Posted: 2/28/2010 9:26:29 AM EDT
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Here's my issue. My department has decided to kill off our department issued phones and give us a $50 credit per month on our paychecks to cover the cost of a cellphone dedicated for work. $50 doesn't give many options. As with all government agencies, they could change their mind 6 months from now and go back to how things were before and then I'd be stuck with a second phone, as I already have a HTC Hero on the Sprint network. I'd prefer to just go with a prepaid phone to avoid possibly gettting stuck with two phones on contracts, so my options are now that Blackberry 8830 on Boost, or trying to get an iPhone set up on a prepaid AT&T account.
I'd really prefer when speaking to people on work related issues that they aren't speaking to me on a number that can be linked back to me. So. Option 1. Boost Blackberry 8830 on $60 month unlimited talk, text, data plan. Option 2. iPhone (possibly a 2g or 3g) on a Prepaid Setup. |
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I'm pretty sure you cannot get a prepaid account for an iPhone. They require the $30 a month data plan for all iPhones, and a 2 year contract for service. You should double check on line to see if it's possible, but this comes up a lot on a few forums I browse, and the anwer is always "No Way, Jose". |
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If you work the system you *might* find a person on the phone who can add the appropriate lines to your SIM to make an iphone work. I dont have much experience with prepaid phones though. $50 doesn't sound like much. Indeed, it's barely enough to cover the data plan for a blackberry. Are they requiring email functionality? |
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Yeah. I've done some reading. Supposedly, you can get them to work pretty easily on T-Mobile's network, provided they are unlocked. I dunno. I'm thinking I'm going to end up with the Blackberry. At least I know exactly what I can do with it.
And yeah, they want it email capable. Hard to believe a government agency would impose those requirements, and only offer $50. Of course, they could require it and tell me to deal with it, so I can't really bitch. Only going to have to come out of pocket $10 or so. Could be worse. My personal phone can handle all of that stuff, but I'd prefer to have all my work related stuff on a work related phone. |
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I have a friend that uses Google Voice. he will give out that number and it will forward to his cell phone and his office phone. He can answer either one. You might look into that option as well. Just use your personal cell phone so you only have one device and have it forward calls to it.
ETA: Google Voice may still be in beta and require invites though so I'm not sure on that. |
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You dial out using Google voice and have the GV number show up on thier callered I'd
I use it all day every day. Love it I use the GV+ app. (jailbroken) to make my google voice calls. That makes my google voice number appear on thier caller I'd. That with my AT&T alist. Makes All my outgoing calls free. |