We use prepaid, buy 1000 minutes at a time for $100 and only pay sales tax
on that (less we find refill card on EBay). We live in Illinois and our
local sales taxes are 7%. The minutes last a year then are rollable if you
don't use them. Of course we don't use that many minutes to begin with and
the prepaid phone selection isn't that great. We have 2 non camera phones
and a Sidekick II I only use for 10 days every 3 months ($10 a crack) when
we go on vacation so we don't have to lug the laptop around.

"P.Schuman" <pschuman_no_spam_me@interserv.com> wrote in message
news:Vz45j.2844$Vq.1321@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com...
> My son is out looking at different cell plans so he can get a smartphone..
> However, I've warned him - for budgeting purposes - that the real monthly
> cost
> is not just the detailed voice and/or data plan,
> but it also includes the local TAXES.
>
> Looking at some of my old Sprint bills,
> it looks like a $39 plan had about $7.50 added in taxes = 20%
>
> So - what do you see on your bill as far as actual plan cost vs added
> taxes ?
>