Can anybody help me with some cell-phone questions?

[serious crayons]

I'm currently paying $5 a month insurance on each of my family's three phones, so $180 a year. The insurance has a $50 deductible -- in other words, it will replace a broken or lost phone, but it costs $50. My kids tend to lose or break their phones approximately once a year. My own phone, which is about two years old, has stopped working.

I see that you can get iPhones and other phones that are much nicer than my Razor on eBay for under $70. They say "unlocked" and say they work with AT&T. Obviously this makes more sense economically than paying $60 a year insurance plus $50 deductible for replacement phones.

My question: If I were to buy one of these eBay phones (or any AT&T phone from anywhere outside of an AT&T store), can I just put my SIM card in the new phone and have it work? Will that phone then have my phone's number? Are there any other issues I should consider before buying a phone off eBay?

This might seem like an elementary question to some, but keep in mind that I'm not very tech-literate.

[Front-Ranger]

It depends. My phone supplier, Verizon, uses a proprietary technology, so I can't use the chip in non-Verizon phones. But you may be able to with other suppliers.

[louisev]

The SIM card IS your phone number.  However, it has to be put into a compatible device.  If the Ebay phone says "AT&T phone" or something of that nature then you're good to go, except - pay through Paypal, that way you can get the Paypay insurance if you get stiffed on the item on "not as advertised."

[serious crayons]

OK, thanks, F-R and Louise. I'm going to cancel the insurance, then.

Meanwhile, I got my phone working again, but my kids both still need new phones. I realized I probably shouldn't buy a new AT&T phone myself just now because I am going to try to get out of my contract when it expires in September. My kids will be stuck with that plan for much longer, though, because they have bought new phones along the way, and to do that AT&T made them re-up their contract. Which, I suspect, they will try to use to keep me from getting out of mine, because mine is the primary account.

I just hate AT&T.

Yesterday, I had some cable/internet issues, and had a Comcast repairman out. He told me someone had slashed a tire on his Comcast truck in his driveway the previous night. He said he didn't have any enemies, so we both agreed that it was probably somebody who hates Comcast. He was worried, though, because they just found out his wife is pregnant, and she lost the last baby due to stress. Now they have to lie in bed every night wondering if there are Comcast-hating vandals in their front yard.

Oddly enough, I like Comcast. They have started a campaign to win back customer good will, and it really shows. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. It's AT&T I hate. I've had nothing but BAD experiences with them. If I saw an AT&T truck, it would be all I could do to keep from slashing its tires.

[brokeplex]

I'm currently paying $5 a month insurance on each of my family's three phones, so $180 a year. The insurance has a $50 deductible -- in other words, it will replace a broken or lost phone, but it costs $50. My kids tend to lose or break their phones approximately once a year. My own phone, which is about two years old, has stopped working.

I see that you can get iPhones and other phones that are much nicer than my Razor on eBay for under $70. They say "unlocked" and say they work with AT&T. Obviously this makes more sense economically than paying $60 a year insurance plus $50 deductible for replacement phones.

My question: If I were to buy one of these eBay phones (or any AT&T phone from anywhere outside of an AT&T store), can I just put my SIM card in the new phone and have it work? Will that phone then have my phone's number? Are there any other issues I should consider before buying a phone off eBay?

This might seem like an elementary question to some, but keep in mind that I'm not very tech-literate.

you may be wasting money on the insurance, a better alternative for the kids might be cheap disposable prepaid phones with no frills.

you can get them in kiosks in malls all over. if they lose them, no big deal, and when they run out of minutes, you have control over how many you wish them to use.

[Penthesilea]

you may be wasting money on the insurance, a better alternative for the kids might be cheap disposable prepaid phones with no frills.

you can get them in kiosks in malls all over. if they lose them, no big deal, and when they run out of minutes, you have control over how many you wish them to use.

The downside of this is that the kids will have a new cell phone number every few months. I wouldn't want to go thru the hassle and make sure my friends have my newest # regularly, and additionally save all the numbers of my friends anew on a new phone (if that's possible at all with disposable phones).


Our kids have very cheap cell phones, with no frills, for 20 Euros each. They keep their phone and their number, can save numbers and send+receive text messages, and that's it. They have prepaid cards which load up automatically. When the balance is down, the card gets loaded up with 10 Euros automatically, and we get an email that is was loaded up.

So we have control over the costs, and if it got uploaded in too short intervals, I could stop the automatic upload function. I can set up the automatic upload function like I want: 10 Euros a time, or 20, or whatever I want. Or simply stop it and switch to loading up manually.

Maybe you can get a similar contract, and similarly cheap cell phones.

[louisev]

OK, thanks, F-R and Louise. I'm going to cancel the insurance, then.

Meanwhile, I got my phone working again, but my kids both still need new phones. I realized I probably shouldn't buy a new AT&T phone myself just now because I am going to try to get out of my contract when it expires in September. My kids will be stuck with that plan for much longer, though, because they have bought new phones along the way, and to do that AT&T made them re-up their contract. Which, I suspect, they will try to use to keep me from getting out of mine, because mine is the primary account.

I just hate AT&T.

Yesterday, I had some cable/internet issues, and had a Comcast repairman out. He told me someone had slashed a tire on his Comcast truck in his driveway the previous night. He said he didn't have any enemies, so we both agreed that it was probably somebody who hates Comcast. He was worried, though, because they just found out his wife is pregnant, and she lost the last baby due to stress. Now they have to lie in bed every night wondering if there are Comcast-hating vandals in their front yard.

Oddly enough, I like Comcast. They have started a campaign to win back customer good will, and it really shows. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. It's AT&T I hate. I've had nothing but BAD experiences with them. If I saw an AT&T truck, it would be all I could do to keep from slashing its tires.

I  have had AT&T mobile service for 5 years, through thick and thin, and the only place I have had problems with signal and coverage - is Minneapolis.  The phone went offline a couple of weeks ago inexplicably, and when I phoned Customer Care from a landline I told them how bad the signal was in south Minneapolis and Bloomington, and she explained that part of the reason my phone (it's an old one) went out is due to software and network upgrades they are doing across the system.  AT&T are the original owners of the wireless infrastructure of the North American Cellular Network (NACN) which is the backbone switches and carriers for most of the mobile networks of the other providers (just as AT&T Long Lines were the original monopolistic owners of the undersea cables connecting North America to Europe).  In other words, there are only a couple of sets of main switches plus theri backups... I know where they are since I worked at AT&T Wireless when they bought McCaw Cellular and linked up the Northwest to the rest of AT&T's cellular infrastructure in 1995.    So they may not have the most reliable LOCAL area - certainly not in metro Minneapolis it would seem! - but they do  have the most extensive infrastructure.  At the time I worked for them, their network operations were in Bothell, Washington (McCaw's original facility), Portland, OR, Cherry Hill, NJ (the main Bell switching station), Dallas, and Ft. Lauderdale (secondary switching station.)  Only five network operations centers, and nothing between in the midwest.  So I would assume from that, that the worst service is going to happen in the MidWest.

[serious crayons]

I haven't had a problem with my AT&T signal. It's about the AT&T bureaucracy. Don't get me started explaining why. Suffice it to say that I was on the phone with AT&T the first time in my life (and hopefully the last) that I've ever actually sworn at an employee. I'm really not that kind of person, normally, but I had never been angrier.

Unfortunately, my kids both bought new phones last summer, so under one of AT&T's many draconian rules they had to re-up their contracts in addition to paying more for the new phones than they'd have paid for better phones on eBay.

So unless I pay the fee to get them out of their contracts, we're stuck with AT&T -- disposable phones aren't really an option. Plus, though I suppose some may think I'm too permissive to indulge them this way, they are teenagers with lots of friends and would not be pleased to constantly be getting new phone numbers and address books. They do, however, pay when they purchase new phones (though I pay for the service).


Another question: What does it mean when (on eBay, for instance), it says a phone is "unlocked"?

[louisev]

I am not certain but I believe an "unlocked" phone means it is not tied to any particular service provider, and you can use it with any carrier.  So if you had your SIM card with, say, Verizon - you could put that Verizon SIM card into that phone regardless of what carrier the seller had.

[serious crayons]

BTW Louise, if you think AT&T is bad in Minneapolis, try Sprint. I used to have Sprint, and I couldn't make a phone call from inside a building.

I switched to AT&T when my Sprint contract was up partly because I was going to Italy and wanted to make calls from there, and AT&T is one of two phone services that work overseas. I bought a gold Razr. When I got there, my friends with other colors of AT&T Razrs could make calls, but I couldn't. I talked to an AT&T person (on someone else's phone) and was told that it was something about the design of the gold Razr; it doesn't work overseas.

And no, that was not the time I swore.

[louisev]

BTW Louise, if you think AT&T is bad in Minneapolis, try Sprint. I used to have Sprint, and I couldn't make a phone call from inside a building.

I switched to AT&T when my Sprint contract was up partly because I was going to Italy and wanted to make calls from there, and AT&T is one of two phone services that work overseas. I bought a gold Razr. When I got there, my friends with other colors of AT&T Razrs could make calls, but I couldn't. I talked to an AT&T person (on someone else's phone) and was told that it was something about the design of the gold Razr; it doesn't work overseas.

And no, that was not the time I swore.

oh I never use an American phone when overseas!  I have a German phone with a Vodafone SIM chip in it that I use overseas, rechargeable from the Vodaphone D1 network.  Works anywhere in Europe that I would care to go.  But no, when I leave the NACN I do NOT ever try to access North America from overseas, I don't want to find out how much those phone calls would cost for roaming!  Same as in Australia - I have a SIM Chip from Optus-Yes! that I carry around in my change purse and if I ever end up in Australia again, I'll pop that sucker in my German phone and use that.  I bought the Motorola Timeport because it is a tri-band phone.  And tri-band means it works on any of the three major communications protocols that are in use worldwide.

My Timeport is sitting in my uncollected luggage in Britain though - where it belongs!  I suppose I ought to have that sent...

[brokeplex]

The downside of this is that the kids will have a new cell phone number every few months. I wouldn't want to go thru the hassle and make sure my friends have my newest # regularly, and additionally save all the numbers of my friends anew on a new phone (if that's possible at all with disposable phones).


Our kids have very cheap cell phones, with no frills, for 20 Euros each. They keep their phone and their number, can save numbers and send+receive text messages, and that's it. They have prepaid cards which load up automatically. When the balance is down, the card gets loaded up with 10 Euros automatically, and we get an email that is was loaded up.

So we have control over the costs, and if it got uploaded in too short intervals, I could stop the automatic upload function. I can set up the automatic upload function like I want: 10 Euros a time, or 20, or whatever I want. Or simply stop it and switch to loading up manually.

Maybe you can get a similar contract, and similarly cheap cell phones.

I don't know for sure, but I think there is now portability between phones. but, what do I know, I've had the same cheap old phone for 10 years.