Cheap wireless

[Anonymous]

My situation: we have two unlocked phones and two T-Mobile Pay as you go accounts. It is around $55/year for me and about $55/2-3 month for my wife. I'm on wifi about 90% of my time and wife is about 60%. My wife defenetly need unlimited talk or desent amount of minutes per month. We both would like to have some data, even 2G will be fine for whatsup. 

Recently we purchased two ATT phones (iphone 6S and Samsung S6 edge+). Phones are paid off already and going to be unlocked soon. ATT plans are just ridicules for us. Cheapest is $55/month (with tax) for unlimited talk/text and 0.3Gb of data. So, we are going to cancel it.

Will unlocked ATT phones will work on Sprint MVNOs?

Do anyone use cheap MVNOs?

Any recommendation?

[Anonymous]

It depends the band of the phone and the carrier.  If the phone was on ATT, that's a gsm carrier so its a gsm phone, you need to go to another gsm carrier or reseller that uses gsm network.  There are a ton of them.  I have a company phone but if I was to buy my own I would get either a smart talk prepaid plan or us cellular or pageplus.  There are a ton though, I have heard good things about metro pcs but they aren't availible in my area.  Good luck, hard to be more specific without knowing what carrier you are looking at.  Pageplus has unlmimted talk, text, and data for $40.  Only 1.5gb is 4g speed but its still a great deal.

[Anonymous]

Shenron,

Thank you for your input.

I'm in major metropolian area, so any carrier is OK for me.

I don't think that $40/mo is a good deal for me due to it will raise my yearly wireless spending from $55-70 to $480

These MVNOs are tricky. So, need someones expirience on it. Does they lock your unlocked phone, do they have voice mail, what are the charges/taxes/hidden fees?

I heard some rumors that unlocked iphone 6s will work with any carrier.

I'm targeting $10/mo for myself and 25-30/mo for wife.

My current pick ups:

Fridom Pop Global GSM (it is sold out for now...) + free plan (200 minutes, 500 sms and 0.5Gb if I not mistaken - could not found plan information on their website). Not sure if my Samsung S6 edge+ will work with it.

Fridom Pop Global GSM (it is sold out for now...) + unlimited text/talk + 1Gb of data $20/mo. Not sure if wife's iPhone 6S will work with it.

Also confused: different websites indicate that FreedomPop is on Sprint. And Sprint is not GSM as far as I know.

US Mobile (on T-Mobile network):

Two lines plan: 250 min/100 text/0.1Gb data + 5000min/100 text/0.5Gb data = $28/mo. Any hidden fees or problems with it?

[pipeguy]

FWIW:

Verizon and Sprint are on CDMA networks

AT&T and T-Mobile are on GSM networks

While major cell phone makers such as Apple or Samgung or LG et all make units that operate on both networks, a GSM "defined" unit for say AT&T will NOT work on a CDMA network such as Verizon. 

So as long as you have GSM phones (T-Mobile) you can use other GSM carriers such as AT&T or their sub-carriers such as Cricket.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It depends the band of the phone and the carrier.  If the phone was on ATT, that's a gsm carrier so its a gsm phone, you need to go to another gsm carrier or reseller that uses gsm network.  There are a ton of them.  I have a company phone but if I was to buy my own I would get either a smart talk prepaid plan or us cellular or pageplus.  There are a ton though, I have heard good things about metro pcs but they aren't availible in my area.  Good luck, hard to be more specific without knowing what carrier you are looking at.  Pageplus has unlmimted talk, text, and data for $40.  Only 1.5gb is 4g speed but its still a great deal.

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AT&T gophone has unlimited talk, text, and data (2Gb LTE, 128kb after) for $40 (with auto refill). Pageplus have 64kb after per wikipedia.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

US Mobile (on T-Mobile network):

Two lines plan: 250 min/100 text/0.1Gb data + 5000min/100 text/0.5Gb data = $28/mo. Any hidden fees or problems with it?

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Your choice (US Mobile) seems like the cheapest way to go.

Ting - Has a similar payment structure to US Mobile, but US Mobile seems like a better deal (GSM)

Pure Talk Usa - More for people who barely use the phone (GSM)

Virgin Mobile - Unlimited Text, Talk, and Data for $30 a month. It's $35 a month but you get $5 off every month for setting up auto-pay. (Think this might be CDMA)

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Your choice (US Mobile) seems like the cheapest way to go.

Ting - Has a similar payment structure to US Mobile, but US Mobile seems like a better deal (GSM)

Pure Talk Usa - More for people who barely use the phone (GSM)

Virgin Mobile - Unlimited Text, Talk, and Data for $30 a month. It's $35 a month but you get $5 off every month for setting up auto-pay. (Think this might be CDMA)

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Thank you

[IOBA]

My brother and his son are on MetroPCS.  The bill is $71 a month for both smart phones, unlimited talk, text, and data.

I have Consumer Cellular. The bill is $40 a month for both smart phones, 1500 minutes, 3G of data, 300 texts.  (or something like that.)  No contract, so I change the plan as I need to, based on use.  Like next month, I am dropping down to 700 minutes or so (whatever it is) and it will decrease my phone bill.

I am on wifi as much as possible.  I keep the data becuase some people just send text messages and aren't using iPhones.  Hardly ever use any data (becuase of wifi) but it's tied to the texts.

Both MetroPCS and Consumer Cellular work well in the same areas.  I just prefer the cheaper monthly bill for two phones and my brother has a teenage son, so he needs unlimited everything.