I am a business user, and was actually thinking of changing to the 600
minute plan.  I'll probably just keep my 900 minute plan, or go down to
the 450 minute plan and try to stay within that.

Do any of you think that the $39.99 plan is the next thing to be
eliminated?  Seems like the most prudent thing to do is hold on to a
plan as long as possible.

It depends on a lot of things.  Many users now, especially younger ones, only have
a wireless phone.  That means no wireline to compensate for additional local calls
during peak periods.  Of course, if a user can't control his usage, he shouldn't
have a wireless phone in the first place.

TH

In our area, land-line phone service starts at $40 per month (much of it
bullshit fees and taxes).  That doesn't include long-distance.  Our total
telephone costs used to be well over two hundred dollars per month.  By
ditching the land-line and upgrading to a better cell plan, we are saving
50% or more in total telephone charges.  Our CELL phone bill is more
expensive now, but it is the ONLY phone bill we have.  That's really nice.

But so many people seem to be addicted to the land-line.  I don't get it
myself.  I mean, I had a land-line and two cell phones for years.  Then one
day I "woke up" and realized that the vast majority of our family's
telephone calls were being made with cellular handsets, and that the rest of
the phone calls were racking up long-distance charges.  That made NO SENSE
AT ALL, financially speaking.

We could have gone with some kind of VOIP service on our cable modem.  But
then, the cable modem is about as portable as the land-line phone.  It's
nice to be able to have our HOME phone with us when we're not at
ome.  -Dave

Well yes, it's cheaper in that sense.  The problem is, 500 minutes is FAR
too few minutes to be used as "shared" minutes.  The 500 level shouldn't
even be offered in the family plan.  IMHO  -Dave

    You have to look at the per minute cost of the old vs. the new. My old
850 minute plan w/three phones ($60 + 2 @ $10) costs me 0.094 cents a
minute. I cannot get a plan anywhere near that now. The $60 plan w/two
phones, + the extra phone would cost me $75 for 500 minutes, a whooping 0.15
cents a minute, for 250 minutes LESS. Even if I went to the $80 plan +$15
for the third phone I would be paying 0.095 per minute for 1,000 minutes. I
don't need 1,000 minutes. Looks like I will be holding on to my current plan
for a LONG time.

    I don't pay much attention to what other carriers are doing, but I
think Cingular is shooting themselves in the foot big time, and I think
giving prospective and current customers more reasons to look at other
carriers

What, you don't have any women in your family?  :)  -Dave  (ducking and
running for cover, ha ha )