The Basics: Cell Phones

You'd think you'd start shopping for a cell phone by pitting phone against phone, but it all begins with choosing your service provider. Your service provider will dictate what transmission technology your phone uses, and choosing the actual phone comes after that. CDMA is a common US system used by carriers like Verizon, GSM is the European standard that's becoming more en vogue, utilized by carriers like Cingular. iDen is only used by one carrier, Nextel, but enables push-to-talk and walkie-talkie capability.

Once you've decided on your carrier, take a minute to calculate how often you'll be using your phone--and where. Know whether you're signing up for local, regional, or nationwide coverage. The low-rate deals that carriers advertise are usually local plans, which cover only a limited area, but are fine if you rarely travel. If you spend a lot of time outside your home calling area, go with a regional or a nationwide plan, and avoid getting slapped with roaming charges. For the best value, make sure your plan includes free long distance as well, a common inclusion with today's plans. Pay close attention to when their peak hours end and their "weekend" hours begin, as well as how many included minutes (often called "anytime" minutes) you can use before going over your limit.

Variations from the standard plans can potentially save new subscribers a lot of money. Consider family and/or sharing plans if you can rope in your family and friends, and prepaid plans for those who don't want to commit to a monthly fee. And as far as those advertised rates, any user can attest that your monthly phone bill will be higher; extra fees include cost of activation, government and federal tax, number portability cost, and plans that charge extra for sending text messages, Internet browsing, multimedia and picture messaging, and calling 411.

How to Shop

Finally, you can pick your phone. What is important to you and your daily life? Reception? Sleek design? Features like cameras, picture messaging, and keyboards for text messaging? It all depends on your lifestyle, whether it's a phone for sophisticated business, multimedia pleasure, or straight communication. Features that all users may find interest in include an external caller ID, for knowing who's calling before you even open the phone, a camera or video phone, a phone capable of picture messaging, or perhaps one with bluetooth technology for connecting to your computer. Some users may even want push-to-talk capability for quick, one-touch contact.

Business users may be interested in smart phones, which combine cell phone and PDA functions in one unit. These are considerably larger and much more expensive than standard cell phones, often costing upward of $600, but they eliminate the need for two separate devices. Most users won't need the comprehensive contact features of a PDA, and others can continue to use a separate PDA if they already have one.