Best Cheap Family Cell Phone Plans?

by Ed Yourdon

My dad has finally accepted getting us cellphones.So which plot is best for 3 people? And has to be cheap! =]

Answer by Ozzierobbie
pre payed it the way to go

Answer by Dbaby
I wanna know too!!!!!

Answer by ♥ Katie ♥
cellone but it sucks so verizon

Answer by Yeah I Said IT!!
the cheapest one you can find, and i want best answer for that.

all the best

Answer by Ms.HollyxHardcore
Verizon. If you have teens the unlimited texting will come in handy. You have to be firm with their CS if you need something flat though.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Harold, I just saw what you should have gotten me for Christmas: an iPad!


Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: this photo was in print in an undated (Jan 6, 2011) Everyblock NYC zipcodes blog titled "10036." It was also in print as an illustration of a "shiny nylon jacket" in a Mar 2, 2011 blog titled "Blue Gertrude ‘Chatel’ down jacket." And it was in print in an Apr 19, 2011 Pizza Recipe Recipes for Pizzas blog, with the same heading and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page.

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As I noted in this Flickr set a year ago, no New Yorker in his right mind goes to Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Nobody from Manhattan, anyway — you can never tell about those crazy people in the remote boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, or the Bronx (and we won’t even try to imagine what those crazy folks in New Jersey might do). Really, even some residents of Manhattan have experienced the New Year’s Eve count-down once in their lives, if only so they can speak with some authority about the subject. In my case, it was back in 1969; and it was only because I had had a pleasant feast at a like restaurant a couple blocks from Times Square, and had to walk to the subway when no taxis could be found. There I was, in the midst of it all … and once was more than enough.

Why do New Yorkers do their best to stay away from Times Square on New Year’s Eve? Well, have you ever looked at a TV report from Times Square in the midst of all that mayhem? There are a gazillion other people out there, jammed against each other, shoulder to shoulder — and they’re all drunk (or at least they look that way), and they’re all screaming at the top of their lungs. You can’t just drive to a nearby corner and park your car, with a plot of getting back in your car and fleeing after you’ve seen what a crazy thought it was. And you can’t take a taxi right to the middle of Times Square — at least, not after mid-afternoon on New Year’s Eve. Even worse, there are no public bathrooms anywhere to be found, so you’re in distress if you drink too much beer … except that the cops do their best, quite understandably, to make sure nobody in the Times Square area (which, on this special night, is broadly defined to take in the area from 34th Street to 59th Street, and from Sixth Avenue to Eighth Avenue) is drinking or doing anything that might look perilous. Or carrying a backpack that might control perilous things.

Consequently, it often seems that most of the crowd has chosen to get roaring drunk before they arrive on the vista. All of which might be fantastic fun if the weather is clear, and the temperature is somewhere above the freezing mark. But if it’s 30 degrees or lower, and it’s drizzling or raining or snowing, this is not a house everywhere you want to spend six or eight hours standing around with two million of your best (drunken) friends…

Thus, it should not bolt from the blue you to hear that I was not in Times Square to watch the ball drop at midnight on New Year’s Eve of 2010 (or, for that matter, any other year going back to 1969). Though, I remembered that my visit to Times Square in the ahead of schedule afternoon of Dec 31, 2009 had been somewhat fascinating, and since the weather forecasters were predicting mild, mostly-sunny skies this year, I thought it might be fascinating to try it again.

I took the IRT subway down to Times Square, and then spent the next two hours wandering north up Broadway to about 49th Street, and then back toward 42nd St. again. Even at 1:30 PM, the streets were already crowded with families and tourists, and what seemed to be an even larger digit of police. It also seemed like nearly everyone was wearing a party hat, or a set of "2011" fake eyeglasses, or some other kind of celebratory costume or trimming. There were also gazillions of digital cameras, and an equal digit of Blackberries and cellphones. I wonder how many millions and millions of digital images and video clips were shot during the course of the afternoon.

Perhaps the most amusing sight during the afternoon was the frequent appearance of delivery guys wearing bright, colorful, and instantly recognizable Domino’s Pizza uniforms, wandering through the crowds with large, insulated "thermal" bags that doubtless carried half a dozen pizzas. In a couple cases, they were peering nervously at individuals at a specific street corner; my assumption was that someone had called Domino’s from their cell phone, requesting delivery to that exact spot. But in other cases, it looked far more liable that the delivery guys were just wandering around, looking for hungry people that were doubtless willing to pay a premium price for a excellent hot slice of pizza … or the whole darn pie.

Around 2:45 PM, I was wandering south on Broadway once again, but when I got as far as 44th Street, I could see that the cops had completely closed off the next two blocks, and that even the sidewalks were impassable. I knew that they were cordoning the crowd into fenced-in rectangular areas, and that (a) each person allowed into such a rectangular area was first searched by a cop for booze, weapons or other contraband, and (b) once inside the fenced-in area, you weren’t allowed out unless you left for excellent.

As more people at home, the cops kept moving northwards, filling up one rectangular area after another. The obvious strategy for me, then, was to turn around and head north — toward the local IRT subway stop at Broadway and 50th Street. But I got no further than 46th Street before everything stopped, and I could make no further progress along the sidewalk, even though I had been hugging the sides of the buildings along the way to avoid the throngs everywhere else. Fortunately, I was only about 10 feet from the corner of Broadway and 46th; but it took a excellent, solid 15 minutes to really reach the corner — at which point I heard the cops yelling to the crowd that they were closing everything down, and that anyone who wanted to go elsewhere would have to take the "side street" (i.e., 46th Street) over to 8th Avenue, in order to steer further northward.

There were more barricades at 8th Avenue and 46th Street, and the narrow passageways onto 8th Avenue itself were being closed down. I managed to squeeze through, got onto 8th Avenue, and then easily walked up to 50th Street. Back over to Broadway, and I could look down the avenue all the way to the tower on 42nd Street everywhere the ball would drop later tonight. And turning around, I could look numerous blocks north up Broadway, and see that (a) they were all empty, and (b) the cops had cordoned them off, too. By now, it was about 3:15 PM, and I got the sense that it wouldn’t be long before the fenced-in crowds would be all the way up to everywhere I was, and then further north, perhaps all the way up to Inner Park at 59th Street.

In any case, it was clearly time to go home. I uploaded the 800+ photos that I had taken during the afternoon, loved a tasty New Year’s Eve feast at home, and then settled down to watch the revelry on television as the countdown came to an end. As I noted at the end of last year’s Flickr set of Times Square images, the TV coverage was obviously far more extensive than what I could accomplish with just one DSLR camera; and it was also infinitely more sophisticated, with high-end TV cameras located on strategic vantage points all around the square. On the other hand, the TV images appear, and then disappear, often leaving no lasting impression. By contrast, these still images will hopefully be fascinating to look at months, if not being, from now. For better or worse, they’ll be here whenever you’d like to see them…

We are now with T-Mobile. I’ve been with them for about 7 being (they were another name before). Service is adequate, but not fantastic.
Our family: Me (stay at home mom) and my husband are the only ones on the plot as the baby isn’t on the phone yet
Our plot: We have the “family plot.” We spend $ 60/month for free calls to each other and 700 shared minutes. The issue is, besides each other, we only use 200 to 300 of those shared minutes.
$ 60 is a lot to spend seeing that we only use 1/3 of what we pay for. We don’t now have a land line, and I’d like one because that’s what I’d talk on since the cell is hard to hear inside and such.
So, for a excellent price, I’d like 2 cells and a land line. And I don’t want to have to pay for minutes I don’t use.
My thought: Land line, regular cell for husband, and pre pay for me.
Any other thoughts? Any plans/providers out there that could meet our needs better?
Thanks

Answer by answerer
Cingular is what I have. It’s preety excellent.

Answer by movin2006@sbcglobal.net
I WOULD SUGGEST CHECKING TO SEE IF (METRO PCS) IS AVAILABLE IN YOUR AREA. THE PHONE PLANS VARY ANYWHERE BETWEEN 30 & 45 DOLLARS PER MONTH. YOU PICK WHICH PLAN BEST SUITS YOU AND YOU CAN IN MOST CASES CALL ANYWHERE IN THE U.S. AND CANADA ALL YOU WANT ANYTIME OF DAY AND NIGHT. PLUS IT WONT COST YOU ANY EXTRA JUST THE FLAT RATE YOU CHOSE. THE DOWN SIDE IS THIER NETWORK IS STILL KINDOF SMALL BUT IF YOU RARELY LEAVE YOUR CALLING AREA ITS THE PERFECT PHONE.
P.S. YOU DO HAVE TO BUY THE PHONE BUT IT PAYS FOR ITSELF QUICKLY DEPENDING ON WHICH PLAN YOU CHOOSE.

Answer by lplevesque
My wife and I are on the SunCom UN-Plot. I am extremely pleased with the service as a whole.

We pay $ 45 for hers and $ 35 a month for mine and that allows us unlimited calling (local or long distance) as long as we are in our “home area”. That area includes some 200 miles in any management of our hometown. If we travel outside of that area we are free to 300 anywhere minutes per month.

The best part of this programs is that my cell bill is always the same. In 6 being with them I have never been billed more than the the original 45/35. Excellent Luck and pleased shopping.

Answer by ryuji132
for your guy he might go with the new t-mobil plot for 300 minutes for $ 29
as fore landline service I have no clue everywhere you live so I can’t offer much help there.

as for prepaid I have a back up phone by TRACFONE. I add a $ 20 card and that gives me 60 units (airtime) or for $ 30 you get 120 units (airtime) The service runs for for 90 days before you need to add more time. You can run out of units but keep th service for that 90 days. When you buy a card your service extends 60 days (this is nifty) so if you buy one card on 1-2-07 your service runs in anticipation of 3-2-07 plus how many days you already had left on the account.

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