Originally Posted By: Am_Fear_Liath_Mor

The AT@T costs seem very expensive, was the cost of the Blackberry included in the contract i.e. is the Blackberry locked to the AT@T service? Can you get the Blackberry to work with the Tracphone service. I would assume that you could if the Blackberry device is unlocked.


The Blackberry is locked to the AT&T Network. Tracfone handsets are custom-made for Tracfone and are ROM-locked to Tracfone and have custom software in the phones to vastly reduce the "unlocking" of the phones. This also does not allow for the use of "any" phone on Tracfone. But interestingly, Tracfone uses the AT&T & T-Mobile networks, so my switch is - technically - from AT&T to AT&T, just with another company managing the minutes used and a reduced feature set (no data connection, no data plan offered).

The phone cost me $150, a subsidized upgrade cost from a Palm Treo 650.

Here's where I also like to let our European friends in on the other nightmare of American mobile service.
Did you know that in the US, you pay not only for calls you make but also calls you RECEIVE? Same goes for text messages.
Not only that, phones are both locked to a particular carrier AND we have several different wireless technologies in use, so even if I did buy a phone for the Verizon network, because it's a CDMA phone, if I unlocked it, it won't work on the AT&T GSM network.

Finally, even our prepaid market is carrier-locked, and with the exception of Tracfone and Net10 (which are the same company), "Prepaid" phones often have "daily charges" even if you don't make any calls, or a "day charge" of $1.00 plus calls on any day you use the phone.

With Tracfone, you pay for what you use, and as long as you use your minutes before they expire - or add more minutes before they expire - there's no charges other than the deduction of units from the phone.

It's really a good deal.