Sprint SERO 500 vs Boost Mobile Pay as You Go Data only

[wirednuts]

this is really bugging me lately. i have 3 days to decide now too, with my old boost plan expiring. (old rates, 10 cents a day instead of 15).

Sero 500 my current everyday phone
500 anytime min + 7pm-7am nights + weekends
unlimited text w/pic mail and short code
unlimited data w/ roaming capability
windows mobile 6 phone (ugh!)

$36.52 a month after taxes


Boost mobile data only my current data only tethering phone.
unlimited data to sprint towers. no roaming.
unlimited text and talk with google voice
no short code or pic mail capability
evo 4g phone

$10.68 a month after taxes


basically, i could have 3 phones right now instead of one- if i can just live with the drawbacks to boost. i want an android phone though, and in these days its not like the sero500 plan is all that and a bag o chips like it used to be.

roaming and picture mail are the biggest drawbacks to going boost. when i think about it though, anytime my sprint phone goes to roaming it might as well shut off anyway. i honestly think losing picture mail would be the worst part... but $20 a month is a lot of money to just have pic mail!

 

[Muyoso]

Where in the hell is there a 10 dollar plan with unlimited data on Sprint towers?

 

[wirednuts]

boost mobile pay as you go is 50 cents a day unlimited use. i have an old account that is still running on 35 cents a day as long as i keep filling it up with money.

 

[quikah]

Where do you get this data only plan, the only plans on boost site are for everything.

 

[wirednuts]

looks like youre right. im on a VERY grandfathered plan now.

im not even sure if i can get an android to activate on my plan, but if i can then i will do it.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Yeah I was going to say you're going to have an easier time upgrading devices on the SERO plan. You have any Sprint smartphone to choose from, whereas with Boost you have to find Boost-compatible phones. Although I suppose it might be possible to activate a Sprint phone on Boost, not sure though.

 

[ImDonly1]

Yeah I was going to say you're going to have an easier time upgrading devices on the SERO plan. You have any Sprint smartphone to choose from, whereas with Boost you have to find Boost-compatible phones. Although I suppose it might be possible to activate a Sprint phone on Boost, not sure though.

You can probably activate some phones using ESN cloning. Never tried, but it seems possible from howardforums?

Also as for the plan it is under pay as you go
http://www.boostmobile.com/shop/plans/pay-as-you-go/

Web is $0.50/day which is good if you were only using data. $15/mo for data only.
Talk/text make it a rip off though at $0.20/min or txt.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

You might want to check to be sure that you can use an Android phone on SERO. I had the SERO family plan, got my wife an EVO 4G and had to change plans because I was told SERO can't be used for smartphones.

 

[wirednuts]

you have to pay an extra $10 a month. so its $40 a month then. but if you want 4g phones, you need to pay another $10... at that time its $50 a month which is a plan you can get from a lot of subsidy carriers and such.

the tmo data plan is great because i dont talk much, and i can get everything i need through the data connection.

 

[AkumaX]

You might want to check to be sure that you can use an Android phone on SERO. I had the SERO family plan, got my wife an EVO 4G and had to change plans because I was told SERO can't be used for smartphones.

At the time that the EVO 4G came out (wow, 2 yrs ago!), you could not activate it on SERO.

Since then, there have been 'evolutions' (lol) of new plans that are compatible with SERO. The current naming conventions are SERO-P (premium) and SERO-P+PD (premium+premium data, formerly SERO-P+4G)

SERO $30 - feature phones
SERO-P $40 - some older 3G android smartphones, blackberries, windows phone 7 (no 4G phones)
SERO-P+PD $50 -pretty much all phones (android 4G, newer 3G smartphones)

before, all 3G android phones were able to be activated with SERO-P $40.
after a certain date (around 10-4-2011), all new phones required SERO-P+PD $50

3G android phones that are still compatible with SERO-P $40*
- samsung transform (worst phone ever)
- lg optimus s
- lg marquee
- and more

3G android phones that didn't make the cutoff date, but now require SERO-P+PD $50*
- samsung transform ultra
- motorola admiral
- and more

lastly, the other biggest perk of going from SERO->SERO-P is that you get Unlimited Any Carrier-to-Carrier Minutes (which leaves you with 500 land-line minutes), if you're a big talker

*phone list subject to change anytime

 

[wirednuts]

^^ which is why sprint is finally not alone with affordable plans. and even if they do offer more data technically, it really is hardly ever fast data. ive had sero for years and years too. most of the time it is frustrating speed.

 

[AkumaX]

^^ which is why sprint is finally not alone with affordable plans. and even if they do offer more data technically, it really is hardly ever fast data. ive had sero for years and years too. most of the time it is frustrating speed.

Sprint's 3G definite started tanking when the iPhone came out. However, a lot of people are really optimistic with the Network Vision roll out (basically, the replacing of old 3G towers w/ newer ones that can handle more load). The roll out is slow, but the people whom had gotten it have been pretty happy with their "new" 3G speeds, lol

It's sad that even w/ the new LTE phones, we still won't see LTE for a while (not to mention even the new LTE 800Mhz in 2014, but that's another story...)

The only redeeming factor is the EvoLTE, it has SV-DO and magically is able to make phone calls + surf data over 3G at the same time.

Only reason to have Sprint is to roam on Verizon

 

[wirednuts]

thats what i always thought, but i find that roaming on verizon is really only good in emergencies. its a pita if you leave it on auto roam, the phone is always switching in and out. and you get no data when roaming, so to me its a pretty useless benefit.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

At the time that the EVO 4G came out (wow, 2 yrs ago!), you could not activate it on SERO.

Since then, there have been 'evolutions' (lol) of new plans that are compatible with SERO. The current naming conventions are SERO-P (premium) and SERO-P+PD (premium+premium data, formerly SERO-P+4G)

SERO $30 - feature phones
SERO-P $40 - some older 3G android smartphones, blackberries, windows phone 7 (no 4G phones)
SERO-P+PD $50 -pretty much all phones (android 4G, newer 3G smartphones)

before, all 3G android phones were able to be activated with SERO-P $40.
after a certain date (around 10-4-2011), all new phones required SERO-P+PD $50

3G android phones that are still compatible with SERO-P $40*
- samsung transform (worst phone ever)
- lg optimus s
- lg marquee
- and more

3G android phones that didn't make the cutoff date, but now require SERO-P+PD $50*
- samsung transform ultra
- motorola admiral
- and more

lastly, the other biggest perk of going from SERO->SERO-P is that you get Unlimited Any Carrier-to-Carrier Minutes (which leaves you with 500 land-line minutes), if you're a big talker

*phone list subject to change anytime

How typical of the CSR at Sprint to not tell me this information. Screw it. The contract with Sprint is up soon and I'm moving to the ST or T-Mob no-contract plan. I'm tired of being locked in.

 

[AkumaX]

thats what i always thought, but i find that roaming on verizon is really only good in emergencies. its a pita if you leave it on auto roam, the phone is always switching in and out. and you get no data when roaming, so to me its a pretty useless benefit.

heh heh, look into android app Roam Control

How typical of the CSR at Sprint to not tell me this information. Screw it. The contract with Sprint is up soon and I'm moving to the ST or T-Mob no-contract plan. I'm tired of being locked in.

there are a lot of clueless CSR reps. you have to actively seek employee care, and even those people might not relay the right information.

someone tried calling a dozen times, getting rejected every time on activating a phone from SERO-P, saying that they have to upgrade to EDP or EPRP

but it took 1 try over ecare (online chat) to do it right!

 

[wirednuts]

heh heh, look into android app Roam Control

i can bet that doesnt work so well on winmo 6.1