Thoughts on prepaid cell service?

Thinking on switching to one of those companies. We looked up Mint, and Metro - we’re on West Coast.

Anyone has any thoughts on it? Good thing to do? Bad idea?

We don’t travel much - kinda hard when one milks cows every day -, and most of our cell phone internet is done via wi-fi.

Looks like Tracfone cover most of the Wet Side of the PNW....?   We've been happy enough with ours.  Using iPhone 6s (don't know how much longer if OS goes obsolete).  We are in bad cell-tower range and supplement bad connection with internet connectivity of phone.  Rural internet is so-so, but good enough for most streaming.  I buy an annual $99 plan and just top up minutes/data/SMS when need to, which is maybe twice to 3 times per year (500 minute add-on for $10 + tax).

Liv Smith wrote:Thinking on switching to one of those companies. We looked up Mint, and Metro - we’re on West Coast.

Anyone has any thoughts on it? Good thing to do? Bad idea?

We don’t travel much - kinda hard when one milks cows every day -, and most of our cell phone internet is done via wi-fi.

I’m not sure where you live but here in Maine going to them means a lower level of service. It works fast… but use too much data even if it is unlimited, and specs slow down. I have a name-brand carrier and even for me the prepaid services suck. Mostly because I cannot get anyone who has it due to bad cell service and having to use my phone because my coworker won’t get a name- brand service like me.

Myself, I work in hydro and can be 94 feet under the river, encased in a concrete lair, and still get full reception and service. My coworkers prepaid service cannot say that.

You get what you pay for I guess. Expensive, but worth it.

I used Ting for awhile and liked them because you basically only pay for what you use. Not sure of their coverage, but it's pretty good, I believe. I went back to Tracfone after Ting switched to 5G because my dumb phone doesn't do 5G.

With Trafone, 90 days is about $20 for calls and text only. The minutes accumulate, which is nice.

I'm trying to rally the troops together to bring back the messenger pigeon, but nobody seems to be on board yet.

If that fails I'm going to soup can on a string.



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Faeryn Savage wrote:I'm trying to rally the troops together to bring back the messenger pigeon, but nobody seems to be on board yet.

If that fails I'm going to soup can on a string.

I could easily see how this might be a lot cheaper.

I use an AT&T prepaid, which seems great for my phone usage.

All the prepaid services are buying bandwidth from either AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. So you get their network coverage but the caveat is that under high network load, your data speed gets less priority than people buying the more expensive plans directly from "the big three" carriers. Will you ever be able to detect this? I haven't. I don't even see how it would be an noticeable for anything but streaming video.

I used Straight Talk for many years with no reception/service issues, but their customer support is absolute garbage. I found a better deal through Consumer Cellular and their support has been excellent. You get a real US based representative on the phone almost immediately.

I switched from Verizon to Mint two months ago.  I was paying $75 per month for just the service.  My phone was paid for.

I checked my data use before I left and I normally use about 2g of data per month.  A couple of months I used 5g of data.  Mint's plans start at $15 for up to 4g technically it is unlimited, but it's slow after you pass 4g as I understand it.  Because it's pre-paid you can't go over accidentally.

Anyway, I went with the 10g plan which is $20 per month if paid for the year in full.  So I got a new pixel 7 phone (on sale for $299)  plus a year of 5g speed, unlimited voice and text, and 10g's of data per month for a total of $461.91 (I just looked at the receipt).

It's faster than my old phone (but that's probably because my old phone wasn't as good as this newer one).  So far I can't tell a difference in service.  So, I feel like I was an idiot for far too long to be paying what I was.  My bad.
I'm sure there is a difference, but I really don't use my phone much.  I very, very, rarely make phone calls or text.  I mainly use it to stream podcasts, etc.

I don't know how to classify my location.  My town has about 10k, my metro is about 100k.  I'm getting 4 bars of 5g where I'm at most of the time.  
I just did a speed test and here is what it gets.  Ping 46, Download 315, Jitter 13, upload 18.  That's at "google fiber" test site.

Anne Miller wrote:

Faeryn Savage wrote:I'm trying to rally the troops together to bring back the messenger pigeon, but nobody seems to be on board yet.

If that fails I'm going to soup can on a string.

I could easily see how this might be a lot cheaper.

I use an AT&T prepaid, which seems great for my phone usage.

It has come to my attention that they are one-way workers. So we'll need quite a few pigeons. However, I feel that I could provide a herd of pigeons a happy life in exchange for their service.

I'll be waiting by the window for your reply.

Stop.

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Matt Todd wrote:All the prepaid services are buying bandwidth from either AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon. So you get their network coverage but the caveat is that under high network load, your data speed gets less priority than people buying the more expensive plans directly from "the big three" carriers. Will you ever be able to detect this? I haven't. I don't even see how it would be an noticeable for anything but streaming video.

You are talking about Mobile Virtual Network Operators, which have become well established by offering prepaid plans. Those primary providers offer prepaid service under their own branding also.

Where did you hear about prioritizing cellular traffic? I had assumed that myself, but looking to switch last year I came across a claim in some MVNO's FAQ that made me question this. I can't remember if it was regulated policy or their specific contract, just the claim that they were entitled to equal prioritization under all circumstances.

Liv Smith wrote:Anyone has any thoughts on it? Good thing to do? Bad idea?

We don’t travel much - kinda hard when one milks cows every day -, and most of our cell phone internet is done via wi-fi.

When you say cell phone internet is done over wi-fi, do you mean you have a land line and mostly use your cell phones over that wifi so little cellular data is needed, or do you use your cell phones to offer wifi to other devices so need a hotspot option?