veeneman@mot.com (Dan Veeneman) (12/07/90)
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]