Consumer Cellular

weak signal except in the middle of major metro areas. I am in a suburban area
just north of Santa Rosa CA and a lot of the times there is NO service at all.
Their basic phone, at least the one I have is a real cheap Nokia model and I would
be surprised if it works for a year. I know this is a low cost company but you pay
for what you get.

Cell phone for seniors is not all about low cost. I’m actually willing to pay an extra amount just to ensure the quality that my mom will be getting from the phone I’m going to give her. But with Just5 phone, I don’t need to spend an extra amount just to get the quality of the phone. For only $89.99, my mom has been able to seize a phone with a reliable personal emergency response system and very user-friendly and competitive features and functionalities. I found this phone at www.just5.com.

I don't use my cell to chat.I like to have it for convenience sake,but am not willing to get into a contract or buy large blocks of minutes I'll never use.I pay a small fee each month for the service,usually my bill is under 20 bucks unless I use it alot & then it might go up to 30.If you use your cell more frequently,they have plans for that.I haven't had a single problem in the 3 years or so I've used them.The free phone is nice,too !

I left Cingular/ATT after 6 years for verizon and left verizon after 4 months to Consumer Cellular November 2008. I was tired of paying over 100$ to Cingular/ATT for 2 phones and 700 minutes, my nights and weekends were hardly used and I had over 3000 rollover minutes. And 80 a month for 1 phone seemed too much with Verizon.
So now CONSUMER CELLULAR, I am very happy with them. They are a no contract cell phone company. From my research i found out that they buy minutes from Cingular and resell them at lower prices.
The only thing they dont have is free nights and weekends. Just like t-mobile's any time minutes.
My husband, daughter and I are sharing 1000 minutes and 500 texts messages for $83.03 a month after the taxes. So far we have not gone over in 8 months. Face it, nights and weekends we are home.

Their plans are
$20 for 250 min, $30 for 500 min, $40 for 1000 min, $50 for 1500 min, and $60 for 2000 min. To share the plan you add $10 per line.

Texting
$2.50 for 100 texts, $5 for 500 texts, $10 for 1000 texts, and $20 for 2000 texts.

Web browsing
$5 for 2 Mb, $10 for 15MB, and $20 for 20Mb.

Their phones;

Their phone options change pretty often, but I still dont like them. They are your basic black flip or nonflip Nokia or Motorola. But since they are resellers of Cingular minutes, I used my old Cingular Motorola l7. The camera, video, itunes phone. So if you want you can get the free phone and just pop the new SIM in the cingular phone. The phone prices are free up to $50 sometimes $100. They change pretty often due to availability.

I bought an unlocked imitation iphone off ebay from china. It is working with my Consumer cellular sim card. I called to ask to get the wireless web for the cheapest plan, but they said I had to buy one of their phones that had web browsing, and pay the activation. When i got them 8 months ago they didint have web so they didint sell web phones or I just took the free phones. And of course they are gonna say that you should be using their phones. No thanks.

Customer Service
its really good

Reception
Good, should be just like cingular/att.