Ask Slashdot: Best Pay-as-You-Go Plan For Text and Voice Only? 246
sconeu writes "My wife uses an assistive communication device. She wants to use it for SMS texting... We currently have Verizon, so we don't have a SIM. The computer will take a SIM. I'm looking for a pay-as-you-go plan where I can take the SIM from a cheap phone and put it in her computer. Any suggestions?" It would be interesting to hear how this question would be best answered both in the U.S. and around the world.
Local sims are better for roaming (Score:3)
Local sims are better for roaming as the costs are VERY HIGH.
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sure... if there's wifi or something else for connectivity.
why buy a friggin phone though to take the sim out of when you can just get a sim... walk into a tmobile or whatever kiosk and walk out with a sim.
StraightTalk (Score:5, Informative)
Re:StraightTalk (Score:5, Informative)
StraightTalk has a program just for this called StraightTalk SIM. It's $30/mo for 1000 minutes / 1000 texts or $45 for unlimited.
I work at Walmart and sell a lot of straight talk phones to people, and have activated many "bring your own hardware" plans with the straight talk SIM card, and you can NOT use the $30 a month plan with it, you can only use the thirty dollar plan with the dumbphones with the SIM card locked to the phone serial number that it came with.
If you're using a straight talk SIM with an unlocked device you can only use the $45 plan, and if you use more than 100-150 MB a day or more than 2GB in a month your service WILL be turned off, without warning or refund.
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I just got the T-mobile SIM through Straight Talk a couple days ago. I'm very pleased. I switched from T-mobile's $50 prepaid plan because it throttles you to 2G after 100 MB. I was unaware of this restriction on Straight Talk's plans... considering they advertise unlimited data with no restrictions.
If I'm streaming music (which I often do) I go well over these amounts. I fully expect to now pretty regularly now that I've got my Ingress invite.
I'll let you know what my experience is like.
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"I work at Walmart..."
You have my deepest sympathy.
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If straighttalk ever cuts me off for going over supposed "limits" I'll fucking Sue their ass. Their website says "UNLIMITED" for mobile web, with no * beside it detailing "UNLIMITED execption". If you can point me where those limits are issued, contractually, I'd love to know.
Additionally, you can get convert a feature phone over to ST if you need a sim.
What you're seeing is people who are using Verizon CDMA phones, which ST also carries service for, which do not have a SIM card what so ever.
Yeah, there is
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MOBILE WEB ACCESS
No asterix defining anything. Mobile Web means what ... exactly.
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From the "Terms and Conditions" page ...
"Customers whose Straight Talk phones are not data-enabled or that cannot use Mobile Web Access"
Seems to indicate that they are "one and the same". And if I was a lawyer, I'd definitely
Addtionally, the T/S says "Straight Talk may discontinue providing Service to you, discontinue your account, discontinue providing connections to particular telephone numbers or types of Services used or called by you, terminate data connections and/or reduce data throughput speeds for
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T-mobile (Score:5, Informative)
Re:T-mobile (Score:5, Informative)
T-Mobile will sell you a SIM only (No Need To Buy A phone) for pay-as-you-go and is a pretty cheap option.
I use T-mobile and when it works it works great. When I decided on them several years ago they were the ones that met my requirements (GSM, unlocked phones, true pre-pay and not monthly contracts). Buying in bulk I get $100 for 1000 minutes, and they don't expire for a year, and I typically use no more than 2000 minutes a year so it is way cheaper than a contract and I hardly ever text anyway (and I also reserve my data usage for when I am in front of a dedicated computer). However I do encounter quite a few dead spots with the network (including my own home), especially once you get away from the more populated areas where it is more a case of dead regions than dead spots. So you need to balance out your particular requirements with the downsides.
Re:T-mobile (Score:5, Informative)
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When I was looking to get a cell phone years ago, I was so afraid of the 2 year contracts with ETF's and monthly rates that didn't match up with my meager (at the time) usage habits. I looked through a number of the pay as you go plans, and T-Mobile seemed the most reasonable. A number of the others had per minute/text costs in excess of 20 cents a minute.
T-Mobile is 10cents a minute/text if you fill up at the $100 rate, and you don't have to worry about the minutes ex
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My T-Mobile Prepaid plan: 10 cents/min for voice, 20 cents/text.
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Re:T-mobile (Score:5, Informative)
It's $50 a month for unlimited talk/text and you're still stuck paying for data (included in the price) even if you never use it. I've been wondering the same thing as the author and I still haven't found it. Not everyone needs mobile data.
Bah. Just sign up for Walmart Family Mobile. You still get T-mobile service and its $45 for unlimited everything. Well, they cap your 3G data, but you can get unlimited edge after you hit the cap. And I rarely hit the cap anyway.
Re:T-mobile Family Plans (Score:2)
Yeah, you might have to get on your parents' account, but after $50/mo. for 2 lines, the next 3 lines for kids are just another $5/mo., but are usually /free/ for the first year (and also any subsequent year you renew your contract to, say, take advantage of a cheaper family plan).
Text is extra, but I never use text enough to justify $10/mo. anyway.
I'd sooner pay $15/mo. for a full android plan with a 2GB "soft cap" (you get only 3G instead of HSDPA after you exceed it) or $25/mo. for "unlimited" android d
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The Wal-Mart T-Mobile Unlimited text and Web plan [walmart.com] is $30 per month. It's limited to only 100 minutes of voice...but I use Groove IP [google.com] with Google Voice to use the data for voice calls...so that $30 per months buys me unlimited voice, text, and data.
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We have monthly plans, and pre pay plans.
The difference is the monthly plans are honest about it.
In a monthly plan you pay $X per month to get Y minutes and Z texts
in a pre-pay plan you pay $X to get Y minutes and Z texts that expire if you don't use them in a month.
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We have monthly plans, and pre pay plans.
The difference is the monthly plans are honest about it.
In a monthly plan you pay $X per month to get Y minutes and Z texts
in a pre-pay plan you pay $X to get Y minutes and Z texts that expire if you don't use them in a month.
Most T-mobile (except the $10 cards) expires in 3 months, and roll over if you refill before it expires. After you've spent $100, expiration period lengthens to a year.
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Tracfone is good for 90 days plus 90 days added everytime you buy more minutes. I still have one laying around that's good until about a year from now with 212 minutes on it. I keep it for emergencies like when I can't find my newer straight talk phone. Until my mom died and my dad started calling me 2 or 3 times a day I never used more than 150 minutes or so a month. After he started calling me continuously it ran to more like 500 minutes a month and I had to get a straight talk phone with 30 bucks a
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I'm in Canada which is usually much worse then America when it comes to cell phones. My wife has a prepaid plan through 7-11 (Speakeasy) which after paying $100 for a year, costs $25 per year. It's not cheap either, 25 cents a minute, 20 cents a sms, both incoming and outgoing.
I started with Fido years ago, it was $25 for 3 months, 20 cents a minute with per second billing. Now it's $10 a month + 10 cents a minute, 20 cents a sms with monthly expiry. Every couple of months part of the plan goes up, like sms
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We had those years ago, but then the companies got wise that people weren't spending as much as if they had a monthly plan, so they made the minutes expire to force people to pay at least as much as it would cost to be on the low end monthly plans. Now the cheapest plans you can get are the 3 yr term contracts with the "free" phones (no such thing as a bring your own device plan)
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I had page plus on my Droid 2 for quite a while. It was pretty easy to set up. Just call up their customer service and give them your device esn. You don't get very much data on their cheaper plans, but it's great for people who just want minutes and texting. I used their $12/month plan.
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That deals kicks the shit out of my Verizon plan. I'm paying $90 for 1 smartphone, 1 dumbphone, with 750 min shared, no texts, and 150mb of data per month. We did get our phones for free in this deal, so that's something, but we're month to month now. Might as well switch now.
Thanks for the tip!
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I didn't say the monthly plans were dishonest, I said the pre-pay plans were dishonest. and pre-pay is what the carrier calls "pay as you go", they're the same thing.
Monthly plans are always pay X, get Y. they are honest that way.
Pre-paid plans on the other hand are pay X and get Y, but only if you use Y within a month. so in effect they are the same as monthly plans, but they pretend to be different because you only buy what you need, when in fact they force you to "need" more than you actually do, so much
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$80 if you want unlimited text messaging. See, the "unlimited" text of their contract free $70 plan is limited to the US. You can't send or receive a single message across borders unless you pay another $10 per month to lift that artificial ban.
What I want is a plan that
- I pay for what I use, not what I don't use
- is without throttling or blocked ports
- allows me to send MMS to anyone
- allows me to receive calls and texts from anyone without paying on the receiving end. Just like Europeans always have h
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no need to shout.
UK (Score:2, Informative)
UK Giffgaff.
Free giffgaff-to-giffgaff texts/calls given £5 top-up every few months.
Otherwise 6p/text, 10p/min.
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Can someone explain to me why this was modded down?
Overzealous modders that didn't note timothy mentioning that it would be "best answered both in the U.S. and around the world"?
Dunno about USA... (Score:3)
But in India you have a choice of
GSM prepaird SIM
GSM postpaid SIM
CDMA prepaid
CDMA postpaid
CDMA network is rare though, India is primarily GSM country.
Depending upon whether you want lots of free minutes, you have your "packs" and packages.
Other countries where I have used this is Thailand, where some 200rs equivalent in Indian rupee(4 USD) got me data which was enough for daily skype call for 7 days. Some kind of 15 day unlimited data on GPRS and 3G thing.
As an international traveller, all you need is an unlocked GSM phone. If you need micro sim card, buy a sim card, and cut it yourself with a sim cutter(costs 120 INR(2.2$). Shops will cut it for you for 1$ equivalent.
Ting! (Score:4, Interesting)
Check out Ting [ting.com]. Brought to you by Tucows. They run on Sprint's CDMA/4G LTE network. I have voice, text messaging, AND data, and I'm paying less than $30 a month (no contracts) - less than half what I was on with Sprint.
Each component is priced separately, and you only pay for what you use - they automatically move you to the correct service level for each part at the end of each month.
They have awesome tech support - they actually turn off their hold system during the day, and the phone rings until a human picks up the phone... and then the person you talk to actually KNOWS something, not just follows a script.
The only "catch" is that you have to buy your phone - but honestly the "free phone" nonsense from other providers is just a way to rope you into a contract where you pay ten times the cost of the phone over the life of the contract.
Check them out!
(Disclaimer: Yeah, I get a discount if you use that link to sign up, but go ahead, they're freakin' awesome.)
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Right, but you need a SIM card... somehow missed that part. But you don't actually need a cell phone contract for that - you can send and receive e-mail using SMS. Check out Email to SMS [makeuseof.com]. Basically, you use the e-mail address associated with their phone number to send a text message. They text back, and you get an e-mail. And if you need mobile Internet, Ting does allow tethering, and sells mobile hotspots. See, I'm on topic!
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Modup. Ting is fantastic for what they do (very low priced usage-based plans) but it's too heavily locked into Sprint for what the article submitter wants. It's basically Sprint opening up their network to capture more price-sensitive customers, but still retains the downside of ESNs. My Galaxy III bill is about $12/mo for text + voice, but to me it's worth the trade-off because I don't use much capacity.
One of the nicest things about Ting (and other MVNOs) is that it puts pressure on At&t, Verizon a
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No, we're not going to be travelling. She just wants to be able to talk and text with friends and family, and she can no longer use her traditional phone for that.
If we were on a T-Mobile or AT&T plan, I'd just swap the SIM, but because we're VZW, I need to buy a SIM and a cheap plan.
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How much are the repeated monthly fee's on top of the $6 if you didn't use any minutes, texts, data, etc?
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Thanks!
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A SIM only plan? (Score:4, Informative)
Here in the UK (and Europe in general) cheap SIM-only plans are numerous, offered by both the major operators and the large number of "virtual" operators (known as MVNOs) who piggy-back on the actual network operators.
No need to buy a cheap phone and remove the SIM, they just pop the SIM in the post, or you can buy them at any mobile phone shop.
There's normally no (or very little) upfront cost. They are available as both pay-as-you-go and contract. Some will offer data, others will be just for voice and text.
Do you not have such things in the US?
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The situation is bascially exactly the same in Japan. au, SoftBank and DoCoMo all have their own pay as you go data-only plans as well as unlimited, and piggy back providers like B-Mobile an E-Mobile have plans like first 2GB at 3G speed each month and after that 128kb but still unlimited for the price of a fancy coffee.
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I knew the US mobile "market" was a bit crap, but I hadn't realised that things have been that badly stitched up.
Not that the UK market is perfect of course (especially now we only have three big operators), but the MVNOs and SIM only plans do create at least some competition.
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The lack of openness in the US is mind boggling when you look outside!
Telcos in America rely on the customers not looking outside. And they're mostly correct. Americans in general are blissfully unaware of what goes on outside their borders, and truly believe they have the most modern and most affordable technology in the world (paid for with cheques or magnetic stripe credit cards).
Re:A SIM only plan? (Score:5, Informative)
The parent AC is mostly incorrect. The major telecoms only emphasise post-paid plans, but do have pre-paid available without the need to purchase a phone. They don't want to sell them to you however, and will only tell you about pre-paid if you visit their website or ask them specifically.
In Canada there a dozen or so MVNO's, most of whom operate on a pre-paid model in addition to the 'big three' incumbent companies. Each of the 'big three' providers (Rogers, Bell, Telus) owns one or two MVNO's. Rogers has Fido and Chatr, Bell has Virgin and Telus has Koodo. There are also several highly regional carriers (SaskTel, MTS, Lynx, TBayTel, ICE Wireless, etc.) that offer services where the 'Big 3' do not operate (Northern Quebec, Northwest Territories, Northern Ontario, etc.).
All that being said, there is only one major GSM network, the Rogers/Fido network. Thus, (until 2008/2009) only Rogers/Fido were offering pre-paid plans you could use with a GSM phone. Telus and Bell were CDMA. In the last few years Telus and Bell have built their own HSPA+ network. Now that they have a network that takes SIM cards, all three of the major players are offering inexpensive pre-paid SIM cards, with fairly expensive per-minute rates (40c/minute, unless you get a pre-paid 'plan'. Some of the plans are even 'free' if you top up frequently enough).
Further muddying the waters is the fact that most of the MVNOs don't specialise in pre-paid 'long distance' rates or pre-paid 'local' rates. Part of this is because of foreign ownership restrictions. These have been recently eased, but are still tighter than most other countries. Canada is also extremely large, with a small population. Canada is the size of Europe, with 10x fewer people. England, is approximately the same size as Southern Ontario (130,000km^2), but England has 50,000,000 people and Southern Ontario has 12,000,000. Let us not forget that a large part is because the owners of the networks don't want to give anyone a better deal than they give their own customers, at least not appreciably.
All that being said, the 'big three' all offer prepaid SIMs for $10-$20 dollars, so do most of their sub brands. The MVNOs Petro-Canada Mobility and 7-11 'Speak out' wireless are reasonably easy to find and offer prepaid services depending on where you are visiting.
Rogers Wireless - http://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/plans#,Tabset1--4 [rogers.com]
Telus Mobility - http://www.telusmobility.com/en/ON/prepaid/rate-plans.shtml [telusmobility.com]
Bell Mobility - http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_plans/Prepaid_plans [www.bell.ca]
Big three 'sub brands' (frequently with regional restrictions ie: major cities):
Virgin Mobile - Bell Mobility - http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/plans/prepaid-talktext-plans.html?itcid=NAV:58 [virginmobile.ca]
Koodo - Telus Mobility - http://koodomobile.com/en/on/plansandboosters.shtml [koodomobile.com]
Fido - Rogers Wireless - http://www.fido.ca/web/page/portal/Fido/PrepaidPlans?forwardTo=prepaidPlans [www.fido.ca]
Chatr - Rogers Wireless - http://www.chatrwireless.com/web/chatr.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PlanBrowse [chatrwireless.com]
Regional Operators: ... etc.
Sasktel - http://www.sasktel.com/personal/mobility/prepaid/index.html [sasktel.com]
MTS - http://www.mts.ca/mts/personal/wireless/mts+prepaid+wireless [www.mts.ca]
Independent MVNOs:
Petro Canada Mobility - (Rogers Network) -
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There's a reason you never hear about the pre-paid plans though, it's because they all cost more than the post-paid ones.
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There's a reason you never hear about the pre-paid plans though, it's because they all cost more than the post-paid ones.
Not true, they are often cheaper because there's no cost added to pay for your phone subsidy. They aren't advertised because they can't hit you with $1000 of unexpected roaming charges when you leave the country and forget to turn off roaming, because they can't charge you more money than you already pre-paid. They also can't cram a bunch of surcharges onto your bill.
Re:A SIM only plan? (Score:4, Interesting)
Let us test your theory:
TELUS post paid: cheapest plan $25/mo includes 100 minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends minimum 20c/minute, includes a phone on 2yr term
TELUS pre paid: cheapest plan $20/mo includes ZERO minutes, unlimited weekends (no evenings), cheap phone about $100 (works out to just over $4/mo over 2 years)
Breakeven point 3minutes a month of daytime or evening calling. Anything over 3 minutes and you were cheaper on the post paid plan.
Bell post paid: cheapest plan $27/mo includes 150 minutes, unlimited talk to 5 friends, unlimited messaging, free phone on 2yr term
Bell pre paid: cheapest plan $10.75/mo, 10c/minute, 10c/message, cheap phone about $120 (works out to $5/mo over 2 years)
Breakeven point: 112 minutes or texts. Anything over 112 minutes, or 112 texts, or any combination and you were cheaper on the post paid plan.
Rogers post paid: cheapest plan $27/mo includes 150 daytime, unlimited evening minutes, unlimited texting, $10 phone on 2yr term. (less than 50c/mo)
Rogers pre paid: cheapest plan $15/mo, 25c/minute + 75c "non government fee", cheap phone about $100, (works out to just over $4/mo over 2 years)
Breakeven point 30minutes a month. Anything over 30 minutes and you were cheaper on the post paid plan.
So true, if you don't use your phone at all, all 3 have a cheaper pre paid than post paid option. Bell even has a small window where the pre-paid might be cheaper. TELUS has the cheapest post paid plan, and there's no chance of being cheaper on pre-paid with them, Rogers you'd have to be a VERY light user to be cheaper pre-paid.
We could examine a larger range of plans, but you'll find the same thing throughout. If you take your phone out of the drawer and use it, pre-paid is always more expensive. The carriers want you on post paid for more than just roaming charges, they want the guaranteed revenue stream, it looks much better on their books than pre-paid does. They're willing to give you all sorts of bonuses to make it happen to. You'd be a fool not to take advantage of them.
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I don't like replying to myself, but I noticed a typo...
TELUS post paid: cheapest plan $25/mo includes 100 minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends minimum 20c/minute, includes a phone on 2yr term
TELUS pre paid: cheapest plan $20/mo includes ZERO minutes, unlimited weekends (no evenings), cheap phone about $100 (works out to just over $4/mo over 2 years)
the 20c/minute was supposed to be on the pre-paid line, not the post-paid line.
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Don't you think you're being a little disingenuous comparing only the cheapest plan on each side?
For $20.75/month, Bell offers a plan with unlimited text, and a choice of four-hour windows with free local calls.
For the same price, Rogers offers plans with unlimited calling to five numbers.
They aren't universally better, but there are definitely use cases where the phones are both cheaper and free of a long term contract.
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Ok, let's use your 20.75 plan as an example, once you add the phone (their cheapest phone is $120 without a contract, divide by the 2 years that would get it to you for free on the post paid plan makes it a $5/mo value) that's the equivalent of 25.75, so $1.25 cheaper than the $27/mo post paid plan which has 150 anytime minutes, plus unlimited talk to 5 friends no matter what time you call them.
So if your use case is extremely narrow, and you only call people within a specific 4 hour window each day, and ma
7/11 Speakout (Score:2)
For their prepaid plan the only monthly fee is $1.25 for 911. You can get unlimited web browsing for $10/month (good for 2GB/month), and do all your texting via the data connection. Voice quality over the data connection is variable...if you care about that then you'll want to use the voice minutes which might mean another plan makes more sense.
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Of course this thread was specifically about Canada... It's always good to know that we get to inherit all the US problems, while not inheriting the places where they're ahead...
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I left out the option because there is no such plan from any of the major carriers. all minutes expire.
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Sure there is. They're called Pay-by-the-Minute plans.
Rogers: 40c/min anytime, monthly fee 0.75c for 911, $10/mo declining balance
Bell: 30c/min anytime, monthly fee 0.75c, $10/mo declining balance
Fido: 30c/min anytime, monthly fee 0.75c
Telus: 30c/min anytime, monthly fee 0.75c
$10/mo is 25-30 minutes of voice service prepaid in Canada. Not all that many, but more than enough for data-users.
For reference, I pay $13.75+tax for 100MB data and 30 outbound texts, +$3 for voice calls a month. Good luck finding any
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Not only is this not true, but with prepaid, the price is (almost) the price. There is still tax and e911, but none of the bogus "compliance fees" and other official-looking add-ons that the phone company uses to pass their cost of doing business on to you in addition to the agreed upon price where that stuff should all have already been folded into....
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a quick check shows otherwise:
TELUS: No fees above the price quoted, except GST for both prepaid and post paid.
Rogers: Post paid all fees included except GST, pre-paid 75c "non government fee" and GST
Bell: Post paid all fees included except GST, pre-paid 75c 911 fee and GST added
So all the three major carriers in Canada are exactly the opposite of what you state.
Ting! (Score:2)
https://ting.com/plans [ting.com]
It's a pay as you go, and as far as SMS, rather cheap. I've used them for a while now, and absolutely love 'em. On low usage months, I pay a minimal amount, more then making up for those few high usage months.
Alternate suggestion (Score:3)
Simple Mobile (Score:3)
Wife and I recently signed up for Simple Mobile. It works with TMobile or unlocked GSM phones and is $40 for unlimited talk/text/data (ok, data is probably not really unlimited, but enough for my basic needs). I've only had about 10 days but seems fine. I also found that I can buy the plan online (I used a place called pinzoo) and then avoid tax. May not be best for you since you really only want texting.
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Sounds like a disability (Score:2)
Here's a chart of prepaid plans (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.howardforums.com/showwiki.php?title=General+Prepaid+Wiki:Prepaid+Rate+Plan+Comparison [howardforums.com]
T-Mobile still offers their "unlimited web & text with 100 minutes talk" plan through their web site. It was originally a Wal-Mart plan. I've been quite happy with it. Never needed more than 100 minutes, but if I do, it's only 10 cents per extra minute.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans [t-mobile.com]
I get my prepaid refills from third party web sites that offer them at a slight discount. For example, $30 of refill value for $29.70 (or less with a coupon code). Here's one:
https://www.callingmart.com/ [callingmart.com]
It's worth noting that, unlike most postpaid/contract plans, there are no additional tariffs or other fees to push a $30 plan up to $35 or so. I really do pay less than $30 per month.
Hi, Story Poster here... (Score:2)
I thought I'd be a bit more specific ....
My wife has ALS, and cannot use her hands, and has difficulty speaking. She uses a Tobii C15 with EyeGaze [tobiiati.com] for speaking. Her computer also allows her to use it as a phone for voice (the voice output can be routed through the internal SIM) and SMS.
I appreciate all the thoughtful suggestions. Coverage is not an issue for me, as I live in Los Angeles. I may go with the T-Mobile $15 unlimited text thing. However I am reconsidering some stuff... because it's very slo
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No, she can't use a bluetooth headset. Well, actually, she can, but it would be pretty useless. She can't talk, and relies on the computer to generate voice for her.
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Ovivo Mobile in the UK (Score:2)
It costs £10 to get your sim card from them but you get £10 worth of credit for any calls or data you use beyond the free ones.
AT&T Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) (Score:2)
Have you looked at plans designed for this? From AT&T "AT&T is pleased to offer our Text Accessibility Plans (TAP). TAP was developed for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have difficulty speaking." http://relayservices.att.com/content/225/Text_Accessibility_Plan_TAP.html [att.com]
Page Plus Cellular (Score:2)
There are exactly 2 companies (Score:2)
Everyone else which supports SIM-based (read: GSM band) Pay As You Go is a reseller of one of these:
T-Mobile
AT&T
If you are talking about a CSIM rather than a SIM (you have Verizon with no "SIM", so I assume you are talking one of the standard WWAN cards in the device, which means they won't take a CSIM anyway), then there's:
Sprint
Verizon
TracFone
While there are a couple other CDMA carriers, they force you to take data plans. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communicat [wikipedia.org]
PlatinumTel - 5c/2c/10c (Score:2)
The paygo plan has no contract, there is no conversion from money to minutes, and you can use your own phone (if it's unlocked). It's the cheapest pay-as-you-go option I've seen and from using them, I haven't had any problems with their service.
http://www.platinumtel.com/
(Apparently they changed things this year, they now also
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South Africa (Score:2)
8ta is possibly your best bet, however 3g data coverage is spotty outside the major metros. When you do get coverage, expect over 5 megabits/sec. Pay-as-you-go data costs are pretty high, but a R300/month 2-year contract gets you 20gb/mo, or you can just buy their whopper 60+60gb bundle for R1800. Voice coverage is good.
Voda will demand your firstborn -- they're rather pricey.
Re:why here? (Score:5, Insightful)
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One advantage of a shop is that the sales person can ask clarifying question. For instance the poster did not state the region or the type of machine. This is important give an informed response. A salesperson can ask these questions. If the salesperson chooses a more expensive product that does the job, isn't that better than going off on your
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Can someone confirm this? Here in Japan you'd be hard pressed to find a phone without a SIM, and as fas as I know even the iPhone takes one.
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CDMA (though not LTE) phones in the US don't have SIM cards. Look anywhere you like for confirmation. Those that do have SIM cards are almost all carrier-locked.
You want a GSM service provider if you want to use a SIM card. That is mainly going to limit you to AT&T, T-Mobile, and a few minor prepaid carriers. You can order just a SIM card through these companies if you're going to do pre-paid. They can be had for $1-$10 online.
GSM is the way to go if you want to have a phone not locked to a specific provider. It also lets you use a different provider just by switching SIM cards. If you want to be able to do that, you need to have an unlocked phone. If you
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Yeah strange that the question was asked for "both the US and around the world", since the question barely needs answering in most countries outside the US. As you say, wander down the store and there's about freaking 20 different brands of prepaid PAYG SIMs sitting there, most of which are dirt cheap and would suit the OP's needs.
The question does make more sense in the US where prepaid plans are rare, not every phone/plan uses SIMs, and of those that do, most are far more expensive than they would be in o
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I use Tracphone as well, since it seemed to be about the cheapest option to keep a phone number alive with my minimal use habits; but I would warn the submitter not to.
Tracphone does something nonstandard with their SIMs and handset firmware. I don't know whether it is a trivial thing to hack, or serious crypto cat-and-mouse; but(at least by default) a Tracphone SIM Will. Not. Work. with anything other than one of their handsets.
Since the submitter wants to shove the SIM in a computer of some flavor, that's
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That's because it's a global phone with GSM support. The SIM isn't used when a CDMA network is available.
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This device is extremely unlikely to support Wind's AWS (1700/2100 MHz) service. Most devices don't.
T-Mobile uses the same spectrum for most of its 3G/"4G" service but it has 2G/EDGE at 1900 MHz, which most devices do support.
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There coverage is limited to parts of the cities they operate in, with extremely harsh roaming fees if you venture outside their tiny coverage areas.
Sure I like their plans, but until they build some infrastructure I don't think the major carriers need to worry much.
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Can't think of anywhere with worse cellular options than Canada. I'm with Telus (aka The Other Satanic Scum Cel Co) and just discovered that adding 2 gigs of data to my existing 1 gig plan would jack my monthly bill
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If you're looking for something that works (almost) everywhere in Canada check out 7-11. I have yet to end up somewhere there wasn't coverage; they use the Rogers towers. Unfortunately they don't offer unlimited voice, just data and texting. Our current plan is unlimited texting and 200 minutes of Canada-wide talk time for $25/mo.
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An Australian option is TPG. $1/mo and just pay for what you use. SMS isn't too bad at 10c/each, but data is a bit on the pricey side.
Exetel has some reasonably cheap monthly pre-paid packages http://www.exetel.com.au/residential-mobile-cap-plans.php#super_plans [exetel.com.au]
Kogan prepaid sits atop Telstra's network (best 3G speeds/coverage) and is excellent value http://www.kogan.com/au/mobile [kogan.com].
Most carriers offer a pre-paid option that expires monthly and included some number of "free" SMS. You can even get unlimited SM
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Actually many netbooks and laptops built in the last few years do indeed have a SIM slot and a GSM/HSDPA radio. Our standard corporate issue laptops at work have them - very handy not having to carry around a separate 3G data dongle for connecting on the go.
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