When looking for a good cell phone service, there are a number of things you need to seriously consider, in addition to how it affects your budget.

• Do I have good coverage in the area where I use the phone the most?
• Am I paying too much?
• Do I have a phone smart enough to use the services I’m paying for?
• Is the FREE phone I get really free on my 2 year contract?

Do I have good coverage?

The first thing one should look at is “where do I use my phone the most?” Is it when I’m home? Many of us spend tons of time commuting to and from work, shopping, the movies, the beach, etc.

Get the zip code of the area where you use your phone the most and check the coverage map.

Am I paying too much?

The short answer is yes, usually. But it all depends on what you get for your money! If you’re paying more than $49.00 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data on a 4G network, then the answer is definitely yes!

Do I have a “smart” phone?

There is such a variety of cell phones available today that it can be a bit overwhelming. For the sake of simplicity, these can be broken down into a few different categories, namely: mobile technology, operating systems, and phone styles.

• Mobile technology: There are two basic technologies in mobile phones, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile). Five of the top seven US carriers use CDMA: Verizon Wireless, Sprint, MetroPCS, Cricket and US Cellular. AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. That means we are primarily a CDMA country. It also means that we are not part of the standard, because most of the world is GSM. There are good and bad CDMA and GSM networks, but there are key differences between the technologies Here’s what you, as a consumer, need to know. It’s much easier to swap phones on GSM networks, because GSM carriers put customer information on a removable SIM card. Take out the card, put it in a different phone and the new phone now has your number. Also, to be considered GSM, a carrier must accept any GSM-compatible phone. Therefore, GSM carriers are not in full control of the phone you are using. In the US, CDMA providers use network-based whitelists to verify their subscribers. That means you can only switch phones with your carrier’s permission, and a carrier doesn’t have to accept any particular phone on its network. It could, but US carriers generally choose not to. In other words, you can bring an unlocked AT&T phone to T-Mobile (even though your 3G may not work as well because the frequency bands are different). You can’t bring a Verizon phone to Sprint, because the Sprint network rejects non-Sprint phones.

• Operating systems:The mobile market is fragmented among the following software platforms: Palm webOS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android and iPhone OS. iPhone OS features the world’s largest mobile store (nearly 100,000 apps today), rich multimedia capabilities, the best mobile browser, and a responsive and easy-to-use UI (user interface) based on icons and animations. It also has its own app store with over a thousand apps, including Google Voice. Analyst firm Gartner says Google’s Android will overtake the iPhone OS in 2012. The number of Android devices is expanding rapidly and includes phones from HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.

• Phone styles:There are as many different styles of phones as there are styles of cars and bikes. You have to decide what features you want in a phone: do you want a fully functional watch phone? Maybe a qwerty type keyboard. Do you want a big screen, a touch screen? What camera quality do you need? Do you want HD video. Of course you want GPS, or yes, some people don’t. What is the battery life? There is a downside to some phones: battery life could decrease significantly when using 4G compared to 3G. Like personal email, Facebook, Twitter, games, music, videos, movies, and more. Choose a cell phone if you only use voice and text, but choose a smartphone if you also want to run apps, browse the web, and send email. If you’re on a tight budget and can sacrifice having limited Apps, there are some low-cost “feature” phones, like the Sparq Qwerty that has voice, text, web browsing, and some Apps.

Are FREE phones really free?

Your contract is about to end and the phone company is offering you the latest smartphone or iPhone, either for free or at a deep discount.

AT&T offers the iPhone 5 for just $349; however, just paying for 5 GB of data per month from AT&T would cost $1,200 over 2 years, plus the $199 cost of a subsidized iPhone (and you have to pay for voice minutes and text on top of that), another $1,200 over 2 years – Total $2,749.

Compare that to buying an iPhone 5 for $699 and then paying just $49 a month for unlimited voice, text and data from Solavei – a total of $1,875, a savings of $874 over 2 years. Now which phone was free?

So how do you get the best cell phone services?

You need to get a flat-rate unlimited service that has good coverage in your high usage area, and buy the best smart device you can afford within your budget.