What’s the deal with a Free Cell Phone?

If you want to know what the best cell phone deals and cheap cell phone plans are, and who offers the best coverage and reception services then you are in the right place. Start your research right here! Comparison shopping for cell phones has never been easy but the Internet is making it easier and easier to find exactly the right cell phone and cell phone service for your needs.

The hottest new cell phones include the Apple iPhone, Palm, Razr and Smartphone PDAs like the Treo and Blackberry. These cell phones include tons of new features unheard of only a few years ago like built in cameras, video recorders and players, voice recorders, MP3 players, walkie talkie instant connection, pagers, SMS text messaging and high speed Internet access.

Many free cell phone offers include free shipping and calling plans with free night and weekend minutes, free long distance and nationwide long distance as well as free roaming. Select a calling plan for your free cell phone that has the basic features you need and use like free voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, 3 way conference calling, and cusomizable ringtones. Cell phones come in many different varieties and sizes including flip and bar phones, PDA and smartphones, camera and video phones, MP3 and GPS phones. These phones are available from the more popular cell phone manufacturers like Apple, LG, Kyocera, Sanyo, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, Panasonic, RIM, Audiovox, Hitachi and for the kids, Firefly. Choosing a new cell phone or refurbished cell phone with the features you is just as important as choosing the right carrier.

Naturally, “free” cell phones aren’t really free and you’ll end up paying for the cell phone over the lifetime of your cellular contract. Even so, free cell phones can save you a lot of money and let you start cell phone service for little or no money down. Most of these free cell phone offers are found online as online agents have less overhead to support then regular brick and mortar stores. Shopping for a free cell phone online can save you a lot of money but you will have to wait a few days before you get your cell phone. The calling plans offered by every cell phone retailer are exactly the same but sometimes there are additional plan features that only one type of dealer can offer so it pays to shop around before deciding on where you buy your cell phone and not just taking the first offer you see.

Not all cell phone providers use the same cellular technology and there are pros and cons for each network. Analog networks will work with older, but in some cases more reliable, basic phones while the newer digital networks allow you to use all the latest bells and whistles even if you never use them. The coverage area of the different networks will also vary with the more advanced digital networks usually found in more populated areas. This also means that you won’t be able to roam in a network that has different technology than your handset. However, no matter what cell phone network you choose to use, there is always going to be a low cost or free cell phone offer that will work for you. Many of these free cell phone offers even include no credit card or no credit check applications and come with free accessory kits that include everything you need to use you cell phone. Many times these accessory kits will include just a basic wall charger but other times may include car chargers, headsets and leather cases. These accessory kits can be huge money saver for you considering that you would probably just end up buying them anyway.

GSM (Global System for Mobile) is the international standard in Europe, Australia and much of Asia and Africa. CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is mainly found in the US. In covered areas, cell-phone users can buy one phone that will work anywhere where the standard is supported. However, no one phone hand set will work everywhere. So even if your cell phone plan includes free roaming, your phone will not work unless you are roaming in an area that uses similar network archtecture. Both networks have their advantages and disadvantages with GSM giving you the freedom of massive worldwide coverage and CDMA giving you plans with high speed digital access.

Most cell phone providers offer either pre-paid or regular monthly billing plans. Although you will usually get a lot more minutes with your regular billing plans, a pre-paid plan can offer many advantages. They are easier to monitor, have no service fees or monthly bill and the cost can be spread out over many months. You won’t usually find a free cell phone offer with a pre-paid cell phone plan but that shouldn’t matter too much of you don’t use a cell phone very often and are just looking for basic service when you need it. Pre-paid cell phone plans are also great for those with less than perfect credit or if you don’t want to use your real name when you sign up for a plan.

See a hot new cell phone that you just have to get? Want to add another line of service? If you have completed your original service contract then it may be time to contact your carrier and see what kind of deals they’ll make on a new cell phone or contract. And if another carrier has a better deal, make sure that you let your service provider know about it. If they don’t match the offer, then ask to speak with a supervisor and threaten to leave. It’s costs the cell phone companies upwards of $150 to secure a new customer so the last thing they want to do is lose you to a competitor. In the cell phone industry this is known as “customer churn” and the cell phone carriers will do almost most anything to prevent this.