Cell Phone Buyer

1
Cell Phone Buyers Guide

• Tech-Connect Community
• tech-connect_at_collab.itc.virginia.edu
• Presented by
• Zeke Crater
• University Library

2
Personal Versus UVa Phones

• This session is aimed primarily at personal cell
  phone selection
• For UVa cell phone selection, please see
  http//www.itc.virginia.edu/commserv/telephone/cel
  l.html

3
Cell Phone Buyers Guide
4
Intended Use

• Emergency only
• Casual use
• Land line replacement
• Business phone replacement
• Texting
• Web browsing
• Gaming
• Email

5
TCO over the term of the contract

• Regarding price, concentrate on total cost of
  ownership, not initial cost
• If purchasing an extended warranty or insurance,
  know exactly what is covered and what are the
  deductibles
• Trust not the sales representative. Get it in
  writing.

6
Prepaid Cell Phones

• For light use of 30 minutes or so per month,
  prepaid cell phones probably have the lowest
  total cost of ownership
• Independent Prepaid / No Contract
• Tracfone / Net10
• Virgin Mobile
• MetroPCS
• Carrier Prepaid / No Contract
• ATT GoPhone
• Verizon Prepaid
• T-Mobile To Go
• Sprint Boost Mobile

7
Wireless Carrier

• Carrier is almost always more important to your
  satisfaction than is the phone hardware
• Coverage is carrier related
• Some phones are carrier specific
• However, no cell carrier is good at customer
  satisfaction
• Some are less bad (Verizon and T-Mobile)

8
Wireless Carrier Market Share
Carrier Customers
Verizon 91 Million
ATT 83 Million
Sprint 48 Million
T-Mobile 33 Million
TracFone 14 Million
US Cellular 6 Million
9
Selecting Your Carrier and Plan

• There are many websites to help select your
  carrier and plan
• http//www.myrateplan.com/
• http//www.letstalk.com/cell-phone-plans
• Knowing your usage pattern (how many minutes
  during which hours at which locations) is key to
  getting the best price

10
USA Versus World

• USA cell phone monthly rates subsidize the cell
  phone purchase
• One can purchase an unlocked cell phone and use
  on a carrier without a contract (often called
  month to month), but USA rates are high enough
  to make a 200 phone free every two years
• GSM versus CDMA
• Verizon and Sprint are CDMA
• ATT and T-Mobile are GSM

11
USA Versus World II

• Multi-band (dual, tri, quad) refers to
  frequencies supported by the phone
• Multi-mode refers to type of transmission
  technology used on the frequency (1G AMPS, 2G
  TDMA, CDMA2000, UMTS)
• For example, the iPhone and Nexus One both
  support quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz),
  tri-band UMTS (I/II/V or 2100/1900/850MHz on
  iPhone, I/IV/VIII or 2100/1700/900MHz on Nexus
  One), single-band WiFi (2.4GHz) and single-band
  Bluetooth (2.4GHz), thus supporting four modes

12
Handset differences

• Great differences between phone manufacturers and
  phone models in
• Signal strength
• Call quality
• Microphone volume
• Earpiece volume
• Know and understand the no fault return policy
• Test the phone during this brief period
• Do not be afraid to return the phone for a full
  refund

13
Dumb Phone Considerations

• Carrier, carrier, carrier
• Handset voice quality, both microphone and
  speaker
• Are the buttons and display big and clear enough?
  In bright sunlight?
• Signal and transmission strength
• Camera and sending / receiving pictures
• Battery life
• Data security

14
Smart Phone Expectations

• Expect to miss several meetings per year because
  calendar synchronization is hard
• Finger (ungloved) versus stylus touch screens
• High speed data coverage area is different than
  voice coverage area

15
US Phone Operating Systems
  October 2009
Non-Smart Phone 196,773,054
RIM Blackberry 14,963,238
Apple iPhone 8,970,049
Microsoft Windows Mobile 7,131,797
PalmOS / WebOS 2,843,534
Symbian 1,297,965
Google Android 1,020,364
Source ComScore survey
16
Smart Phone Considerations

• In addition to the dumb phone considerations
• Do you need a data plan?
• Will the phone sync to your email and calendar
  systems? With full feature support?
• Do you need or want tethering?
• Replace MP3 player?
• What does unlimited legally mean?
• Wi-Fi support
• GPS and compass

17
Picking The Monthly Calling Plan

• The cost of exceeding your plan limits (prime
  time minutes, evening minutes, weekend minutes,
  calls out of network, text messages) are often
  high (10-1000)
• Know whether you can increase or decrease to the
  next calling plan tier without penalty or
  restarting your contract length
• Regional versus national versus international
  plans
• With multiple cell phones, consider getting a
  family plan

18
Carrier Store Versus Authorized Retailer

• Phone price differences
• Incentives / sales differences
• Different warranty, extended warranty, and
  insurance offers
• I would like to say expertise difference
• Generally, a non-carrier seller will have little
  to no relationship with you after the sale

19
Also buy

• Accessories
• Car charger?
• Second wall charger?
• Holster?
• Wired headset?
• Wireless headset?
• Faceplates?
• Screen protectors?
• Styli?
• Consider buying these two weeks later, once you
  know your phone usage patterns

20
Exercise Caution

• Teenagers
• Texting overages
• Data overages
• Ringtone or other purchases via phone can entail
  nasty ongoing charges know and trust your
  vendor
• Purchases are made in Europe and Japan with cell
  phones
• Text HAITI to 90999 to donate

21
Exercise Your Rights

• Telephone number portability take your
  telephone numbers with you
• Unlock a cell phone after the contract ends - use
  your phone on a different carriers network

22
UVa Employee Discounts

• Many if not all carriers give a discount off
  monthly charges to UVa employees
• Often a salesperson tells you there is no UVa
  discount this is untrue
• Verizon, ATT, and Sprint all have UVa employee
  discounts

23
Cell Phone Buyers Guide

• Did we cover it all?
• Prepaid or monthly?
• Solo or family plan?
• Smart Phone or FIYP (Fits In Your Pocket)?
• Subsidized or unlocked?
• Which cell phone company is least bad?
• Do you even need a cell phone?
• Questions?