You cellular phone plan must be something that fits your
budget and that will fit your needs. You should not buy a
cellular phone plan that has a bunch of features included that
you will never use.
Plan Minutes
Plan minutes may be the principal piece of information in
each cell phone plan. Plan minutes are the number of monthly
cell phone airtime minutes--or "talk time"--that your plan
allows without you incurring overages. In general, this applies
both to calls placed and received. If you are only looking for
a plan for emergencies, then you only need a basic plan that
has a small amount of peak minutes. Some people use their
cell phone when they need to make long distant phone
calls. In this case, you need to get a cellular phone
plan that includes long distance or in other terms nationwide
calling.
For instance, a plan with 1,000 minutes allows you to make
or receive calls on your cell phone for a total of 1,000
minutes a month. So, let's say that on the first Monday of the
month you place a 2-hour cell phone call to a friend's house;
then your friend calls you back on your cell phone and you talk
for another 3 hours. By the end of the day, you will have used
300 of your 1,000 minutes--meaning that you have 700 minutes
left before you incur overages. 
Often, calls placed or received on evenings and weekends do
not count against your plan minutes. Be sure to familiarize
yourself with the details of your particular cell phone
plan.
Free Weekends and Evenings
With most wireless phone plans, talk-time is free on
weekends and on weeknights. This means that if you place or
receive a cell phone call on Saturday, on Sunday or on a
weeknight your call does not count against the plan
minutes.
For different carriers, the "evening" may start at different
times. Some, for instance, may give you free calls after 7PM,
others after 9PM. The expression "early nights & weekends"
generally means that a plan's free minutes kick in earlier than
9:00PM on weeknights. If you know that you are more likely to
place or receive cell phone calls after a given time on
weeknight, this is a piece of information that can help you
decide which cell phone plan to choose.
Free Incoming Calls Plans
Some cell phone plans from Sprint offer free incoming calls.
In other words, all calls received do not count towards the
plan minutes quota.
Additional Minutes
The expression "additional minutes" refers to the cost of
each minute of cell phone talk time after you have run out of
your plan's monthly minutes. These are also called "overage
charges" or simply "overages."
For plans giving you free evenings and weekends, additional
minutes charges only apply to cell phone calls placed or
received during weekdays.
If you know that your cell phone usage schedule is
unpredictable, and that you may occasionally go beyond your
plan minutes, the cost of additional minutes may be an
important piece of information. If, instead, you notice that
you constantly go beyond your plan's minutes, it is often
cheaper to upgrade to a plan with more
minutes.
Rollover Unused Minutes
This is a feature introduced by Cingular Wireless, that
allows you to save any unused minutes and to add them to next
month's allowance. The benefit of this feature is that you do
not pay for minutes you don't use.
Mobile to Mobile Phone Calls
The expression mobile to mobile calls refers to calls
between cell phones on the same carrier's network. With many
cell phone calling plans from major carriers, mobile to mobile
calls are free--meaning that they do not count against your
monthly minutes.
Roaming and Roaming Charges
Depending on where you are at the time you place a cell
phone call, your phone can "get a signal" in two ways. The
first and simplest is when your phone connects to its carrier's
regular network--normally referred to as the carrier's calling
area. The second is where the cell phone is located somewhere
not covered by its carrier--but where it has to use the
facilities of another provider for connectivity. This second
case is called roaming, and roaming charges are the charges you
incur when placing this type of call.
The reason for roaming charges is that you are "borrowing"
the services of another carrier with whom you have no
contract.
Most cell phones will signal to you when you are in a
roaming area, so that you always know when you are placing a
roaming call.
Find the
deal!
 
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