What is the cheapest smartphone plan

[legocitytruck]

My current cellphone plan is up and I would like to upgrade.

Currently, what is the least expensive way to get internet access on a phone? Are there any good deals on data plans right now? I don't mind a multiple year contract.

I will most likely have to purchase a new phone, whichever is least expensive, the brand doesn't matter to me.

 

[boomhower]

Sprint SEP at $70 a month is the cheapest I am aware of that included unlimited data. First you need to find out what works well in your area. Having unlimited data isn't going to be near as useful if your stuck on EDGE or 1X.

 

[erwos]

Yep, Sprint is the way to go. $15 a month for "unlimited" usage.

 

[legocitytruck]

Thanks for the tip. I am curious about the price difference though, $70 vs. $15?

 

[dougp]

Originally posted by: legocitytruck
Thanks for the tip. I am curious about the price difference though, $70 vs. $15?

$70 is voice + data

 

[boomhower]

$70 is a whole plan, the $15 is only for adding data to a voice line. And I was wrong its $60 for 500 minutes and $80 for 1000 minutes. That includes unlimited texts, mms, data, navigation, sprint tv, blackberry services if you go that route, and N&W starting at 7PM. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Not as good as the original SERO(you will have to pry my two out of my cold dead hands) but a good deal none the less.

edit
damn beat me to it while I was typing.

 

[pm]

T-Mobile Individual Basic (300 minutes, unlimited night/weekend): $30
T-Mobile Smartphone Unlimited Web + 400 messages: $25
total: $55

It's EDGE in most parts of the country which is a heck of a lot slower than Sprint though. If you happen to live in one of the few cities with T-Mobile 3G, and you have one of the very rare T-Mobile 3G phones (like the Samsung Behold, or T-Mobile G1) it's a great deal though. You can get it without the 400 minutes for less than $25 but you need to call a rep.

Check their coverage, and if you can get T-Mobile 3G where you are and are willing to shell out for a T-Mobile 3G-enabled phone, then $55 for unlimited data from T-Mo is the cheapest/fastest combo that I know of currently.

 

[legocitytruck]

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: pm
T-Mobile Individual Basic (300 minutes, unlimited night/weekend): $30
T-Mobile Smartphone Unlimited Web + 400 messages: $25
total: $55

It's EDGE in most parts of the country which is a heck of a lot slower than Sprint though. If you happen to live in one of the few cities with T-Mobile 3G, and you have one of the very rare T-Mobile 3G phones (like the Samsung Behold, or T-Mobile G1) it's a great deal though. You can get it without the 400 minutes for less than $25 but you need to call a rep.

Check their coverage, and if you can get T-Mobile 3G where you are and are willing to shell out for a T-Mobile 3G-enabled phone, then $55 for unlimited data from T-Mo is the cheapest/fastest combo that I know of currently.

Yep... I have the unlimited voice for $49 and unlimited data (I forget what the cap is) for another $25/month.

 

[pm]

I don't use my phone for talking much, but I'm definitely one of those data people that they look to throttle.

I'm personally actually using: T-Mobile Individual Basic along with some internet plan (Mobile Web?) that they offered last summer for $10. So I pay $40 + taxes - minus a corporate discount from my company = ~$38/month. It never hurts to ask if they have something cheaper than the unlimited + 400 messages. They did when I signed up.

It's slow - about 120kbps with a latency of about 700ms. But it works for streaming music, reading email, IM'ing people, surfing the web on a small screen, and it's cheap and I'm happy.

 

[uli2000]

There is a new MVNO startup called Zer01. $70/month unlimited web and voice, no contracts. Voice uses voip rather than gsm/wcdma. Currently, all of their handsets are Windows Mobile, but Im sure down the road they can support other smartphones. It uses AT&Ts network, so if you live in a 3g area, it would be nice, though I cant imagine the call quality of voip thru edge.

http://www.zer01mobile.com/

 

[Falloutboy]

this makes me all the more greatful of my sero plan

 

[Yongsta]

Where do you live? MetroPCS will offer a pretty sweet deal on April 6th. $50 a month for Unlimited Calling, Text, Picture Messaging, Internet, and GPS. They're rolling out EVDO 3G as well. April 6th they're going to release the Samsung Finesse (a touch screen with full html browser) and Motorola Hint (qwerty keyboard with full html browser). They will also release Motorola's first touchscreen phone, the Evoke in May. Although the coverage area isn't the best, it's expanding rapidly (now offering service in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, and many other cities). Best of all, no contract.

 

[abaez]

I use my phone like maybe .. 10 minutes a month. Right now using prepaid but is there anyway to get like a $5 plan with 20$ for internets?

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: abaez
I use my phone like maybe .. 10 minutes a month. Right now using prepaid but is there anyway to get like a $5 plan with 20$ for internets?

The only two options that I know of like this are the Sidekick data plan from T-Mobile.
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which is $1/day unlimited for the day that you use it. So if you use data 5 days in a month, it's $5. If you use it all 30 days in the month, it's $30.

And the prepaid data plan from Virgin Wireless:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/rates/data-plans.do

For reference, I use about 120MB a month on my iPhone - but I would have to say that I'm a bit an internet cell phone data addict. But although I admit that I use a lot of data, I will say that even for normal people, 20MB will go fairly quickly if you are doing things like surf CNN.com or ESPN.com a couple of times per day. Like in two weeks or so.

Virgin Mobile is using Verizon's 3G Network and it's pretty fast. T-Mobile is using their 2G (or 2.5G) EDGE network and it's pretty slow.

 

[boomhower]

120MB isn't that much. I went through a couple of gigs last month. For just surfing you probably won't go through that much. But spend some time on youtube and streaming music and you will see the kb count go through the roof.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Why hasn't anyone talked about AT&T's $15 plan? Oh is it because people buy into the fact that paying $30 actually gives them 3G access? Damn the marketing team of AT&T.

 

[pm]

No, I didn't mention AT&T because I don't know much about them.

It looks like you can get 450 roll-over minutes for $40 and then unlimited EDGE for $15. So yeah, a pretty good deal - better than T-Mobile's if you don't do any texting.

 

[Munky]

Is there a way to combine a T-mobile prepaid plan with their $5.99 T-mobile Web service? I currently have the $30/month basic plan, but I rarely use anywhere close to the 300 min I get in a month.

 

[legocitytruck]

Good question!

 

[pm]

I've never seen a way to combine any decent data plan with any of the prepaid options. And last that I saw they got rid of the $6 mobile web service as of around Sept. last year. I looked again tonight and I didn't see it on there. It's been replaced with a $10/month 100MB plan.

 

[gar655]

Originally posted by: pm
No, I didn't mention AT&T because I don't know much about them.

It looks like you can get 450 roll-over minutes for $40 and then unlimited EDGE for $15. So yeah, a pretty good deal - better than T-Mobile's if you don't do any texting.

I get unlimited 3G using my unlocked Nokia E71.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: gar655

Originally posted by: pm
No, I didn't mention AT&T because I don't know much about them.

It looks like you can get 450 roll-over minutes for $40 and then unlimited EDGE for $15. So yeah, a pretty good deal - better than T-Mobile's if you don't do any texting.

I get unlimited 3G using my unlocked Nokia E71.

Which plan and what carrier?

 

[gar655]

ATT. I just added the unlimited data to my existing plan which is a family plan with 450 minutes with rollover. It's the cheapest family plan they had.

I just pulled the SIM out of my date capable Sony 580i and stuck it in the E71. I don't know if ATT will consider the E71 a smart phone like the blackberries and iphone and charge $30 for the same service.

On my home page ATT still shows my phone as the old Sony.

Oh, no texting included in that data plan for $15.

 

[boomhower]

E71 will be considered a smartphone. Whether they will catch on is an entirely different story but it is considered a smartphone.