communication.

[BethanY.]

while i am here to ask a specific question (below), ANY tips re: communication *very* welcome. actually, i could use the reassurance right now! some of you may remember me, i popped in maybe a year ago(?) asking questions re: atp. well, brett (husband) starts december 3rd in atlanta. i am in michigan, i am concerned

at any rate, i most specifically wanted to ask: what cell phone carrier/plan do you use? we are going to do away with our one land line & try to both get cell phones to better stay in touch. obviously, we don't need excessive costs right now (no need to tell you that!) but it's important to us to do this. again, your responses highly appreciated.

speak soon
BethanY.

[flyershoe]

Hi Bethany… welcome back! Congrats to your hubby for making the decision, and good luck to you. Just stick with us and you'll be fine!! Spend as much time with him now as you can, I imagine that the next few months will be hard on both of you. It's too bad that you don't have flight bennies to use… do you know if he'll be in a situation to come home very often or would you be able to get to Atlanta to see him?
In terms of cell phones, I think that with most plans now all calls are free within the network… like me & my bf both have AT&T, so we don't pay for calls to each other. Actually I find that I barely use my extra minutes, since he's the only one that I ever talk to… I must have 3,000 rollover minutes! You might also want to look into one of those family share plans to save money. I have one, my mom uses the extra line. My bf has his parents on his as well, it ends up being around $100 a month for 3 of them.
Hope my answers helped!

[spotty4]

My fiance` and I use Verizon. And like AT&T, all calls in network are free (i.e. do not use your alloted minutes on your plan).

FYI, when I lived in the midwest before moving to CA, I had Sprint. Their coverage back there was fantastic. Out here its awful. So I've since switched to Verizon. In the past 1-2 years, however, my family back in the midwest has also switched to Verizon from Sprint. They seem very happy w/ Verizon after the switch.

[flyershoe]

Originally Posted by spotty4

My fiance` and I use Verizon. And like AT&T, all calls in network are free (i.e. do not use your alloted minutes on your plan).

FYI, when I lived in the midwest before moving to CA, I had Sprint. Their coverage back there was fantastic. Out here its awful. So I've since switched to Verizon. In the past 1-2 years, however, my family back in the midwest has also switched to Verizon from Sprint. They seem very happy w/ Verizon after the switch.

I think now your best bet is to just find whoever has the best coverage... rates are pretty competitive across the board now. Sprint was the first carrier that I had and I LOVED them... they cost a little bit more at that point in time, though. AT&T has been okay for me. I may look at Verizon when my contract is up.

[the_woman_99]

I use AT&T. SO just got a job working for FlexJet and they give him a blackberry which is with AT&T so now we talk for free and I don't have to worry about roll over minutes. But I like the service. I never have to worry about not having service to make a call. I think that it all really depends on where you are and who is going to give you both the best coverage.
I live away from my pilot as well right now so the phone is all we have. I am just glad that we can now talk for free without being charged more.
Good luck with everything!

[BethanY.]

thank-you for the reponses so far!

flyershoe: i may need to rely on all of you more than i realized! i'm pretty tore up about this...which i don't want to be, especially not now when we have so little time left *and* this is supposed to be a good, happy thing, right?? i don't know if we'll get to see each other. he certainly won't make it back here with school seven days a week(!) and money is so tight i don't know how i'd swing going there no christmas, no new years, no birthday (mine), no valentines, and no anniversary. okay, i'll stop.

spotty4: that is a good point, we need to find something that we're certain is compatible with both of our locations. hopefully that won't be too much of a problem since we're both going to be on the same side of the country

the_woman_99: congrats on your SO's new job! that is wonderful. hopefully as things progress in our pilots careers, life gets easier. that's what the boards have taught me thus far. much needed comfort

[jr_lenz]

Hubby and I comuted between Idaho and AZ for 4 yrs, so you can be done. You need to change the way that you think about no b-day's no v-day. We use to set up dates, we would go to a coffee shop and both order the same thing and talk, or rent the same movie and watch it together, we also tried to watch the same tv shows. it made a big differrence if feeling connected in each others lives.

we use verizon by the way.

[Amanda]

Nick and I also did long distance for about 4 years. For a while he was in IAD and I was in PHX so we only saw each other 3-4 days each month! It CAN be done! We are now living together in the same place which is great... I just had to be patient!

We both have T-Mobile which has been pretty good. I highly suggest getting unlimited text and picture messages! It's an extra $5 for T-Mobile. We couldn't survive without it since it keeps us connected! I always get pics of him in different cities which I love.
Good luck!

[ASLhands]

Originally Posted by Amanda

Nick and I also did long distance for about 4 years. For a while he was in IAD and I was in PHX so we only saw each other 3-4 days each month! It CAN be done! We are now living together in the same place which is great... I just had to be patient!

We both have T-Mobile which has been pretty good. I highly suggest getting unlimited text and picture messages! It's an extra $5 for T-Mobile. We couldn't survive without it since it keeps us connected! I always get pics of him in different cities which I love.
Good luck!

Tmobile also has the Fave Fives where you pick five numbers you call most and you can talk to them unlimited for something like $10/month extra.

[Kristie]

Originally Posted by Amanda

We both have T-Mobile which has been pretty good. I highly suggest getting unlimited text and picture messages! It's an extra $5 for T-Mobile. We couldn't survive without it since it keeps us connected! I always get pics of him in different cities which I love.
Good luck!

We also use Skype which is pretty cheap since it's VOIP related (based off computer).