This is not an advertisement. Really. I'm also not sure what this has to do with philosophy. It is more just about being cheap and needing a phone so people can reach me... though precisely why someone would want to is another question. Most problems resolve themselves with time. That is, I find that if I let messages go long enough and nothing comes of it, they didn't really matter -- not the person, the message. This may be why there is no stampede of interest to hire me to manage a customer service department.
Anyway....
The Short Story: If you are looking for a cheap deal, you do minimal calling or texting, and you have a phone that will work with T-Mobile, the T-Mobile pay-as-you-go system is probably best. If you don't have a T-Mobile-compatible phone, or do more calling and texting, then Tracfone, Ting or FreedomPop seem to be the next best deals, depending on your phone use.
I don't use telephones much, and don't really care for the mobile ones, but people seem to expect to be able to reach me either by voice or text. And I'm a slave to other people's expectations. I've had a bunch of different phones and pagers over the last 20 years. My current phone is a Net10 phone and the service was due to expire, so I was trying to decide whether to renew the service or switch. At the time I started using Net10, it seemed like the best deal around, but things have changed.
To compare systems I looked at the annual cost for use, assuming very low activity. After some searching, the lowest-cost deals were:
Net10: Their phones are $0-$550. You can now also purchase a SIM card from them for use in your own (unlocked) phone for $1. Net10 primarily charges for minutes, but the phone's service expires in a given number of days, so you have to buy more minutes to keep the service active, even if you still have minutes remaining. Minutes cost as little as $0.07 each (if you buy 1500 minutes for $100). However, once you count the service costs, the minimum cost per month was $20, and included about 200 minutes. On Net10 most messages, incoming or outgoing, cost about half that. The total cost to me here (to renew my current phone for one year) would therefore be $240, and would include up to about 3000 minutes. http://www.net10wireless.com/
Tracfone: Their immediately-listed phones ranged from $15 to $50, and they also appear to have a well-hidden bring-your-own-phone (SIM) option for $6. Minutes are as little as $0.044 each if you purchase 1500 with their triple-minutes deal for $200 (requires purchase of one of their triple-minute phones, or an additional service card, but I could only find double-minute cards, not triple-minute ones). Like Net10, though, Tracfone also has monthly service minimums. The difference is that their monthly minimum service cost is $20 for three months and 60-180 minutes (compared to Net10, which has a minimum cost of $20 per month). So that is a minimum cost of $95+ for the first year, which would include 240-720 minutes, depending on which phone I purchased and what minute-multiple it had. Net10 and Tracfone have a very similar pricing and service structure, and appear to be part of the same company. http://www.tracfone.com
Ting Mobile. Ting has an intuitive system, which is basically just pay for what you use. You can buy one of their phones, or buy a SIM for your compatible phone ($9). My phone isn't compatible (an old Nokia N82), so I'd have to buy one of their phones, which start at about $25. After that, it is $6 per phone per month on their plan, plus $0.03 per voice minute or text message. A year of service would therefore be $25+ for the phone, $72 for the monthly service fee, plus actual usage. The smallest package in consideration is the T-Mobile one, with 30 voice minutes and 30 texts per month, so we'll use that for an apples-to-apples comparison. That would add about $22 for the year, for a total of $94. A neat built-in here is that they will aggregate use over multiple phones, then just provide a single bill.
FreedomPOP: With FreedomPOP you can purchase one of their phones, which start at about $100, or install their SIM card into your own (as long as it is one of their 20-or-so compatible models). There is a $20 charge for the SIM setup. Once done, they have four plans from which to choose, the lowest of which is free (for 200 minutes of voice, 500 text messages and 500MB of data). Other plans go up to $20/month for unlimited voice, text and data. The total cost for me here would be the cost of the phone, setup and shipping, which comes to about $115 and would include 2400 minutes of voice calls, 6000 messages and 6GB of data (I didn't have a compatible phone). http://www.freedompop.com/phone
T-Mobile: You can purchase a phone from T-Mobile ($70-$540), or purchase a T-Mobile SIM card for use in your own phone $15. Their lowest price plan is a pay-as-you-go one for $3 per month. That provides 30 minutes of voice and 30 messages (which is about what I use). Additional voice or messages are $0.10 per minute or message. I already have a T-Mobile-compatible phone, but need a SIM, so the total cost to me for a year would be about $51 and include 360 minutes and 360 messages. http://www.t-mobile.com/
So, it came down to this for one year of service:
- T-Mobile: $51 and 360 minutes, 360 messages (equivalent to about 540 Tracfone minutes).
- Tracfone: $86+ for 240-720 minutes.
- Ting: $72 or more plus $0.03 per minute or message.
- FreedomPop: $115 for lots and lots of minutes, texts, etc.
- Net10: $240+ for 3000 minutes.
These were the best deals I could find. How about you?
Another way to consider this is to take the highest cost and estimate what you could get from each for the same cost. So, we'll go with $240 per year, or $20 per month. For that amount we could get the following under the different programs:
- T-Mobile: SIM card for existing phone plus 360 voice minutes, 360 text message, then an additional ~1900 voice minutes or texts.
- Tracfone: For simplicity, assume the purchase of a $40 triple-minute phone, leaving $200 for 4500 voice minutes, perhaps as many as 12000 messages, or some sum of the two.
- Ting: Phone plus about 5100 combined voice minutes and/or texts.
- FreedomPop: Phone plus unlimited voice and text, and 6GB total data.
- Net10: Phone plus 3000 voice minutes (equivalent to 6000 text messages)
Considered this way, FreedomPop is clearly the best deal, assuming that the service stability is equivalent to the other providers, then Ting, Tracfone, Net10, and T-Mobile last.
(Obviously, these figures are only accurate as of the date of this publication, and are likely to change as services and products change.)
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