Money's getting tight for contract - where to go?

[chazdraves]

Well, long-short is that we signed up for our first smartphones under AT&T's wings back in February and then I decided to go to college and leave a good-paying job behind in hopes of an even better future. We're locked into a contract and have a WP7 Samsung Focus S and a Samsung GSII which we could either keep or toss as needs be. Anyways, I'm wondering which pre-paid carrier has the best rep? We've looked at Boost Mobile many times and even used them in the past - the "shrinkage" idea would end up saving us a lot - but I'm also reading about H2O wireless (news to me) and others that would allow us to simply keep our existing phones and get new SIMs.

Recommendations from those more experienced? Thanks, guys!
- Chaz

 

[Fingolfin269]

Check this out.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2273610

 

[Muyoso]

What kind of plan do you need? Unlimited minutes? Unlimited data? Also, what is your budget?

 

[chazdraves]

Well, we'd like unlimited minutes and texts as these are our only phone lines. We'd like to stay in that $50-$60/line range and have 1-2GB per line for data depending on phones. If we stick with our phones, I'd like to have the data; otherwise, we could probably live without more than a little data for checking e-mail. I've been looking the most at Boost because of shrinkage and a positive past experience (looking at the Blackberry 9310 for me and Samsung Array for her). We went through Net10 in the past as well but Net10/ST/Tracfone all seem to have a slightly behind-the-times feel to their services and phones...?

- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

So, if I'm reading this right, we can buy an AT&T SIM for each of our phones, cancel our AT&T contracts, buy a $45 card and be on the exact same network through a different provider with unlimited everything for $70/month less than we're paying now? I read about some issues with picture messaging - would either of our phones have a problem with that?

Thanks guys! Probably should have just bought the phones off eBay in February and activated them on ST then...

- Chaz

 

[TheStu]

You're still under contract are you not? You will need to break that and cough up the ETF in order to go your own way.

 

[chazdraves]

Yes, roughly to the tune of $500 even, but it looks like it would still save us around $800 over the next two years of school.

- Chaz

 

[chazdraves]

I guess the bulk of the question is: what (besides the ETF money) would I lose by switching to Straight Talk with our existing phones that would convince me to stay with ATT?

- Chaz

 

[TheStu]

I guess the bulk of the question is: what (besides the ETF money) would I lose by switching to Straight Talk with our existing phones that would convince me to stay with ATT?

- Chaz

You'll be buying your phones outright after that point, no more subsidies. No roaming, so if you go outside their network area (it uses AT&T towers, so the coverage is good) you are on your own. They say unlimited data, but it is more like 2GB. I have heard that they have poor customer service.

 

[Phokus]

Besides the straight talk suggestion (which uses AT&T towers), if you don't mind sprint and having a somewhat limited selection of phones (mid-tier android ones, OR an iphone 4S), you can pay $25 to $35 a month on virgin mobile. The data is typically pretty slow. Might improve as they rollout network vision.

 

[Lib3rty]

List of prepaid plans: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1455014

The cheapest if you put up with Sprint's slow data and CDMA selection of phones = boost mobile and virginmobile


The cheapest if you have T-Mobile coverage, which provides lots of fast data, but only 100 minutes, is T-Mobile Monthly 4G for $30/mo. Here is how you can set up VOIP in order to get unlimited minutes: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1455014


If you want AT&T speed data and unlimited everything else, Straight Talk is $45/mo.


Check frequency compatibility on your phones. T-Mobile uses 1700/2100 for their 3G, AT&T uses 850/1900. Here is somewhat of a summary of phone frequencies (I need to create a chart for reference): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1756332

 

[chazdraves]

Well, we've had most of the services in the past with mixed results. We used to have Virgin but the signal strength in the town we lived in then was such that our phones would be off-network and not ring if they were in our pockets which makes me hesitant to go back to Virgin despite an otherwise solid experience (though we have moved and that may be different here). We had a great experience with Boost in the past but it would require the hassle of selling our existing phones and buying new but less feature rich Boost phones and it seems like AT&T's network is more comprehensive. Straight Talk lets us keep our existing phones and have unlimited (roughly, we never use more than 1GB of data each, so no worries) everything but my concern is whether we might have compatibility issues with our phones (Again, Samsung Focus S and Galaxy SII) and I'm unfamiliar with ST's customer service...?

Seems like everyone's willing to recommend something different - maybe they're all just as well?

Thanks for the continuing help, guys!
- Chaz

 

[Phokus]

Well, we've had most of the services in the past with mixed results. We used to have Virgin but the signal strength in the town we lived in then was such that our phones would be off-network and not ring if they were in our pockets which makes me hesitant to go back to Virgin despite an otherwise solid experience (though we have moved and that may be different here). We had a great experience with Boost in the past but it would require the hassle of selling our existing phones and buying new but less feature rich Boost phones and it seems like AT&T's network is more comprehensive. Straight Talk lets us keep our existing phones and have unlimited (roughly, we never use more than 1GB of data each, so no worries) everything but my concern is whether we might have compatibility issues with our phones (Again, Samsung Focus S and Galaxy SII) and I'm unfamiliar with ST's customer service...?

Seems like everyone's willing to recommend something different - maybe they're all just as well?

Thanks for the continuing help, guys!
- Chaz

Hahaha, how was your experience with virgin mobile bad but boost good? They use the same towers/network.

 

[chazdraves]

Yeah, I've pondered that as well. I kid you not, the phones we had showed they were off network roughly 70% of the time and yet they always had reception when we pulled them out to check them. We missed so many calls and then called it quits and went to Verizon Prepaid (which got old because of the crap phones at the time). Could have been the different phones we had, I suppose. I really don't know. I can say that customer service seemed to be better than Net10 (which I would assume is the same CS as Straight Talk/Tracfone...).

- Chaz

 

[Gooberlx2]

Hahaha, how was your experience with virgin mobile bad but boost good? They use the same towers/network.

Doesn't Boost use the old Nextel iDen network, whereas Virgin uses the regular Sprint CDMA network?

 

[chazdraves]

Thanks for the advice, all; we're going to give Boost a chance.

EDIT: I could be wrong, but I think most of their phones are now CDMA...?

- Chaz

 

[shortylickens]

Doesn't boost use the old Nextel iDen network, whereas Virgin uses the regular Sprint network?

Modern boost phones use Sprints newer frequencies.
But they were probably the slowest to upgrade their phone lineup, except for maybe Tracfone. Virgin actually keeps pretty good pace. They just got the iPhone 4s a month or two ago, which is pretty damn advanced for prepaid.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Modern boost phones use Sprints newer frequencies.
But they were probably the slowest to upgrade their phone lineup, except for maybe Tracfone. Virgin actually keeps pretty good pace. They just got the iPhone 4s a month or two ago, which is pretty damn advanced for prepaid.

Gotcha, I figured it might have accounted for the difference in coverage in the past. I see now that Sprint plans to shutdown the iDen services.

 

[Lyfer]

If your trying to save money then just go prepaid with cheap $20 flip phones from AT&T or Vzw. Sell your current to cover bills and wait till school is done.



Smartphones are a luxury, go with what you need to get you by, but don't sacrifice coverage. What's the point of a quad core phone if you can't make or recieve an important phone call?

 

[shortylickens]

If your trying to save money then just go prepaid with cheap $20 flip phones from AT&T or Vzw. Sell your current to cover bills and wait till school is done.



Smartphones are a luxury, go with what you need to get you by, but don't sacrifice coverage. What's the point of a quad core phone if you can't make or recieve an important phone call?

As of right now, nobody actually owns a quad core phone.

And smartphones are too convenient to sell if you already own one. Especially since now the cost of use is the same across all carriers. College students especially can make good use of the calender and other utilities.

 

[soulcougher73]

If you already have ATT GSM phones id go to Straight Talk in your instance. But do the math and see how long the break even point is if you have to pay a big ETF.