Right, that's things sorted, hopefully. Signed up with Qwest for the 7 mbps DSL service, with Visi.com as my ISP (a friend of mine works there). The hardware's meant to arrive on Monday, and the service is meant to be up by 5 pm. Whether this will actually be so (it is Qwest, after all), who can say? Total price per month is not 100% clear (fees and such) but will probably be right around $60 a month. Twice and a bit the speed, 75% of the cost. Not bad.
I then had decided to sign up for T-Mobile cellular service as my phone. Well, that didn't wind up panning out, which had me in a slight panic for a day or so, as I needed phone to be up and running with my switchover to Qwest. Seems cell phone companies do a credit check (which I'd no idea they did, and still seems quite dumb to me), and if you fail that credit check, in my case because I've never had any sort of credit or debt - I pay up front for everything - then they deny you the advertised discounts and contract plans. T-Mobile's solution is to offer you a "FlexPay" plan which involves paying full MSRP for the cell phone (up front) and the first month of service also up front. I had rent to pay, and activation related expenses on the DSL service. Paying full price for a cell phone that did what I wanted from T-Mobile (their Unlimited Hotspot Calling) was not in the cards. Getting service from them at all would have necessitated a minimum $80 phone plus $40+ for the first month. No thanks. Tried a retail establishment, just in case that would have been different. Nope. Since I was in the neighborhood, popped over to Radio Shack, which deals AT&T and Sprint plans and phones. The guy there was more than happy to see what he could do for me, and eventually I walked out with a Sprint Everything Plan and a $10 LG Rumor. Plus my friend Eddy referred me, so we both get $25 debit cards. Only snag was that whole credit thing. Sprint's solution is a bit more elegant, though (Verizon had a similar one, but I decided Sprint was a better value on the whole). You pay them a $150 security deposit up front (yes, I know, more than T-Mobile would maybe have cost me up front), which you'll get back after a year of on-time payments, and they offer you the regular contracts and discounts. Much more suitable, really. I would, of course, rather have had little to no startup costs, but that wasn't going to happen.
So I wind up with about the same monthly cost, but twice and a bit the internet speed, and a full service cell phone with web, music and GPS capabilities, plus a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Not too bad, really.
I then had decided to sign up for T-Mobile cellular service as my phone. Well, that didn't wind up panning out, which had me in a slight panic for a day or so, as I needed phone to be up and running with my switchover to Qwest. Seems cell phone companies do a credit check (which I'd no idea they did, and still seems quite dumb to me), and if you fail that credit check, in my case because I've never had any sort of credit or debt - I pay up front for everything - then they deny you the advertised discounts and contract plans. T-Mobile's solution is to offer you a "FlexPay" plan which involves paying full MSRP for the cell phone (up front) and the first month of service also up front. I had rent to pay, and activation related expenses on the DSL service. Paying full price for a cell phone that did what I wanted from T-Mobile (their Unlimited Hotspot Calling) was not in the cards. Getting service from them at all would have necessitated a minimum $80 phone plus $40+ for the first month. No thanks. Tried a retail establishment, just in case that would have been different. Nope. Since I was in the neighborhood, popped over to Radio Shack, which deals AT&T and Sprint plans and phones. The guy there was more than happy to see what he could do for me, and eventually I walked out with a Sprint Everything Plan and a $10 LG Rumor. Plus my friend Eddy referred me, so we both get $25 debit cards. Only snag was that whole credit thing. Sprint's solution is a bit more elegant, though (Verizon had a similar one, but I decided Sprint was a better value on the whole). You pay them a $150 security deposit up front (yes, I know, more than T-Mobile would maybe have cost me up front), which you'll get back after a year of on-time payments, and they offer you the regular contracts and discounts. Much more suitable, really. I would, of course, rather have had little to no startup costs, but that wasn't going to happen.
So I wind up with about the same monthly cost, but twice and a bit the internet speed, and a full service cell phone with web, music and GPS capabilities, plus a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Not too bad, really.