bloke wrote:If you know the bloke, you KNOW the bloke would NOT be found dead in line at a cell phone store waiting to select and pay for a cell phone and service. That is a classic chick job.
That being said, by default, I've ended up with a chicky cell phone.
You mean like this?
I gotta get a new phone, too, and the search is absolutely futile. Cell phones and their providers all suck.
I prefer the classic Nokia 6310i. Not all the modern toys, but a good reliable phone, with good battery life and better than most at picking up the signal
I have an antenna equipped phone, but I don't notice a bit of improvement with it extended. It's a Sanyo SCP-3100 on the Sprint network (company phone ... don't know why they are using Sprint). Good loudness on the earpiece for when you work in moderately noisy environments. It's a fairly basic phone with few extra features: For example, a data port which is essentially useless. So any pictures you take with the built-in camera must be uploaded to Sprint. But for just talking on the phone, it's OK.
For you budget minded people (aka cheap assed), I also have one of those little Nokia basic phone on the Virgin pay-as-you-go plan ($20 every 90 days to use only as a backup-need-an-extra-phone-today phone) which uses Sprint. The Nokia seems to do about as well as anything for reception. Sprint doesn't have near the coverage of Ma Bell for you out in the sticks dwellers.
I took my Net10 and Tracfone cellphones to Vietnam. Both are bottom of the line Motorola phones with all the standard features, except a camera. The Net10 phone is what I use, since it uses a SIM card for its information. I think the Tracfone phone also has a SIM card, but I would have to dig underneath the protective cover to get it.
There are about five or six different cell phone companies in Vietnam, none of which I have seen anywhere else in the world. My provider is VietTel (its name might indicate why you haven't seen it anywhere else!)
Cell phones here lack voicemail. It has all the stuff to do voicemail, but it doesn't work. Chances are no one would leave a message anyway. Your best bet is to leave a text message.
All cell phone service here works similar to Tracfone and Net10. You can buy time for as little as 50,000 dong (about $3.25), which is the same price as a text message to the United States. Local phone calls are about 2,000 dong per minute. A local text message is about 500 dong per page.
Landline phone calls cost about the same, although it's a little more difficult to call overseas. If you need help calling overseas, and you call the operator, he or she will tell you to go to a major post office (and there is only one in this area), where calls to the United States are a mere 8,000 dong for five minutes, which is actually cheaper than a local call from a residential landline phone. If you make an international call from a "lesser" post office, the charges are the same as making the call from home.
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You only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it.
I know in my area, Verizon is the only company that has reliable service. I know outerbanks area of NC also is pretty rough with ATT/Cingular/SBC-ATT but my Verizon worked fine out there as well.
I recently bought this phone that had tons of features (LG 8700) to replace my aging Nokia 6236i (small brick style phone). I was disappointed and returned it, reactivating my Nokia. Phones that try to cram so many features into a handset usually sacrifice that what we need the phone for the most - reception, call quality, battery life.
I was not a fan of my LG, nor do I care for those of my friends. I like Nokia "candy bar/brick" style phone the most, though Motorola's Nextel phones are quite durable as well (use them at work) but lack the coverage of most of the major carriers. And coverage in your area and where you plan to travel are indeed the most important things.
