Prepaiding Your Cell Phone Service
In a sea of different options, how do you choose between the many prepaid cellular plans? The answer is to consider the flexibility of the mobile phone plan, the availability of the wireless network, and to research the pricing for international calling.
Pay as you go cell phone plans give the user, whether they are a business traveler or a family with teenagers, a better, more cost effective way to use mobile phone services. Many people simply do not want to make a commitment to the phone companies, fearing contracts of any kind. Other people may be feeling a little bit “fiscally challenged” and may not be sure if they can come through on their end of the contract.
It is important to make an informed decision and you should take time to compare all available options and to analyze your prior calling patterns and usage, if you have any, before you go ahead. Information can easily be obtained from the various company websites, detailing the requirements and features of various plans. The types of services and the amount of features or functions do vary a lot amount wireless network providers. It is best to do your research and pick a prepaid cell phone service that has all the features wrapped into a pay-as-you-go package.
Prepaid cellular plans generally come with a longer list of “restrictions”, rather than “freedoms”. The vast majority of cell phone service providers restrict the number of call minutes and the amount of data you may transfer for prepaid customers. Most of the advanced features are for contract users only. This is changing as new no contract cellular providers are emerging. This may extend to text messaging options, for example. This type of cell phone plan generally attracts usage rates that are set at a higher premium, as compared to contracted services.
In some plans, the carrier will require you to keep a minimum account balance or your account may be de-activated, but the good news is that almost all services offer easily accessible records allowing you to make real-time inquiries about your usage and available balance.
Month to month or pay as you go cell phone plans are designed to save the consumer money. Service providers make sure that they put very few roadblocks in between themselves and their prospective customer. Often the prepaid phone services do not require long term contracts or mandate a credit check because services are rather inexpensive. The prepaid phone plans can be canceled at any time.
Whether you are paying for phone services by preset collar increments or getting a cellular services that bill a month in advance, you can now find international calling and unlimited minutes for mobile to mobile call services. Again, the cost per minute charge is fairly high, so you will need to take this into account. Paying for a cell phone that locks you into a 3 year commitment without much of the more useful features like unlimited calling or data transfer and no roaming international calls is just not a smart thing to do. Long term contracts are more expensive than looking for a prepaid mobile phone plan with all of the bells and whistles.
As a rule of thumb, you should research your options and figure out if a no long term mobile phone contract is the way to go. Just figure this out before signing any type of service agreement. Doing some homework and figuring out exactly what you and/or your family needs from a prepaid mobile phone plan is your first priority. You will need a list of all requirements then figure out the negatives and positives for each prepaid cell plan that is available.
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The difference between pre-paid and contract is that with pre-paid you don't sign up for anything and there is no account or bill that you have to pay every month. Contract is that you pay for a certain amount of minutes and services that you may or may not use every month and that bill comes every month.
As far as costs go, there isn't a big difference from what I've seen. To make sure you get the best rate, you really need to shop around and check out what people are selling…it all boils down to how many cents per minute you're going to be paying.
My recommendation is for you and your husband to get a contract so that if you ever need it, you won't have to worry about running out of minutes at an inopportune time. For the kids, I would recommend pre-paid. This is because, its been my expereince (I'm a teacher and I hear lots of stories) that most kids use their phones a lot either calling or text-messaging. This can run up an extremely high cell phone bill that you'll be stuck with. The worst story I ever heard was one of my students running up an $800 bill in one month from overage charges.
Also, before you do anything, check with your current cell phone provider and find out if you're under contract and if so what the early termination fee is (usually $150). This might make you're decision easier for now. As for pre-paid companies, I have heard that Boost and Virgin are pretty good companies.
http://point.com
http://letstalk.com
http://www.wirefly.com
Coverage you might need to check the acualy compony sites sites.
my tmobile 1500 cost me 35 pounds…about 70 a month…
iPod touch is probably your best bet right now. Dell is supposed to be coming out with a similar Android type device. Also you can get a smart phone that has WiFi and don't bother activating cellular service with it.
I've looked at the Vu, and to a certain extent I like it, but I've heard very mixed reactions to the touch screen on the Vu. If you want to watch TV on your phone, by all means, get the Vu, but if the Shine has all the features you want, and is cheaper, I'd go with that one. Even though the Shine is a little heavier, I've felt it and it feels like a more solid phone and the screen is gorgeous.
I'd suggest going into a store and playing with the Vu, you don't want to get wrapped into a contract with an expensive phone that you might end up hating.
Hi Blue
The best place to get your answer from people that live in Tucson is here
http://www.howardforums.com/search.php?searchid=5883359&q=tucson%20coverage
After you decide on the provider, take advantage of the 'test periods" offered, that way you are seeing first hand how good or bad coverage is in your area and home
Cheers
Hi there:
The cell phone companies change, new ones appear every month, and they buy out each other constantly, so it is difficult to make an accurate list !
However, you do not say where in the world you are, so here is a brief list:
CELL PHONE CARRIERS
3 River WIreless
ACS WIreless
ALLTEL
Alltel #2
ANDHRA Pradesh AirTel
AT&T
AT&T Free2Go
AT$T Pocketnet PCS
BEELINE
Bell Atlatic
Bell Mobility Canada ( Different Provinces, Different Owners )
Bell Mobility Canada #2 ( If you move, you CANNOT move the phone!!)
Bell Mobility Canada #3 ( you end up paying 3 years AND buy a new phone )
Bell SOUTH ( Blackberry )
Bell South , #2, #3
Bell SOuth Mobility
Blue SKy Frog
Bluegrass Cellular
Boost
Bouygues Telecom, #2, #3
BPL Mobile
Carolina West Wireless
Cellular One
Cellular One East Coast
Cellular One South West
Cellular One West
Cellular One PCS
Cellular ONE #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
Cellular SOuth
Century Tel
Chennai RPG Cellular
Chaennai SkyTel / Airtel
Chennai Bell
Cingular, #2, #3, #4
Clearnet
Comcast
Comviq
Corr Wireless Communications
Delhi Aritel
Delhi Hutch
Dobson Cellular Systems
Dobson-Alex Wireless
DT T-Mobile
Dutchtone / ORANGE-NL
Edge Wireless
EMT
Escotel
FIDO
Genion
Goa BPLMobil
Golden Telecom
Green's Communications
GTE WIreless, #2, #3
Gujarat Celforce
Houston Cellular
Idea Cellular
Inland Cellular Telephone
Itineris
Kerala Escotel
Kolkata Airtel
Kyivstar
LMT
Maharashtra BPL Mobile
Maharashtra IDEAL Cellular
Manitoba Telecom Systems
MCI Phone
Megafon
Meteor , #2
Metro PCS, #2
MicroCell
Midwest WIreless
MiWorld
MobileComm
MobileONE
MobileFone
Mobility Bermuda
Mobility Tanzania
Mobtel Srbija
Motient
Movistar
MTS
Mumbai BPL Mobile
MUMBAI ORANGE
NBTel
Netcom
Nextel, #2
Nextel BR
NPI Wireless
Ntelos
O2, ( M-mail, Online, Prepaid )
Omnipoint, #2
One Connect
Online BEEP
Optus Mobile
Orange (Fr Telecom, Mumbai, NL/ Dutchtone )
OSKAR
P&T Luxembourg
Pacific Bell
PCS ONE
Pioneer / Enid Cellular
PLUS GSM
Pondicherry BPL Moboile
POWERTEL
Price Communications
Primco
Promtel
Public Service Cellular
Qwest
Rogers AT&T Wireless
ROGERS Wireless ( CDN )
Safaricom
Satelindo GSM
SFR France , #2, #3
Simple Freedom
SMART Telecom
SMF/ Schuylkill Mobile Fone
SouthernLinC
Southwestern Bell
SPRINT PCS
Suncom
Sunrise Mobile, #2
SureWest Communications
SwissCOm
T-Mobile ( #2, Austria, Germany, UK)
TalkLine
Tamil Nadu BPL Mobile
Tele2
Telefonica Movistar
Telenot
Telenor
Telia Denmark
TELUS
TIM
TRITON
UMC
Unicel
Uraltel
US Cellular, #2
US West
Uttar Pradesh Escotel
Verison, #2, #3
Vessotel
Virgin Mobile, #2
Vodafone (Germany, Italy, Japan, #2, #3, Spain, UK)
VoiceStream . T-Mobile
West Central Wireless
Western WIreless
Wyndtell
Yenisev Telecom
Note that in the big cities, there are hundreds of smaller carriers that only provide service in one small area. I can't list them all.
Hopefully you can choose the ones locally, and compare pricing.
good luck
robin