hello to everyone ! help on what to do first ?joining a exsisting family plan ?

[swapr1]

hi ,im so lost here so far, so hoping for a suggestion on where to find a clear thread here that outlines how to find a good deal ,discounts, and carrier for a cellphone?
should i just go with the plan below?

i have a chance to join my aunts sprint plan for 25.00 a month as a 5th member, shes givin me
a blackbury curve .not sure if its a one yr. contract{if its a two yr. i would definitely get a smartphone!}.

she gets 1500min landline... {they hardly use 'em}, free unlimited mobile to mobile,data,and txt.
im in east tn. area {kingsport,tn}

i will be doin 20 calls,mostly to cells, a day and 20 txt messages,interested in signal strength,voice to text, or what ever makes txting a breeze. gps and some wifi to use . thanks for any advice!

[keason]

Perhaps your aunt already has a Sprint Blackberry curve phone and plan in use. Additional phones are $20, plus taxes so that probably makes up the $25. If you get a smartphone sprint tacks on an additional $10 fee to the cost. They started implementing the extra fee about 1.5 years ago, so her plan might not have it.

If you want a new phone and the contract is up, or the line is new, you can get any Sprint smartphone for the price listed plus taxes. Sprint is building out an LTE network so I'd get a phone that has it if possible (like the HTC EVO LTE 4g or LG Viper LTE, both Android) since the Sprint 3G network is painfully slow in most places, at least for now. If you want an iphone, you should consider waiting until the new LTE model is released . If you need a phone now you could also use an older existing Sprint phone with the new line and then upgrade when the phone you want (like the iphone 5) is available. Sprint lets you upgrade every 24 months.

With the current precarious condition of RIM, I'd avoid Blackberries if you want long term support.

The everything data plan it sounds like your aunt has is excellent if you don't call landlines much. You get unlimited calling 7pm-7am + weekends, unlimited calling to cell phones of any carrier (for most people this is 90% of all calls) and no data/text limits. International calls/text is very expensive without a calling plan. Prepaid smartphone plans don't usually roam on to other carriers (so coverage is worse if you travel), data is limited or throttles to low speed at some threshold, and usually have cheaper international calls. If you make 20 calls/day, averaging 3 min each, with 90% to cell phones and a 22 day month you would only use about 132 anytime min/mo, less that 10% of your aunt's allocation.

Sprint's data speeds are the lowest of the big 4 carriers on average, but vary greatly location to location. Unlimited data may not be helpful if you are a congested area.

$25 to $35 for a smartphone plan is cheap. There are some prepaid options (cricket, virgin mobile) but they are usually more ($35-50) and don't include a postpaid phone subsidy ($500+ for iphone). (The subsidy is worth $15-$20/month) Minutes are limited and don't include nights and weekends + M-M. Many of the prepaid companies use the Sprint network, so you will have the same data problems (e.g. Virgin) as Sprint.

Your aunt is being very nice to you so I would take her up on her offer. If she split her bill five ways you would be paying closer to $50.