It is classic. How many times have you heard the teachers on the campus tell students to shut off their phones during class? No matter how many times they tell students, those darn cell phones start to ring during the lecture. What seems to be the latest craze in the United States is being able to have the best cell phone with the most features including all the multi-ring tones.
Betty Vasquez, Liberal Arts major, 43, has a cell phone of her own. ” I got one mainly to check on my kids at home,” Vasquez says. Though Vasquez commented on not liking the phone from AT&T because of the really bad reception.
So what do people, mainly students, want to know when they are in search for the best plan, smallest phone or the best quality in a cell phone? The main focus is that students tend to use their phones like a house phone. So how do students keep a low-cost phone with the best features with the latest trends?
Cell phones, though, are not for everyone. Tasha Maillette, 19 explains that she doesn’t have one because she sees no need for one. While trying to think why people need cell phones in the first placeshe feels it’s “Because they have to feel important, needed, and not alone,” Maillette commented.
People have many choices to make and questions that need to be answered while in search of a cell phone. How long will the battery last? Will it be easy to use? What kind of features does it come with? But when it really comes down to which kind of cell phone the consumer wants, it’s the type of plan that makes people seek out certain companies.
Cell phone manufacturers such as Audiovox, Nokia and Motorola are on their way to coming up with the latest models of sleeker, less-expensive digital handsets with longer lasting batteries.
There are options available for cell phone users such as voice-activated dialing, caller-ID, voice mail and plenty of memory.
The new high-tech options for the phones come with instant messaging, e-mail access, and web browsing. Along with the new options come a bigger cost to the consumer. Though some of these new options will take some of your monthly minutes.
There are two types of plans when in search of a cell phone. The plan that is usually offered is the pre-paid phone, where the consumer would pay for minutes. The most typical buyers of the pre-paid plans are people with little or no credit history. The draw backs with the pre-paid phone is the that the consumer is limited to a certain amount of minutes and there is no trendy model phones that come with this type of plan.
The other type of plan is the Contract plan, which is a plan that offers a certain amount of minutes for a flat monthly fee. Prices can range from the lowest at $10 for about 10 minutes of air time to a $400 plan that would offer as much as 4,000 minutes. Usually the more amount of minutes the consumer buys, the lower cost per minute.
Draw back of the flat monthly fee is if the consumer goes over the allotment of minutes, the company can charge at a rate of anywhere from 25 to 65 cents per minute. So while the consumer wants to be able to use his or her phone, a word of warning don’t go over the minutes unless willing to pay the extra money.
In order to terminate the contract, some consumers can pay as much as $200 to be released from the contract he or she signed.
The best option for consumers who want to research all the deals and packages that companies have to offer is to take a look at Consumer Reports Magazine. No fancy talk needed to confuse the consumer and no buying gimics that will leave the consumer unsatisfied.
Take time in picking a plan that is right and won’t end up costing an arm and a leg.
With cell phones as one of the leading causes of car accidents. Some state governments are taking another look at a law to ban the use of cell phones while driving a car.
“They should be outlawed. No one can drive and talk at the same time,” Vasquez says.
Tasha Maillette agrees with Vasquez, ” All cell phones are a distraction in the car and all they do is cause more accidents with people not paying attention to the road ahead of them.”
Even though cell phones can be costly and annoying when the ringer goes off in class, cell phones can be quite helpful.
In the case of Colombine High School, where two shooters gunned down students and teachers. Students were able to call the police on their cell phones to let them know what was happening and where some students were injuried.
With the recent terrorism attack on Sept. 11, passengers on the airlines and civilians in the World Trade Center used cell phones to help police and FBI know what was happening on the aircraft and in the World Trade Centers.
