Cell Phones At 7-11?

By JOSHUA QUITTNER

I have so far managed to avoid buying a cellular telephone. But the trainshouters are doing me in. I refer to the guys on my commuter train who bellow their intimate business strategies into their cell phones, oblivious to people like me: decent, hardworking folk who may have sleepless infants at home and who look forward to a little nap time. Last week I came up with a way to protect my constitutional Right to Snooze. But first I needed a wireless phone of my own.

Virtually everyone is selling them these days, from Radio Shack to department stores. And it's a good time to buy. Mark Lowenstein, an analyst at the Yankee Group, says prices have come down 20% during the past year. "There's a real battle for shelf space," he says. Topp Telecom even began selling Uniden's TracFones through selected 7-Elevens this month. You can also find them at Eckerd's drugstores and Pilot gas stations. The TracFone is sort of a cellular "Saturday-night special": pony up $99 and walk away with a cheap but effective phone with 60 minutes of calling time. When that runs out, you just buy more time on a plastic card. Such "prepaid" services are good for low-volume users or those with poor credit, but beware: you must buy a $30 card every two months or lose your service.

My testers and I sampled other new phones, including the compact Sony D-Wave Zuma 100 ($299), the even tinier Motorola StarTAC ($199) and Nokia's 6190 ($199)--a Swiss Army knife of a thing that allows you to send and receive text and numeric messages, and offers a calendar, calculator and four computer games. (Our detailed review of each phone is at time.com

But while finding a good device is relatively painless, getting cellular service, I quickly learned, is about as easy as picking a cardiologist: be ready for lots of critical choices, often involving leaps of faith and a disturbing amount of fine print. (Did you know that "free weekends and nights" often means after you use up your monthly allotment of prime-time minutes?)

The biggest question facing any prospective buyer is digital vs. analog. Analog phones are often thrown in "free" with service contracts. But digital phones offer whizzy features and last far longer on battery power. Also, digital networks generally provide clearer signals than analog. One day, digital networks will blanket the planet. Now, however, coverage is spotty, with smaller places unserved. Worse, there are three different digital "languages"--one used by AT&T, for instance; another by Sprint; and a third, known as GSM, that is big in Europe and offered here by Omnipoint. Alas, they can't understand one another's signals. That's why digital-service providers are throwing in great incentives to buy. The Qualcomm phone ($199) I tried--and would have bought, if Sprint's PCS service were available where I live--is a perfect example. One of the features you get for $29 a month is a voice mailbox. Turn on the phone, and it instantly shows if messages are waiting. When roaming to areas not served by Sprint's digital net--like during my hour commute between Long Island and Manhattan--the phone is supposed to switch automatically to analog service. It didn't. Sprint's help line later cured the glitch. Now I can use the phone on the railroad--to call the trainshouter across the aisle and tell him to pipe down.

See time.com for a detailed review of five cell phones. E-mail Josh at jquit@well.com Watch him and Anita Hamilton on CNNfn at 7:30 p.m. E.T. on Wednesdays.