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Phone prices vary by where you buy; a carrier's rate plans do not. You'll often find noticeably better phone deals online, from independent retailers, than you will by buying directly from the carrier.
Roaming calls are those made or received when you are physically outside your rate plan's home coverage area. If you are traveling outside that area, you can incur roaming charges when talking to someone regardless of where they are, even if they happen to be standing right next to you. Most roaming charges can be avoided with the selection of a national rate plan (see page 18).
Throughout this guide, we've highlighted a number of issues that affect what you will pay for your cell phone and your plan. In this section, we offer a bit of background on the economic factors of the wireless industry to help explain why plans and phones are priced the way they are and how wireless companies make money.
Carrier coverage maps are only a starting point; check with friends or neighbors who use the carrier you are considering to find out their experiences. Take full advantage of the trial period offered by most carriers.
While the text messaging discussed above is actually a form of e-mail, most cell phones will also let you send and receive e-mails from web-based providers such as AOL Mail, MSN Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail. Most PDA devices will let you retrieve POP3 e-mail (e.g., Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express).
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