for his teenage sons when they started driving. They're required to have them with them (and working!) whenever they're out in their cars, but he doesn't pay for their personal conversation with their friends; they have to pay for that themselves.

I can't figure out what all these folks who are on their cell phones practically every waking hour did for communication before cell phones - you know the people, they call their friends to chitchat while they're grocery shopping or at a restaurant. What did they do to occupy themselves before cell phones? What on earth is there to talk about for so long?

[Meatshake]

26. It's my primary phone

I don't have a phone at home. so, $40 bucks a month for more minutes than i'll every use, perfect reception at home, and free long-distance. It took me awhile before i decided to get one, but i'd never get rid of it now. I really thought it would suck that people could get a hold of you when ever they wanted to, but it's not the case. I'm a huge phone call screener, if i don't know the number it goes straight to voicemail, if it's important, they'll leave a message.

And phone etiquette is very important. Be courteous of others. Nothing annoys me more than hearing phones ring when they shouldn't be.