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.