CONSIDERING A CELL PHONE?

By Barb Sanderson, Home Economist
TEAM Resources

Readers have indicated interest in information about buying cell phones and portable phones. According to Consumer Reports, people indicate that about 50 percent of the reason they purchase cell phones is for safety or emergencies.

You can purchase a cell phone for as little as $50 and a 75 minute phone card for another $30 good for one year. If you keep your phone charged up, (only using it for emergencies), it serves the purpose intended at a reasonable cost. When your card runs out, for another $30, you get an additional 75 minutes. For those who use it only occasionally, this may be the best way to go. For those who use the cell phone on a regular basis, a monthly plan may work better.

The Phone Plan

• Be realistic about how you'll use it. A low-fee plan costs less if you use the cell phone only occasionally. You may end up paying more for it than for the more expensive plan. Take time to work out carefully how big your monthly bill is likely to be.
• Check out the airtime charge, the landline charge, peak time and off-peak time charges, and know the cost for use in the home area, the roaming area, and the long distance charges.
• Check to see that the plan includes service in the areas where you travel most frequently at its lowest-cost "home area" rates. If possible, try out a plan that doesn't require you to commit to a long-term contract and has no early termination penalty, so you can cancel if you decide the service doesn't suit your needs. Monitor closely how you use the service, and change the plan accordingly.
• Think before you dial. Sixty percent of cellular owners say they've used the cell phone to make calls they could have made from a regular phone. Consumer Reports warns: "A cell-phone call can cost 10 times more per minute than a conventional long-distance call and 60 times as much as some ads imply." So, proceed with caution.
• Don't rush into signing up for cellular simply because it's an appealing novelty. As with any costly addition you make to your budget, you should satisfy yourself first that this is a service you really need.

Choosing a Phone

• A cell phone can have a bundle of features: lightweight, slim-line, discreet vibrating alerts, memory for frequently called numbers, e-mail and even headline news. Look beyond the frills to how well the phone can fulfill its primary purpose to make and receive clear calls. What really matters is the quality of reception (establish and hang on to a call).
• A good handset needs a receiver with sufficient radio frequency sensitivity to "hear" signals sent out by the phone company's base-station transmitters, then pluck those radio waves out of the air. This is especially important on the remote and rural fringes of a service area, where transmitters are spaced farther apart and signals are weakest.
• Battery life is important so you can make a call in the event of an emergency.
• Ease of use, such as reading the screen display, manipulating the keypad and storing and retrieving numbers using the handset's memory must suit the buyer.

In summary, once you decide to purchase a cell phone, look for a service plan suited to the way you intend to use the phone. Then select a handset that will perform reliably when and where you expect to make calls.

In the end, you want to achieve maximum satisfaction for minimum use of resources

In 1993, scary news stories alluded to a link between cell phone use and brain cancer. There is no convincing evidence to date, but you may want to use a cell phone equipped with a plug-in headset, which allows you to hear and talk on the phone while holding the signal-sending antenna in your hand, away from your head.

As well, a study published in 1997 at the University of Toronto found that people who talk on the phone while driving (even with a hands-free phone) are four times more likely to be involved in an automobile accident than those who do not. A cell phone can be a potentially hazardous distraction.

Limiting your talk or pulling safely off the road to make or receive a call will protect you best...

Source: Consumer Reports, September, 1998

Cordless (Portable) Phones

Cordless phones, another popular Christmas idea, were evaluated in the September, 1999 Consumer Reports magazine. Even though cordless phones are getting better, the job of choosing one isn't any simpler. All 49 MHz phones use analog technology. A 900 MHz phone may use analog, conventional digital, or digital spread spectrum (DSS) which is likely to be the standard type in a year or two.

Digital phones cost more, enhance security, increase range to about 700 meters, and reduce interference when you approach their maximum range compared to analog phones. However, the Uniden EXP7900 in Canada is an analog phone and is a CR Best Buy at $85 (no answering machine). For a phone with an answerer, September 1999 Consumer Reports rated The RadioShack TAD-1029, $150, as a very good phone and answerer with an impressive 16-hour battery life. It also lets you assign a separate voice "mailbox" to as many as three family members.

Decide what features are important to you when you make your choice. Consider buying a phone from a store with a generous return policy, so you can return the unit if you're unhappy with the model.