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From: veeneman@mot.com (Dan Veeneman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Cellular Telephone Comparisons Wanted
Message-ID: <15336@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 21:01:20 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 875, Message 5 of 14


I know this subject comes up repeatedly, but does someone out there
have a relatively recent comparison of both transportable and pocket
cellular telephones?  Price, features, battery life, horror stories,
etc, would all be welcome.

Please e-mail so as not to take up any additional bandwidth.

Thanks,

Dan   veeneman@mot.com


[Moderator's Note: Don't be mislead by the extremely low prices some
dealers are offering. You can spend whatever you like, but good
quality phones are available in the $100-200 price range. Stay away
from places offering almost free phones, ie. Fretters; the strings
attached are pretty expensive. A local advertisement here is offering
cell phones for *twelve cents* -- yep, $ .12 -- provided you pay the
obligatory $149.88 'installation charge' and agree to put a thousand
bucks up front with Ameritech as advance payment for services during
the lifetime of the contract. Fretters had a really nice looking
portable on sale a year ago for around a hundred dollars; it was only
when you were in the store, expressed interest and were in the middle
of choosing a 'service agreement' that the sales people would spring
the good news on you: Ameritech was 'making this special deal
available' to persons who committed to $1000 worth of service by
paying for it in advance, of course!  PAT]