That's why I bought an Android outright 3.5 years ago. It was $400 up front, but me and my wife pay $110 for 700 minutes, unlimited txt and unlimited data on tmobile for 2 Androids plus 1 dumb phone. We did the comparison back then and our break even point vs a traditional contract was somewhere around 18 months. Obviously we ended up way ahead since we kept our phones so long. We finally upgraded last week to the Nexus 4 (going from Android Froyo to Jellybean!) for $350 each. If we get sick of our plan, we can jump to some of the prepaid options that are SUPER cheap (like the Tmobile 100 minutes + 5gb high speed data for $30/month or the Virgin plan you mentioned). I just like the idea of having options and not getting tied to a 2 year contract. I really like T-Mobile's upcoming pricing scheme. Your service plan and phone purchase are separate. For the phone, you pay a down payment and then a monthly, interest free, payment for 20 months (or some other term) Once your 'loan' terms are up, your monthly phone payment will cease and you'll only keep paying the service rate. Who knows if it'll actually be successful though. People love getting their "$199" iPhones.
That t-mobile plan sounds nice. I really use my phone so little for talking. I love texting/email. One other nice thing about having such a cheap contract is that if I get the urge to upgrade technology a year from now, I can still buy Virgin's latest and greatest phone for $250 and still come out $750 ahead of where I might have been with a standard 2 year plan from Sprint. In fact, I could buy a new phone every 6 months @$250 and STILL come out ahead.
I'd like to add that if you are still paying for a landline, check out the Ooma. http://www.ooma.com/ Spend $150 and never pay a phone bill (aside from city/state taxes) again.
The $30 is web only (or in store @ walmart), so you won't find too much advertising for it. I know people use google voice with it so the 100 minutes is never really an issue for them. I'm not sure I'd ever want to go that low on minutes, but for some I'm sure its a perfect deal.
I work in Manhattan, live in Queens. I always have service even in my high rise. I have service on the subway. I've been to Denver recently, and many times this year (5). My iphone has been perfect. I've even dropped it 2x, chipped the case, and it's the same as before. In iphones there are lot of variance, I know that is something people don't want to hear then they spend 200, 300 or 400 bucks. But it's there, and it's not minor variance. My brother has the same phone, just in a different color and he gets 1/2 the speed I do on LTE when we run speed tests. He had a phone he dropped and returned via Best Buy's insurance plan, and that phone was 2x mine. And we were doing the speed tests from the same location to the same towers. Petey
Lots in NYC are changing over to VOIP (Voice over IP), fancier Skype. Not common in Portland yet? I have it at home. It's just included in my cable package. In fact if I remove it, my Time Warner bill goes up 5 dollars. Petey
T-Mobile's pushing the 'bring your iPhone' campaign since they've just finished (or are about to finish) upgrading their network to have the right band for them. Before the upgrade, iPhones could only be on EDGE. And they're supposed to officially get them this year. Not sure if that means next month or December though.
http://www.henribendel.com/DEOS-PRI...shop_accessories_tech_accessories_phone_cases Go big or go home! Petey
Yeah, VOIP is cool. To be honest, though, the land line thing more had to do with my folks.....who I talk to all the time. They're not about to get cell phones. They're just old-fashioned that way, I guess. It's all good.