I’m very happy. Even for a skeptic I would have to say the service gave me what I wanted at an affordable price.

StraightTalk was recommended by a friend. During one of our visits I was going on and on about how expensive Verizon Wireless service was especially since I had been on a month-to-month with that provider for almost five years. When we had phone problems my spouse and I would purchase used handsets instead of diving into a new two or three year contract.  I’d always felt that customer loyalty should count for something and one of those somethings should be guaranteed month-to-month and no long contracts. The handset deals started coming with three, instead of two-year commitments even after we had been with VZW for over ten years.

StraightTalk had what we needed for thirty dollars a month. We were paying $69 per month (with taxes, fees, 411 charges almost $80 per month actual for two simple no-frills phones.)  The extra money every month didn’t buy us any additional consideration or convenience. All we ever seemed to get was more marketing and spend-more messages for services we did not want or need.

Then our nephews matured and got cellular phones. Texting became a problem for us. The kids had great plans but we were limited and at some point started paying on a per-text basis racking up $15 per month or more in texting charges. That and a few other petty complaints led us to check out the pay-as-you-go plans.

We needed to transport our existing numbers to the new service. We needed less than 400 minutes between us ion voice minutes and perhaps 500 text messages a month. Web access would be nice but we both had an iPod Touch we used at hotspots and cou;d not justify having anything more.

StraightTalk’s $30 per month plan fit perfectly. We are in our second month now and so far all is well.  Porting the numbers from VZW to StraightTalk did take some intervention by customer service at StraightTalk. I am convinced their porting system has a flaw and they need to do more testing.  When following instructions isn’t enough to make it work then a software engineer needs to make some quality control assesments.

I had to get in touch with their customer service first via FaceBook. Once I was able to find the correct link on that page to send a message I was finally able to get my phones activated after 24 hours.  The second phone went easier than the first.

The Samsung slider phones we purchased from Walmart’s website which access the Verizon Wireless system work better than our LG phones ever did. We actually get better service at home with these two new phones and I have no clue why.  Battery life is better now. Our Samsungs stay lit for quite awhile between charges. That said we are now considering abandoning our land-line which is costing us an outrageous $69 per month. (It’s either that or Vonage.)

The browser in the SCH-451 is not ready for prime time. I find it it useless. There are obvious software, speed, and security, and bandwidth limitations that make using web access to painful. We simply don’t bother.  Just as an example if you try to use the FourSquare social media service this browser will not allow a connection because of a certificate error of some type. I figure if the phone is incapable of using the popular services it should be DESIGNED to use then I probably shouldn’t bother to worry. Attempts to discuss it with StraightTalk were ignored or lost and FourSquare didn’t have an opinion either. I can only assume there are just too many subscribers and not enough time.

We have not come close to reaching any of our plan limits. The auto-pay option works well though I cannot get StraightTalk to adjust the date closer to the beginning of the month. The activation date sets the renewal date in stone. Hello! I’m a customer! I’ll pay you earlier! How come I can’t?! Ever begin to notice that satisfaction can almost always be measured by our reactions to service, billing, and payment issues?

The only tooth-grinding feature my spouse found was the 411 service. It’s free yes, but you must wait an inordinately long time between commercials and press opt-out requests ad nauseum. Now I had always disciplined myself never to use Verizon’s 411 service. It was ridiculously expensive and only contributed to my month’s end bill-paying headaches.  My spouse is making adjustments. That’s the way it is.

So I got what I always wanted:

No contract, cheaper service, text messaging I’ll never hit the high number on, enough voice minutes, and a phone that can send and receive pictures. That last feature came in handy at work.  Going into this we believed that customer service would be on a par or perhaps worse than Verizon’s. I’d have to say that even though StraightTalk’s is done mostly by e-nail and Facebook it gets done to my satisfaction most of the time.

I can recommend StraightTalk.

I sat down this month and really looked over my VerizonWireless bill. It has climbed steadily since we subscribed many years ago. We have a family plan with two phones. Basic Service is $59.99 but our bill is OVER $100.

There is the $34.07 Surcharges and Fees, Verizon Wireless Surcharges – “Includes charges to recover or help defray costs of taxes and of governmental charges and fees imposed on us by the government. Other Charges and Credits – includes charges for products and services, and credits owing.”

There is the $6.11 government surcharge and tax.

There is the “Voice” charge of $7.45 “The “Voice” section of your bill Includes charges for voice calls, including calls that exceed your Plan’s minute allowances, 411 Search, Long Distance and other calls.” They claimed seven minutes of share time used and 77 minutes total out of our 400 minutes authorized but we still have an inadequately explained $7.45 minute charge. It doesn’t appear we did anything to deserve this, ah except maybe 411 charges. Yes that’s it.. We don’t even use 100 minutes of a 400 minute allowance during the month. It’s not like we are a challengingly abusive customer that taxes the system! We are taxed to death like everyone else earning much less than $250K per year. Excuse me politicians are you reading this? Hello! But I digress.

There is a data charge of .40 cents but we use no data.

Had we used text messages each one would have cost .20 cents each sent and received. We don’t text.

There is the State of Maryland 911 surcharge of 25 cents and the Calvert County surcharge of 75 cents. Oh and this will really get you thinking. Because cellular service in and around my home has always been poor any calls that do connect go to towers across the Chesapeake Bay and we are connected with 911 centers outside of our area who must transfer our calls to Calvert County 911. Needless to say, we have learned not to count on our telephones for 911 service.

So the real price of a two cellular family plan is $109 and some cents. It may be time to re-evaluate our service. Have you looked at your cellular bill recently? What are the mystery fees and surcharges like with your cellular carrier?

According to the latest news, AT&T is boosting the capacity of its HSPA 3G network from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps on the downlink. At present, AT&T wireless users indeed need excitement. AT&T Cell phone news

The upgrades are possible through software upgrades to its networking equipment. At the same time, AT&T is

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As the host of more than 24,000 visitors on busy summer days, Yellowstone National Park has adopted a wireless communications plan that seeks to balance safety and convenience with its mission of preserving the park’s natural condition.

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AT&T said Wednesday that although first quarter profits slipped 9 percent, its wireless data revenues grew nearly 40 percent as it was able to achieve its third consecutive quarter of double-digit postpaid net subscriber additions on the back of 1.6 million new iPhone 3G activations.

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Sprint Nextel is a company that offers wireless and wire line communication services to customers, business and the government. This company is famous for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies to millions of customers worldwide. At a recent press release Sprint announced integrated and enhanced VOIP services for cable co.

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The Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area will be the first region in the country to allow cell phone subscribers to get free broadcast TV on their handsets. Read this blog post by Marguerite Reardon on Wireless.

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A recent story in the New York Times exposes quite a bit about how wireless carriers transmit text messages (SMS). These articles (the NYT article in particular) are good reads for the terminally curious.

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Mobile Instant Messaging IM Solution from Mundu IM : Offers a wireless Mobile Instant Messaging (IM) application that unites your MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AOL, Google Talk and Jabber Instant Messaging ( IM ) services into a single chat window.

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Accoridiing to the Howardforums, Verizon wireless releases the “My Verizon” application for BlackBerry. The appliacation allows users to check their minutes and data usage, view account balance, make payments, view plan, add/remove features and change their voicemail passwords directly on the handset.

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The FCC has turned a deaf ear toward advocates who wanted better citizen deals for wireless – until now. FreePress lawyers have some overwhelming facts to support their case – 1 million+ copies of the popular Skype VoIP software have been downloaded, but can only be used when they are off AT&T’s network using wifi in a home, office or coffee shop.

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It’s Friday, and our lazy, lazy brains crave something frivolous, highly visual, and moderately amusing. So here’s a pictorial pageant of cell phone towers appallingly disguised as trees. It’s nature — just as wireless companies intended!

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Sprint Nextel posted a $29.45 billion quarterly loss as the wireless carrier took a massive charge for its 2005 acquisition of Nextel. Sprint said it would quit paying dividends and warned subscriber losses are accelerating. Oops. (Click “read more” to go the Wall Street Journal article on the SPRINT situation.

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The news for Sprint Nextel just keeps getting worse as the company struggles to rebuild its business and its reputation.
On Thursday the third-largest wireless phone company in the U.S. announced a $29.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 and warned that the company would continue. (Click read more to read the News.com story on the SPRINT financial situation.

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The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will finally close down their analog networks on Monday. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don’t have analog networks.) Most rural operators also plan on shutting down their AMPS networks. (Click read more to visit the Washington Post to learn additional details.)

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A family in Framingham, Massachusetts says that after their father died late last month, Sprint refused to allow them to cancel his cell phone, and insisted that they had to continue to pay for the phone plan until the contract was over in September, 2008.

Click read more below to see the entire story at awfulmarketing.com

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Just when you thought it was safe to go wireless! Is a BlueTooth headset really safe?

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