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Question: You described shopping for a long-distance
carrier last week, how about shopping for cellular service?
Answer: These are the times that stretch our Consumer
skills. There is not one best carrier, so make yourself a
comparison chart and go to work.
There is fierce advertising right now to try to get your
business. You can narrow your options to the best choice for
you by dividing the comparison process into six very easy
steps:
- Analyze your use. Jot some notes about where you plan to
use your phone. Will you use it mostly around home to keep
track of your kids and translate your wife’s grocery list,
while traveling through Colorado or the western states, or
while jet setting everywhere in the country? Do you need
special features such as caller ID, call waiting or voice
mail? Will you use it during working hours, in the evenings,
on weekends or just about any time?
- Decide how much you’re willing to spend before you sign
up for a service. Your monthly fee generally covers a set
number of minutes. After you’ve used your time, you’ll pay
extra for all minutes that you use. If you don’t have
national long-distance coverage included in your plan, you
will pay extra for roaming charges if you make calls outside
of your home coverage area.
- Determine which companies serve your area. One of the
best ways to get this information is to go to the Wireless
Adviser Web site. This is a commercial site, but they
provide a lot of good information and can be found at
www.wirelessadviser.com. By entering your zip code you can
get a list of all of the companies providing wireless
service in your area. For my zip code, 80526, the site gave
eight listings with two for AT&T Wireless. Wireless Adviser
also provides an alphabetical list of companies without a
Web site link or telephone number.
- Compare each plan. Some of the companies require you to
register before you can get details about their plans. You
may also want to follow up with phone calls to your top
choices to insure that you have complete details.
- Compile and compare all of the information.
Remember that many plans will require that you sign up for
one year’s service, so make this choice carefully.
For more information, contact your local
Colorado State University Extension office.
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