Introduction: Most of the information on this page assumes you are using cellular service from one of the bigger providers under a one or two year contract. Some of these issues described here do not pertain to prepaid service, which I do recommend. You can always quit prepaid at any time and without penalty should the need arise.

Prorating (you may not have "any minutes to use" in the first few days of service) - The first month you begin your cellular service, it's critical to call customer service and find out your billing cycle date. Dial "611," to reach them free of charge. The first month you will likely have a shorter period than normal which is prorated. The tough part is that your included minutes are also prorated. Exceeding your allotted minutes can be really expensive and it's really easy to do the first month. You get your brand new shiney toy out and play with it, not realizing you may not really have hardly any minutes to use the first few days of service. Your billing date is not usually tied to the day you start service and in fact can seem quite random. If you have the bad luck of starting service two days before the end of your billing cycle, you will only have about 3% of your normal allocation of minutes. A typical cost for overage is 40 to 45 cents per minute, but varies by plan and provider. I've started cellular service three times total, and in each case my billing date was 2 days after my startup. Coincidence? I don't think so. This is one of the more questionable cellular industry practices in my opinion. [If the vendor was sincerely interested in being fair to a new customer all they need to do is limit any overage in the first month to cost no more than a full month's bill with its included allotment of minutes. No carrier does this to my knowledge, so I find it hard to believe any of them are really trying to remedy this common problem.]

Calls to customer service "611" are free - You can ask them any question. Calls to this special number do not use airtime or otherwise cost you anything. Got that new phone and really want to get using it? Write down some questions and call 611 to reach customer service free of charge. At the same time you can get used to using your new phone and its features at no cost to you. This may also be a good number to test your phone with, assuming it initially connects you to an automated system prior to reaching a live operator (which is typical). There may be other informational numbers that are free of charge. For example, "#MIN" (#646) and "#BAL" (#225) are automated methods to hear your minutes used and balance on Verizon. Some or all of these numbers may not work when roaming, but should not result in a roaming charge. I use #646 to test my phone even when roaming for this reason. The error message also tends to reveal the carrier's name you are roaming on, all without costing me anything. Other important details you can learn from an automated error message include whether or not you have enough usable signal to place a call at all and its quality in a particular area.

Program your Phonebook with Useful Numbers - Your carrier should provide a 1800 customer service number which you should keep programmed into your phone. While 1800 numbers don't cost you long distance charges, they do use airtime. For this reason, only use the 1800 number in the event that 611 is not available. For example, 611 may not reach your carrier when you are roaming. I also keep other important numbers in my phonebook, including AAA/Tow Truck #, my bank, 1800-555-TELL (information service that does not bill me a service charge), hotel and other travel information before I go on a trip.

Programming Numbers and Voicemail: When you program numbers into your cellular phone, enter the whole 11 digit number. Ten, or even eleven digit dialing always works in my experience, even for local calls in an area that only requires seven digits. If you are roaming, the ten or eleven digit number will be required to place the call at all. For example, instead of "Bob Smith" 554-1212 enter the number as 1-503-554-1212 (without the dashes). For your voicemail number, enter your own eleven digit number. This will work even when you are roaming. Special voicemail numbers like *86 (Verizon) only work when you are using Verizon's native system and not while roaming.

Speed Dial - Your phone very likely has speed-dial capability for frequently used numbers. For example, after programming a number for your spouse on the number #3, you can typically dial it by holding down the "3" key. See your phone's user manual for more details. I avoid programming emergency numbers in speed dial because I don't want to dial one accidentally, but suit yourself and your situation. See "Avoid the Swoosh" below for an important tip that's even more relevant to speed dial users.

Avoid the Swoosh - If you ever receive a call or voice message with a swooshing sound, it's probably not an obscene phone call. It's far more likely one of your friends accidentally called you with their cell phone. This tends to happen when the phone is put in a pocket or purse where something is applying pressure to the keys allowing the phone to "dial itself." All candy-bar style phones have this problem and subsequently provide a method to "lock" the keys. If you own a candy-bar style phone, learn how to lock the keys and do so anytime you're not using the phone. This problem tends not to effect flip phones at all, which is actually a big advantage in terms of ease of use and avoiding embarrassment.

Flip Phones Are Better? I personally still prefer candy-bar style phones for ease of use, but currently use a flip. Aside from not accidentally dialing someone with a flip phone, the SAR value for flips is lower because the antenna is more perpendicular to your head. SAR value is the amount of radiation your head receives from the phone, which drops off exponentially with distance. There's no real evidence that cell phones can cause health problems, but it doesn't hurt to be on the safe side-- i.e. use flip, and/or use hands-free setup for long duration calls.

Incoming Calls Cost Too - Cell phone users are charged "Airtime" which basically refers to any time you are using your phone including both outgoing and incoming calls. This also means, in most cases, that if you call another cell phone, both parties are charged airtime. This is true in the United States. In many other countries, the caller pays and the receiver is not billed. Note that some cellular providers have mobile-to-mobile or "in-network" minutes which allow you to place calls completely free of charge to other cell phones on the same provider when both of you are not roaming.

Cellular Contracts don't currently serve you at all: The backdrop here is that cellular contracts really don't promise the customer anything. The printed materials don't even guarentee that your phone will work, or even a specific coverage area, even during the duration of your contract. The contract only includes protection for the carrier, and stated limits of service. Your cellular contract makes for odd reading because the service you are paying for is never detailed anywhere! The service itself is only implied by the contract's stated limitations. Anyway, many of the features we enjoy on our phones were never explicitely promised to us. We simply take it, use it, and get used to it working a certain way. We notice if it changes. We may complain if what we are provided with changes, but ultimately have little to say about it. In the case of a billing problem, the only way I've ever dealt with any billing problem is to pull up past statements showing something billed a certain way, then disputing a change based on past experience. Incidentally, I sincerely desire reform in the cellular industry where the carrier gives me a contract that includes both my and their responsibilities. For example, I'd like them to give me the set of features in writing that I am paying for (like coverage area and features), and my obligations to them (like paying my bill on time, not abusing the service etc.) Anyway, get your printed contract terms (if, like most of us, you've never seen them). Read them carefully, and see if you can determine what the carrier is providing to you. I doubt you'll find anything.

Each of us, when we start service call customer service, or visit with store staff, probably repeatedly before signing up. We ask the questions about the service that matter to us the most, and the customer service "CS" does their best to answer. All that is fine and good. The problem is that customer service tells you features, and policy at the current time. These things do change in time. You can go back to the store and ask the same questions one, two, or five years later and get very different responses. Oh, you say, but we have a contract that protects us. No, actually the carrier never promised us anything specific in the contract. All you have is your memory of that friendly sales person and what they said.

Understanding Billing For Calls:

• Airtime - All cellular phone calls are charged airtime. Your rate plan usually has allowances for a certain amount of airtime use without any additional fees. This is what we mean when we say we have an X minute plan. If you exceed your allowance, then the fee is called "overage." Airtime usage is divided into calling periods called peak and off-peak. Most carriers include a lot of off-peak minutes, but they know it's much less likely you'll be able to use those. For example, my off-peak doesn't start on weeknights until 9pm. I do get free calling all day Saturday and Sunday because these are also off-peak in my plan, as are some holidays depending on your provider. Sprint, notably, doesn't offer any holidays.
• Long Distance - Many cellular plans include free long distance provided you are within you home area, and even local plans may have a larger local calling area than a landline. For example, AT&T and Verizon have plans that cover Washington and Oregon which include free local long distance to anywhere inside those states, even if the plan lacks nationwide long distance. This may make nationwide long distance less of an issue for you depending on your usage. Just the same I do tend to recommend plans that include nationwide long distance.
• Roaming - Roaming refers to using your phone outside of your home area. It's critical you understand your home rate and roaming rate areas, or buy a "no roaming plan.". Local plans tend to have easy to understand boundaries like "anywhere inside the states of Oregon and Washington regardless of who's system you are using." Digital One Rate, SingleRate, GSM America, or Free and Clear America are examples of "no roaming" plans. The national network plans (like Verizon's "America's Choice") are the tricky ones, and usually require you to read and understand your phone's display to know when you are roaming or not. See the understanding plans page for more info. Verizon recently made the America's Choice plan "no roaming" by removing coverage in Oregon and Washington. Not exactly the improvement I was hoping for.
• Taxes - You are very unlikely to be charged any tax per call, although I have seen this when roaming in Canada. This is an exceptional case.
• Service Fee - If you dial premium information services like "411" or (xxx) 555-1212 then you will be assessed a service fee. I recommend avoiding these completely. [Advanced Verizon users: Some Verizon data is free to use (circuit switched), configure your phone to use waptunnel (or similar). Palm/CE/PDA phones can likely use the web page 555-1212.com for directory assistance for free.] Other carriers tend to avoid any free data offering. T-mobile has the best pricing of the fee-based data options. Google has a great method for getting residential and business listing by simply sending a text message to their service-- billed at the same cost as your normal text messaging (which may even have some text included free). See googles awesome SMS service for more information.
  

How to Avoid Fees: Service fees are easily avoided by not dialing special for-fee service numbers like directory assistance (see the google link above). Taxes per call almost never occur, and if they do, it's because you are roaming. Roaming doesn't occur as long as you understand your rate plan or have a no-roaming plan. Most plans include limited, or nationwide long distance (and yes, please select one of those). Airtime is fairly simple to understand as it is similar to the amount of time you use your phone, and many carriers will give you free estimates of your usage so that you can adjust usage during the month. None of this should be a big problem if you understand your rate plan (I don't want to scare you off, it's not nearly as difficult as it sounds).

Charged for Extra Seconds- You are billed for the airtime while the phone on the other side is ringing, before the actual connection. Most carriers will not bill you for incomplete calls, but if you connect, the start time is the moment you hit the "send" button until you hit the "end" button. Some carriers will charge you for the time the phone is ringing, even if the call is not completed, if the phone rings more than 30 seconds.

Rounding Airtime- If you make or receive a call that lasts 61 seconds, you will be billed for 2 minutes.

How "bad" is this Rounding Problem (mentioned above): It's actually really bad. I mean if you make 200 calls in a month, you will get billed an additional 100 minutes on average for those calls. In other words, take the total number of calls, divide by two, and that's how many minutes you get billed for each and every month that you didn't use. So how did I come to this number? Each call will run between 0 and 59 seconds past a particular minute. Sometimes you'll get charged for a whole extra minute when you only used 1 second into that minute. In this case, you get billed for 59 seconds you didn't use. Other times you'll only get billed a minute for a call that's 59 seconds. In this case you're only billed 1 extra second than what you used. On average you'll get billed for an extra 30 seconds per call which is equal to half of the total number of calls.

This is one of the reasons, people like me, with 300 minute plans cannot understand how I use 233 minutes on average per month when I don't talk on my cell phone that much. The key here is that I make a lot of short calls, many less than 1 minute in length, and subsequently get billed for the whole minute. The technology exists for more accurate billing, however, the carriers like minute rounding because it disguises the true cost. Nextel used to offer six second billing, however, they were able to silently raise rates by going to the "industry standard" rounded minute. What can you do about it? Simply realize you need more "minutes" in your rate plan than you actually use or minimize the number (not the length) of calls made. Lots of short calls end up being expensive! Older cellular plans used to include the 1st incoming minute free. If you received a bunch of short calls, this could be a huge advantage. Notice that no one offers this feature anymore. For me this simply means using a traditional landline whenever possible, and using the cell only when necessary.

Audio Quality - At its worst cellular sounds like a walkie-talkie, and at its best, some claim it can be better than a landline phone ("landline" refers to a normal non-cellular phone). My own experience of cellular is that it's generally worse than a conventional phone, but good enough for basic communication. For this reason and to save valuable airtime, I don't recommend using cellular to get cheap long distance, instead checkout something like a onesuite calling card and use a conventional phone from home. The biggest problem is the compression codecs used for modern digital phones. If you happen to speak at the same time another person is speaking, neither of you will be intelligible to the other. One cell phone calling a different cell phone (especially of different network) can sound worse than usual because the two may enable different compression codecs, so in effect, the audio gets compressed and decompressed twice. Unlike a landline, you cannot hear your own voice in the speaker of most cell phones so it's hard to gauge how you sound, which is one of the reasons people tend to speak too loudly when talking on cell phones. Cell phones tend to sound worse when too many people are trying to use the system at once (especially true for CDMA carriers like Verizon, Sprint, etc). They also may drop out momentarily (words omitted) or drop a call entirely if you are driving around. Bottom line: Use a cell phone for its intended purpose and use it as a limited resource. If all you need is cheaper long distance I'd recommend you skip cellular and buy a good calling card. Cellular can sometimes suffer from echo which is usually a tower/network problem and not your phone. If this is the case, then it will happen in a particular location, but not all locations. All you can do in this case is report the problem to your provider.

Big First Bill - Some providers bill you for the first two months of service on the first bill (Verizon did this to me). Once you add in the cost of the phone or phones and any overage from the prorating problem described above, you may be in for a whopper the first time around. These issues are good to ask about before you sign up for service.

You Can Buy a Cheap Phone - This is one of the rare cases in which even an extremely cheap phone can perform every bit as well as the most expensive phone and in some cases even perform better. This is not to say that all handsets are equal, they are not. Find out which phones other people are using (and like) on your service and use that one. The more expensive phones buy you more complicated functionality but are not better for the basic tasks of placing and receiving calls. In fact, some of the cheap phones include most of the high-end features. You may wish to avoid "sexy" small phones because they are less likely to perform well given that they tend to lack an external antenna. I like small cool phones, and choose them, but simply realize this diminishes the quality of service, but not as much as some would have you believe.

Hidden Fees - Just like landline phones, there are taxes and fees that amount to a few dollars each month. These typically vary by area. My own fees average about $5/mo. So if you get a plan for $34.99, you'll actually pay about $40 per month. For budget purposes, I always add about $5 per month in my mind to get a more realistic idea of what I'll be paying. Some states have much higher fees (i.e. California and New York, so this varies a lot by state).

Directory Assistance (411)- Carriers often charge more than $1 per call to directory assistance (411). My experience with Verizon here in Oregon is that their 411 folks don't even have listings for entire towns in Oregon, and often cannot give me an accurate listing. The worst part is that they have charged me, even when they admit they cannot find the listing. When I first started with Verizon, I could call Qwest directory assistance (local landline provider for my area), and they would give me anything found in the local phone book. The call still cost $1.25, but at least I got a listing. Verizon currently reroutes any call to XXX-555-1212 to their 411 information service. I find this to be criminal. I don't mind paying the special service fee, but I really want the option to call directory service that *actually works* (Mental note to self to complain to the FCC about this). Skip 411 altogether, and use google's SMS lookup service (or data on your phone if you have that).

"Free" Call Forwarding: Most carriers advertise free call forwarding. What they actually mean is that the service is available to you without additional monthly fee. If you choose to use it, most often you will be billed 15 cents per minute. In other cases, you will be billed airtime for the call (which seems fair to me). Note that Verizon is the only provider I've ever used that really provides free call forwarding in the sense that I don't have to pay additionally per-minute to forward my calls. Call forwarding can be a powerful tool if you use it properly. For example, if the signal inside your office is unusable, you can at least forward calls to your normal office phone.Call forwarding may incur long distance charges, if you forward to a long distance number even if your rate plan includes free long distance. There are two major types of call forwarding, one called forward-all-calls (typically invoked with *72<number>), and conditional call-forwarding (*92<number>). On some carriers (i.e. T-mobile) conditional call-forwarding will not cost you anything unless you exceed 500 minutes. To simular forward-all-calls and possibly not pay a dime for it, use *92 instead, then turn it off (or silence it, and simply ignore it if it rings). Please test this with just a few minutes, and see how it gets billed in case this has changed.

Three Way Calling: My experience has been that if your rate plan includes free 3-way calling, then you'll be able to use it without additional monthly fees, but both calls will use airtime. In other words, a 10 minute 3-way call is billed 20 minutes. This service works the way I'd expect it to, without any strings attached. I find this far more acceptable than the way most carriers bill for "free" call forwarding (see above).

Possible Changing Coverage Area for Network Plans: Beware of national network plans like "America's Choice" which include your carriers native coverage area, and "selected roaming partners." The roaming partners can change during your contract which can have a drastic effect on your service. For example, in September 2003 Verizon removed more than 50% of the geographic coverage in the states of Oregon and Washington by removing US Cellular as an included roaming partner. Verizon chose not to let me out of my contract when I called to complain. You can completely avoid this bad situation: Choose a rate plan with well-defined coverage area like a local or regional plan or single-rate/one rate type plan. If you do choose a network plan, do not assume that any roaming coverage will continue to be available, even if it was there when you start service. Also be careful to determine if any particular "national plan" is a no-roaming plan, or more likely, a carriers network plan. Note that modern America's Choice plans offer no roaming in Oregon and Washington because they removed your ability to roam :( Verizon has demonstrated that they are not afraid to reduce your coverage area, even while you are in a contract. They tend to hose people in Oregon and Washington more than in most parts of the country, which may actually be a reason to consider a different carrier here.

Mobile to Mobile/In-Network/PCStoPCS: Some rate plans include a certain number of free mobile to mobile minutes (or PCS to PCS minutes). A mobile to mobile call traditionally must involve two phones using the same carrier (i.e. both Sprint), in the mobile-to-mobile calling area (which may be much smaller than the normal home area). This helps you save the more valuable peak airtime for other calls. These special minutes only work to your advantage if both callers are on the carriers network and not roaming. This roaming limitation applies to mobile-to-mobile even if the plan normally includes free roaming for that area. The worst part is that two mobile phones calling each other while roaming will both be billed airtime so it's kind of a double jeopardy type of situation. The really nice part about mobile-to-mobile is that these can be almost free minutes and you can use them anytime of day. So if both callers are in the carriers native service area, the call is basically free. If one party is roaming, both pay airtime, and the roaming customer may pay roaming and possibly long distance. For courtesy sake find out if the person you are calling has free mobile to mobile minutes. If they do not, then the call may be free for you, but not for them. Verizon and Cingular offer a huge mobile to mobile calling area on their new national plans. Both now allow mobile to mobile even if roaming on one of their preferred providers (so their mobile to mobile map is now almost identical to their total coverage map).

Spanned Calls: If you have a rate plan with off peak starting at 9pm, and you make a 60 minute call at 8:55pm then you will care how this is billed. Some carriers do spanned calls (Verizon does in Oregon). This is a really cool feature because the above example will yield a 5 minute peak airtime charge, and 55 off-peak airtime charge. Some carriers don't do spanned call billing, and instead bill the entire call in the calling period that the call began in. In this case, the entire 60 minutes would be billed as peak. Some folks claim this non-spanned billing is fair because it works the other way too. Meaning a 60 minute call made at 5:55AM would be billed entirely as off-peak. I don't know about you, but I'm unlikely to ever make any call before 6am.

Posted Phone Prices Not Accurate: Verizon has recently been posting their phone prices on some, but not all models, with the price you get if you agree to a two year contract and/or then go through a rebate process. In other words, the posted price is often less than the actual amount you will have to pay up-front (it's the price after rebate), and may presume a two year contract. If you go with a one year contract you may pay more. If you use the web to price things out, start a web-based order, and proceed with rate plan and phone selection without actually really giving them your personal information or visa number. At some point you will see the real price for the phone. AT&T has started a practice of advertising "unbelievable" prices on phones and service, many of which are only available to new customers! Existing customers may be quoted hundreds of dollars to buy a phone advertised as free to new customers, even if they are willing to start a new contract. This is just plain bad. Wait 'till your contract ends, and leave if they don't give you the same deal a new customer would get. Note that you have *much* better bargaining power after your contract expires. Don't ever try to negotiate anything until your contract has ended.

Where to buy? This is highly opinion specific, but I'd recommend the following: If the carrier has a local store in your area that isn't overly crowded, use them. If not *call them* on the phone to order. Get the name and call center location of the agent that sets you up in case you need it later. Dealers would be my third choice, and I would always avoid the web based system. This may seem counterintuitive to those of you that are very technically savvy, but these folks are a phone company, and they work best when visited in person or called on the phone (at least in my experience). The reason I don't like the dealers is that they may have a harder time enabling you to return a phone if you quit the service or dislike the phone. They may be forced to "eat" the cost personally, where the larger company (carrier) may be more willing to do this for you. Update, sometimes best pricing, for an upgraded phone, is had on the website. I've now heard reports that the web is a reasonable way to do this.

Save your paper billing statements: If your carrier starts billing you for calls that were once included or you lose features previously included, then these paper statements can really be helpful. Note that Verizon is currently planning to take away detailed paper billing from all new customers, and even from existing customers unless you call to keep it. Verizon continues to provide detailed billing information online at least for six months. You may wish to print your statements, or pay for paper billing if that's the only option.

No more upgrades! Please! I think its funny (in a sad sort of way) that every time my credit union takes away features they tell me about their "new and improved service." In the same way, billing or voicemail upgrades may actually take away features you had been using. The good news is that they will hopefully add new features you find worthwhile although that's not always the case.

My hope for contract improvements: I believe the cellular industry really needs to provide the user with detailed coverage map at the time one signs up for service, especially on network plans, and guarantee that coverage during the contract. The coverage area should not change during the contract. Many carriers use roaming partners to deliver part of their included coverage, and these partners can and do change even during a contract. Given the fluid nature of cellular, I actually think a detailed "here's what's included, and here's what you agree to" written contract would be useful. You can request a written version of your contract, but you'll likely find little detail as to what the carrier promises to do for you, especially when it comes down to specific features.

Big Brother is Recording - I find it freaky, but I believe that every cellular provider takes detailed notes about your interactions when you call. One purpose of this is to do oral contracts. For example, I've had multiple contracts with multiple carriers over the years yet have never signed anything. I have always honored these verbal agreements, but I imagine one of the reasons for the detailed notes is if someone makes a claim that isn't true, then the logs give them some ability to determine the truth. While I don't ever recommend being rude to customer service, doing so can actually "blackball" you. An agent makes a note in your account that you're an abusive customer, and none of your future phone calls will be pleasant. I recommend you always be polite to customer service staff anyway. If you do have a problem, control your frustration, and thank the agent for their time every time you call. On the other side of the coin, having a good track record with a company can result in better offers and more flexibility when you do have problems. AT&T in particular has a practice of offering better deals on phones and plans upon contract renewal depending on how long you have been a customer, and how much you pay per month.

Be Wary Of Contracts - The Shorter The Better

• Be Careful when buying a new Phone (it will extend your contract): All of the prices you see posted on your carriers website are subsidized prices. Many of the $200 phones would actually cost you $400 or even $500 if you purchased them without a contract. In addition, a "free" phone for a new customer, may cost $200 to an existing customer (AT&T does this, Verizon does not, and I'm not sure how common this practice is). With Verizon, all prices and promotions are the same for new and existing customers as long as both are willing and qualify for a new contract. By qualify I mean existing customers can't get a discounted rate on a new phone more than once every year on average.
• In almost all cases, if you buy a new phone from a carrier or dealer, you *are* implicitly agreeing to extend your contract. If you want a "new" phone with no strings attached (and no contract extension) consider buying a used phone on ebay.com or simply ask for the real "no contract" price. You may be shocked how much phones cost without a contract, but at least you'll know up front what the deal is.
• No 2 year agreements! Normally when you make a change that extends your contract, it gets extended for one more year. If you currently have a 2 year agreement, and make a change that extends your contract, it may get extended for two more years! A 2 year contract makes you wait longer -- 2 years, for a phone replacement on Verizon (and possibly other carriers).
• Quality of Service - Why To Fear Long Contracts - The contract often has language that totally protects the carrier. If the service in your area declines significantly, say because it becomes oversold, or due to other issues, you may find yourself unable to terminate your contract without penalty fees. Nothing hurts worse than paying for service you find unacceptable. This can happen to any carrier at any time in any place. Seriously consider options without any contract like prepaid cellular. There are also several smaller cellular reseller's who resell the same service you can buy from the big names. One example is Consumer cellular at http://www.savecell.com. They can sell you a plan with no contract. Note that AT&T had excellent customer service a few years ago. Today, you can read story after story in alt.cellular.attws from upset AT&T customers who are unable to reach their customer service. Some folks claiming to wait on hold as long as five hours. Update: AT&T got purchased by Cingular, but the customer service has stayed in the gutter, and perhaps even gotten worse since I originally wrote this section. Cingular is simply *the worst* company I have ever done business with, bar none.
• Discounts: See if your employer can provide you with discounted rate plans for personal and/or work use. Some organizations like AAA may have special rate plans available to their members. Compare these plans to traditional plans to see who has the best value.
• How to Terminate Your Contract - You may be able to change your rate-plan to the lowest cost plan (without any promotional minutes) and not extend your contract. So, while you still need to pay out to the end of the existing contract, you may be able to reduce the monthly amount and pay less than the cancellation fee. If you are required to move because of military service, most (all?) carriers will release you from the contract. Finally, if you are on a no-roaming plan, and you move to an area your provider lacks native coverage, then they may choose to release you from the contract. i.e. In this case, it would cost the carrier money to keep you as a customer.

What to do when your contract ends: In almost all cases, once a contract has been fulfilled, you can keep your service and features for the same monthly price. Congratualtions, you are now a "month to month" customer and can quit service at any time without penalty. Should you choose to renew your contract, ask for the same advantages a new customer would get (i.e. discounted price on a new phone) or any other promotions. In some cases the carrier will credit your account a certain amount of money to get you to renew a contract. Ask them what they have to offer you...

Phone Replacement -

Intro: The most basic and perhaps counterintuitve thing is that cell phones are not interchangeable between carriers in almost all cases.

• New Service New Phone: Most of the major carriers require a contract for new service. If you opt for one of these, you may as well get a free or deeply discounted phone at the sign up time.
• You can't replace too often: If you think a cellular carriers posted prices are high, try replacing a phone twice in one year! The posted prices are subsidized, even if they seem expensive to you. The non-subsidized price is often completely rediculous. If you break your phone, the replacement cost may be astronomical. Take excellent care of your phone. If you are the kind that wants a "new toy" every year, be sure to sign up for a one year contract which gets you the subsidized price once per year. Two year contracts typically make you wait 2 years for the subsidized price which some find too long. When I upgrade my phone I keep the old one as a backup-- which is a lot cheaper than paying their $5/month insurance.
• Phone Repair/Replacement Insurance: Kind of expensive, may have expensive deductable. Verizon charges about $5/month, then a $50 deductable. For basic service, acquire a used phone on ebay which avoids the high replacement cost and avoids any contract extension. If you already upgraded your phone once, simply keep the old one as a backup phone to avoid having to pay insurance.
• Cell Phones Are Often Subsidy Locked - Phones may require a lock code to change the programming settings on the phone. In some cases, it is impossible to re-program an otherwise technology compatible phone for use with another carrier. In most cases you can, however, purchase a used phone designed for the same carrier you are using. i.e. An old AT&T phone should be usable on AT&T (provided it's not too old).
• Technology Compatible - In all cases, your best bet is to acquire a phone made for the service provider you are using. i.e. If you have Verizon service, and choose to buy a used phone, get a used Verizon phone. This helps to ensure that you can use the phone with the carrier you are using. The only caveat is that if the phone is too old, it may be too old to activate. For example, Verizon's AC plan requires a tri-mode phone or a modern all-digital phone. They will not activate older "dual mode" phones on the AC price plan. Same goes for AT&T TDMA, you need to have a tri-mode phone to be able to activate it. On GSM, if AT&T or Cingular, be sure to get a phone that supports 850Mhz as well as 1900Mhz GSM. Sprint will only activate the phones they sell so Sprint users must buy a phone with the Sprint label. Verizon users, in theory, can activate a used Alltel phone or basically any technology compatible unlocked phone (but these are hard to find in Oregon and Washington).
• Replaced Under Warranty - Say you just purchased a shiny new phone, maybe it was expensive. The phone is brand new, but you notice some minor annoyance. You drop by your the cellular carrier's store, describe the problem, and they offer to replace it under warranty. You think, wow, that's nice that they're willing to give me a new phone right away to solve my problem. Not necessarily. In my experience, with several carriers and quite a few phones I have never, never, ever seen a carrier give a customer a new phone as a replacement under any circumstance. You may trade your phone with 20 hours of talk time for one with thousands of hours of talk time. In some cases, problems with a replacement are worse than what you started with. A refurbished phone will look brand new. They typically replace the cover, and possibly the rubber keypad so that the front, by appearance, looks brand new. Refurbs can be fine, but you just never know. If you have a brand new phone, and if it has some minor problem, either live with it, or have the store put the latest firmware on the phone, but don't have it replaced unless you really need to. All modern phones have a call timer, similar to a car's odometer. Check the all-calls timer to see how much use a particular phone has had.
• New From The Carrier - This is a fine way to do it, just be aware that any new phone will extend your contract. Think you're paying full-price for that $200 phone, not likely. If you want a phone without a contract extension you can get one, but you may be shocked at the price. Typically a phone's no-contract price is several times as expensive as its posted price.
• Longtime Cellular customers who are pleased with their service, and plan to stay where they're at in terms of provider probably have little to lose by accepting a new phone even in exchange for a new contract. Keep the old phone as a backup, and maybe drop the phone insurance (if you pay monthly for that). Service quality changes, or life changes are the main holdups to taking on a new contract. You may not be able to control either of these, and so there's some risk.
• Ebay www.ebay.com is a way for you to find someone with a phone that is technology compatible, used, and possibly for cheap when you consider the cost of extending your contract. You're dealing with random individuals on the Internet, and there is a high potential for problems to occur. If you understand the risks of ebay, then this may be a good way to replace a phone without extending your contract.

Changing Rate Plan - Most providers let you move up or down a rate plan without any fees, but there are some major possible gotchas to be aware of:

• Be Careful When Changing Rate Plans (it may extend your contract) - Most providers don't charge any fees to change base rate plans, but in many cases, if you accept any promotional minutes or plan features your contract will be extended at least another year, and they may not explicitly tell you this. Note that most any plan that includes free night or weekend minutes is considered a promotional plan of the type that will extend your contract.
• Want a new phone? Unfortunately, some carriers have started requiring you to choose a new rate plan and extend your contract anytime you buy a new phone through them. You will likely be able to avoid this issue by purchasing a used phone (i.e. Through ebay.com).
• When considering a rate plan change, call customer service and ask them directly if the new plan would extend your contract, and for how long. In addition, ask if the new rate plan has any disadvantages compared to your current plan. Hard to recognize disadvantages include later start time for night minutes, fewer holidays, increased fees for overage or early-cancellation, and your original plan may have been "for life" but the new one makes you lose promotional minutes at the end of the contract term.
• Nights not 8pm anymore! If you currently have a nights start time of 8pm (or even earlier), you will likely get a later time with current plans. 9pm start time for nights is now typical.
• No Return? After you make the change, there is no guarantee you can return to your old plan. Ask about this before you do it if you care. In some cases you have a certain number of days (i.e. 30) to return to the old plan.
• Plan Induced Phone Change: Some rate plans make you purchase an updated phone (i.e. Trimode, or different technology like AT&T's GSM plans). While the "new" phone price may seem expensive at $200, that is actually the subsidized price, and you will also get locked into another year or two contract.
• Billing problems only seem to occur after changes that are made to your account. "Oops- I forgot to add back your night and weekend minutes" results in a $400 bill. This has happened to me twice on two different carriers over the years.
• No More Paper Statements Some providers no longer provide a detailed paper billing statement. Instead, they force you to view your statement online. I would definitely avoid this situation, or consider any cost of detailed billing into the agreement. I don't actually know how common this practice is, but there has been some mention of it lately. If you switch plans to a newer plan, this may be a feature you could lose.
• Limited voicemail. Verizon experimented with charging customers extra if they wanted a full voicemail service. If you changed rate plans June-July 2003 on Verizon, you may have had your voicemail features reduced. They reversed this decision, and folks with the extreme basic voicemail need only call to get the more full featured voicemail. In any event, this is an example of even a basic feature that can be lost when changing plans.
• Network Plans have a changing coverage area: If you change out your single-rate or regional type plan for a network plan like America's Choice, be aware all network plans have a changing coverage area. After you're in a new contract, the carrier can effectively reduce your coverage area! (yikes) America's Choice is technically a no-roaming plan. I say technically because they simply removed the ability to roam in Oregon and Washington. Further, Verizon has demonstrated ability to worsen coverage area while in a contract-- it has happened to me.
• Verizon recently "upgraded" our billing system and voicemail system. We lost the ability to switch plans and have the whole bill "backdated" to the start of the billing cycle (now things are prorated). We went from nine holidays down to six. Our new voicemail system is inferior in every way to the old. We gained online ESN (phone) swaps for some phones, and more timely minute usage estimates.

Billing Problems

• Even if they make a mistake, all you will get is a credit, not a refund. For this reason, *never* auto-pay your cell phone bill with a credit card, and most especially don't use your debit card! If you prefer an auto-pay type system, visit your bank or credit union and ask about their auto-pay system. Those systems still get you a paper bill, and you control the payments via a web browser. You then have the option to quit paying at any time for any reason. It is much easier to deal with a billing problem by paying the actual amount due, then to beg for a refund after they incorrectly auto-deduct the wrong amount!
• If you do make the mistake of using your credit card, and they make a billing mistake, you can get a refund by calling the business office and asking for one. They will not do this automatically, you have to request it. (They do a credit, but a credit is not the same as a refund).
• Every time they make a mistake on your bill, have the customer service agent note that it occurred in your account. If it happens enough times, this can be cause to get out of your contract early without a fee.

Why Do I See Lots of Conflicting Advice?

• No one person has enough resources to test every provider and every phone so no one has the whole picture. We base our opinions on our personal experience which may or may not be generally accurate. The folks with the most to share are those that have been using services for longer periods of time, having experience with multiple providers and phones, and are able to maintain some degree of objectivity. No provider is perfect, so you'll know someone isn't telling the whole story (or simply doesn't know) when they say X is the best! (In my experience there is no best for all people, all areas, all uses) It all depends.
• Folks are often willing to recommend the provider they use, without ever having used any competitor.
• The best provider will vary from city to city, and state to state. In addition, an otherwise good provider may have a hole in coverage, right where you need it.
• There are many uses of a cellular phone, and many different types of users. The phone and service that works great for me, may not be best for someone else.
• Selecting a cellular provider is a highly personal choice. It has to do with where you use (or want to use) your phone and how you use your phone.
• The selection of the phone itself is the same way, and different people care about different things.
• People get "religious" about cellular the way they do about cars or anything else they really use.