What's the best cell phone deal for simple communications.

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IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
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If someone doesn't need a "smart phone" but want's minimum cost phone service..what's the best deal??
 
C

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,501
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T-Mobile prepaid, w/$100 Prepaid refill card. Good for a year last time I checked (been a while).

For data, Text Now (a Sprint MVNO) is one of the cheapest at $18.99 for unlimited talk, text, and data (500MB of data at 3G/4G speed, unlimited 2G after that).
 
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IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,949
133
106
Crono said:
T-Mobile prepaid, w/$100 Prepaid refill card. Good for a year last time I checked (been a while).

For data, Text Now (a Sprint MVNO) is one of the cheapest at $18.99 for unlimited talk, text, and data (500MB of data at 3G/4G speed, unlimited 2G after that).
Click to expand...

what operating syst.are those phones using..ATT has a "Go Phone" but uses win8.1 rather then win10. Are the win8.1 phones obsolete?
 
lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,426
7,613
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Crono said:
For data, Text Now (a Sprint MVNO) is one of the cheapest at $18.99 for unlimited talk, text, and data (500MB of data at 3G/4G speed, unlimited 2G after that).
Click to expand...
That's a great looking plan. If work wasn't paying for my phone plan, I'd be interested in that.
 
KeithP

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,659
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IGBT said:
If someone doesn't need a "smart phone" but want's minimum cost phone service..what's the best deal??
Click to expand...

What carriers/networks are acceptable for the service in question?

-KeithP
 
J

JeffMD

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2002
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tracphone has a 100 bucks for a year service, plus you can usually buy a phone with it at a discount (I bought an lg smart phone for $100 that had a $100 year card with it on ebay)
They use verizon and att networks.
 
J

Joepublic2

Golden Member
Jan 22, 2005
1,114
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JeffMD said:
tracphone has a 100 bucks for a year service, plus you can usually buy a phone with it at a discount (I bought an lg smart phone for $100 that had a $100 year card with it on ebay)
They use verizon and att networks.
Click to expand...

Definitely. I was in the same boat but I've turned to the smartphone side. Just picked up a ZTE zmax 2 (quad core, 2GB ram, android 5.1) AT&T go phone at best buy for $60 (probably still on sale) and I'm using it with my tracfone account. I don't use hardly any wireless data but you should still get a smartphone with decent hardware imo because you can use very useful apps like google maps, waze (speed traps, checkpoints) etc. over wifi. I wouldn't recommend anybody get a phone with less than 2GB of ram these days, even if you're just planning on using talk + text. My last phone was some cheapo $20 android phone with 512MB ram that constantly swapped to flash even with the simplest apps (droid has about a half gig memory footprint these days), took forever to boot, and was just painful to use all around.
 
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corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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While you're at it, check out the Jitterbug phones.
 
IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,949
133
106
KeithP said:
What carriers/networks are acceptable for the service in question?

-KeithP
Click to expand...

looking for cheap coast effective coverage pre pay format. What ever carrier / network that can meet that criteria.
 
corkyg

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
27,370
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IGBT said:
looking for cheap coast effective coverage pre pay format. What ever carrier / network that can meet that criteria.
Click to expand...

I think you are missing KeithP's point. Carrier cost parameters don't mean much if they don't adequately cover the geographic area the phone is to be used in. It would be useful to know where the phone will be used, and will subsequent travel be involved.
 
luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
3,493
92
91
Republic Wireless, mvno of Sprint. unlimited talk and text for $15 per month, no extra stupid fees. mom and wife's family on it for at least 2 years already.

oh, with RW, you cannot take the number with you if you decided to change carrier in the future. so wife's numb was from tmobile. she ported it into RW no problem. now that she wants phones with sim cards, she has to port the number to Cricket. no luck. i even tried to port her number into google voice, no luck.
 
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gorcorps

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,738
451
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IGBT said:
If someone doesn't need a "smart phone" but want's minimum cost phone service..what's the best deal??
Click to expand...

IGBT said:
what operating syst.are those phones using..ATT has a "Go Phone" but uses win8.1 rather then win10. Are the win8.1 phones obsolete?
Click to expand...

First you say "if someone doesn't need a smart phone" then you raise concern that the win 8.1 devices are obsolete?

Why does it matter? Do you even know what you want?
 
IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,949
133
106
gorcorps said:
First you say "if someone doesn't need a smart phone" then you raise concern that the win 8.1 devices are obsolete?

Why does it matter? Do you even know what you want?
Click to expand...


..when is it ever a good idea to buy something that may be obsolete or short on support??
 
IGBT

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,949
133
106
corkyg said:
I think you are missing KeithP's point. Carrier cost parameters don't mean much if they don't adequately cover the geographic area the phone is to be used in. It would be useful to know where the phone will be used, and will subsequent travel be involved.
Click to expand...


North of Sacramento up to about Redding. Everything North of Sacramento would be good.
 
S

Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,201
10,063
136
Tracfone is pretty cheap but that's the only one i'm familiar with. They just sent me a new cheap phone(for free) because i was still using 2G network one & they're upgrading to 3G minimum.
Phone i originally had was double minutes & this one is too. Some are triple minutes. Not sure if that applies to smart phones. So i buy a 60 minute card every 90 days & get 120 minutes for $20+ taxes, about $22 really, so about $7/month.
Text uses .3 minutes, MMS .5 minutes. Perfect for my limited use.

If someone is going to doing a lot of calls/texting a set monthly plan might be better.
 
T

thedarkwolf

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 1999
9,000
110
106
Did the tracfone thing for awhile then switched to Ting for the last two years. Worked great since I don't use data other than checking e-mail and facebook. Lastweek I switched to Ringplus though. Going to see how that goes for awhile. Kind of hard to be free.
 
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