Wind$%^&* adds fees and taxes that make a basic home line pricey. I currently pay $40 for the green dsl but can receive calls for free. Just can't dial out. I use cell phone for all calls out and they are short. I have literally thousands of roll over minutes from the last 13 years.
I don't recommend them often for reasons I've made clear, but you would actually be an
excellent candidate for Google Voice for the home line as the service primarily utilizes ringback to initiate calls through the website. This would let you make outgoing calls on your incoming only phone line for the price of privacy invasion from the Googleplex.
I think my cell phone bill is $140 but I need to get new bill to be sure. Daughter replaced her 5 year old iphone at Christmas so that may have changed things.
Yeah, that shiny new iBrick is really gonna ramp costs up to disconnect. Airvoice is one option for retreating to, but if T-Mobile coverage is good in your area,
Platinumtel is another excellent option, and superior to Airvoice in a couple ways with their Real Paygo option.
I wanted to mention too that our youngest/last/3rd child is 8. Eventually she will get a phone but I assume that's a few + years away.
I don't mean this as a criticism or mean to offend with your parenting as I don't know circumstances and situations, but kids and teenagers don't
need cell phones... they
want cell phones. With the prices of services like Platinumtel and Airvoice, if they want 'em, they can pay for it themselves,
especially if they're working... handsets and all. Helps teach them some financial discipline and budgeting. Speaking of handsets, that new iPhone your daughter got? If it's the iPhone 5, that thing costs $600 unsubsidized... expect to pay that amount in total between the up-front and the ETF once you're done, and you can't even replace the battery yourself. This is one of the many reasons why
I'm not keen on the things.
We stay in the ATT area. I don't believe I have ever roamed?
Your AT&T coverage map is probably fine, which means Airvoice coverage would be fine. It'll still be worth your time to shop around and take a look at T-Mobile coverage for providers like Platinumtel and GoSmart, though.
Just to be clear our Iphone 4 and Iphone 5 will still work with Airvoice? We love our phones we just don't really use them the way they were intended. When daughter is home using wifi on the iphone, will the phone try to connect to Airvoice and use up all my data with them? If we turn off our cellular data is also turns off wifi access?!
Yes they will, but you'll have to reprogram the data APN to get data and MMS to work. Ideally you want to pay off the ETFs and get them carrier unlocked before you go elsewhere. If you're on a WiFi data connection, it won't use 3G data. As you already are aware, you can even switch off 3G data on the handset entirely. Barring that, if the need for "unlimited" is even required, Airvoice has a $30 talk and text only option. You can't use data on a prepaid plan if there is no data to use. WiFi is not a cellular connection... to keep it simple, WiFi is a local wireless area network standard that can be used for sharing internet access off of your home connection.
I am so excited that I might be able to do this. The only other issue I see is that sons contract long expired, think I have a year on mine, and likely 2 years on daughters. The last daughter would start fresh later and have to acquire a phone somehow?
Buying out those iPhone contracts are going to be hefty, but that's the price of going under contract and wanting out for more reasonably priced services. Links to calculating that stuff are posted in the other thread
here.
As for the last part, yes, but used and refurbished handsets are plentiful for reasonable prices. When you go prepaid, you're on your own for purchasing unsubsidized handsets. This means no more "free" or "cheap" high-end Apple smartphones. However, keep in mind that with the money saved in some instances, the savings are so dramatic, they could technically buy a brand new iPhone outright every two years and still have saved a little over the contract and postpaid service. It of course raises the question if whether you
should spend $600 on a fargin' cell phone in the first place when there's perfectly serviceable options in the sub $100 market, but that's for another discussion.
