WirelessAdvisor.com

markley268 · 07-24-2002, 8:15 AM

Does anybody know if a carrier has a 'National' shared minutes plan? So that say, people in a family could have this shared minutes plan and use the features of it (shared minutes, and unlimited minutes to the phones on the plan) all over the nation? Or at least, in two different cities?

Here is what i want to be able to do....

Say My girlfriend and i have a shared minutes plan. I'm in Baltimore, MD, and she will be in Knoxville. I want both of us to be able to use the shared minutes AND the unlimited minutes to the other phone on the plan.

So does something like this exist? And if not, does anybody think that it will or will not EVER exist? Thanks!

(seems like if it doesn't exist, that carriers should look into it, considering how us americans are getting more and more spread apart and 'families' are not always in the same city anymore... just my thoughts [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] )

Joe0378 · 07-24-2002, 8:50 AM

Yes...America's Choice Family Plan from Verizon..but hurry, the family plan expires July 31st.

markley268 · 07-24-2002, 8:57 AM

does the entire 'family share' plan expire? or is it jus the promotional one that gives u the unlimited N&W minutes to share?

rbw411 · 07-24-2002, 9:23 AM

Nextel does. A little on the expensive side for the average person, mostly used by corporations.

TNDan21 · 07-24-2002, 9:55 AM

The America's Choice Family Plan is pretty good, however it doesn't give you unlimited mobile to mobile minutes just a pool of them I believe. I noticed you said you wanted unlimited mobile between the phone's. T-Mobile (VoiceStream) has a good family plan right now that gives you unlimited mobile.

Family Plan

$69.99 a month
800 anytime minutes
Unlimited Weekends
Unlimited T-Mobile Minutes
No Roaming or Long Distance charges across the US

This plan includes the following services
Ping Pong 50 Text Messaging, Enhanced VoiceMail, Built-in Paging, Caller ID, Conference Calling, Call Waiting and Call Hold, Customer Care, Directory Assistance, Emergency Calls, AOL Instant Messenger Service, VoiceMail with Message Alert, Detailed Billing

T-Mobile

markley268 · 07-24-2002, 10:06 AM

i would LIKE unlimited minutes between the two phones, not necessarily mobile-to-mobile as i don't care much for calling all the other ppl that have <insert carrier name here> just the other phone that's on the plan.

Verizon's plan only let's you pick two phones for my zipcode, (37803) maryville, NT (30min S of Knox) and neither of those phones has a good radiation rating. For some reason, (I have a Nokia 6160) when i use my phone for even just a few minutes up against my head, i notice my head hurting a little afterwards. My Phone has a radiation SAR of 1.46, so i would like to try and get something that is much less, say around 0.5, to see if that would enable me to use the phone at the ear like most other people do.

Kenny · 07-24-2002, 7:13 PM

The one thing i don't like about Verizon's mobile-to-mobile minutes is the following:

Say I spoke with another Verizon family member after 9pm -- you would think that we would be using our huge bundle or unlimited N/W minutes? Wrong, it comes out of M-to-M minutes! So all the talking during nights & weekends with another Verizon family member could eat up all M-to-M minutes!

IdiOTeQnoLogY · 07-24-2002, 10:10 PM

you can also get family share plans with sprint.......and you can make any plan of 39.99 or more a share plan for another $20 a month per phone and then they will share minutes.

if you ad M to M minutes sprint does the same stupid thing as verizon......it takes out of those first so if you talk at night when you would normally have tons of minutes it would still eat up your M to M minutes first.

Jack · 07-25-2002, 10:08 AM

The best nationwide family share plan is Voicestream wireless/T-mobile

Jack

gabby · 10-20-2002, 12:28 AM

Don't be suckered by the T-Mobile Family Plan! I've had that plan for over a year with no problems until my daughter went to Knoxville. Read on...

I started off with Powertel stayed when it changed to Voicestream and again now that it's T-Mobile. I have the Nationwide Family Plan since it states that it has free unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile and free unlimited weekends since most all my calls are between my daughter and myself or on the weekends. The plan has been great until now. My daughter is now in Knoxville, which according to the T-Mobile literature and their website, is clearly in their National coverge area and should have no roaming or long distance charges and since our calls are from one T-Mobile phone to another T-Mobile phone the calls should be free because we are on the Family Plan. The "free" mobile to mobile was the primary reason I got T-Mobile (Powertel at the time) service and the Family Plan in particular. After receiving my bill for Sept. 7 thru Oct. 6, however, I've discovered that "free" does not mean "free" in T-Mobile jargon. My bill which is normally about $90 was an amazing $854!!!! Although, T-Mobile doesn't charge for weekends which is one feature of the Family Plan, they are charging me for all the mobile to mobile calls between my daughter and myself. After talking with four customer service representatives, none of whom seemed well versed in what is or is not included in any of the T-Mobile plans, I was finally told that the minutes in Knoxville are counted against the 800 Whenever minutes in the plan. That is not what the plan says - it clearly says the Family Time Plan is "great for Friends and family who call one another most of all: unlimted T-Mobile to T-Mobile calling" as well as "unlimited weekends." T-Mobile did honor the part about free weekends but totally ignored the free T-Mobile to T-Mobile part of their plan. Apparently, "free" has more than one meaning to T-Mobile.

Beware of T-Mobile's deceptive advertising!

markley268 · 10-20-2002, 5:54 AM

i bet they get around that saying that the free t-mobile to t-mobile minutes are only good within a certain "home" area, once you start calling outside that "home" area, they can start charging you. that's the way most other companies do it, the mobile-to-mobile minutes are only goog within a small geographical area, not all over the plan's coverage....sorry you got burned bro.

gabby · 10-20-2002, 9:02 AM

You may be right but I've not found anything on their website about it. They sure tout the plan as being perfect for my situation, which to me is a deceptive practive bordering on fraud. One more thing that I noticed on the bill, they have charged for retrieving voicemail even though they advertise "unlimited" voicemail. I have found that they are inconsistent on the web site about this, however, because on another web page they say 500 minutes of free voicemail. It really doesn't matter which is true because we were under 500 minutes but still got charged. Also, a lot of the airtime charges were due to dropped calls or ones that connected but we had no sound on one end of the call (she could hear me but I could not hear her, typically). I would guess that happened on atleast half of the calls. Except for the hassle and wasted time, it didn't bother me too much since I "knew" the call time was free. I've never dealt with such a dishonest company before.

markley268 · 10-20-2002, 9:06 AM

fie a complaint with the BBB about it. that's what i've done with AT&T when they screwed me over on minutes used and such because they started claiming that they never offered a "minutes used" feature and basically i went 20 min over my 100 alloted my LAST month of a contract when i was upgrading to a new, more expensive plan and they woudlnt' budge....so i wen to BBB.COM and filed a complaint.

07-24-2002, 8:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
markley268 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 111 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless (5line ACFS 1200) Devices: Laptop, Handspring VIsor all on 802.11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My Auctions	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? Does anybody know if a carrier has a 'National' shared minutes plan? So that say, people in a family could have this shared minutes plan and use the features of it (shared minutes, and unlimited minutes to the phones on the plan) all over the nation? Or at least, in two different cities? Here is what i want to be able to do.... Say My girlfriend and i have a shared minutes plan. I'm in Baltimore, MD, and she will be in Knoxville. I want both of us to be able to use the shared minutes AND the unlimited minutes to the other phone on the plan. So does something like this exist? And if not, does anybody think that it will or will not EVER exist? Thanks! (seems like if it doesn't exist, that carriers should look into it, considering how us americans are getting more and more spread apart and 'families' are not always in the same city anymore... just my thoughts [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] ) __________________ "Yes LORD, Walking in the Way of Your Truth, we wait eagerly for You. For Your Name and Your Renown are the desires of our souls." Isaiah 26:8

07-24-2002, 8:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
Joe0378 Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 553 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? Yes...America's Choice Family Plan from Verizon..but hurry, the family plan expires July 31st.

07-24-2002, 8:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
markley268 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 111 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless (5line ACFS 1200) Devices: Laptop, Handspring VIsor all on 802.11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My Auctions	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? does the entire 'family share' plan expire? or is it jus the promotional one that gives u the unlimited N&W minutes to share? __________________ "Yes LORD, Walking in the Way of Your Truth, we wait eagerly for You. For Your Name and Your Renown are the desires of our souls." Isaiah 26:8

07-24-2002, 9:23 AM	#4 (permalink)
rbw411 Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 116 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? Nextel does. A little on the expensive side for the average person, mostly used by corporations.

07-24-2002, 9:55 AM	#5 (permalink)
TNDan21 Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Kingsport, TN Posts: 5,904 Phone(s): LG enV2, Samsung t219 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile Devices: iPod Nano Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? The America's Choice Family Plan is pretty good, however it doesn't give you unlimited mobile to mobile minutes just a pool of them I believe. I noticed you said you wanted unlimited mobile between the phone's. T-Mobile (VoiceStream) has a good family plan right now that gives you unlimited mobile. Family Plan $69.99 a month 800 anytime minutes Unlimited Weekends Unlimited T-Mobile Minutes No Roaming or Long Distance charges across the US This plan includes the following services Ping Pong 50 Text Messaging, Enhanced VoiceMail, Built-in Paging, Caller ID, Conference Calling, Call Waiting and Call Hold, Customer Care, Directory Assistance, Emergency Calls, AOL Instant Messenger Service, VoiceMail with Message Alert, Detailed Billing T-Mobile

07-24-2002, 10:06 AM	#6 (permalink)
markley268 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 111 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless (5line ACFS 1200) Devices: Laptop, Handspring VIsor all on 802.11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My Auctions	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? i would LIKE unlimited minutes between the two phones, not necessarily mobile-to-mobile as i don't care much for calling all the other ppl that have <insert carrier name here> just the other phone that's on the plan. Verizon's plan only let's you pick two phones for my zipcode, (37803) maryville, NT (30min S of Knox) and neither of those phones has a good radiation rating. For some reason, (I have a Nokia 6160) when i use my phone for even just a few minutes up against my head, i notice my head hurting a little afterwards. My Phone has a radiation SAR of 1.46, so i would like to try and get something that is much less, say around 0.5, to see if that would enable me to use the phone at the ear like most other people do.

07-24-2002, 7:13 PM	#7 (permalink)
Kenny Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 585 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? The one thing i don't like about Verizon's mobile-to-mobile minutes is the following: Say I spoke with another Verizon family member after 9pm -- you would think that we would be using our huge bundle or unlimited N/W minutes? Wrong, it comes out of M-to-M minutes! So all the talking during nights & weekends with another Verizon family member could eat up all M-to-M minutes!

07-24-2002, 10:10 PM	#8 (permalink)
IdiOTeQnoLogY Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 1,567 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? you can also get family share plans with sprint.......and you can make any plan of 39.99 or more a share plan for another $20 a month per phone and then they will share minutes. if you ad M to M minutes sprint does the same stupid thing as verizon......it takes out of those first so if you talk at night when you would normally have tons of minutes it would still eat up your M to M minutes first.

07-25-2002, 10:08 AM	#9 (permalink)
Jack Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Ohio Posts: 2,475 Phone(s): Motorola T720 Provider(s): Alltel Devices: Sirius Satellite radio, ipod, laptop, pda Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? The best nationwide family share plan is Voicestream wireless/T-mobile Jack __________________ Current Plan with alltel 3000 anytime minutes w/nationwide LD $74.95 a month---Waiting not so patiently for the Alltel version of the V710

10-20-2002, 12:28 AM	#10 (permalink)
gabby Fresh Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 36 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? Don't be suckered by the T-Mobile Family Plan! I've had that plan for over a year with no problems until my daughter went to Knoxville. Read on... I started off with Powertel stayed when it changed to Voicestream and again now that it's T-Mobile. I have the Nationwide Family Plan since it states that it has free unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile and free unlimited weekends since most all my calls are between my daughter and myself or on the weekends. The plan has been great until now. My daughter is now in Knoxville, which according to the T-Mobile literature and their website, is clearly in their National coverge area and should have no roaming or long distance charges and since our calls are from one T-Mobile phone to another T-Mobile phone the calls should be free because we are on the Family Plan. The "free" mobile to mobile was the primary reason I got T-Mobile (Powertel at the time) service and the Family Plan in particular. After receiving my bill for Sept. 7 thru Oct. 6, however, I've discovered that "free" does not mean "free" in T-Mobile jargon. My bill which is normally about $90 was an amazing $854!!!! Although, T-Mobile doesn't charge for weekends which is one feature of the Family Plan, they are charging me for all the mobile to mobile calls between my daughter and myself. After talking with four customer service representatives, none of whom seemed well versed in what is or is not included in any of the T-Mobile plans, I was finally told that the minutes in Knoxville are counted against the 800 Whenever minutes in the plan. That is not what the plan says - it clearly says the Family Time Plan is "great for Friends and family who call one another most of all: unlimted T-Mobile to T-Mobile calling" as well as "unlimited weekends." T-Mobile did honor the part about free weekends but totally ignored the free T-Mobile to T-Mobile part of their plan. Apparently, "free" has more than one meaning to T-Mobile. Beware of T-Mobile's deceptive advertising!

10-20-2002, 5:54 AM	#11 (permalink)
markley268 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 111 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless (5line ACFS 1200) Devices: Laptop, Handspring VIsor all on 802.11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My Auctions	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? i bet they get around that saying that the free t-mobile to t-mobile minutes are only good within a certain "home" area, once you start calling outside that "home" area, they can start charging you. that's the way most other companies do it, the mobile-to-mobile minutes are only goog within a small geographical area, not all over the plan's coverage....sorry you got burned bro.

10-20-2002, 9:02 AM	#12 (permalink)
gabby Fresh Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 36 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? You may be right but I've not found anything on their website about it. They sure tout the plan as being perfect for my situation, which to me is a deceptive practive bordering on fraud. One more thing that I noticed on the bill, they have charged for retrieving voicemail even though they advertise "unlimited" voicemail. I have found that they are inconsistent on the web site about this, however, because on another web page they say 500 minutes of free voicemail. It really doesn't matter which is true because we were under 500 minutes but still got charged. Also, a lot of the airtime charges were due to dropped calls or ones that connected but we had no sound on one end of the call (she could hear me but I could not hear her, typically). I would guess that happened on atleast half of the calls. Except for the hassle and wasted time, it didn't bother me too much since I "knew" the call time was free. I've never dealt with such a dishonest company before.

10-20-2002, 9:06 AM	#13 (permalink)
markley268 Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 111 Provider(s): Verizon Wireless (5line ACFS 1200) Devices: Laptop, Handspring VIsor all on 802.11 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts My Auctions	does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan? fie a complaint with the BBB about it. that's what i've done with AT&T when they screwed me over on minutes used and such because they started claiming that they never offered a "minutes used" feature and basically i went 20 min over my 100 alloted my LAST month of a contract when i was upgrading to a new, more expensive plan and they woudlnt' budge....so i wen to BBB.COM and filed a complaint.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads for: does any carrier have a national shared minutes plan?
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Regular plan to shared plan. Can it happen?	Pedal2Medal00	Northeastern US Wireless Forum	7	04-21-2005 9:21 AM
Best Shared Plan in Chicago	bk2000	Central US Wireless Forum	4	08-08-2003 3:21 PM
Nextel Shared Minutes: Like it?	phallen	Western US Wireless Forum	1	11-14-2002 4:24 PM
at&t shared minutes with GSM	mixnplay	Western US Wireless Forum	1	10-23-2002 6:15 PM
looking for regional business shared minutes plan		Northeastern US Wireless Forum	6	04-24-2002 8:19 AM

WirelessAdvisor.com

Clearing the static since 1998.

WirelessAdvisor.com