Okay, here is my uber cell phone soluiton. A little background. My fiancee and I currently live in the US and will be here for 1-2 more years we move to Canada (she is Canadian military). We also have a few world traveling vacations planned (starting with our honeymoon in New Zealand this spring).
Start with the Motorola V635 phone: http://reviews.cnet.com/Motorola_V635/4505-6454_7-31280709-2.html?tag=nav I can get a pair of them (probably about $100-$150 each) off eBay. The phones are really good: 1.23 megapixel camera (as good as your digital camera), video capture, store and play MP3s, can sync contact list with your PC, speakerphone, and uses a wireless Bluetooth headset. We then sign up for this Cingular plan while we are here in the US: https://business.cingular.com/cingular/plans/plan_detail.jsp?planTermsURL=explanation_nation_popup.jsp&productDesc=Nation+FamilyTalk+Plans&planSKU=sku70570393 That gives us more than enough minutes to share between us, and no long distance charges in the US, nights and weekends free. Since we didn't get a phone from them, we shouldn't need to sign a contract which means whenever we go back to Canada we just tell them to piss off. And calling Canada from the US isn't too bad - $0.20 a minute: http://cingularinteract.egain.net/interact-app/servlet/egps?egpscmd=running&egpssid=call_226543_sedc&egpsuid=2006_02_02_12_06_05_62667&egpsrid=2006_02_02_12_06_05_62678 When we go back to Canada we simply use the same phones and sign up with one of the Canadian service providers. When we travel we can just pop in a pre-paid SIM card for that country and we have local call charges for that country. Here is the one for NZ: http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=LSIM-NZ01&; And now for the piece de resistance. We can get rid of our landlines with this docking station: http://www.cellphonemall.net/wireless/store/accessorydetail.asp?id=43647&phoneid=589 Bascially, it is a docking station that we stick a cell phone in. We can then use regular cordless handsets around the house. A call comes in on the cell phone and the handsets ring. It passes the caller ID info from the cell to the handsets. Any outgoing calls go over the cell network. I would have to check reception but you can get an antenna to put outside the house for it if reception is a problem. Pretty sweet :) Price for 2 phones: $350 Price for 2 Bluetooth headsets: $100 Price for dock: $200 Total inital cost: $650 Total cost per month: $55 So this setup gives us both cell phones, no landline, pretty cheap calls to Canada, ability to transfer to Canadian service when we move, and ability to use our cells in whatever local country we travel to for a decent price. I think we have a winner :) -- Brian
