I signed up for this plan because I thought that for $20 a month, if things didn't work out, I wouldn't be badly out of pocket. Was I wrong! I signed up for one of those "free phone, 5 Hollywood video rentals, and $10 off a Domino's pizza" deals with a $20 donation to Special Olympics. The offers change (there have been tie-ins with the Red Cross and McDonalds), but the deals are the same. I also signed up for the trial news messaging service.

The plan is next to useless unless you stay within the San Francisco Bay Area. Even then, signals are constantly lost. And god help you if you ever roam. The roaming charges are the most astronomical I have ever seen. One month, when I was away on business, my phone bill went into the thousands of dollars. Coverage outside of the Bay Area, even by roaming partners is also sketchy.

One of my bills never turned up and it took Pac Bell 6 months to finally get a replacement bill to me. They were having problems with a new billing system. when this new system went in around April 1999, they could not fax me a copy of a bill either, although this has now changed, since they eventually faxed me that bill after 4 or 5 calls back to customer service.

I had also asked to be taken off the trial news/weather messaging service but so far have not been able to get off it, so I'm still bombarded with annoying messages which I don't even bother to look at any more. Of course, this means anyone sending me a message will also be ignored.

Watch out for the fine print, because even if you do not execeed the plan limits, you'll likely pay another $4 for taxes etc. The plan I now use is Sprint for $50 a month and 500 anytime minutes, free of long distance and roaming charges almost anywhere in the country.



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