You Call it a Ghett-tro, but I Call My Metro the Best Thing EVER

Do you know what a "Cricket" is? No, not the grasshopper thing that makes noise at night. I'm talking about a Cricket phone, one of those cell phones whose basic monthly service costs next to nothing, but you can only call locally, within the few surrounding counties of where you live?

I've got something like that, but MetroPCS actually services some major cities across the U.S. Where I live (and in many other cities serviced by this phone company, so I've heard), my Metro phone is referred to as a "Ghett-tro." But I could care less. This phone is the best thing EVER!

So, like a lot of people these days, my credit is super raggedy, right? And I can't get a Cingular, Verizon, Sun Com, T-Mobile and you can forget about Sprint (who I don' like anyway! Cos those suckers will cut your phone service off for a measly 3¢). Well, I probably could get one of those phones, but who has $500 for a deposit? Uh, not me - that's money well spent on other things - like a rent! So, when I first moved to Atlanta, I was told about Metro PCS (that was 1 ½ years ago, and I'm still going strong). I paid $89.99 and got a Nokia phone and one month of phone service included! Each month my bill is $56, due by the 9th (because that's when I signed up). I have UNLIMTED talk time (I can talk til my ears fall off and it's all free!), texting, voice mail, 3-way calling, photo sharing (if you have a camera phone), call forwarding and some other stuff I really don't use.

Now, of course I got the basic phone that came with setting up the service, but you can get any Metro phone you want, camera, speaker, etc. I can pay my bill at the Metro store, over the phone, or, my favorite, online at www.mymetropcs.com (if you pay online, there's no $3.00 'service fee' like the other payment options charge - just click the 'My Account' tab and then choose to pay your bill without seeing your statement).

So, then I found out that my boyfriend, who was in the Bay Area at the time, had also switched to MetroPCS. "They service the Bay Area?" I thought to myself. So I jumped online and did some research. MetroPCS extends farther than I originally thought. MetroPCS does have 'limited' free talk areas (unless you pay for roaming at something like 49¢ a minute), but they do cover these areas: California: San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Sacramento; Florida: Southern Florida, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Port Charlotte, Ft. Myers, Naples, The Keys, most of Central Florida; Georgia: Atlanta, Athens; Michigan: Downtown Detroit, Clinton Township, Taylor, Southfield; Texas: Dallas, Ft. Worth, Denton, Sherman/Dennison.

Now, earlier I mentioned 'call forwarding.' My best friend got a traveling job and is somewhere in Virginia. Metro doesn't service Virginia, but she got one of those Cingular prepaid phones, and transferred her MetroPCS calls to her Cingular phone. How cool is that? Now I don't have to program another telephone number, I just call her original Metro number and it rings to her Cingular in Virginia. Bad thing about Cingular though, she only has free nights after 9pm and weekends. Ha! Even the other companies' prepaid phones don't measure up to my so-called "Ghett-tro!"

You can check out all their services, cool phones, plans, etc. at www.metropcs.com. Cricket, Ghett-tro, whatever you wanna call it, I could care less. I have the best of all phone services rolled into one low monthly cost… and if you live in one of the service areas, PARENTS! This is the phone to get your kids - they can talk til the cows come home and will never run up their cell phone bills again! So, if you're on a limited budget, don't do tons of traveling, and don't have the willpower to stick to some crazy time restraints of after 7pm or 9pm, then give MetroPCS a peek. You'll be glad you did!