Cell Phone and Service

[Gus]

My wife wants a smart phone for her birthday. She and I are the only 2 people in North America who have never had one so I'm not sure where to start. On her side of the equation she wants a Samsung with a large screen, she will be doing some texting and little surfing or voice calls. On my side I don't really want a long contract, and I want it to work in HPP. I saw Sprint has a no contract deal, but I have no idea if it works. Any and all coments appreciated.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Verizon has the best signal in HPP, their tower is at the top of the subdivision. ATT & Sprint towers are in Keaau & Pahoa.

Verizon has a no contract option on their website, and Page Plus is no contract and uses the Verizon network.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -Annie Dillard

[KeaauRich]

We just got the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phone and like it a lot. And tho I'll admit to a bias (I used to work for Verizon), in general I've found Verizon to have the best overall coverage on the island - tho like all carriers, there are dead spots.

[geochem]

There's a pretty high buy-in for the current version of phones if you want to go non-contract - my wife just paid $700, more or less, at Costco for the new IPhone with a prepaid monthly service (non-contract); the newer Samsung phones are not much less.

For my first smartphone, I bought an unlocked Galaxy S-II (three generations of Samsung back at the time) via Amazon and have a monthly prepaid account with AT&T. I felt like that was a way to test out the technology without getting so deep financially that I couldn't walk away from it if I didn't find it useful. The S-II has a number of features that are valuable to me and relatively few features that I would like but aren't available on that generation.

I'm sure Amazon has Verizon compatible phones as well - I won't go with Verizon because their store in Hilo slammed me with add-on services that I neither asked for nor could use on the first phone they "sold" me some years back. Not that the Hilo AT&T store won't try the same tactic on you - my wife refuses to go into that store again because of their insistent up-selling, but had a much better experience with the Costco phone people. You can sign up for the prepaid services online, which is what I've done.

Good luck with it...

[EvilOctopus]

We're trying Google's Project Fi - uses sprint and t-mobile and does VOIP automatically when we have wifi but no cell service (like at our house) So far, so good. There is some latency on the wifi that takes some getting used to (we have aloha broadband and it's to be expected).

Contract is great - $20/month and $10/gig and they credit you for data not used on your next bill, so if you are a light data user, it's a great option. My wife had an iPhone and totally loves the new android. http://fi.google.com

[Malapuaao]

Consider talking her out of it. Your world doesn't need another candy crush/facebook zombie anyway.

After years of paying for new iphones and cases (and breaking them shortly thereafter) and paying monthly fees in the hundreds, I finally realized I don't need cellular. I just use a voip/SMS service (voip.ms) that costs less than $2/mo per line. We also keep a basic cell phone for $7/mo from walmart.

aloha

[leilanidude]

Sprint will most likely be a no-go in HPP, as well as many other areas of the island.

[Susan]

Page Plus cellular rides on Verizon back bone. I will never do a long term contract for cell phone. Might be a good intro to cell service for just phone and text.

[Iju]

I too have just joined the smartphone world recently. I have T-Mobile no contract $50 a month for 2 GB data and very happy with it. I'm in lower HPP on Maku'u side.

Before I made the purchase, I did the comparison between T-Mobile and Verizon. For the phone model that I like, iPhone 6s Plus which has big screen, the price is pretty much the same. The monthly service fee at Verizon is $45 + $15 phone service fee for 3 GB. Since I am a light user and also have wifi at home, I decided to go with T-Mobile. So far my monthly data usage has been less than 1 GB. Another reason is my other ten-yr-old prepaid cellphone has been with T-Mobile and never have any issues with their services.

I did everything online at their website and received the phone two days later. Both Verizon and T-Mobile offer two year monthly payment with zero down and no interest for the phone which I think is pretty good deal. Their websites also have location coverage info that you can check to get ideas for your area and around the island.

[Jeffhale]

If Sprint is strong where you'll use a cell phone then, there's a Canadian company, 'Text Now' $19 a month 2 gigs 4G data plus, plus unless you abuse the data, by watching movies all the time er somtin, they'll kick you down to 2g until the next billing cycle yet still it's unlimited Data, unlimited calling, texting etc.

You can buy a Galaxy S3 from them that's set up for their service or what we did was, get a used sprint IPhone 5S for $100 off Craig's list.. It has to be at least 1 year old sprint phone without claims. That part is a little tricky cause some peps selling their used phone may not volunteer that they don't owe Sprint still, so ya has to double check it. Any Sprint cell phone that's clear and over 1 year old will work on their system. We've been using it for almost two years. It likes wifi as, obviously, they're leasing Sprints network so that would cut their expenses. And, will try a wifi connect if an open one is around otherwise, when we're out and about we close wifi so it can't try switching to it. The connection to sprint is just as good if you were using Sprint's own service. I tested the sprint only connection from tower to tower for 100's of miles and it'll hit their tower every time. That is, as long as there's a signal around. Or, exactly whenever I'm in the range that every Sprint customer user can. Sure beats the heck out of Sprint's policies and pricing!

at home, we're just 1-2 bars on a Sprint tower with IPhone 5S and occasionally had trouble so TEXT NOW, (after wasting their customer services time periodically), gave us enough credit to get and try their $50 Galaxy S3 at no cost to us but, it turns out the iphone got a better signal. Verses, they thought their own phone compaired to a standard Sprint would hit the tower better than an used Sprint IPhone. [wrong!] Yet with the Galaxy and google play apps, I'm kind of liking it better than the iphone's apps. And actually surprised at how much that S3 Galaxy compares to the 5S IPhone because, google play apps are rocking that thing. .

Whatever you chose, their customer service will walk you though all ya need to get ya going, and help with virtually anything else for the cell phone ignorant too.

No contract month to month service. $19 'Text Now'

Moreover, it's the old wild west days when AT$T got broke up and new networks began leasing AT$T's lines and super great discounts opened the door for competition to beat em. FINALLY!. Personally, I'd been waiting/hoping it would happen in Cell service. Found it on a search and gave it a try about 2 years ago, and I got no complaints. More cash, not out of my pocket is all profits in my eyes. [grin]