Hi Big Red,
We also use Sprint and we also have a Verizon telephone. Verizon is our “company” telephone and Sprint is our friends/family telephone. We have a minimal minute plan with verizon: 400 minutes- no roaming charges. We have both because Verizon comes in just about everywhere on the planet. We were on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and our Verizon telephone still worked! The cost of our Verizon plan is much higher though, our bill is $55.00 a month just for 400 minutes and no nights etc... this phone is the one that the company we are leased with uses to contact us. It is also our emergency phone that family members can call as we never shut this phone off and carry it at all times.
The Sprint plan works out great for us. Like, JustPassinThru, we have the camera phone with the 2000 minute plan. Our kids and many of our friend who also drive out here have Sprint picture phones too, so, we can talk to them using PCS to PCS and incur no additional charges, nor do we use up our plan minutes. I should add that we have never came close to using our plan minutes up but have had 3000 or higher PCS to PCS minutes. We also use our telephone to access the internet with/on our computer. We have the Sanyo 8100 model phone with the “vision” program. This program allows you to take/send unlimited pictures, web access on your telephone, and the use of it as a modem device with no extra charges incurred. Our service with Sprint also includes free nights after 7:00 pm and weekends. We like the after 7:00 pm feature because often times we are in a time zone 1 to 2 hours behind our relatives and calling them at 10:00 or 11:00 pm was not an option. (many plans offer free nights only after 9:00 pm)
As JustPassinThru stated, the plan is $110.00 per month. We also pay $5.00 additional each month for the roaming plan, which allows us to use the phone with out incurring any roaming costs in areas that Sprint service is not available. BUT we have only been out of out of a Sprint service area a couple of times. We just added the roaming thing to avoid any surprises on our bill and really don’t “roam” often.
We have found that the two phone system works well for us. When we our sleeping we generally turn the Sprint phone off but have the Verizon phone on all the time. This system allows us to still receive calls from our company and family members if they absolutely have to get in touch with us.
We also have a Qualcomm with the company we our leased with. Some expediting companies do not have a Qualcomm and require their drivers to call in with their respective locations and while under load may require you to call every 3 hours with your location. Therefore, if you drive for a company with this requirement, you may want to consider a higher minute plan.
mcbride-
--What goes around comes around--
