Friday, March 15, 2013

Best Plan for Intermittent Cell Phone Users

 As I've mentioned in the previous blog post, I use that AT&T GoPhone service for my voice calls and texts.  I don't talk a lot on my cell phone since I can use Google Voice to direct all calls to my landline when I am at home or in the office, and when I am on the road, I either rarely make calls or can use Google Voice using my laptop or ipad from a wifi network or even (now) a 3G cellular network. 

So, if you don't make a ton of calls every month, and just need a phone for voice calls and texts, I  recommend the AT&T GoPhone prepaid service.  You can buy a phone from them or department stores like Walmart or Fred Meyer for $15. 

You then pay $25 per month, and use your phone for 10 cents per minute for calls.  Your credit on your account lasts 3 months; if you put in another $25 before the credit expires, the credit rolls over.  I have about $60 on my phone now.  Basically I pay $100 per year and always have a cell phone on the AT&T network.  I can get text packages at 200 texts for $4.99 per month.  This comes out of my credit.  I can forward my emails as texts, and I can also reply to people using texts which go to their emails, which is awesome.  See more info in the previous blog post.

A friend sent me a link to Republic Wireless and asked me about it.  Here's what I wrote him: "The link you sent me is for a phone that normally uses Wifi.  If there is no Wifi, then the phone automatically switches to the Sprint Network.  Big deal.  Nearly all phones can do that  -- use wifi as a default to avoid cellular data charges, then switch to a cellular network if there is no wifi network available.  The problem is that the Sprint Network is very limited.  Its reach is limited to large metropolitan areas.  For instance, I can't get a Sprint (or Virgin Mobile, or Republic, or Datajack) signal when I recently stayed with a friend in Washington State unless I walked up the hill or walked down by the water.

No comments: