[BBLISA] Cell phone plan for a sysadmin?

[K. M. Peterson]

Hi Alex,

There is, unfortunately, no completely metered mobile service.

The most simple and least expensive is likely to be one of the prepaid carriers.  They are not completely metered, as you do get a bucket (that is, an allowance for usage that expires).

There's a significant jump in costs when you say "smartphone".  There is literally no market for limited smartphone usage.  There is basic voice service available (including SMS) from companies like Tracfone that does have very minimal monthly costs, but smartphones are, for most consumers, "aspirational" - the system where the device costs are subsidized by the carrier make for the complexity you mentioned, these devices are purchased by consumers for the most part who often don't have a good understanding (the new users, that is) what they are purchasing and for what purpose.

Consumer Reports evaluates the market frequently, and I'd recommend looking at their reports.  I get the impression that the secondary pre-paid carriers like Boost Mobile and MetroPCS are more aggressive with their pricing; but be prepared to be greeted as if you have three heads on your shoulders if you suggest to a salesperson that you're purchasing a device solely for email and ssh usage.

I hope this is somewhat helpful - I'll be interested to hear what you learn.  Good luck!

_KMP
  
On 04Jul11, at 08:20 , Alex Aminoff wrote:

> 
> I've been using a 2-way email pager from Skytel since the 1990s. Sadly, 
> between the refurbished pagers dying and social pressure from the 
> family, I now need to get a cell phone.
> 
> I run basespace.net, a small local ISP, so I need to be available to 
> customers. I will only use voice calls very rarely, hopefully less than 
> 10 calls per month. I need the phone to ring when my monitoring system 
> sees a major problem or when a customer emails the emergency support 
> address: This could be done with some sort of text messaging gateway, or 
> data service that receives email and rings when a message comes in. I 
> need data service so I can read email and ssh to my servers.
> 
> Cell phone plans are extremely complicated. I'm hoping I can hear from 
> some of us who have similar needs and have found a plan that works well. 
> The bottom line is, I don't want to pay very much money. I'm looking at 
> some of the pay as you go plans, but it seems silly that you pay for 
> minutes, but then if you don't use them they expire anyway. And some 
> carriers seem to charge insane amounts for data on your cell phone. The 
> pager was $17/month, I would like to get close to that number, or, 
> perhaps with the right pay as you go plan, even less.
> 
> Thanks,
>  - Alex Aminoff
>    BaseSpace.net
> 
> 
> 
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