As 4G Seeps In, Verizon Offers Cheap(er) No-Contract 3G Plans

jfruh writes "U.S. Mobile companies are working hard to get customers on fancy high-speed LTE plans with expensive smartphones. But Verizon is shrewdly working to eke out profit from its older infrastructure as well. The company is offering no-contract pay-as-you-go 3G-only plans, which might appeal to those who don't use a lot of wireless data and who might want to take advantage of the glut of older Android and iOS phones available on the market." It's good to see prices dropping from one of the biggest names in the industry, but it seems there are some cheaper options already around, especially for unlocked phones or for people who don't need data.

Re:I'm still grandfathered in on Unlimited Data

[metalmaster]

You'll either have to keep the phone you have or buy your phones outright. As soon as you get a new subsidized phone you'll be moved to their new plan model which includes unlimited minutes and text with a bucket of data

Cramming

[tepples]

I made the switch to one of the GSM prepaid providers, and I'm totally blown away by how convenient it is to have my plan tied to a SIM card rather than a phone. Broken phone? No problem, stick the SIM in an old iPhone 3GS borrowed from a co-worker.

Until the carrier sees the smartphone's IMEI and starts cramming a data plan onto your monthly bill, as we discussed yesterday [slashdot.org].

Available elsewhere for a while

[sirwired]

If you like the Verizon network, but don't want to pay Verizon prices, they've "rented" their network out to Page Plus for years now. All I use is voice service, and if purchased in $80 chunks, minutes are 4 cents, and the monthly fee to have a number is fifty cents. All you have to do is supply the phone; any 2G or 3G non-pre-paid Verizon phone will work. For the plans mentioned in the article, Page Plus has had essentially the same available for some time for far less money.

Re:Cramming

[bigdanmoody]

Until the carrier sees the smartphone's IMEI and starts cramming a data plan onto your monthly bill, as we discussed yesterday [slashdot.org].

In my case, I have 2GB data as part of my prepaid service, and it's still cheaper than postpaid Verizon voice-only service.

Re:You Gotta' be KIDDIN" me!

[afidel]

Yep, Virgin Mobile is great, though the new best value for most folks is probably Republic Wireless, $19/month for unlimited text, talk, data. The deal is they use VoIP and WiFi for the vast majority of their users traffic, they handoff to Sprint and then Verizon only if you don't have a WiFi network available. The downside of this is that they only offer one phone and it's running Android 2.3 and since it took them 9+ months to get that working reliably it will be a bit before they do a new phone on ICS/JB.