The article suggested buying prepaid phones to eliminate the problem. I really don't want to go that route.

I might add that the phone gets ready hot as well. This is my 2nd phone I have had over the years with Verizon as my provider but the pings were not a problem with the other Samsung phone.

I was wondering if anyone else has this problem.

Thanks

A couple of thoughts:
- if your phone has a GPS built in, you can set the GPS for 911 only (rather than on all the time). This will mess up some phone features (like VZ Navigator, which depends on the GPS), but might "leave you alone" (that's how my phones are set).
- if you're talking about a minute-by-minute beep, many of my phones have a feature that makes the phone beep shortly before each minute is up so you can end the call before you incur another fractional-minute charge. I don't know if this is the problem, either, but it can be an annoying "nanny".
- if you have one of the dwindling number of handsets that can use an analog signal, some phones will beep or otherwise notify you that you are moving from digital coverage to analog (or back to digital). You can either shut off the notification or, usually, force the phone to digital-only if that will meet your coverage needs.

As for the phone getting hot, some phones do. I had a Samsung years ago that got almost too hot to hold after a 30-minute conversation. My Nokia and my current LG (Voyager) have been much better in this regard. My LG VX-4400 has been kind of middling.

Good luck.

Prepaid is the only way to go if you want real anonymity, and even then I'm sure there's stuff they can do sometimes. You would have to buy them for cash etc etc for anonymity, that's why criminals and terrorists et al like them.