Yeah, having the bigger coverage area would be nice but I have tons of friends on Nextel and we use DC (direct connect) quite a bit. I also have my son on a Nextel plan so it is our way to stay in touch... we don't have a home phone so its not like I can call him at home... it was actually cheaper and smarter for me to get the Nextel phone for my son so I can stay in touch when he is home OR when he is at a friends house playing. I could only DREAM of living with a plan with 1000 minutes a month... I use 2500-3500 minutes a month... I pay $150 a month for unlimited EVERYTHING (day or night, weekends, holidays, direct connect, text messaging, without any long distance charges) on my phone and another $40 for my sons phone... he gets 800 peak outgoing, unlimited incoming (peak or off-peak), and no long distance charges. Most of the family lives outside of the Kansas City area (Florida, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Utah, and probably some others I'm forgetting). When I was in Florida for four years with Alltel, I would average a $300 monthly bill with all of my overages and that was on top of the home phone too. Even though $200 a month isn't cheap, its cheap for me and my position and experience... at least good enough that I don't complain.

Later!