Smart Shopping for Wireless Cell Phone Calling Plans

Very often, it can be a daunting task to choose a suitable calling plan for your wireless cell phone account. Telecom Carrier advertisements can often mislead and confuse subscribers with their tall claims, ambiguous language and technical jargon. What’s more, all carriers keep adding new variations to their calling pans every once in a while in order to lure customers.

So, should you choose prepaid or postpaid? Is unlimited text and data suitable for you? How about the latest ‘One Rate’ plan? Is AT&T Wireless postpaid plan better than T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless? Or should I rather choose a budget prepaid service like Net10, Cricket or TracFone? These questions can often be mind boggling for subscribers who do not understand the intricacies of these calling plans.

With that said, let me walk you through all the details that you need to know about cell phone calling plans in order to choose the plan which is best suited for your requirement and more importantly, the plan which fits your wallet the best.

The Prepaid vs. Postpaid Debate: To put in simple words, a prepaid calling plan requires you to pre-pay (pay before you use) while a postpaid calling plan allows you the flexibility to pay after use. If you are a budget conscious subscriber who wants to keep track of every call and every text that you send out, prepaid is the right option for you. For example, TracFone offers an unmatched low cost prepaid calling plan and the best part is that you get access just about anywhere through major regional and national wireless carriers on the TracFone Prepaid account. If you spend more time texting and accessing the internet, have a look at Cricket Wireless unlimited plans ranging from $25 to $60 – these offer great value at minimal costs. Net10 is another wireless prepaid carrier which offers no frills – no bills, no contract, no overage prepaid accounts which can be easily recharged at your convenience.

Postpaid plans allow you to pay your cell phone bills on a monthly basis. The mobile network will add up your charges on services used and you get a monthly statement with amount due at the end of your monthly billing cycle. Postpaid plans are much better suited than prepaid plans for business users and for home users who talk or text a lot. Nearly all major national carriers including AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile offer a variety of postpaid plans which you can choose from.

When you opt for an AT&T Wireless postpaid calling plan, you can select the handset of your choice – the cool Apple iPhone 3G or even one of the many free phones that come on one, two or thee year contracts. Similarly, if you choose Verizon Wireless, you can opt for a suitable postpaid plan from the ‘Americas Choice’ family where each plan offers a different base package including free minutes, a defined monthly fee, free night talk time, free weekends and a bunch of add-on features like Voice Mail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding etc. If you want the jazzy Google Nexus One, look at one of T-Mobile’s postpaid plans.

Voice and Data Plans: As their names suggest, Voice plans are calling plans where you get charged for making voice calls. Data plans are calling plans where you get charged for data access, whether it is internet browsing, checking your email or downloading/ uploading data. For example, AT&T offers a variety of voice plans which provide you with nationwide calling at no extra cost with unlimited nights and weekends. The only catch is that you have to pay a one time $36 activation fee. If you are a social networking addict, a data plan would suit you more – look at the AT&T DataConnect plans. Verizon was amongst the first few carriers to pioneer the field of low cost data plans. Many corporate users like to check their emails regularly and Unlimited Email plans therefore suit them the best. For example, T-Mobile offers a ‘Blackberry Unlimited/ Enterprise email’ plan which provides you with unlimited data access and unlimited email access at just $39.98 per month.

Data plans are usually more costly than their voice counterparts, but as carriers are transitioning from old 2G wireless networks to faster 3G and 4G networks, the benefits are beginning to outweigh the costs. It has gotten to the point now that having a data plan is a requirement to feed everyone’s addiction to stay connected.

Unlimited Plans: As the name itself suggests, unlimited plans are all about offering unlimited voice, unlimited data and unlimited SMS (texting). These plans have gained a lot of popularity as compared to old contemporary calling plans which place certain limits on airtime, volume of data and number of text messages that you can send for free.

Unlimited text plans are very popular amongst the younger generations as they allow them to stay active on social networks such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Almost all social networking sites have a text interface where you can do pretty much anything and everything that you would otherwise be able to do on these websites.

Special Plans: There’s no shortage of the so called special plans, almost every carrier offers such plans under fancy names. Many carriers offer family plans which help the entire family hook on to a single plan and offers subsidized/ free air time and/ or texting to all family members.

Many carriers including T-Mobile (with Google Nexus One) also offer one rate plans which allow you to pay the same charges whether you call a person in the same city, a different state or even a different time zone anywhere in the United States.

All leading carriers also offer special plans throughout the year with promotional discounts and irresistible deals on hot new phones. If you are in the market for a new wireless calling plan, take advantage of the new phone offers. Yes you have to sign a 2 year contract to get the deal, but taking advantage of a new phone promotion could save you upwards of $300-$400. Take for example, the BlackBerry Curve 8310 phone that is available through AT&T Wireless with a promotional discount of $340. That means you pay just $9.99 for a new BlackBerry Curve 8310 phone.

To sum it up, there are plenty of carriers and in turn, a large number of calling plans that you can opt for based on your requirements. Just make sure that before you take the leap, you know all the required details about the wireless plan, the contract obligations and promotional discounts for wireless service. Happy Talking!