In several of the posts over the last couple of month people have recomended to carry a tracfone or pre payed phone cards.?

If our cell phones don't work, why would we want to carry around a tracfone. if cell phones don't work more than likely the land line system is also going to be down, so why pre payed cards??

Sounds like a catch 22 don't it.?

During the Hurricane Rita evacuation out of Houston; cellphone systems were overwhelmed very quickly. Our land line did work but then again the storm did not hit.During 9/11 land line systems were overwhelmed in certain parts of the country.

Maybe the old ham radio is the solution?

Text messaging will get through when a cell phone call will not; texts require much less bandwidth and numerous texts can transmit in the spaces between actual calls. So in an emergency try texting as long as there is some cell coverage. During a lot of disasters it is the volume of calls that cause your call to not go through so a smaller text message may squeak by.

what I am trying to learn is if the cell phone that I already have dose not work, what is the need or use of the tracfone and the pre pay cards????

The specific recommendation for TracPhone was because they are not dependent on one network. TracPhone uses by agreement a whole host of vendors....so if one network is down or overwhelmed these phones will look for another option rather than just being dead.

There is no certainty with cell phones but this multiple network ability is a nice feature.

Schwert:

Now that makes sence. It has been posted that the phone schould not be activated, Do you know if the phone will be charged when you want to use it, or do we have to carry a phone charger??

I have a TracPhone and think it is best to activate it and keep it charged. I am uncertain if carrying one unactivated is a good idea...it seems not to me. We have a low tech Nokia that seems to hold its charge for months (not used of course).

We buy 1 year activation with minutes. The minutes roll over each year and they offer double minutes etc all the time.

We use our phone about 1 minute weekly, so this is not a great deal cost wise, but I do think the multiple vendor coverage is a good thing.

Last fall we had a massive wind/rain storm where many parts of the city were without power for many days (we were without for 4.5 days). None of our neighbors had cell phone coverage at their house but we did. I have no idea who was the carrier that was up but it worked for us with no cares at all.

It seems to me that having a TracPhone activated and charged with the knowledge of how to use the stupid things is a better approach then buying the package and hoping you can activate it and learn it.

BTW, I hate cell phones.

We are ham radio operators with RACES affiliation to our local agencies.

The description above applies to any cellular provider (although Tracfone doesn't actually 'provide' network access; I think of them more as a reseller of network access).

For example, say you have a tri-band cell phone (CDMA / TDMA / Analog) and subscribe to Verizon Wireless. If you are in a Verizon coverage area, your phone will likely use CDMA. If you are roaming, maybe your phone will have access to a CDMA or TDMA network that Verizon has a roaming agreement with; otherwise the much older analog system is hopefully available and Verizon has a roaming agreement; otherwise your cell phone is just a paper-weight.

Tracfone has roaming agreements with different carriers, and "re-sells" access using different technologies in different markets.

For example, I have a Tracfone and live in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Verizon has a CDMA network in this area. Guess what type of Tracfone's the local Wal-Mart carries? Yep, CDMA phones that use the local Verizon network. If I travel, I'll have access to any CDMA / TDMA / Analog network that Tracfone has a roaming agreement with (but this would also be true if I was a Verizon Wireless subscriber).

My sister lives in Albuquerque where both Verizon (CDMA) and Cingular (GSM) have good coverage. I just got her a Tracfone.

In Albuquerque, Tracfone has a business agreement with Cingular which uses GSM technology. Guess what type of Tracfone you can get at WalMart in Albuquerque? Yep, a GSM technology phone that uses the Cingular network within the Albuquerque area (and anywhere else that Tracfone has a roaming agreement).

I much prefer the coverage that Verizon Wireless provides in New Mexico. So instead of going with a GSM Tracfone from WalMart in Albuquerque, I instead bought my sister a CDMA Tracfone from the WalMart in Ruidoso and activated it with an Albuquerque zip code. So my sister ended up with a CDMA Tracfone with an Albuqueruqe phone number using the Verizon Wireless network. Of course, if she roams, she'll have access to CDMA or TDMA or Analog networks that Tracfone has roaming agreements with (but Verizon would provide a similar service). She won't, however, have access to any GSM network such as provided by Cingular -- her phone does not support GSM.

There is no such thing as a cell phone that supports both GSM and CDMA technologies. So you are stuck deciding between providers that use different technologies. My point is to pick the provider you think has the best coverage. But be aware that Tracfone, and other pre-paid plans, are doing the same thing and provide different options in different markets.

Hope this is a little clear,

Justin

I intend to go back to tracfone when my lousy expensive verizon contract is over this fall. no more 2 year contracts for me. I much prefer the tracfone service because I don't use the cell phone much and I am wasting money on a contract phone with so many minutes I never use and just waste. yes you do have to keep them charged up, the only phones that don't need to be charged regularly belong to Jack Bauer and they must be a government secret.

My family has three Tracfones. I was at Crown King last weekend with the Boy Scouts. I was the only one from Phoneix that had a signal. I only had one bar but I'm sure I could have sent a text message if needed. The other guys had nice phones but no signal. The signal strength varies a lot. Sometimes it goes into roaming/long distance mode while at home. The usage rate is the same for local or roaming.