Communicating the high cost of communicating !

by Donald Todd
(Spokane WA USA)

I had a "company" cell phone when I was a TV producer working for a large Media Company in LA CA that came with the job. In 2005 I made the move to Spokane, WA. and had purchased a T-Mobile "pay as you go" phone and plan to use when I was visiting Spokane, and deciding where to live and found it to be more than I could have wanted and a great value over all.

My wife had a Verizon plan and used only around 250 to 300 minutes each month. That phone was costing us around $65. a month or $780. a year. Add in our land line and that was another $700. or so. I had not found a reason to change from the "pay as you go" phone and plan as I was talking to who I wanted to when I needed to. I paid just under $300. the first year I had the phone. I waited for my wife to end her plan and got her a new T-Mobile, pre-paid phone and plan and 3 years later. our total phone expenses are around $600. per year. T-Mobile has a "gold" plan you give them $100. and you get 1000 minutes talk time, these minutes are good for 365 days, use all your minutes and pay another $100. (my wife uses around $250. per year). We did drop our land line and I was using Skype and our cell phones and never miss the land line.

Hint: I did have to get a free E-Fax number and my incoming faxes (very few now) are delivered to my email. I scan in documents as PDF's now rather than fax them and I then email them.

Hint: I did get a free Google phone number that I located in the Santa Monica, CA. prefix for my LA clients and set it up to re-ring on my Spokane cell phone number. FREE !!!

P.S. I just ported my phone number over to a Straight Talk Phone that I paid $30 dollars for from Walmart and now pay only $32. every 30 days (automatically billed) and receive 1000 minutes talk time and 1000 text messages (as if I even send one text a month).
The phone works well all over the US and I only pay a bit more than I have been with t-mobile.

Don in Spokane WA.