Assuming you're staying with Verizon, your best bets are either Motorola or Nokia phones. There are occasional Samsungs and LGs which get good marks for reception and call quality, but my experience with those brands and what I read about them indicates that it's hit or miss. I bought a new phone at the beginning of this year (wanted better reception than my Samsung offered and I was up for my New Every Two) and I ended up getting a Nokia. I really like it. It holds calls where the Samsung did not. I looked at the Motorolas but didn't like the menus or the displays, but that's just me. If you want a simple phone, I'd check out the Nokia 2128i (real simple); the Nokia 6236i (make sure you can deal with the little "joystick" controller before you buy one); or the Motorola V325 (look at a real display, not just the demo unit) One tip: if you go to a Verizon store and don't like what you see, go to a Circuit City (the Verizon-owned kiosks there carry some different phones) or a Best Buy (not run by Verizon, but official resellers).

If you want to add your cell phone number to the Do Not Call list, go right ahead. It's quick, easy, and free to do so. HOWEVER, there is no need to do so, to avoid telemarketers. You don't even need to go to the Snopes web site to determine that. Go to the web site for the Federal Communications Commission. They have a disclaimer on their site about the "warning." AND, the FCC has recently proposed even tougher restrictions against what are known as "robocalls" - these restrictions would apply to calls to land lines, so you know they aren't going to allow these calls to cell phones.

Hi, I'm one of those people who HATES phone solicitors, but actually had a job doing it more years ago than I care to remember. Back then, we called numbers in sequence. The boss picked a prefix from the area and we 'cold called' every number from 0001 to 9999, then started on the next prefix. After many years passed, I got tired of people calling, and found it hard to be short with them, even though they were a waste of my time. I heard Clark Howard's radio show about every money con job, including phone solicitors. He said on a show that when someone calls you, if you tell them clearly, "Take my number off your list, and never call me again", that they had to remove you from the list. If they did call you again and you could show that they did, you could take them to small claims court and win a couple of thousand dollars. That seemed to work. As soon as I recognized a solicitor, I stopped them and repeated that mantra. We got less and less calls. Another thing that's important is to not give your phone number to anyone unless YOU decide they need it. Assume that anyone who gets your number will call it and try to sell you something, AND sell it to anyone who will pay for it. When we purchased an appliance at a major retailer and were told it would come in a few days later, they wanted all our info. When we refused to give them our number, they really didn't like it. Of course, they wanted the number to hound us to buy an extended warranty. Not giving your number out prevents untold numbers of callers from getting it. Don't let your kids give out your info at the mall or online for any reason. We never signed up for a 'do not call' list. This list can be purchased by almost anyone for a nominal fee. Remember, if you need to know who not to call, you need those numbers. If I needed 'hot' phone numbers, this is the first place I'd get them, knowing that they're current, and the odds of getting in trouble for calling them are on my side. There is no magic to cell phone numbers. I hear people in public answer their phones and say, you know this is a cell phone, as if that makes any difference to the person calling. Do sign the privacy forms at your banking institutions so they're not allowed to sell your information. That should stay in house. I'm sure that sometimes, major companies leak phone numbers and other info, but in this case, many more calls are received as a result of our own actions than from other's leaks. We turned our land line phone off over a year ago, which we were receiving NO soliciting on and don't get any on our cell phones. We got two calls on our cell phones that were a result of our car being repaired by two different repair places. One was a warranty repair at a dealer. When sales people call you, they know the longer you're on the phone, the more likely they'll get the sale. The sooner you stop them, the better. Repeat after me, TAKE MY NUMBER OFF YOUR LIST AND NEVER CALL ME AGAIN. It gets easier every time you do it. It works. Give the 555-5555 number to those who say they need your number, but you know they don't. Linda Here is a link that might be useful: Clark Howard-Money Guy Extrordinaire

Can you provide a link for your information or share your source? As far as I know, this is false: "Telemarketing to cell phone numbers has always been illegal in most cases and will continue to be so. In response to recent e-mail campaigns urging consumers to place their cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission issue this advisory to give consumers the facts. One e-mail making the rounds says: "JUST A REMINDER...In a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS... To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888/382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS..." FCC regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so most telemarketers are barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent. The federal government does not maintain a national cell phone registry. Personal cell phone users have always been able to add their numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry  the same Registry consumers use to register their land lines  either online at www.donotcall.gov or by calling toll-free 1-888-382-1222 from the telephone number they wish to register. Registrations become effective within 31 days of signing up and are active for five years. There is no cut-off date or deadline for registrations." Snopes also claims this is false: "Despite dire warnings about the imminent release of cell phone numbers to telemarketers that continue to be circulated via e-mailyear after year, cell phone users do not have to register their cell phone numbers with the national Do Not Call registry before a soon-to-pass deadline to head off an onslaught of telemarketing calls. The panic-inducing e-mails(which circulate especially widely every January or June, since many versions of the warning list the end of those months as a cut-off date for registering cell phone numbers with the national Do Not Call registry) grew out of a misunderstanding about the proposed creation of a wireless directory assistance service. Someone made the wild leap of reasoning that the proposed creation of a cell phone directory was the equivalent of "giving cell phone numbers to telemarketers" and began the chain of wildly inaccurate e-mails warning cell phone users to register with the National Do Not Call List in order to prevent this fate. Here is a link that might be useful: Snopes: