My tracfone works pretty well. It cost me less than $15 a month. I would recommand it to those people who don't use cell phone very often, but need one for emergency or travelling. A couple of phones(like Nokia 1100) now have local rate for long distance call and roaming. And when you start the service, there are 100 free minutes if you email me to get an invitation. Tracfone shares the network with cingular. I suggest you to check the coverage of cingular network before you buy it.