I'm on a Tracphone and mostly satisfied. Best feature is the cost. I pay about $100 per year and the minutes roll over. I did the extra cash up front for "lifetime" double minutes... that is life of the phone. First phone I had was not very good... second was more expensive and more powerful. At the moment I have over 2000 minutes because I don't use them all... may have wasted my money on the double thingy. Downsides! They will kick you off the air if it is busy. Not dropped... they just won't let you call or it will say "emergency only". Most of the time it works just fine but not at all during lunchtime when everyone is calling someone. Texting is poor because of the cheap phone but it does allow it. Texting is popular around here because we have weak signal and text will go when voice won't. I think they ding me 1/2 minute per text. I don't use it much but it is a nice option... helps to have a friend that will let you send a couple practice texts while learning how. I really like the voice mail! My home voice mail was often a pita... machine broke or ran out of room. Almost worth the phone just to have the mail. Tracphone has some really cheap phones. About $15 should get you the lowest which comes with a few starter minutes. If it works for you they have better phones available on the website. If you buy minutes for the cheap phone then get a better one they will transfer but that deactivates the old phone. I will probably watch this thread as I'd like something a bit better. Just waited 90 minutes to make an important call because the airwaves were "congested". Suppose the call got made... and emergency service was available if that had been the situation. : ) lyra

I believe both do have bluetooth but I never learned to use it. I will check it out. owbist; I always forget about youtube. However, I didn't see anything useful in your list. Remember, I had essentially succeeded in making a sim card transfe, but the data was not complete. The one on point post from your list also indicated incomplete data fields. I actually found that my transfer was worse than I originally thought. It only transferred the contact name and lost both the fact that the next contact was identical and thus a subset, but also lost any indication of the type of phone (work, home etc) and listed ALL entries as 'mobile'.

Good information, thanks. This has reinforced what I've known. Just thought that perhaps, they had improved it somehow. You also brought out a good point about "go phones". A couple of days ago, I called AT & T. The agent took a look at my account and was trying to pursuade me to get this special package deal. I told him that I did not want to pay more services. I wanted to keep what I have, a home phone and internet service (DSL). He assured me that I will get all that and plus more for less. You know how it is, when it's too good to be true, check it again and again! So, I asked him, do I keep my landline phone and the Pro speed DSL? He replied: "Yes! You get the whole digital package with the home phone and an even faster internet service and plus more options on your phone. And the saving is about $5 per month". Ha! I caught him saying digital. I questioned him again but soon I realized that he didn't understood the term "landline". So, I asked him is my phone going to be digital? He replied: "Yes", and I replied back: "No thanks" which he kept telling me "but it's the same!". I explained to him, digital works only with power, no power, no digital. He now realized what I have been trying to verify the past 20 minutes. He continued with the sale pitch: "but when power is out, we have a 4 hour back up system which gives you plenty of time to save your information on your computer and turn it off safely". "Huh?... what?... only 4 hours?!". I continued to explain to him that when power is off, my landline phone works above and beyond the call of duty. Last hurricane, our power was cut off for 3 days. My landline phone was working all along. I need it in case of emergency! He finally understood and gave up on the sale (^_^). During the London bombing years ago, I learned how useless cellular phones were. I warned my family and friend and to keep their landline phone and purchase a $10 corded phone to use in power outage incidents. Lo and behold, it happened. During hurricane Ike, cellular phone wasn't accessible to the public. Everybody thought that the lines were busy and the cause of why they couldn't get through. Certainly, that wasn't the case at all. Cellular phone line was reserved to Homeland Security communication only. However, the public could use text (data) 24/7 and cellular line was open at night between 9 pm - 6 am. Funny how it was, I was only able to get in touch with family & friends that still had the landline phones. Those that didn't learned their lesson. Cellular phone is nice and convenient to have but in case of emergency, it's just not dependable.

I guess it all depends on how much you call from home versus away from home or on the road. We use pre-paid cellular. The new phones were free after rebate and my wife and I each spend about $5-$7/month for the STI Mobile/Sprint service. We only make quick 1-2 minute calls for necessary reasons and it works fine anywhere in the country that Sprint covers. Voice mail and text messaging are turned off on both cellular phones. Other cellular providers are now joining the pre-paid game with good deals. We are still stuck with the old telephone company for home and home office lines. I must have the reliability and quality of a landline for my business. I do pay too much for long distance, toll-free, and local service for my business compared to the low rates available today. Bills are typically $35-$50/month for relatively low volume usage. The last time I switched was from MCI to Ameritech(i.e. SBC/AT&T/who knows?) It was a pain to switch, but the new lower rates were good for a year before they went up again. Our home phone line just went up to $22/month for local phone service. It started at $18 several years ago. Pre-paid long distance service is $.025/minute using cards from companies like Cheap Phonecards. The latest cards don't require you to enter the pin every time from home and you can program the 800 access number into speed dial. The long distance cards are great from hotels too. We are seriously considering the switch to broadband phone service, but our local numbers are not yet portable for Vonage or the others. We are just outside of their large markets. Broadband cable internet is $30/month and speed is around 300K or 10 times faster than dial-up. It is fast enough for our needs. The total bill (excluding my business) is around $67/month for all phones and broadband for my wife and I. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheap Phone Cards