7 Tips On Choosing the Right Mobile Phone Plan

Choosing a mobile phone plan can be difficult due to conflicting and even misleading advertising offered by the companies that are vying for your attention.
If you are not careful you may end up paying much more than you expected and much more than is actually necessary. Here are some tips that will help you to choose the right mobile phone plan, the one that matches your budget and your communication requirements.
1. Take your time. Don??t rush into a plan without knowledge
The billing structures of many phone plans are complicated and it is not easy to see, at first glance, how much you will actually pay if you sign up for one of these plans. In addition to this, you have to weigh the pros and cons of the plans offered by competing companies.
All of this takes careful attention and a bit of research. So, don??t jump for the first plan that you see, delay your decision until you are sure that you have found that mobile plan that is right for you.
2. Match the plan to your calling habits
The key to getting the most economical plan is to understand your own calling needs and to find a plan that gives rates that are favourable to your phone calling habits. Even an infrequent mobile phone user can end up with an unnecessarily high bill if he or she chooses a phone plan that does not match their needs.
To understand your needs consider the following factors:
a. Do you make calls in peak or off peak hours? If you are making business calls, the bulk of your communications may be in peak hours, while if you will be using your mobile phone for social calls you may be able to call in off peak hours. Choose a plan that gives you the best rates in the period when you make the bulk of your mobile calls.
b. Do you make local, national or international calls? If you need to call out of your local area frequently, then look for a plan that offers good rates for national and overseas calls.
c. Do you plan to use voice mail, send SMS messages, receive email or browse the web from your mobile phone? These services are convenient, but some of them, can be expensive. If you do need them, pay careful attention to the charges for these services and choose a plan that gives you good value for special services.
3. Find the plan that fits your budget
How much do you want to spend each month for your mobile phone? How much can you afford to spend? Don??t rush into a mobile phone plan blindly and hope that you will be able to manage the bill later on. In order to understand how much you are actually going to pay you need to first consider what is the monthly cost?
Then check to see how much you will be charged for calls. Are calls billed per second or for 30 second intervals? Is there a connection fee or ??flag fall?? charge that is added on to each call? Make a rough calculation of your calls based on your recent calling activity and add it to the monthly charge and you will get an idea of what to expect.
4. Compare the plans of the main providers
Once you have an idea of your calling needs and your budget, take a look at the plans offered by the main providers in your area. Visit the websites of the providers, read their brochures or talk to their sales representatives.
Find out as much as you can about their call rates, billing system, length of contracts, discounts for off-peak and holiday calling and other features of the mobile phone plans on offer. Don??t be afraid to ask questions if you are not clear about the details of the plans.
5. Find out what your friends and other consumers think about the various providers
A plan may look good on paper or may sound nice on TV, but the quality of the service that is offered by the mobile phone provider is every bit as important as the price. If you do not have connectivity when you need it, then even a cheap call rate will not help you out. If a company gives poor customer support or is unethical in handling billing disputes then their seemingly good plan may not be worth it.
Ask your friends, relatives and colleagues which service they use and find out if they are satisfied. Also, it is good to know which service your friends and colleagues use, because it is often cheaper to call people who are on the same network. If you find out that many of your friends are on one particular network and they are happy with it, then it will make sense to sign up with that same service.
6. Be careful when signing up for ??capped?? plans
The idea of a cap or ceiling on expenditure sounds like a great idea, especially if you have to look out for your monthly budget. However, many of the capped plans have exclusions or sneaky charges and that might not protect you from receiving massive bills.
The other problem with capped plans is actually not the fault of the phone companies but is the fault of the typical users. When they get a capped plan they think that they will be protected from high costs and they start to radically change their usage patterns. They begin to use the phone much more than they did in the past because they think that they will not be charged for it. In the end they wind up with huge bills. If you are not sure, it is better to avoid these capped plans.
7. Remember, fancy handsets are not free, nor do they cost $1
Many telephone companies offer a free or $1 phone when you sign a contract with them. The newest and most fashionable phones, loaded with gadgets, are not cheap and they are definitely not free. If a company is offering you a deal that includes a free or cheap phone, you will probably be paying for it as part of your contract.
If you really need a new phone or the phone that is being offered, and would have bought it anyway, then go ahead, but just remember that you are going to pay for it.
If you are about to sign-up for your first mobile phone plan or change your current mobile phone plan, then consider these ??7 Tips on Choosing the Right Mobile Phone Plan?? and make the best possible choice.
John Bertone is a Mobile Phone Expert respected for divulging the secrets on how to choose the Best Mobile (and/or deal) for your daily/ financial needs and usage. In his special report: Mobile Phone Secrets Revealed, he details exactly how to make decisions that will in turn help save you hundreds to thousands of dollars each year

A Peep Into Satellite Phone Functioning

From your handset, there are three ways you can reach your destination number. They are: (1) Satellite phone handset to another satellite phone handset; (2) satellite phone handset to a cellular phone handset, through cellular network, and (3) satellite phone handset to a landline served phone connected to PSTN.
(1) Satellite phone to satellite phone: This type of call ensures security because the call is never routed through a Landline, or, PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network, or, for that matter, through cell-network. Let us see graphically how it works:
When you dialed your satellite phone handset the signal is beamed to the satellite from where it is redirected to the Earth-station. The Earth station, then, encodes and sends it back to the satellite which inturn, sends the symbol to the destination hand-set.
(2) Satellite phone to cellular phone served through a cellular network:
Here the call is routed through a cellular network. Let us see, graphically, how it works:
When you dialed your satellite phone handset, the signal is beamed to the satellite from where it is beamed back to the Gateway from where the cellular network??s, MTSO -Mobile Telephone switching office, which controls all the cell sites, and, by extension, all cell phones coming under its ambit, sends the signal to the appropriate cell-phone.
(3) Satellite phone handset to land line connected phone set:
Here the call is routed through a PSTN. Let us see, graphically, how it works
As seen as your dialed your handset, the signal is beamed to the nearby Geo-stationery satellite, which, then, transfers the signal to the nearest LES - Land Earth Station. Land Earth station connects the call to the PSTN - Public Switched Telephone Network, which, in turn, sends the signal to the appropriate destination handset.
Paul has been providing answers to lots of queries through his website on a wide variety of subjects ranging from satellite phones to acne. To learn more visit

3 New Low-End Nokia Phones Announced

Nokia 2610, Nokia 2310 and Nokia 1112 were unveiled at Nokia Experience Mobility 2006 event in Chongqing, China. According to Nokia the hallmarks of the trio is Performance, quality and ease of use!
The new Nokia 1112, Nokia 2310 and Nokia 2610 expand Nokia's current portfolio of affordable low-end phones. All three models are expected to begin shipping during the second quarter of 2006. The Nokia 1112 is an addition to the popular Nokia 1100 family phones that has sold over 100 million units globally, since its introduction.
Today Nokia also announced that it is opening the licensing of the Nokia Prepaid Tracker terminal feature to other terminal manufacturers. At the same time Nokia will also license the Prepaid Tracker network feature to all GSM/WCDMA operators regardless of their current network system provider. The Nokia Prepaid Tracker was unveiled last year and a simple solution that lets prepaid subscribers keep track of their prepaid balance and call expenses.
By opening the licenses, Prepaid Tracker will be at the reach millions of prepaid customers around the world. At least this is what Nokia aims at. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, over 70 percent of all cell phone users in new growth markets are prepaid customers, thus the ability to accurately monitor prepaid account expenses is of great importance.

3G Technology on Mobile Phones

Third generation technology, better known as 3G technology has hit the United States and is here to stay. What 3G doesn??t do is have an obvious impact on the look, fell or design of a cellular phone. However, what 3G does dose is promise faster communication services which include fax, voice, and even internet services. This can be offered 3G uses seamless global roaming. New multimedia entertainment and applications are able to be used to their maximum capability because of the 3G network. The first 3G network was actually released in Japan, and is now offered in the United States by companies like Cingular.
Along the same lines of 3G technology, Verizon has decided along with Sprint/Nextel to offer their own version of 3G services but is called Ed-Vo. Other companies such as T-Mobile don??t plan to roll out this technology with their services until 2007. So what is 3G technology exactly? This technology will bring wireless data services to your phone like you??ve never seen them before. This technology boasts speeds about three times faster than a 56 Kbps connection to 2.4Mbps connection speed, equivalent to using a cable modem. 3G networks allow users to easily and quickly read through web pages, watch streaming music videos, and use video conferencing to its fullest.
The experience you will have while using 3G technology with a cellular phone will be one close to using your home computer with a broadband connection. It seems that hand held computers are definitely the way of the future. With each company committing to spending billions of dollars to upgrade to a 3G network, this technology is surely worth the price we will all undoubtedly pay. But with a loss each company will take to upgrade, comes a need to gain customers, so look for new and improved handsets to launch when your favorite company upgrades to using this system.
David Hayden writes for Blue-Rabbit.com, there you will find everything you need for your mobile phone. Everything from Ringtones and Polyphonic ringtones to Logos and Screensavers to Colour Wallpapers to Java Games to SMS Services and Phone