Are you planning to buy a mobile device for your child to use and take to school? Don’t rush it, advises Verizon Wireless. Company officials advise a comprehensive market survey of mobiles available and especially scrutinize the service provider’s subscription plans before zeroing in on one.

 

Verizon (News - Alert) Wireless is offering a whole lot of advice to help parents through the entire process of procuring a reasonable mobile and plan that stay within budget, and also delivers the best suited compromise for children and parents alike.

 

Officials claim it is important to carefully note the age group because stats indicate younger kids may only want to call or quick message their parents initially and later their friends and peer group. Other stats indicate that older teens require everything that a device can possibly offer, which could include playing music, an FM radio, a QWERTY keypad, camera, capture video, send and receive text, still image and videos, surf the net and maybe even indulge in micro-blogging via Twitter.

 

Verizon advocates that parents and kids must first negotiate a budget. The basis of this could be to establish an upper limit of 15 minutes per day combo of talk time and, or messaging. This translates to a monthly allowance of 450 minutes approximately. Of course some kids will bargain for you to round off the figure to 465 minutes since some months have 31 days – be prepared.

 

A revealing stat, claim Verizon officials, is that most kids message more than they talk. Verizon offers several messaging monthly plans that start as low as $10 and then are available upwards in multiples of $5. Its nationwide plans allow school users unlimited messaging to other Verizon customers, and blocks of either 500, 1000 or 1,500 messages to recipients using other networks.

 

There is a handheld texting and email device that offers the following options: unlimited dual direction text messaging; can read and send images and formats such as TIFF, JPEG and portable data files; allows checking five individual email identities; and, enables reading e-Books off the screen - all for a flat fee of under $20 per month with no service charges, fees or contracts.

 

Verizon claims it has a clutch of Family SharePlans that include unlimited calling to other Verizon Wireless customers and most allow unlimited messaging. The most rudimentary offering in this category is the Nationwide Basic Family SharePlan, which begins at a cent under $70 for monthly access of two lines with 700 Anytime Minutes.

 

To avoid “bill shock” and define cut-off limits, Verizon has a unique “parental lock-like” service fee that can be availed for an additional $4.99 a month over and above the selected monthly plan that allows parents to set limits for voice, messaging, time frame of use – daily or weekly basis, and block distracting, nuisance and time consuming numbers.

 

“No Bill Shock,” began in the European Union and is now becoming popular the world over. It started as EU’s stern directive to all telecommunications service providers in the EU to keep their mobile users informed live on their usage and current billing amount in accordance with the EU’s regulations on international roaming call charges within the 27 EU countries to prevent “bill shock.”

 

 The EU’s ruling originated from complaints by the substantial roaming EU business community and holiday makers who received huge bills charged at international roaming rates within the EU boundaries, and which is totally against EU’s founding mantras, promises and visions of one community, one currency, one market, and fairness to all EU citizens in all manner of activities and transactions.

 

A recent research effort by ABI Research titled, ‘Green Purchasing Trends for Mobile Phones and Services,’ unearthed that close to 50 percent of respondents are partially, or very likely to be, or comprehensively influenced by the vendor’s green initiatives that are seen as significant differentiators at the time of selecting and purchasing services or devices.

A revealing statistic was that younger age group consumers, some of whom represent tomorrow’s buying power, were more inclined to pursue “eco-groovy” mobile activities than older age groups, claims the research report.

 

Go in for the negotiation meeting with your kids fully prepared with all facts, data and information. Do not be surprised if your kids know more than you do on offers, plans, features and service providers. They can make you feel rather small – unintentionally or otherwise - with their vast reservoir of techno-commercial knowledge and have at least three ready convincing answers for any statement (leave alone asking questions!) you make, or plan to make.