TracFone is the Answer for Us

Saturday, 6 October

Mui has a Government-issue Blackberry, which he will lose when he retires in a few months.  I have had (until earlier this year) Sprint cell service with a monthly contract that came to about $10 with all the taxes and fees included — a grandfathered plan that was offered to Government employees way back when cell phones were considered a luxury.  Calls were extra.  Since I seldom used the phone, my monthly bill rarely exceeded $12.00.  The phone really was for emergency use.

Initially, we thought we’d keep the Sprint plan and get Mui an additional phone after the Blackberry was no more.  But the more we read about the lack of Sprint service in off-the-beaten path places, the more leery we became about that plan.

Next, we looked at iPhones with Verizon service.

I’m one of those people who hates — and I don’t use that word lightly — talking on the phone.  If I can get away with it, I have Mui handle anything that requires dealing with someone on the phone.  To me, phones are a necessary evil — be they mobile or landline.

Add to that the fact that neither of us likes to browse the web with our cell phones.  Who can see anything on those tiny screens?  Not me!  I’d much rather do my browsing on a big screen where I don’t have to strain my eyes so much.  We also already have an aircard for our internet needs — one that we aren’t willing to give up (yet) for Verizon’s more limited data plans.

With all that in mind, paying for a high-priced contract was not something I wanted to do.

So what to do?  A chance visit to Gypsy’s Blog turned our attention towards TracFone.  I noticed Russ (of Travels in Therapy) had left a comment on Gypsy’s blog that they were using these phones and were very happy with them.  He was kind enough to answer some questions for me, and we were all but sold.  Further searches of the web revealed mostly happy customers (yeah, unhappy ones are out there as well), so we decided to take the plunge.  After all, the phones were reasonably priced, and without a contract to worry about, we could change our minds later if necessary.

TracFone is a prepaid mobile phone provider; they have contracts with the ‘known’ wireless carriers.  They offer a variety of phone models to choose from — both CDMA and GSM; and ranging from simple flip-phones to ones with screens and Qwerty keyboards.  They offer airtime cards ranging from 30 minutes for 30 days to 1500 minutes for 365 days.  All reasonably priced with no contracts.  Bundled minutes are also available should you use up your minutes earlier than expected.  And minutes carryover if not used by the end of the period for which you purchased them.

So what did we get?  We ordered two LG 501C phones with Qwerty keyboards (will make texting easier) and double lifetime minutes.  We added the 1500-minute airtime cards, so we each ended up with 3,060 minutes to use through April 2013.  Yeah, I know … the math doesn’t add up, does it?  Each phone came with a 60-minute/2-month airtime card — an unexpected bonus.  The minutes can be used for calls, text messages (you get three for the price of 1 minute), and even web browsing.

the LG 501C was our choice from the models available; that the phone is feather-light is a bonus.

Activating the phone took a matter of minutes.

The cell phone is ready for use and Mui’s happy with how easy set-up was.

With these phones, we’re a bit more connected than we initially wanted to be, but web access will be handy for emergencies and we have no beef with that.  And yes, there is a built-in camera, which I understand is not the greatest quality.  We don’t really care that much about taking photos with our phones anyway, so we don’t see that as a problem.

While we’ve read on the web that TracFone does not excel in customer service.  Our experience thus far has been quite the opposite.  Our emails to them have been answered within 24 hours; the two phones we ordered were shipped promptly (I did have to be home to sign for them); and activating the phones and adding airtime has been a piece of cake.

So, will TracFone be the long-term answer to our cell phone needs?  We’ll have to see how things go once we get on the road, but so far so good.  Mui still has all of his minutes; I’ve got 2,985.50 minutes left.  That means I’ve used only 74.50 minutes since we bought the phones in February — I did say that I don’t like using the phone much, didn’t I ;-)

The Rolling Home Has VOIP Phone Service

Friday, 24 February

For most RVers, a good cell phone plan is probably sufficient to stay in touch with family and friends while they’re on the road.  If our families were in Canada or Mexico, we could probably get away with just having cell phones as well.  But that’s not the case — our families are in Turkey, and cell phone calls are prohibitively expensive regardless of who initiates them.

At the condo, we have Vonage VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone service.  A flat, monthly rate gives us unlimited domestic and international calls without worrying about by-minute charges.  And there’s no contract; always a good thing.

Our plan all along has been to take Vonage on the road with us, provided we could have a reasonably reliable internet connection.  We resolved that requirement with our Millenicom aircard and CradlePoint router (post here).  I imagine that there will be some places where we might not have internet, but they should be few and far between.

We were pretty sure this plan would work, but wanted to test it anyway.  So, last weekend, we took our Vonage modem to the motorhome and Mui set things up in a jiffy.  Since the modem was there only temporarily, we didn’t bother putting it in the cabinet where the whole set up is eventually going to be installed.

We have phone service!
The aircard and the Vonage Modem both plug into the CradlePoint router;
the phone  plugs into the Vonage Modem. 
The laptop’s there to make sure the phone set up doesn’t interfere with the wi-fi connection.

One more thing has now been checked off our ‘getting ready to go on the road’ to-do list.  It feels good :-)