What time is it?

Intelligence.

Tower costs for a given size are roughly the same. Everything else is different. For example, there are differences in acquisition costs, shared tower leases, zoning restrictions, legal costs, planning department hurtles, municipal kickbacks, and visual camouflage. Making the tower visually less disgusting can easily double the cost of the tower. In some areas, it has become such a hassle for the cellular companies that they have divested themselves of all their towers, and leased them back. Crown Castle is the leader after buying all of AT&T's towers for $4.85 billion. It's very likely that they will also end up owning most of Verizon's towers:

If you're interested in all this, dig through a few issues of AGL magazine: What you'll probably find is that some municipalities welcome cell towers, while others are extortionists, RF paranoid, or in desperate need of sane technical advice.

Because of the cost of getting a big tower approved, cellular vendors are drifting towards "small cell". Although there are more such sites required to cover a given area, they are more likely to be approved and cost much less.

From the FAQ at: When do my minutes expire? For the Standard plan, your minutes will only expire if you fail to replenish within 120 days from the date of your last replenishment; otherwise, your unused minutes will always roll forward. If the balance has been removed after the 120 day expiration, it cannot be recovered. For monthly Talk n Text plans, your allotment of voice minutes, messages and data expire each month.

PagePlus usually roams into Sprint. The price is about 29 cents/min. If you are out of Verizon territory, the cost of roaming makes PagePlus rather expensive.

I can't help you on the voice clarity problem. Personally, I think that CDMA is clearer than GSM. Others think it's the other way around. My favorite test is to call my POTS line answering machine or leave a voice mail message. If it sounds good when I play it back, the phone is ok. If it sounds bad, forget it.

Incidentally, I see a problem with smart phones that I find entertaining. Many have rubber or plastic protectors to provide some impact drop protection. They all have a slit the corresponds to the microphone, which is sometimes misaligned. Whenever I get a complaint about lousy audio, I look for that problem. It's amazingly common.

It only drops to 0.8Kbits/sec when there's extended silence. Most of the time, it's at 8.55 or 4.0 Kbits/sec methinks depending on channel loading.

With all your roll forward minutes, I would stay with Net10.

I think I understand what they are saying and it is different from Net10. With Net10 the days rollover just like the minutes. I can add two $60 cards and my days will be extended by 180 (or whatever the number is) and my minutes will extend by 1800. I believe the above text indicates the days on both card (as well as the previous card) would be counting down simultaneously. "from the date of your last replenishment" is the important phrase.

There is no place where you are "out of Verizon territory" for all practical purposes. I can assure you Verizon coverage does not end at the Frederick county line and there are Verizon customers in West Virginia. $0.30 per minute for roaming is ridiculous. I don't think I paid that much when I got my first cell phone many years ago.

No, I'm not talking about a subtle effect. That is why I am convinced Verizon is giving me a very low bit rate. The voice quality on this phone is never great and even in areas where I am receiving a strong signal it can sound like talking into a barrel.

If I ever get a cover for my dumb phone I'll check into that.

Depending on what they feel like giving you. You need to hear this crap. I know what LPC-10 sounds like and this is only a little bit better if you can hear it at all. I often get terrible drop outs so I can't hear at all. That is likely reception. But as I have said, even with a strong signal the voice quality is very poor.

I'm pretty convinced the bit rate is dropped of on the non-Verizon phones first which means I almost never get 8 kbps.

You are confusing minutes and days. I end up paying for my minutes rather than paying by the month. But that may be coming to an end. Net10 has stopped selling any but the 300 minute card under the old plan which is more expensive per minute. The newer plan is lots of minutes, but only good for 30 days. They want a minimum amount per month just like everyone else. I bought my last minutes care from Walmart. We'll see if they still have them now, it has been some months.

That's okay.

The time now is 2:57PM.

Hey! That is just as good as my piece of paper! Better than that cell phone.