We Have Cellphones Now

Last week, Sherree and I decided to bite the bullet and join the masses: we bought cellphones. We each have an LG CU400 phone and we have the FamilyTalk 550 plan from Cingular.

We hadn't ever bothered with cellphones before for a few reasons: we didn't want to be available anywhere anytime, we (almost) always had easy access to a phone, and we don't really use the phone that much.

Alas, things have changed! Neither one of us really has convenient or semi-private access to a phone at our current jobs, and now that Sherree's in graduate school working to become a teacher, she really needs a phone to make some necessary contacts. For more than a few months now, I've had to work late at least a few nights, and letting Sherree know is a good thing.

We chose the LG CU400 phone simply because it was free if we signed up for two-year contract. (If you don't know, a two-year contract is "normal.") We chose Cingular because Cingular and Verizon are the two companies with the most complete service in Connecticut and surrounding areas, and Sherree's had some good reports from people using Cingular.

Of course, I'm already a little dissatisfied with the service. We bought the phones on Tuesday night. According to our bill, starting Wednesday Sherree was receiving at least five spam text messages every day. Cingular's support offered three suggestions: text "STOP" back to the spammer (that certainly doesn't work with e-mail, does it work with phones? I doubt it.), change phone numbers (so, what, like a new one every 24 hours to avoid the spam?), or completely disable text messaging. Since we weren't buying the phones for their text-messaging capability I asked them to disable it. But, really, that's the spam-fighting solution? I suppose if that's the biggest complaint we have about them, it's not too bad.

There's a low-res (640 × 480 pixels) camera on our phones. That could be fun to play with, but I guess I need a USB cable to get the photos off the phones.