schrodinger's cat <sc@invalid.invalid> amazed us all with the following
in news:48t7041lalc7f0rpc2ssnehge0ivp637n5@4ax.com:

> Here's the situation:
>
> My wife and I are currently on a 2 line family plan contract which
> expires in September. The contract is in her name because a couple of
> years ago when we decided that it would be cheaper if we gave up our
> individual plans, my contract ran out first and I joined her plan. We
> have both been SPCS customers for more than ten years. I have Vision
at
> $10.00/month on my line because I use email and text messaging for
> business (and checking sports scores). My wife has voice only because
> she just uses her phone for, well, telephone conversations.
>
> Recently, my wife has started to be bombarded by Sprint reps calling
her
> on her SPCS phone to try to talk her into extending her contract, even
> though it still has several months remaining. They seem to be offering
> nothing more than what we already have in the way of price and
features,
> except for the offer of two free new phones. Coincidentally, her
company
> has been pressuring her lately to upgrade her phone to one on which
she
> can send and receive email, because she is part of an emergency
response
> team.
>
> My LG LX350 does everything I need in terms of email and texting. The
> text messages are mainly incoming to notify me of voice calls, emails,
> or faxes that have been received at my unified message center. I can
> read the emails using Opera Mini, and I can respond either by a phone
> call or by waiting until I am back in my office and can send a reply
> email from my computer, so I rarely have to deal with typing a message
> on the phone's keypad. My wife, on the other hand, may need to respond
> to emails immediately, at any time, from wherever she happens to be,
and
> her messages are by nature long and complex, so she will need a phone
> with an easy to use full QWERTY keyboard. She does not, however, need
> much in the way of bells and whistles, because she uses the phone to
> communicate and nothing more. She has no interest in games, TV, music,
> applications other than email, or web browsing on the phone. (In fact,
> Sprint has told her that she has to replace her ancient Sanyo SCP-4500
> if she ever expects to need to roam again, because it only supports
> analog roaming, and apparently they will soon offer only digital
> roaming).
>
> So here's what we need:
>
> Myself: Fine with the phone and options I have now.
>
> My wife: Simplest available email capable phone with full keyboard and
> decent screen size (her eyesight is not the best).
>
> I would also like to leverage Sprint's eagerness to extend our
contract
> to try to get some concessions on plan pricing. The current family
> plans, it seems to me, are very limited in what they include and force
> you to pay full price for add-ons like internet access. I see no
reason
> why we should have to pay $25/month for Power Vision with a PDA phone
> when Vision at $15/month will suffice for our needs, but Power Vision
is
> the only option listed for those phones.
>
> Questions:
>
> What phones should we be looking at for my wife?
>
> What kinds of 2 line plans might be out there that are not easily
> discovered on the Sprint web site?
>
> Are there any current long time customer reward incentives being
offered
> by Sprint?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.

First a question- what does your bill average every month?

For your wife- you might look into either the Rumour or the Palm Centro.
The Centro is a little more daunting in apperance, but a buddy of mine
loves his. The Rumour has a full slide out keyboard, which is very easy
to use. The screen size is not huge, but adequate.