The Computer Guy

Most of my professional career has been spent in the software industry. I've designed, developed, and maintained software for a variety of computer systems from old corporate Unix systems to personal computers to smartphones and tablets. Because of this, when friends, neighbors, and family had computer problems, I was the guy they would usually call on to ask for help. This is one aspect of my old life that continues to be part of my new life.  I've helped people deal with misbehaving computers, helped install and configure software (usually boat or navigation related such as OpenCPN), provided guidance on wireless networking, or dealt with smartphone related issues. The last few days I've been playing tech support for my wife and her new phone.

While I've been happy with our cell phone service, this new phone we purchased for my wife is another story.  It has been a bit frustrating.  My wife had been using a phone she had on T-mobile for the last 5 or so years and, as is typical in any computing device, the newer versions of software required more memory and processing power than the old device could muster.  The final straw was once we realized that the battery was no longer able to hold enough charge.  So we looked at a variety of solutions for a replacement.  We were about to go with a refurbished Google Nexus when we stumbled across a company called Blu.  For about the same price as a refurbished phone, we could have a brand new device that had a feature set that sounded nearly ideal for our purposes. We checked what reviews we could find, didn't see anything alarming, and decided to give it a try.

The Blu Phone...or my nemesis.

Now, given the price, I didn't expect the phone would be perfect.  And initially it seemed to be better than I had expected.  But that didn't last for long.  After playing with the phone straight out of the box for a bit, we synced up the new phone with my wife's account and allowed the sync to install all her applications from the old phone. It wasn't long after this that we started having some problems.  The phone became rather sluggish to respond and would occasionally stop responding to input. I installed a file browser to look around and it made things worse. Rebooting the phone would take forever (15+ minutes is forever in computer time) and when it rebooted it would go into an "optimizing apps" process each time before the phone was usable. It really wasn't looking good at all.  I was starting to think we had made a big mistake with this phone and the debate became not if we should return it but when.

Being "the computer guy" and an engineer, I just couldn't let it go and wanted to understand what the issues were, so I started doing some research.  As it turned out, the boot and optimize problem also seemed to occur on other devices (the Moto X, one of the Google Nexus phones, and some tablet I don't remember the name of) and there were some solutions posted online that worked for some of them.  So, I began trying the various solutions.  I checked the system memory usage and found it to be much higher than it should have been for the number of applications installed.  I uninstalled a couple apps and that helped a little, but not significantly enough to call the phone usable.  I then tried booting the device into the diagnostic/repair mode and clearing the system cache, but that had no effect.

Since it would be a couple days before we could return the phone anyway, my last thought was to do a factory reset on the phone and start setting it back up from the beginning.  This time, instead of letting the device sync with Google and download all the applications that were on my wife's old phone, I told it to treat the phone as a new device.  Once through the initial setup, the device again seemed responsive and working as one would expect.  I rebooted the phone and it took less than a minute.  Once the phone restarted, I went in and removed the few non-standard applications that were pre-installed on the phone (the phone was surprisingly clean and only had some Amazon and Yahoo apps) and rebooted once again.  The phone still seemed fine.

I then started reinstalling the applications that my wife wanted on her phone.  Instead of installing them all at once and then trying to move them to the installed SD card at the end (basically the process we used the first time), I installed each application one at a time.  For the first couple of applications I installed the application, rebooted, moved the application from the internal memory to the SD card (because the OS setting to install applications to the SD card didn't seem to be working), and then rebooted again. After the first application was installed, I saw the optimizing application cycle during the reboot but that was the only time it happened.  The reboot process seemed reasonable after the first couple of applications so I continued installing the rest of the applications, omitting the reboot in between the install of the application and moving it to the SD card.  The rest of the installs went fine, and at no time did we experience a lag in the reboot process.  I also monitored the memory consumption as I performed the installs and by the time I was done I noted that, instead of the 300MB of free space on the internal storage that was found the first time around, the device now reported over 2.75GB of free space.

The phone seems to be behaving much better now, so much so that we may not return it after all. There are still a couple glitches with the phone (the Chrome browser seems to be slow at times and the battery life isn't the best), but  the overall behavior is much improved and the glitches are more in line with what I would have expected from the phone.  With a little more research, I'm thinking that most of the issues may not have been an issue with the hardware but rather problems with the operating system and attempting to sync the applications from her old phone to the new one all at one time.  Only time will tell if this phone will continue to behave, but at least there is a little hope for it now.

So, what does all of this really have to do with living on a boat?  Well, actually, there is a lesson that does apply here.  Being able to work through a problem and some occasional thinking outside the box will serve you well when living on a boat.  It may not be a misbehaving cell phone, but what will you do when your refrigerator stops working at anchor?  Or your boat electrical system starts acting strange? Or your port side engine decides to die after running for a couple minutes? When you just can't pick up the phone and have a repairman show up a few hours later, being able to solve problems can save you a lot of hassle and expense.

Cell Phone Service - A Year With Ting

Getting a new cell phone for my wife reminded me that I wanted to do a a longer-term review of our new cell phone service.  Having a reader recently comment on one of those posts, along with the desire to avoid listening to the news coverage of the Florida primary this morning, has spurred me to get it done. So here goes...

About a year ago we decided to switch our cell phone service from T-Mobile to Ting. While T-Mobile had treated us fairly well (at least as far as cell phone service providers go), the lack of coverage in a few places in the Chesapeake and the hopes to reduce our monthly outlay for service had us looking at alternatives. Being cruisers, there were a few very specific goals we had for a new phone service beyond cost. Coverage and being able to use a phone in the other parts of the world were also high on the list. You can read more about our requirements and decision to try Ting in the posts here, here and here.

How has it been this past year?  Well, our change in usage habits weren't quite what we had expected, but the service has been good and the savings have been great. Even though we haven't had a chance to try using our phones in the Bahamas (although my wife's should work there) and we have been spending more time than we would like in marinas (closer to civilization), we feel pretty good about the switch.

So, how much has Ting saved us?  Well, our old T-Mobile bill was $114/month ($100 + taxes and fees). Over the past year, our Ting bill has been as low as $24.30 and as high as $31.97 with an average for the year of $27.31 including taxes and fees. Our total bill for the year was $327.67.  If we had been with T-Mobile and the rate stayed the same, the total would have been approximately $1368.00 (it is hard to be precise here since taxes and fees seem to regularly change). That is just over $1040 in savings.  Not too shabby.

Now, during my switch from the T-Mobile GSM based network to Ting's CDMA based network I had to buy a new cell phone.  Since Ting doesn't subsidize the cost of a cell phone by locking you into a contract, I had to purchase the phone outright. I can't seem to find the exact figure, but if memory serves I paid less than $140 for the phone (I think it was more like $120 and I used a $25 Ting credit link from another blog, but just to play it safe we'll call it $140). Even if you include that in the cost, we still saved $900. Given subsidies on the phones are generally worth somewhere around $100, I can easily cover the cost of a phone every few years with the savings and still have a lot left over.

These savings haven't been without the application of a little discipline in our phone usage habits, though. Specifically, we try to use WiFi whenever it is possible. I use WiFi exclusively when I do blog posts.  Most non-critical research and "surfing the web" is done on WiFi. This is not only for data, but to make phone calls as well. If we just want to call to keep in touch with family, using Google Voice or Skype with a headset on the computer or using the Google Hangouts dialer on our phones keeps hours worth of minutes off our cell phone bill. Instead of using Google Maps for navigation, having an application like Navmii, which doesn't require a constant data connection and instead stores map files directly on the phone, saves a lot of data usage. (Just make sure you download the maps and look up your destination while still connected to WiFi.) And we have started utilizing text a bit more since those tend to be inexpensive for quick messages.  We usually use less than 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 100 MB of data each month.  We will occasionally pop up into the 100-500 range in one of those categories and that is when the bill "jumps" into the $30 a month range.

With our strategy of having two phones on two different networks, coverage has been pretty good here on the U.S. east coast.  We compare signal strengths on the phones, and they generally don't seem to vary too much between the two networks.  There have been a handful of times when we have found that one had service when the other did not (usually the T-mobile phone was the one without service). Of course, that phone is the older phone (about 5.5 years old), has been well used, and I've often wondered about the strength of the radio inside it, so not sure if there is any real correlation to be had here.  In any case, there have been only a very few remote spots where we haven't had any cell service.

Ting customer service has been pretty good.  The only issues we have really had have been device-related and not service-related, so it is hard to ding them for that. My Kyocera phone had an issue with a software update that caused some Google applications to crash, and it took a while to get an update from Kyocera to resolve the issue. (I ended up beta-testing the fix for them...not sure if the update was ever released to all Hydro Vibe phones by Kyocera.)  My wife's old phone would use small amounts of data even when the data network was supposedly turned off.  My wife's new phone has some issues that seem device-related (more on this below).  The only glitch we've had with Ting was in the original port of my number over from T-mobile - it took a day longer than expected due to some hiccup with their port request system the day we tried.  Otherwise, the bills have been right where we expect them to be with no strange charges.  When contacting Ting, we've always been helped in a timely, if not immediate, fashion. Overall, we have been very happy with their service and find them to be as-good as or better than the other carriers we have used in the past (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile).

When looking at cell phone service, I think a lot of people think that a cell phone is a cell phone and it is the carrier that causes all the problems.  But having worked in the industry as well as having various devices on different networks, I do know that the device itself can play an important role in how well the overall service works.  When my wife and I both had T-Mobile devices, she would get some dropped calls in areas where my phone would work fine...despite hers supposedly being the better (or at least more expensive) device. Her new phone, which we just purchased and had high hopes for, seems to have a few issues and we are currently wondering if we should simply return the phone and try another. And with more services getting away from heavily subsidized phones, handset manufacturers are having to figure out other ways to make revenue on handsets...like preloading a bunch of software on the phone that you don't need and can't remove.  Some of this software causes more problems than you might think. My only advice here is, regardless of what provider you choose, look at the phone itself and try to find one that has good reviews and doesn't have a lot of extra software on it.  Or, if you are technically inclined, get a phone with a known means of rooting (gaining administrator access on it) so you can delete unwanted software or even install a clean version of the operating system.  Of course, most of this applies to Android based phones.

But enough about phones themselves, this is supposed to be a review of Ting.  And my experience has shown that Ting has been a good choice for us.  They provide a good level of service on multiple networks at a very attractive price point.  Paying only for what you use seems to result in decent savings for most, and can be a particularly large savings if you are willing to apply a little bit of discipline in how you use the service.

Unless something dramatically changes, I think we will be sticking with Ting for a while.

If you are interested in giving them a try,the link below should get you a $25 credit towards either a device purchased in their store or off of your first phone bill for new customers.  While this hasn't altered my opinion of their service at all, using this link does provide me with a credit too...so if you are seriously considering giving them a try, I'd appreciate your using this link to benefit both of us.

Get $25 off a Ting device or your first month's bill when you click here

Well, guess I've procrastinated enough on the engine repairs...time to go to work.

A Bit Of This And That

Since we arrived in Palm Coast, I have to admit I've been a bit unmotivated. At least when it comes to boat-related tasks. Sometimes you just need a break. So, we've been working on other issues.

One was my wife's car.  When we were in the middle of the battery replacement in Southport, we became the victims of a hit and run accident.  While parked in the Napa parking lot, our car was hit by another car.  My wife heard the crunch and went out just in time to see the the vehicle pull away from our car and take off.  She managed to get the license plate tag and general description for the police.  Not only that, but we ran across the vehicle later that day at the local Lowe's while getting some parts for the battery box changes and helped the police catch the hit-and-run driver.

Crunched Bumper.

Of course, that event left us with a car that needed some repair.  A new bumper cover and some paint and the car should be O.K., but finding a body shop in an unfamiliar city takes a bit of time.  We went to look at a few shops, checking their work while they did the estimate on our car. We found one we like and have an appointment to get the car fixed (in a couple weeks - I guess they are booked through "bike week" in Daytona).

We have had a crew member issue as well.  Our eldest dog has been suffering from ear margin vasculitus (a condition where sores develop on her ears).  She has been suffering from this for nearly 2 years now.  We have been getting her to vets for treatment but nothing seems to be working.  She has been to at least 4 dermatologists as well as other veterinarians and no one seems to be able to figure out what is causing it or an effective treatment. After we got in town, we got her yet another appointment because of an apparent reaction to the latest medications and have now made an appointment with the veterinarian hospital at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Needless to say it has been a bit trying and we are concerned for her.

Another non-boat issue has been my wife's cell phone.  When we switched service to Ting, my wife brought her phone over from T-Mobile.  Ting is our very inexpensive cell phone service provider, and to keep prices low they do not subsidize handset prices.  Since they work on both T-Mobile and Sprint networks, it made sense to just use her phone.  Almost a year has passed, and my wife's phone is getting a little long in the tooth.  The battery isn't holding a charge very well and the operating system and memory limit how well the newer versions of Android and various applications work on the phone.  It is time for a new phone.

My wife isn't an overly technical person and so the task of researching a suitable replacement fell to me. We needed a phone that would work well in both the U.S. and the Caribbean. This not only includes voice calls, but 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE data.  It needed to be an unlocked phone so we could swap out sim cards in the islands to get better phone and data rates. It needed to have enough memory to last through at least a few more operating system upgrades. It needed to be able to act as a WiFi hotspot for times when we don't have other WiFi connection options for the computers. And it wouldn't hurt if it weren't terribly expensive.

We considered purchasing a refurbished Google Nexus phone (in this case the LG Nexus 5).  These phones come unlocked and with only the basic Android operating system, so no memory wasted on useless applications. They typically have transmitters that work with a variety of voice and data networks. The battery isn't replaceable on this device, and we were concerned about how long the battery would last on a refurbished phone.

Blu Dash X LTE

Then we ran across cell phones made by a company called Blu.  They make relatively inexpensive phones that are unlocked. They have an interesting selection of phones with varying feature sets.  We found one (the Dash X LTE) that contained radios that worked on most of the voice and data frequencies used in North America. the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. It had a reasonable processor and moderate amount of memory with the ability to add a memory card. The best part is that the phone retails at a little over $100.  That is cheaper than the used Nexus phone.  The only negatives I can figure out are that the phone may not be all that rugged.  It would be nice if it were waterproof, but that is pretty much a dream.  Given the price of the phone, the build quality might be questionable, but the Blu phones we saw at Best Buy (they had a few, but not the one we wanted) seem reasonably well constructed. Oh, and it also can use two sim cards, so we can keep our U.S. card installed and have an alternate.  We ordered the phone and will see how it does, but we have high hopes it will be a vast improvement over her current phone.

One of these days I should do a more complete longer-term write up about our time with the Ting phone service and how we've been able to cut our phone bill by almost 75%.  The short story is that our average bill for two phones has been about $28 per month with the new service and our efforts to conserve.  We have had pretty good coverage throughout our travel area, with only a few small spots that we found limited or no service. If you are interested in giving them a try, this link can get you a $25 credit.

Of course it is tax time again here in the U.S. That means it is time to fill out government forms and file our taxes.  This year is a fairly simple year for us.  No home and very limited income makes for a pretty simple return.  Not quite the 1040EZ form, but not much more.  Still, it takes time to collect all the needed information and fill out the forms.  And with marina-quality (read 'spotty') internet, getting the federal and state forms filed electronically took more time than anticipated.  But after a little effort, our taxes are complete for another year.

Back in a marina that has $4 per load laundry facilities ($2 wash + $2 dry) has us looking at alternative washing solutions again.  We have used the plunger and bucket and that works OK for wash, but the spin type dryers seem like a good addition to reduce drying time.  If you recall, we tried a combination washer and spin dryer a while back but the spin function left a bit to be desired.  My wife has since decided that the spin function wasn't all that bad, so we might look at another one of those combination units. We have been researching these items as the marina internet allows.

We have a little cleaning to do before family arrives later today and then we will likely be doing more non-boat stuff (and hopefully more fun stuff).  It is a nice break from all the work we have put into the boat over the past months. Rewiring the engine and other projects can wait a bit.

Phrugal Phones

I've previously written about changing our cell phone service to one we hoped would be more budget friendly. We had been with T-Mobile, and our two smartphones were costing us around $115 a month including taxes.  Given I know of folks that pay upwards of $200 a month for similar service, it wasn't bad...but I wanted to do better.  So, with some specific requirements in mind, we made the switch (for more details on the requirements and decision making progress, check out these posts). We have been with the Ting cell service for over 3 months now (3 billing cycles) and have traveled up the coast, so I figure it is time for an update.

So far we are very happy with the service. Our theory of having one phone on each network seems to have paid off as at least one phone has had service any time we have wanted it...including a few spots where I didn't expect any signal at all. The best part though, is that our bill has been $31.36 a month (including all taxes and fees) for the last 3 months. That means we have saved $250.92 since we switched. If you include buying the one new phone (we didn't have one that would work on the Sprint network), we are still ahead by about $80. I consider this to be a big budget win for us.

To consistently get this low of a bill, we have made some changes to how we use our phones. If you recall, our provider bills based on actual usage. Understanding how our phones work and slightly adjusting our phone usage habbits, we have been able to reduce our usage in most categories. In case you are interested in reducing your phone bill, keep reading and I will highlight what we have done.

For basic phone service, you are charged for the minutes of conversation used. We used to use around 500 minutes a month. We now seem to use 250 to 400 minutes a month (and did a lot of calling to marinas and boatyard this past month) putting us into the $9 "medium" charge group. To reduce our minutes usage, we try to utilize VOIP solutions when we have access to reliable, reasonably fast, and free WiFi service. For our newer Android phone, the Google Hangouts Dialer (part of Google Voice) usually works well. We also use GrooveIP with a RingTo number on both phones (and have a "local" Florida number in addition to our Colorado numbers).  Using VOIP for longer conversations with family and other calls can really save some minutes. I've made calls using WiFi at marinas and restaurants with success. The typical downsides with VOIP are delays and dropouts when Internet connectivity isn't good...but it is similar to a bad cell phone connection and you can always call back using minutes if needed.

We never used to do much texting, but now do use it from time to time for shorter messages. We have been in the $3 "small" message charge group. The key with messages is to avoid a lot of back and forth "conversations" that can result in 25 or more messages for one interaction.

Megabytes of data has been the place we seem to have saved the most. We used to have an unlimited plan and I think we were between 500 and 600 megabytes a month. So far we have managed to stay under 100 MB in the $3 "small" data charge group. To reduce our data consumption, we typically try to connect the phones to WiFi signals when they are available and do more data intensive tasks only on WiFi (including blog posts). We changed the phone update settings to manual and only do updates when on WiFi.  We also turn off the cellular data connection (not WiFi but 3G, 4G, LTE) when we are not actively using it since there are a lot of applications that regularly communicate over the Internet (it is how your phone knows you have new mail and that your Facebook friend just "liked" that you had spaghetti for lunch).

One big data hog we used to use was the Google integrated navigation app that supplied turn by turn directions. This application is constantly downloading map images and data and can run up your usage.  We still need navigation help, but use an application called Navmii that allows you to download navigation data (by state) while connected to WiFi. When searching for places, it helps to be connected, but the downloaded data includes some street addresses and has been able to get us where we needed to go. This is a great app to have even if you are not trying to reduce usage if you happen to go to places with bad cell phone coverage.

So, there you have it. So far so good. I still expect our bill to occasionally go higher when we aren't near any free WiFi, but even then I expect it will be a lower bill than before. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the 2/3 savings.

If you are interested in giving Ting a try, this link should give you a $25 credit on a device or your first month's service (and it helps me out too):

Get a $25 Credit with Ting from ThisRatSailed

Cell Service: My First Month With A Low Cost Carrier

In recent posts I described my goals for finding a new cell phone service and took a look at a few interesting providers.  The service provider I decided to try was Ting.  They have had some favorable reviews, the rates for our estimated usage should be under half of what we are currently paying, and supporting both CDMA and GSM networks (on separate handsets) we should theoretically have increased coverage by having a handset that works on each network.

ting

Before the final decision, I contacted Ting once by phone and once using their online chat help system.  I wanted to see if being a discount provider meant there would be very limited support.  While they didn't quite meet their goal of "always have a real person to answer the phone and never put you on hold", their response times were no worse than I've experienced from Verizon or T-Mobile.  I guess that Sprint changed some policies regarding activation of handsets that has driven up recent support call volume (at least that is the excuse they are providing for "breaking their no hold promise"), so their response times might improve.  But they seemed good enough to give a try.

I've heard stories about varying ease or difficulty when porting over an existing cell phone number to a new service.  It is typically supposed to happen within 24 hours (longer if the phone number was a land line number).  In our case we were porting over two numbers from T-Mobile to Ting, one was being switched to a CDMA device while the other would be assigned to a new SIM card for an existing GSM device.  After the new device and SIM card arrived in the mail, we initiated the port.  Requesting the port was a pretty easy process of just filling out a form on the Ting web site.  The hardest part was that I needed to call T-Mobile to get a pin number to allow the port and, naturally, T-Mobile wanted to try to keep me as a customer (although to their credit, they didn't push nearly as hard as Dish Network did).

The port of the GSM phone number to the new SIM card went off without a hitch.  We initiated the port about 8pm one evening, and by the next morning my wife's phone was up and running with the new SIM card installed.  The port of my number from my old GSM device to the new Ting CDMA device didn't go as well.  That next morning my port was still showing as "pending" on the Ting site.  And that didn't change by the afternoon.  Finally, as we were reaching the 24 hour point, I gave Ting a call.  They informed me that there was a "glitch" in the porting system the night we submitted the requests and some of them didn't go through.  The tech support person then cancelled and re-initiated the port request.  Sometime around midnight I received the email that the port was successful.  When I tried activating my phone the following morning, it still wouldn't complete the activation.

This may have been my fault though.  You see, while I was waiting for the initial activation, I decided I would go ahead and configure the phone the way I wanted it.  I ignored the messages about the phone failing to register with the network, and connected the device to my WiFi.  I then downloaded the apps I wanted installed, changed the ring tone and wallpaper, etc.  In order to get the phone to complete the activation, I had to do a factory reset of the phone.  I lost all of the configuration that I had done, but the device completed activation just fine after that.  Unfortunately, the phone also started updating all of it's pre-installed software (the Google browser, mail, and other OS bits) before I could get it attached back to my WiFi...and ran up my data usage 14MB.  Oh well, at least it was connected.

Performance of the phones so far seems fine.  My wife's phone is the GSM phone and, since Ting's GSM service uses T-Mobile, I didn't expect there would be any change.  My wife reports that service might be just slightly improved, with her phone no longer dropping calls at one point in her commute that usually had that problem...but I'm betting it has as much to do with atmospheric conditions so I think I'll call performance "the same".  Since I was working at the house, I didn't have as much experience with the Sprint service.  The phone only reports one bar out of five in the house, but the phone still seems to be able to make and receive calls just fine.  On this trip to the east coast, I haven't found any areas where I didn't have voice coverage (I am using very little data, but LTE was there when I tried using it) although again I rarely see full bars on the signal strength meter.  Sound quality isn't the best on the new phone (it is a bit tinny sounding), but that is caused by the handset and not the service (and was one thing the reviews noted about this phone...but being water-resistant I went with it anyway).

Since we are now on a plan that charges based on usage, we've been kind of playing a game similar to when we bought the Prius.  Instead of seeing who could get the best gas mileage, it is now a game to see how low we can keep our first months bill while still using our devices.  I've found a number of tips that can cut down data usage on an Android device (shutting down or reducing update frequencies on all those programs that like to notify you of things...like the current weather, who just posted on Facebook, etc.).  I even installed a toolbar that will let me shut down the cell data connection (LTE) so the things that can't be easily configured to stop polling the internet would be denied access when the phone is not in use. For our trip, I installed a turn by turn navigation program called Navmii that allows you to download maps and navigation data and then use those items when you are without a data connection (or in my case, download them on WiFi and then turn off the data connection so we aren't constantly pulling map data on the cell data network).

I've been watching our various usages over the course of the month.  Most everything came in at or below where we expected it would (based on previous usage).  I did note a strange billing item on my wife's phone where it was showing calls forwarded from her number to voicemail.  I called Ting to inquire, and the support person claimed that they charge for calls to voicemail.  This seemed bizarre to me, but since it was only happening on my wife's line and not on mine, I did a bit more digging.  The Ting web site says "Calls that you don't answer, including ones that go to voicemail, are not considered billable airtime".  Technically their GSM support is still in Beta, so I guess I may have found a bug...and I think this tech support guy just wanted me off the phone. When I contacted them again, they clarified with me that they don't charge for calls to voicemail and this was indeed a glitch in their system that they are working on correcting and I should see it corrected before I am billed.

At the end of the month, here is how it compared.  On T-Mobile our bill was running just over $114 per month ($100 per month plus taxes and fees).  This month with Ting, we had the two lines of service ($12) and fell into the Medium minutes bucket ($9), Small text messages bucket ($3), and Small data bucket ($3). That is only $27 for the base charge for BOTH phones this month.  Including taxes, the total came to $31.97.  So, this first month, we saved $82.03 and I'm very happy with that.

To be fair, we did try to cut our usage some.  So, if we took our usage from our last T-Mobile bill, we would have been in the Large Minutes bucket ($18), Small text message bucket ($3), and Medium data bucket ($12) and that comes to $45 per month for both phones (I'm guessing that will be around $50 after taxes).  Still less than half what we were paying.

So, looking back at my original criteria...

• They have to be reasonably priced.  My T-Mobile bill was $114/month for two phones ($100 + taxes, fees, pain and suffering) and it had to be at or below that.

$27, or even $45 is far better than $100, so we nailed that one.

• They have to have decent coverage in the U.S.  T-Mobile wasn't that bad, except in Deltaville, but I did want better if I could get it.

One phone is on T-Mobile's network and the other one is on Sprint with voice roaming to Verizon, so this should be better as well...but we won't know for sure until we are back in the Chesapeake.  A tentative Yes.

• They have to support GSM phones (since CDMA is only used in the US and I think Japan and I would like the option to use any phone I buy elsewhere).

My wife's unlocked GSM phone was ported over.  That's a check.

• They need to have the ability to suspend service without disconnecting the number for times I am out of the country and don't want to use that service.

You don't actually have to suspend anything since you are charged by the bucket.  If you use no minutes, texts, or data in a month, all you have is the base $6 line charge and people can still leave you messages.  That should work nicely as an automatic suspension when we are out of cell phone range for a while.

There have been a couple glitches, but overall I'm happy with the service.  If you want to give them a try, I can even help you out a bit.  If you use the following link, you should get a $25 credit with them as well.

$25 credit towards new Ting cell phone service

Disclaimer: The link above will not only give you the $25 credit, but it gives me a credit too.  This doesn't change my opinion of the company, but I thought you should know.

Cell Service: Some Interesting Options

In my first installment on this subject, I went through some of the things I am looking for in a replacement cell phone service.  I also noted a few technology issues and limitations that may be particularly interesting to cruisers (or anyone that wants to use their handset world-wide).  This time I want to take a brief look at some of the different low-cost carriers out there.

As you saw from the list of virtual operators that I linked to in the last post, there are a lot of them out there. Some of the more interesting ones have come up with some potentially fascinating concepts meant to reduce your monthly cost of of having a cell phone. Many of them start off by not subsidizing phone purchases. That means, if you need a new device, you will have to pay for the entire thing up front instead of getting "a really good price" in exchange for signing up for a long contract. Fortunately, some of them also allow you to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) if you have one that will work on their network, buy a used device that will work, and have some more economical new handsets.  Here are a few of the more interesting carriers I found that you may have never heard of.

Red Pocket

This seemed to be one of the more traditional sounding carriers.  They have a number of unlimited talk and text plans and the price seemed to vary based on how much high-speed internet you wanted to include.  The interesting thing about this provider is that they offer service on all 4 of the major carriers.  If you have an existing phone you would like to continue using, there is a fair chance they will be able to support it (please check with them before signing up if you are interested).  I didn't find their pricing to be overly compelling compared to my existing T-Mobile bill, but if you are on Verizon or AT&T you might find a plan with them that could save you a fair chunk of change each month.  They appear to be able to offer a bit better pricing because they act similar to a pre-paid service where you have to fill up and top off your account periodically instead of the tranditional monthly billing process.

Republic Wireless

An interesting low cost carrier with plans ranging from only $5 to $40 per month, the price points are definitely nice.  The theory behind Republic wireless is that WiFi is so ubiquitous in our lives these days, that there isn't likely to be much time where you are not connected to one.  Their service attempts to use WiFi whenever possible (even for voice calls) and only uses cell-based services when the WiFi is not available. Actually, their $5 plan is WiFi only, so the phone will only work when it is connected to WiFi.  The $10 plan offers voice only, with data support still coming from WiFi.  Their other two plans do offer mobile internet connectivity, with the price differentiator being how fast of data access you want.  All of their plans appear to be "unlimited everything" except for the restrictions on connectivity/speed noted above.

Since Republic tries to route your calls over WiFi when available, their phones have special software to switch between WiFi and cellular networks.  This means you cannot bring your own handset and they only offer a limited number of handsets on their service.  Their service is through Sprint (CDMA), but they can roam to Verizon so coverage is good within the U.S.  One user I know did note that the unlimited plans are not so unlimited if you are roaming onto Verizon's network a lot.

Ting

This company has decided to turn the usual cell phone plan on it's ear.  They have no "Unlimited" plans at all.  In fact, they really don't have any "plans" at all.  Instead, they divide service into various levels, or buckets if you will, and then charge you based on what bucket you land in at the end of each month.  Each service type is divided into these buckets: phone minutes, text/SMS messages, and data.  So, if you use very few minutes but a lot of data, then you get charged just a couple bucks for your minutes and a bit more for your data usage.  Their claim is that by doing it this way, most people save money versus those unlimited plans.

Traditionally, Ting has used the Sprint CDMA network for their service, but recently started rolling out a T-Mobile based GSM offering that is currently in a public beta program. The biggest downside to their approach seems to be that your bill may vary month-to-month so it may be hard to budget accurately for their service.  The other catch with this service is they require you to have a credit card on file.  Since, unlike most carriers, they bill you at the end of the service period (otherwise how could they know how much to bill you) this made sense to me.  Still not sure I like companies automatically billing my credit card, but at least there reason is a bit more valid than most.

I did choose one of these as our provider and have just completed my first month with them.  I will tell you about my experience in an upcoming post.  And if you are interested in giving the one I'm using a try, I may be able to save you a few dollars your first month with them too.

Cell Service: Time for a Change

A few times I've mentioned on the blog that I've been considering a new cell phone service.  You might have read when I was up in the Chesapeake I found that T-Mobile didn't have the best coverage (Ok, I only had coverage if I was standing literally on the north shoreline of the peninsula). Then, when my phone started acting up just as I returned to Denver, I decided that it was time to pull the trigger and make the switch.  But this decision isn't an easy one due to the different and competing technologies out there. So, the next several posts on the subject may get a little technical, but will hopefully give you an interesting insight into the world of cell phones and providers (as best I understand them anyway).

Most people reading this are probably at least somewhat familiar with the four big cell phone providers in the U.S.  There's Verizon, which seems to have the best overall coverage (in the U.S.)...and a price tag that says they know it.  Then AT&T is the other Goliath name in the market.  Behind those two stand Sprint and T-Mobile to round out the group.  These are the ones that own (or at least contract with a maintenance company that owns) all the cell phone towers in the U.S., and if you are making a cell phone call in America, you are likely using one of these towers to do it.

But, those aren't the only cell phone companies.  You might have heard of (or even use) Boost, Consumer Cellular, Cricket, Straight Talk, or Virgin Mobile. Then there are a bunch of other even lesser known brands as well.  All of these companies are what are called Mobile Virtual Network Operators (or MVNO's) and they basically "rent time" on the major cell providers networks and towers. For example the MVNO Boost uses Sprint, Cricket uses AT&T, and Straight Talk is talking straight through T-Mobile.  If you want to see all the different MVNO's out there and what networks they use, this link should take you to a pretty good list on Wikipedia.

So, there are a ton of cell phone companies out there, how do you narrow them down?  Well, in my case I had some very specific criteria as a cruiser:

• They have to be reasonably priced.  My T-Mobile bill was $114/month for two phones ($100 + taxes, fees, pain and suffering) and it had to be at or below that.
• They have to have decent coverage in the U.S.  T-Mobile wasn't that bad (except in Deltaville) but I did want better if I could get it.
• They have to support GSM phones (since CDMA is only used in the US and, I think, Japan and I would like the option to use any phone I buy elsewhere...like, you know, the Bahamas, BVI, etc.).
• They need to have the ability to suspend service without disconnecting the number, for times I am out of the country and don't want to use that service. 

I guess there is one more "feature" I need to talk about.  The GSM phone needs to be unlocked.  Many cell phone companies lock the phone you get to their service.  This is done since they subsidize the cost of the phone and lock you into a contract to help offset the cost.  By doing this, you can't get that top of the line phone for $25 and then switch to another service the next week.  Recent laws and rules in the US now require the carriers to unlock the phones once you have fulfilled your obligation with them (typically a year or less).  The trick here is that you have to request it...so if you are planning to go outside the U.S. with your GSM cell phone, make sure you request the unlock before you leave.  

The reason you want to unlock the phone is simple.  In many places you go you can buy a pre-paid SIM card on the local wireless network and use it to make calls. This is often much cheaper than if you use your U.S. plan's international roaming rates.  With an unlocked phone, you can swap these SIM cards with your existing one and effectively swap your service without having to buy another handset.

There is one more problem with using one phone in multiple locales, though.  While unlocking a phone will allow you to use the phone on multiple "foreign" networks, some of the more advanced features may still not be available.  You see, even in the GSM and CDMA worlds, the carriers apparently have differences. Often the higher speed data access (those things labeled 3G, 4G, and LTE in all the marketing material) are done on different radio frequencies for different carriers in different countries.  Many of the phones don't have all the possible radios inside them to use all the different frequencies.  So, even with an unlocked phone, you may find your data connection is limited depending on the capabilities of your handset.  Best you can seem to do is to find a handset that uses at least some of the frequencies in the locations you intend to travel...and in the rest you may be limited to lower data speeds.

Well, that covers some of the things I'm looking for and some of the pitfalls that can be encountered.  Next time I'll take a look at some of the more interesting discount providers of cell phone service that I have found.

A Technology Black Hole

I shouldn't be complaining about this, and truth be told I'm not.  I found a bit of a technology black hole in Deltaville.  For several days I've had VERY limited internet access and no cell phone service.  The boatyard I'm in has a wireless router and repeater...that needs to be repaired/installed.  Right now the only working router is the one that just barely covers their small office space.  My cell and tablet won't even connect to the wireless when sitting outside the office door.  Unfortunately the Wirie, while picking up a number of wireless signals (but not the boatyard office), didn't see an open signal to use anywhere.

And speaking of my cell...apparently T-mobile has never heard of this little peninsula in Virginia.  I guess Verizon owns the show here and unless you have a phone that can use the Verizon network, getting cell coverage here is...shall we say...a challenge.  While Verizon had good coverage in the U.S., I know that the rest of the world doesn't use the same radio technology as them (GSM versus CDMA) so I don't really want to switch...but I have been finding my coverage less than ideal.

All things to consider when you are heading off to live on a boat.  Personally I kind of like being a little more out of touch...you know what they say...ignorance is bliss.