Back Up Your Cell Phone's Address Book
Your phone book doesn't have to disappear with your phone. These services and accessories can save you the trouble of manually entering your contacts.
Some people lose or break their cell phones more often than they probably want to admit. Other folks just want a shiny, new phone. I haven't lost or broken a phone--yet (knock on wood). But I've definitely upgraded a few times. And every time I get a new phone, I face the problem of transferring my phone book, which leads me to my mission: Finding quick and easy backup services and tools.
Here's what I found, starting with the carrier-specific services, followed by third-party tools. Note that I cover backup helpers for standard phones. I didn't include applications for PDA hybrids because they often come with a PC syncing program that serves as a backup utility.
Backup Services From Carriers
Several U.S. carriers offer a way to back up and update contact information on their servers. The backup process is usually simple, and most services allow you to update information on the Web, instead of tapping away on your phone's keypad.
The services are available for most handsets, though you should always check with your carrier about compatibility. As for cost, all wireless operators charge a monthly backup subscription fee that ranges from $1.49 to $6.49. (Think of it like a monthly fee for a landline phone feature such as call waiting.) Keep in mind that accessing a carrier's backup service will incur voice and/or data minutes as well.
Alltel subscribers who replace their phone can come into an Alltel store and have a sales rep transfer the contact data from the old handset to the new one via a cable. Alltel says this service costs $10 per transfer and is available for nearly all its handsets.
To back up data on a server, Alltel customers can choose between CellBackup and MightyBackup. Both programs store information on their respective servers. If you lose, damage, or upgrade your phone, you can easily restore and download your phone book to your new handset. Plus, you can view, add, or edit contacts at the software company's site, and have those changes sent to your cell phone.
MightyBackup lets you set up automatic daily or weekly backups. CellBackup promises to save ring tones, photos, and wallpapers that don't have digital rights management protection. CellBackup costs $1.49 per month (or a $10 flat fee for the life of the phone) and MightyBackup goes for $2 per month. To view a list of phones that these apps support, go to Alltel's CellBackup and MightyBackup pages.
The over-the-air option is called the VoiceDial Address Book. In addition to saving contact information on your phone, you can store contacts on Cingular's server via VoiceDial. To access and call folks listed in your VoiceDial address book, you need to call in to the service, similar to the way you retrieve voice-mail messages. According to Cingular, you can store up to 2000 contacts with up to four telephone numbers each. Adding contacts is relatively simple: You can add and update contacts on Cingular's site either by typing in one contact at a time or importing multiple contacts from a PC application such as Microsoft Outlook. You can also upload 20 contacts at a time from your cell phone to Cingular's server. The VoiceDial service costs $5 per month.
If you upgrade your phone and want to transfer contacts from one phone to another, you can take the handsets to a Cingular store and ask a sales representative to migrate the data from your old handset to the new one. Many of the carrier's stores have a device (called a Universal Memory Exchange) that transfers phone-book data at no charge. According to a sales rep that I talked to at my local store, the data transfer device works with many current phones, including those from LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. But not all phones are supported--it depends on whether the store you visit has the cable that is compatible with your handset. The device transfers information that is stored in your handset's memory or SIM card. You can move contacts and photos, but not files with digital rights management tags such as ring tones, music, and games. That means you'll need to pay for the apps again if you want to use them on your new phone.
If you've got a Sprint phone, you need to upgrade to a new model. The company currently offers the Sprint Wireless Backup service for two new handsets only: the Samsung A580 and the LG 350. Going forward, the backup service will be available on Sprint's Vision-capable handsets. The $2-per-month service performs over-the-air backups of your address book to the Sprint server. After you add or edit information on your phone, and the unit is on standby, the backup utility automatically transmits the data to the server. You can create new contacts and edit existing ones on the carrier's Web site, too. Any updates will be pushed to your phone. If you replace your phone, you can do an over-the-air transfer of your address book to your new handset. Although the download time varies depending on the number of contacts, Sprint estimates that transferring 250-plus contacts would take about 5 minutes.
If you're part of the Nextel clan, you can use the MyNextel Address Book. This $5-per-month service works on Nextel Internet-ready phones with a Nextel Online service plan. It's similar to Sprint Wireless Backup, though it lacks the automated features. With the Nextel backup service, you can manage and store up to 2000 contacts either online or from your phone. Using the online address book, you can import contacts from Outlook and Excel.
Verizon also offers two backup applications that synchronize with your PC's PIM program: iPhonebook and AirSet.
The $4-per-month iPhonebook syncs with the address book in Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, and Palm software. With iPhonebook, you can sync and back up the contacts from your computer to your cell phone and vice versa. For a list of phones that work with iPhonebook, visit Verizon's Web site.
If you want to sync and back up your contacts and your calendar, consider using AirSet. For a relatively pricey $6.49 a month, AirSet lets you update contacts and schedule and change appointments using your phone. You can then sync that information to people in your group list. For example, when a coworker reschedules a meeting on the calendar or changes a phone number, the information is automatically updated on your cell phone. For a list of AirSet-compatible phones, visit Verizon's site.
Third-Party Options
Backup and data-synchronization services offered by carriers are designed to shuttle data between a given company's handsets, not across different providers. For example, you can transfer information from one Verizon Wireless phone to another Verizon phone, but you can't move data from a Verizon phone to a Sprint phone. If you're switching carriers and want to transfer your existing phone book to your new carrier's phone, you'll need to use a third-party backup tool. Instead of backing up data on a service provider's server, you store your information on a device that you keep, then copy it to your new phone as needed.
The $80 DataPilot Universal Kit is a good bet because it has adapters for various cell phone models. For more on DataPilot, read "Tip Jar: Recycle Your Old Phone."
The $30 SnapSync doesn't come with cables; you need to buy them separately, each costing $30. For more information on SnapSync, read
If you don't back up your address book somehow, you'll need to manually enter your contacts on your new phone. But now you know that better options are available.
Grace Aquino
