Choosing a Business Cell Phone and Plan Quick and Dirty
by:
Philip Liu
Are you disappointed with all the choices you have to do once
choosing a business cell phone and service plan? It doesn't have to be complicated. Forward you aren't looking for the latest ubergizmo cell phone, the following three steps are all you need to help you pick the cell phone that's right for your business.
Step One: Numbers Out the Cell Phone Coverage You Need
Step one involves computation out wherever
you are going to be mistreatment your new cell phone. Do you activity in the city or the country? Also, do you often travel aboard and intend to use your phone about the world?
If you activity primarily in US metropolitan areas, you don't have to worry simply about whether you need a GSM, CDMA or TDMA phone--they all activity pretty well. On the different hand, if you activity in rural, remote or undeveloped areas, your better bet is a CDMA or TDMA phone since these providers have the better coverage in rural/undeveloped areas.
CDMA and TDMA providers include Verizon Wireless and Sprint-Nextel.
On the different hand, if you intend to use your cell phone patch abroad, GSM is the communications standard used outside of North America. If you purchase a GSM phone so that you can use it abroad, you need to do sure the phone is purchased "unlocked", which means that the phone is not tied to a specific network. With an unbolted GSM cell phone, you can easily swap out the SIM card (a white chip commonly behind the battery) with local country, paid
SIM cards to avoid costly roaming charges. These local country SIM cards are often accessible in corner stores in most countries.
In the US, GSM providers include Cingular and T-Mobile.
Step Two: Numbers Out the Cell Phone Rate Plan You Need
Once you've patterned
out wherever
you are going to be primarily mistreatment your new cell phone, the next step is to numbers out what business rate plan is the most economical for your needs. Most providers offer several plans based about buckets of minutes that are allocated between several time periods in a day and/or week.
If you are going to be mistreatment the phone primarily during the day, you'll need a plan that wish give you the maximum number of minutes once
the sun is up. On the different hand, if you are going to be mistreatment your new cell phone primarily on the weekends, you'll need a plan that gives you the maximimum number of minutes on Sat and Sunday. Those are the two extremes--other plans offer several combination of weekday daytime, evenings and weekend minutes.
If you are unsure of your business patterns, take advantage of the free first-month promotions offered by many a providers to numbers out once
you do your calls and then switch your plan consequently
if necessary. Many a phone companies wish analyze your cell phone usage if asked to and wish recommend a plan that minimizes your monthly cost.
Step Three: Buy Your New Cell Phone
If you are going to be purchase
a GSM phone because you intend to travel and use the phone abroad, stick to tri-band/tri-mode phones. These phones can operate on a multitude of frequencies that various operators abroad may use. Otherwise, don't worry simply about whether the phone is tri-band/tri-mode or dual-mode.
Other than that one consideration, choosing a cell phone is all a matter of taste. Generally speaking, if you enter into a one-year or two-year contract, the phone provider wish often give away a cell phone that would-be otherwise cost many a hundreds of dollars. That's commonly your better bet but be careful of early-termination clauses that can impose a penalty of $200 or more.
About The Author
Philip Liu writes simply about breaking cell phone news, opinions and reviews. This article is simply a sample of what's accessible on his technology diary at http://www.cellphonenews.net/ on the web. Visit it now for much great reviews, guides and how-tos.
This article was denote
on Nov
13, 2005
