Wireless expenses for 2009 poll

Monthlhy bill wise - about the same; unless taxes increase drastically!

Phone wise - no one is due to upgrade; so probably less.

 

My monthly bill should be a little less this year since I dropped the smartphone data plan. We usually pick up a couple of phones through the year--just bought two on eBay recently. Spent about $300 for both.

 

About the same for me, but hopefully the My Circle deal & Price will stay,
otherwise, the price will rise for my same service.

 

It's downsizing for me. I recently got rid of my Vonage line after nearly 5 years and in a month will be canceling T-Mobile (after just over 4 years) when my contract ends.

It's Verizon and AT&T (with over 3000 rollover minutes) for me from now on. I have the basic plan with both (but get a big discount from Verizon). It's about $70 and change for both accounts. 90% of my calls are mobile-to-mobile, so having the big 2 works well for me.

It's all about cutting costs, so no new phones until upgrade time (late 2009 and early 2010).

 

I'd say i'll be spending about the same for personal use, company wise, our corporate account at work should be less since we cut down on employees.

 

I should spend less -

My phones are fairly new and there isn't anything out there right now that I can get excited about enough to even seriously consider. And I got tired of paying $15 for 1500 messages, when I only used 300 - 400 each month, so I've switched my messaging plan over to my prepaid account; I can spend down some of the funds there, just buy what I need/when I need it and get "rollover" messages too.

Plus - ever since I switched the messaging plan, I'm only using about 200 messages because I don't receive messages for a week at a time. Not a big issue for me, however - as they are only e-mail alerts. So at this rate, I may decide I can do without the messaging plan all together.

 

Overall, I'll be spending about the same.

I'll be switching back to Sprint & the simply everything plan the day they release the Android phone. I'll probably stick with that for the rest of 2009.

T-mobile has been a great carrier... I have no complaints. It's just that their coverage in western virginia is terrible. I know less than 2% of my total calls originate there but it's important that I stay within reach. Important enough for me to pay the term fee and switch.

 

I expect to pay the same. However, if when I get my new FUZE in the spring they don't let me keep my discontinued data plan I may pay $10/mo more.

-Jay

 

Why? Has their service been poor for you. (sorry OT, I know)

 

I got my personal phone over 2 years ago and, even after bringing it to T-Mo (with a 1 year contract), I am eligible for the upgrade. Since T-Mo has 3G now, I am interested in getting a 3G phone. So while most of my data use will still probably be on a business phone, I will spend more this year on personal hardware and service than I did in 2008.



SW

 

I just upgraded yesterday (the BestBuy $199 Touch Pro) and since I'm back in contract again I might as well upgrade my second line, but for that one I'll just get one of the free phones. I lost the second discount on my Sprint lines, so I'll be spending a little more there but I still have a great deal so I'm really not complaining. I dropped Packet8 last year and went to an outgoing only Skype line (less than $3 a month) so overall it's probably a wash for me. - sheureka

 

As of right now I can't afford to increase either phone buying or wireless expenses, still need to decide which carrier I will be staying with since my AT&T contract is up in June. I may have to cancel it to save money.

 

This year I switched from Alltel to AT&T because I wanted the Iphone. So, I will be spending less on the plan too because of my fathers company who picks up the slack on his and my sisters. So, I have it pretty good as of right now.

 

Mine will be about the same...$20 less once my GF no longer has a need for the BES add-on for her BlackBerry.

 

I said 'who knows' because I don't know. I tethered my BB when I went to ATL for the New Year but it is not a monthly thing. OTOH, I never tethered anything in my life until now. The primary line is eligible for an Annual upgrade in March, but I will likely pass since I dont want to pay an upgrade fee and I like the Blackberry. There will be no changes for the secondary lines and our combined usage falls under the 700 minute cap, so no plan changes for now. I have an Alltel prepaid line that will be part of the Verizon network any day now. I am considering getting a new phone for this line if Verizon throws enough of a discount for this line. Otherwise, I am fighting the urge to get new phones and plans :biggrin:

 

Basic phone service will remain the same unless AT&T figures out a way to raise my Grandfathered rate. I may drop Medianet however. I'm not sure of the value I get from it plus it always seems to drop out of 3G when I get on.

 

Call expenses are higher due to more business calls and the more usage of phone the faster I need to get one. With that, I always need a top of the line to take the beating and it must be a business centric device and for those times tostay away from business a phone to replace what ever smart phone I am using.

 

More, since I'm paying more per month for less lines...

T-Mobile 2008: 5 lines = $144.94/mo + tax
Sprint 2009: 4 lines = $159.98/mo + tax

...but at least I'm getting more features for my money!

As far as equipment goes, Sprint handsets (and CDMA handsets in general) seem to be noticeably more expensive than T-Mobile handsets (and GSM handsets in general), so I'll probably be paying more for my equipment with Sprint as well (especially now that I'm using smartphones now instead of "dumb" phones).