What is your total cost of ownership of your phone, over five years?

[Don Wiss]

I haven't owned a cellphone for five years yet!

I have never paid more than $100/year for my Tracfine service. Early on I did buy two phones for $30 each (Android 4 and then Android 5). Now that I know about the deals on HSN, I can get a phone free with a year service for under $100. See:

I now have an Android 6 with 16 GB. I am waiting for the J3 to come out with Android 7. I am paid up through next November. I expect a new phone to be out before then.

Early on I did buy some cases and RF bags. Say $30. Now an adequate case is included in the HSN deal.

Most people (i.e. the ones that don't steam music or videos) are grossly overpaying for their cellphone and service.

Don.

(e-mail link at home page bottom).

[rbowman]

I think my LG flip phone was $20. iirc I put a $7 battery in it somewhere along the way.

[mike]

How can cost of service NOT be included in "total" cost of ownership? FreedomPop will give you free service on a $30 refurbished phone.

[dorayme]

Not me, a kind person gave me an iPhone, I use a prepaid sim for calls and text messages only

The sim provider has even kindly turned off mobile data for me so I could not use it if I tried or if Apple decided or if some app or some bug decided (yes, it happened that somehow mobile data got turned on at some stage without me doing it, that is when I contacted the sim company and was very pleased they could bar cellular data use at their end).

There are advantages to the iPhone (A 5S), it can be used as a hard to read iPad when on wifi (most of the time for me), you can send text messages via iMessage at no cost to your sim prepaid, you can send pictures and other stuff, like voice messages, it has a mike that you can dictate text, it has a pretty nice camera for many purposes, you can download podcasts on wifi and listen when out and about and navigate between the shows more easily than with say my great tiny little iPod Shuffle.

The downside it is something many folk hardly need, especially if they have iPads and Macbooks. Big and heavy compared to some very cheap little flip phones (with very adequate phone and texting facilities, and a few other things that were useful) that used to be current.

[Pseudonym]

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 6 months, you'd know there are millions of wifi devices that remain unpatched to this day. You are free to do what you like with your stuff but I don't want unpatched WPA2 / krack vulnerable devices on my network.

[hubops]

... uh .. just perhaps .. .. the usage will vary somewhat from user to user ? At which point the survey becomes even MORE stupider. John T.

[Clare Snyder]

That's REAL:LY simple. Turn off the WiFi. It's a PHONE for crying out loud. When you are within range of your "network" use your computer for stuff that requires network connectivity.

[Clare Snyder]

Can't beat a Blackberry of any vintage for texting with it's QUERTY Keyboard.

[Clare Snyder]

Not in Canada (the highest cell-phone cost country in the world)

[nospam]

phones are computers, often a better choice for many tasks than using a desktop/laptop computer, sometimes the only choice.

plus, some desktop/laptop computers haven't been patched either.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Makes no sense to spend 30% of the cost of the phone to replace a battery. You could have gotten a new, less durable phone for only $799.

[nospam]

true, particularly when newer and more capable flip phones were offered for free when renewing a contract.

[Peter]

Over 5 yrs, my total cost = $50, because I purchased my T-mobile To Go Nokia 6030 "dumb" phone (for about $30) 8 yrs ago, along with $100 worth of talk time. That qualified me for Gold status, where all unused minutes roll over for a full year if I purchase only a minimal number of refill minutes ($10) within that year. I use the phone for only 15-45 minutes/year, refill 364 days after the previous refill, and still have a balance of about 1200 minutes of talk time. My wife has the same type of phone, same plan, and similar balance. We use the phones only for emergencies and only have them turned on when one of us is out of the house. Maybe 10 people in the world know our cell phone numbers. We have texting turned off by T-Mobile, so we never have to pay for spam texts.

[Clare Snyder]

They sure as heck are not FREE - you are just paying for them on a monthly plan. My phone service costs me less when I "bring my own phone" Over a 3 year contract you are paying full price for your "free" phone

[Frank]

The one I got was free and I got it before I needed to add time to the contract. With Tracfone you buy minutes and contract time as you need them. When you buy more time you will get more minutes and unused minutes roll over. For someone like me that seldom uses the phone but wants to carry a cell phone mainly for emergency or just out of the house and want to call someone, it is perfect and the absolute cheapest way to go.

[XS11E]

I do NOT want to know, OK?

[nospam]

which would be paid anyway, so might as well get a new phone.

now it does. it didn't used to be that way.

[dorayme]

...

Perhaps not. I liked the simple keyboard on my flip Samsung (a tiny thing) where up to 4 letters (but mostly 3) operated on each key. You can get quite quick texting on these things.

[dorayme]

Makes perfect sense where the costs are trivial.

[dorayme]

Yes, of course, it would be you to agree with such nonsense. It makes perfect sense in some circumstances, like when the sums are very low. You, naturally, cannot understand stats, you just see them and generalise without thought for human circumstances.