While it seemed half of the civilized words was standing in line in order to purchase a new iPhone yesterday, we opted for a much less expensive albeit less technologically advanced option. Kenneth uses and highly recommended MobiPCS. I investigated their plans and for less money than one iPhone all-you-can-eat voice and text plan, we now have three lines – one for my wife, my daughter and myself. We have unlimited local and national calls and unlimited texts within the US. We got the Motorola E815’s for myself and my wife (at left), and a Motorola Razr for M?lia. The one limitation that I’ve encountered with Mobi’s service is that it cannot use short codes, so I’ve had problems setting up the phone to send SMS to Twitter, and Jaiku’s activation code has not arrived after several hour of waiting. I’m hoping this is something that Mobi can fix but am not getting my hopes up.
We did not get web access for the phones as they are not 3G capable. As I spend most of my days and nights in front of a computer anyway, I really don’t feel the overwhelming need to interrupt my travel time with email and other distractions. Maybe someday, but with Ph.d. research and writing coming up, it’s probably just one more distraction that I don’t need at this point. I did get to fondle a new iPhone that a colleague had bought for his girlfriend and it is a sexy machine.
Mahalo for the analysis of the new phone. I too enjoy the reduced phone rates of MOBI. I am on the computer a lot and don’t need the email functions.