How to Buy a Cell Phone

Picking the Right Plan

While shopping for a new plan, be completely realistic about how you will use your phone. The national phone plans that the major carriers offer will let you send and receive calls anywhere in the United States (and even in parts of Canada) at no extra charge. You may be able to sign up for a local or regional plan that limits the areas where you can originate a call and still pull from your monthly pool of minutes; this option might be worth considering if you use your phone for local calls exclusively. If you have a world phone and plan to use it in other countries, choose service with international roaming.

As you're selecting a plan, it's best to overestimate the number of minutes you'll be using for every sent and received call. Because one carrier's definition of off-peak may be different from another's, ask the carrier to specify the times for its peak, off-peak, and weekend hours.

You should also take into account your data usage (for email, video, connected apps, and Web browsing) when picking your cell phone plan. Most carriers bundle voice and data plans together. Customers on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are capped at how much data they can use before extra charges kick in. Sprint is the last U.S. wireless network to offer new customers an unlimited data plan.

Choosing the Right Carrier

Tired of your current carrier, or shopping for your first smartphone ever? Choosing a carrier is a daunting task. Most likely you've heard of the Big Four: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. You'll also encounter smaller, regional carriers such as Cellular One and U.S. Cellular, as well as prepaid carriers like Boost Mobile, Cricket Wireless, and MetroPCS.

Before you start examining plans, find out whether you can get solid coverage in your city, town, or area. Ask your neighbors about the carrier they use, and whether they have reliable service. If you don’t have good coverage in your home, you’ll be in for a frustrating two years. You should also check the coverage for any other areas where you spend a lot of time, such as your office or a friend's or relative’s house.

Customer service is another factor to consider. Every year, PCWorld polls readers on carrier service and support. In last year’s Reliability and Service survey, T-Mobile excelled in phone support. According to the survey, T-Mobile's average hold time was 4.6 minutes--significantly lower than the others, which had times ranging from 5.2 minutes (AT&T) to 6.1 minutes (Verizon).

And 84 percent of T-Mobile customers reported that they were satisfied with the voice-call reliability of the carrier's network, second only to Verizon's 86.7 percent.

If you’re not into the idea of signing up for a two-year contract with a carrier, try a prepaid plan. These days you can find full-featured Android or BlackBerry smartphones with prepaid plans that offer unlimited minutes, text messages, and data, plans that cost less than half of what the equivalent ones would cost with AT&T or Verizon. For more information, check out our comparison of prepaid plans, as well as some reviews of smartphones available for a prepaid plan.