What kind of data plan do you owe your children

If you have children today, I think most parents feel better about their child's safety if they can contact someone from a remote location.
But most parents are uncomfortable with giving their children unlimited access to unlimited data on the internet anytime, anywhere. Even parents who can afford the roughly $50-$75 per child that such a plan costs may not be happy with the idea.

But what about these ultra cheap plans. Some parents may be comfortable with their child being able to text someone, but not as comfortable with them making phone calls to anyone in the world.

Tello ultra cheap plans
$5 /month Free text & 100 minutes NO CELLULAR DATA (WiFi data only)
$7 /month Free text & 200 minutes NO CELLULAR DATA (WiFi data only)
$9 /month Free text & 300 minutes NO CELLULAR DATA (WiFi data only)
$11 /month Free text & 500 minutes NO CELLULAR DATA (WiFi data only)
$15 /month Free text unlimited minutes NO CELLULAR DATA (WiFi data only)

What do you owe your kid?

I would have gotten in trouble when I was a kid if I made a long distance phone call that cost 50 cents without getting an OK first. For two reasons:

*50 cents was 50 cents [OK, well, that'd be about $4 in today's money]

*long distance was only to be used in an emergency and you scared the crap out of the recipient when you made one, so you didn't just make such a call willy nilly

Quote: odiousgambit

I would have gotten in trouble when I was a kid if I made a long distance phone call that cost 50 cents without getting an OK first. For two reasons:

*50 cents was 50 cents [OK, well, that'd be about $4 in today's money]

*long distance was only to be used in an emergency and you scared the crap out of the recipient when you made one, so you didn't just make such a call willy nilly

You might be old if you remember that you waited until 10:00 PM or the weekend when the rates were lower.

When were were kids acting up at dinner once, my dad pretended to call Santa Claus. I should have known he would not have made an international call at day LD rates when he waited until 10:00 to call his own mother. Let alone he had no idea the country code for the North Pole.

Quote: AZDuffman

You might be old if you remember that you waited until 10:00 PM or the weekend when the rates were lower.

I definitely remember that. We also had a shared party line phone with our neighbor. If the neighbor was on the phone you could pick up and listen to their conversation and you couldn't use the phone until they got off. When the phone rang it had two different ring styles so you could identify if the acll was for your house or the neighbors. It would ring in both houses.

Quote: odiousgambit

I would have gotten in trouble when I was a kid if I made a long distance phone call that cost 50 cents without getting an OK first.

The trick in the 50's when you
were on a trip was to call home
collect and ask for yourself. This
would let your fam know you
were OK. Even Bob Hope did it
in the 40's, long distance was
that expensive.

Quote: Evenbob

The trick in the 50's when you
were on a trip was to call home
collect and ask for yourself. This
would let your fam know you
were OK. Even Bob Hope did it
in the 40's, long distance was
that expensive.

We just let it ring once or twice then hung up.

Quote: AZDuffman

We just let it ring once or twice then hung up.

I remember reading in a Bob Hope
biography. "Every night during WWII
the phone would ring and it would be
daddy asking for himself from some
far away place. Just letting us know
he was still alive."

Quote: AZDuffman

You might be old if you remember that you waited until 10:00 PM or the weekend when the rates were lower.

Well obviously we are all old enough to remember long distance. If you tell a kid today that he can't call anywhere in the USA they are thinking you are talking to a caveman. You should follow that up by telling him that Doctor's were once not considered important enough to have cellular phones. Instead people would page them a phone number of who was calling, and it was up to them to find a phone and call the person back.

But in the present day do you spend on your child:

• Nothing
• $1.25 a week so they can text anyone plus an average of 25 minutes a week of talk time for emergencies
• 50 cents a day so they talk or text to anyone in the USA for unlimited time
• $2 a day so they talk or text to anyone in the USA for unlimited time plus run internet nonstop (and call Mexico and Canada)

I spend $50 Canadian on my grandson. Unlimited text and phone and shares 7GB of data with my wife and me. This is plenty of data as long as he makes sure he uses Wi-Fi at home.

Quote: Pacomartin

If you tell a kid today that he can't call anywhere in the USA they are thinking you are talking to a caveman.

I think kids today think you're a caveman for making phone calls. I think they only text and, in special cases, Skype. The next generation will think "phone" is a synonym of "computer."

Quote:

You should follow that up by telling him that Doctor's were once not considered important enough to have cellular phones. Instead people would page them a phone number of who was calling, and it was up to them to find a phone and call the person back.

Actually, for a long time only doctors had pagers, and that was cutting edge tech.

By the 90s, when receiving calls on your cell was expensive, lots of people had pagers. Then they'd get up, find the nearest payphone, and call their customers/patients/friends back.