Some friends and I are taking a show on tour through the United States
for a couple of weeks in November. During this time, we want to have a
cel phone, to make calls from the car.

None of us currently has a US cel phone, nor wants to sign up for a
permanent plan (we all live in Canada, and so have no use for a
US-based cel phone apart from this trip).

There seem to be plenty of good US phone plans, on big networks,
designed for making lots of calls, with long distance included.
(Sprint sells 2000 monthly "anytime" minutes for $80) But all the
plans I've seen require at least a 12-month contract, with hefty
penalties for cancellation.

There are also pay-as-you-go plans, but the ones I've seen cost around
30 cents a minute for daytime LD. Those same 2000 minutes that are $80
on the Sprint plan would come to $600, which is a lot of money for us.

What we want is a temporary plan/phone that will let us make lots of
calls, between cities, on the road, at a reasonable price, but doesn't
require a 12-month contract.

I realize this is a sort of subjective call, so let me try and write
specifications. We want a plan that meets these criteria:


- On a network where, we can expect a signal over 75% of the time,
driving on major highways in New England, DC, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.

- Lets us make 1000 minutes worth of calls. Assume all calls are long
distance, during the day, on weekdays. Total cost: less than $175, not
including any refundable amounts. If there's a refundable deposit on
top of the $175 that's fine. It's also fine if, in addition to the
$175, we need to buy a phone, assuming the phone can be re-sold when
we're done.



Anyone know of a good cheap pay-as-you go plan? Or a plan that doesn't
require a 12-month contract? Or even: Someone with an existing account
who would rent us their phone for two weeks?

I hope this question is clear enough, and I look forward to any
reponses.

With most carriers (In the Northeast anyway) The only reason you need
to sign up for a year is to save money on the hardware. If you buy a
phone straight out, you can get cellular service on a monthly basis.

Also there are "Pay as you go" services that allow you to pay up front
for usage, when that money runs out, you can either put more on it or
not.

I hope this helps. You can probably find something like this from 

http://www.verizonwireless.com - Their "Pay as you go" is called
"Free-up"
http://www.cellularone.com

these are the only 2 national carriers I can think of right now.

Anyway, there are many. Good luck!

PS. what kind of tour are you doing?

Unfortunately, I cannot find a solution that fits within your $175
service plan budget for 1,000 minutes.

SprintPCS is not an option.  They do offer the most minutes anytime,
and thier plans can be purchased on a month-to-month basis for an
extra $10.  While they are the only national wireless carrier that
does not require a 1 or 2 year commitment, they do require a US
address and social security number for the credit check.  You could
get your 1,000 minutes from them for as little as $80, plus the $35
activation fee, and a $100 phone.  If you have a friend in the US,
they can sign up for the service for you.

The nearest I came is the new Virgin Mobile service at
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/ .  They offer phones and service with
no information required at all, not even your name.  Pay cash at the
desk, get your phone and minutes and go about your business.  Minutes
are $0.25 each, so your 1,000 minute plan would cost about $250, plus
the phone.

Virgin Mobile uses 1,900 Mhz CDMA phones on the Sprint PCS network,
which will cover your planned travels quite nicely.  The only areas
with spotty coverage in the PCS network are farther west than you plan
to travel.

I wish you the best of luck on your search, and safe travels!

Thanks for the comments so far. These are helpful, if not quite what
we're hoping for.

Kleen-ga asks:

> PS. what kind of tour are you doing?

It's too weird to explain. It is a 9-city lecture tour, where we don't
really know who any of the lecturers are, and they are all unqualified
to speak on their subjects.

See: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_10.24.02/arts/trampolinehall.html
or
http://trampolinehall.net/tour/