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Ask Slashdot: Best Pay-as-You-Go Plan For Text and Voice Only?
sconeu writes "My wife uses an assistive communication device. She wants to use it for SMS texting... We currently have Verizon, so we don't have a SIM. The computer will take a SIM. I'm looking for a pay-as-you-go plan where I can take the SIM from a cheap phone and put it in her computer. Any suggestions?" It would be interesting to hear how this question would be best answered both in the U.S. and around the world.
Local sims are better for roaming as the costs are VERY HIGH.
StraightTalk has a program just for this called StraightTalk SIM. It's $30/mo for 1000 minutes / 1000 texts or $45 for unlimited.
T-Mobile will sell you a SIM only (No Need To Buy A phone) for pay-as-you-go and is a pretty cheap option. Otherwise, many of the pay-as-you-go providers are CDMA based, But for SMS anyone should do.
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UK Giffgaff.
Free giffgaff-to-giffgaff texts/calls given £5 top-up every few months.
Otherwise 6p/text, 10p/min.
Well, if you're in Canada, there are providers called Wind and Moblicity in major cities, they both offer good cheap plans, but their coverage is limited to the cities they operate in. I'm paying $35/mo for unlimited everything, which is pretty damn good for Canada.
But in India you have a choice of
GSM prepaird SIM
GSM postpaid SIM
CDMA prepaid
CDMA postpaid
CDMA network is rare though, India is primarily GSM country.
Depending upon whether you want lots of free minutes, you have your "packs" and packages.
Other countries where I have used this is Thailand, where some 200rs equivalent in Indian rupee(4 USD) got me data which was enough for daily skype call for 7 days. Some kind of 15 day unlimited data on GPRS and 3G thing.
As an international traveller, all you need is an unlocked GSM phone. If you need micro sim card, buy a sim card, and cut it yourself with a sim cutter(costs 120 INR(2.2$). Shops will cut it for you for 1$ equivalent.
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Because the shop will try to sell you whatever generates the highest commission for them. On /. there's a fair chance that there are some readers who are literally experts on this topic and would be happy to share their knowledge, why not?
I just switched from Verizon to Tracphone. They have agreements with all of the providers so they use the same coverage or better as Verizon. When hurricane Sandy came through I didn't have a single issue making any calls.
I bought a phone from them that gives you triple minutes, and then bought the largest block of minutes they had (1500 @ $200) so I have 4500 minutes, text messages are 0.3 per message (MMS is charged differently).
Also, I got the Samsung S390G, I don't think I would recommend that as a good phone. It has various user interface issues, including the space bar, when pressed in the middle automatically adding a period. And a limit of 200 texts on the phone before you have to start deleting them, and no way to archive them off the phone unless you want to move them to the sim card 30 at a time.
I've had good luck with Net10 and quite like their pricing plan. I know folks buy the Net10 SIM for unlocked GSM iPhones, but I don't know how well they would work in the scenario you describe. I think their SIM is something like $15-$20. I pay a little over $45/month for an auto-renewing 'unlimited' prepaid plan.
And, if you use their forum for support and don't mind waiting a day or two for a response, the support isn't bad. Calling their support line can sometimes be a frustrating experience (like any other cell provider nowadays), so I just use the forum.
$15 a month for unlimited texting plus 10 cents a minute for voice. They also have a slightly less flexible plan that has not monthly charge. It's like 10 cents to send a text, 5 cents to receive, and a dollar a day plus 10 cents a minute when you use voice; voice calls after 7 do not incur the 10 cents/minute charge.
Not in the US, there aren't. A significant portion of American mobile phones don't even take SIM cards.
I've recently done a bit of research on this, as I've always bought my own smartphones outright, but my needs are a bit different as I would like to have a reasonable data connection. I elect for GSM enabled phones so they can work in the majority of the world.
AT&T may work with you, as long as you DO NOT have a smart phone, as they have special phones that you need to use for their prepaid plans. If you do have a smart phone and want data they will not give you a reasonably priced plan or will not give you a data plan at all.
T-Mobile has good pay as you go plans, but my recent experiences with them automatically changing my account type and dealing with their customer service has completely soured me on them. Outside of major metropolitan areas expect little or no data, and sometimes no voice and voice mail.
Walmart sells SIM cards under the brand Straight Talk. You can buy a sim card with unlimited text/voice/data for $45/mon (with $10 for the initial SIM purchase) which supposedly uses AT&T's network. I have one of these in the mail right now.
Google Voice is where I will be porting my "primary" number to, allowing the phone's physical number to be in flux as I travel around the world. The GV text/mail system will work whenever and however I can get data, whether that be through a WiFi hot spot or a data-enabled local SIM.
Outside the US, it's apparently a piece of cake to buy a pre-paid SIM card, toss it in your unlocked smart phone and have a reasonable expectation of decent service.
And choose cashback deals (these work by giving you a crap handset and using the networks handset subsidy to pay you cashback, and they assume some people will forget/not bother to claim). If you want just SMS hows this example deal for you: Samsung E1150 with 100mb data/month, 50 cross-network minutes/month and unlimited SMS, all for £0.88/month for 2 years (http://www.mobiles.co.uk/talk-mobile-samsung-e1150.html#/?sb=ec). That cashback comes from the seller of the phone. Here (and I assume this must exist in the US too) you can use third party websites to collect referral fees from the seller and get that back too (e.g. http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/rab2). If you use this cashback site to go through to the deal above you'll earn £25 cashback, which is more than the entire 2 year contract will cost you. And you might get a couple of quitd for the crap handset on ebay. So basically you can be in profit and have 2 years mobiles service! Note on the contract above you have to pay out £10.50 per month for I think 6 months before you can start to claim the cashback, but so long as you remember to do it you win. I've been taking deals like this for the last 7 years (and only really paid for an occasional good value phone to use with the contracts, e.g. nexus 4). Only do this from reputable sellers thought, a couple of years ago there was a spate of dodgy companies screwing over their customers or going bust.
This is also a good way to pick up a second sim to use just for data in your tablet.
Check out Ting. Brought to you by Tucows. They run on Sprint's CDMA/4G LTE network. I have voice, text messaging, AND data, and I'm paying less than $30 a month (no contracts) - less than half what I was on with Sprint.
Each component is priced separately, and you only pay for what you use - they automatically move you to the correct service level for each part at the end of each month.
They have awesome tech support - they actually turn off their hold system during the day, and the phone rings until a human picks up the phone... and then the person you talk to actually KNOWS something, not just follows a script.
The only "catch" is that you have to buy your phone - but honestly the "free phone" nonsense from other providers is just a way to rope you into a contract where you pay ten times the cost of the phone over the life of the contract.
Check them out!
(Disclaimer: Yeah, I get a discount if you use that link to sign up, but go ahead, they're freakin' awesome.)
You can either top up with credit which doesn't expire and has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) phone/text tarifs, or buy various 'goody bags'.
Coverage and quality is the same as O2.
Here in the UK (and Europe in general) cheap SIM-only plans are numerous, offered by both the major operators and the large number of "virtual" operators (known as MVNOs) who piggy-back on the actual network operators.
No need to buy a cheap phone and remove the SIM, they just pop the SIM in the post, or you can buy them at any mobile phone shop.
There's normally no (or very little) upfront cost. They are available as both pay-as-you-go and contract. Some will offer data, others will be just for voice and text.
Do you not have such things in the US?
Paul Leader
http://www.pagepluscellular.com/
Page Plus - great inexpensive plans.
CDMA.
Verizon MVNO.
Combined with GrooveIP / Talkatone / SipDroid combined with Google Voice for wifi calling, it's clearly the best deal available.
That's because it's a global phone with GSM support. The SIM isn't used when a CDMA network is available.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
https://ting.com/plans
It's a pay as you go, and as far as SMS, rather cheap. I've used them for a while now, and absolutely love 'em. On low usage months, I pay a minimal amount, more then making up for those few high usage months.
Can someone confirm this? Here in Japan you'd be hard pressed to find a phone without a SIM, and as fas as I know even the iPhone takes one.
I have lived mostly in the country in the western states. In my experience, while T-Mobile can be cost-effective, T-Mobile sometimes has connectivity problems (especially with data) in the sparsely populated areas; but T-Mobile has a good reputation in cities. Also, take care with T-Mobile because it uses less-standard data frequencies. Therefore, I prefer the pay-as-you-go carriers like StraightTalk, Tracphone, or Net10 (which are all part of the same corporation). These use the AT&T GMS system (and also CDMA is available), providing reliable voice, SMS, and data, but generally do not allow roaming. On my Galaxy Note, I ended up with the StraightTalk $50/month plan (unlimited voice and SMS, and actually 2GB data), which has been reliable, if an overkill for me.
You can send text messages to e-mail addresses and vice-versa (see here ), then get a cheap phone from Tracfone or something for voice service if she is able to use a phone for talking. I have my wife set up with a phone that gets triple minutes on the family value plan for $10 . She gets 150 minutes, which roll over from month-to-month. She almost never uses all of them, so this works out quite well for us.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Confirmed. You have to search for phones on the major providers that can take a SIM card. They are usually called "Global" phones....because you can actually use them outside the US. Most phones come locked into the provider that sells them...like Verizon or AT&T. It really sucks, but you get suckered in by getting a nice phone requiring a 2 year contract. I've avoided those contracts for years, but they really lock you in long term when all of your friends and family are on the same network and then they don't charge for any airtime minutes you use when talking with someone on the same network...ie. I have Verizon....all of my calls to other Verizon users is unlimited for no additional cost.
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CDMA (though not LTE) phones in the US don't have SIM cards. Look anywhere you like for confirmation. Those that do have SIM cards are almost all carrier-locked.
AT&T will sell you a GoPhone SIM card on the $25 monthly no contract plan for, at most, $5.95 that will have unlimited messaging. I know, because I work at an AT&T call center and sold one to a gent needing one for his company's computer that sends out text messages to their customer base. When I told him, I thought he was going to do a backdrop, he was so bloody happy.
Wife and I recently signed up for Simple Mobile. It works with TMobile or unlocked GSM phones and is $40 for unlimited talk/text/data (ok, data is probably not really unlimited, but enough for my basic needs). I've only had about 10 days but seems fine. I also found that I can buy the plan online (I used a place called pinzoo) and then avoid tax. May not be best for you since you really only want texting.
One advantage of a shop is that the sales person can ask clarifying question. For instance the poster did not state the region or the type of machine. This is important give an informed response. A salesperson can ask these questions. If the salesperson chooses a more expensive product that does the job, isn't that better than going off on your own and buying a product that does not work.
Presuming that the poster lives in a major city and does not travel off major arteries, something like Boost or any of the pay as you go carriers will work. The best bet is still to go into a shop, buy a SIM card, and make sure it works.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Not necessarily, Verizon also uses a SIM for its LTE network.
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12112
Free.fr, 2.00€, 2 Hours + Unlimited SMS
Free.fr, 15.99€, All Unlimited...
It seems that every day these little pocket computers can do more and more stuff!
why not just use google voiice for free SMS ( and calling! )
CDMA (though not LTE) phones in the US don't have SIM cards. Look anywhere you like for confirmation. Those that do have SIM cards are almost all carrier-locked.
You want a GSM service provider if you want to use a SIM card. That is mainly going to limit you to AT&T, T-Mobile, and a few minor prepaid carriers. You can order just a SIM card through these companies if you're going to do pre-paid. They can be had for $1-$10 online.
GSM is the way to go if you want to have a phone not locked to a specific provider. It also lets you use a different provider just by switching SIM cards. If you want to be able to do that, you need to have an unlocked phone. If you get one through a carrier, it's going to be locked to that carrier. Technically the provider may unlock your phone for you if you meet certain criteria, but in practice they are not very cooperative about doing it. Unlocking the phone yourself was legal in the US until a few days ago. If you want a phone you can easily swap to another carrier, you can search for unlocked phones on Amazon, there's a pretty good selection, but obviously you're going to pay full price for the phone.
yes, but if you a user is so unsophisticated as to have /. such a simple question, then some direct professional help is needed, and this needs to be paid for.
One advantage of a shop is that the sales person can ask clarifying question. For instance the poster did not state the region or the type of machine. This is important give an informed response. A salesperson can ask these questions. If the salesperson chooses a more expensive product that does the job, isn't that better than going off on your own and buying a product that does not work.
Presuming that the poster lives in a major city and does not travel off major arteries, something like Boost or any of the pay as you go carriers will work. The best bet is still to go into a shop, buy a SIM card, and make sure it works.
The salesperson is not there to help you, they are there to sell you an expensive plan. I had much better luck researching online. The last time I went into a store, the salesman tried to sell me an expensive phone on an expensive plan, and basically told me I was a tight wad and walked off when I told him I wanted a cheap prepaid plan. And they certainly aren't going to tell you about what other companies offer.
You don't say how many texts she would send in a month, which matters a lot. I have Pure Talk USA for my husband's cell phone, which rarely gets used - the base $10 a month plan - but the minutes roll over, which is great. You can get just the sim card from them. I personally am using the Walmart Straight Talk unlimited everything monthly and have had no problems. (I wanted access to data while out and about.) Both services use the AT&T network. So we spend under $60 for two plans - which is less than I used to pay on contract for just one.
"assistive communication device" sounds like a disability. If so you should speak to the providers yourself as they typically offer better deals for people with a disability. Case and point, I am deaf and with both AT&T and now Sprint I don't pay what a hearing person would pay and get a good deal. I don't know if that is a disability for sure for you since you didn't elaborate and I'm on a plan instead of pay as you go but it's worth it to talk to these companies and ask for the specialists in this area and find out what your options are if she's disabled. If she is disabled, make sure you find the specialist for it and don't take the word of someone in general support. Both Spring and AT&T have departments for just this and general support doesn't know all of the details.
We have monthly plans, and pre pay plans.
The difference is the monthly plans are honest about it.
In a monthly plan you pay $X per month to get Y minutes and Z texts
in a pre-pay plan you pay $X to get Y minutes and Z texts that expire if you don't use them in a month.
Far too many people in the US do not know how their phones work, so let me explain a little. CDMA phones do not usually have sim cards, and are tied to a specific carrier. GSM phones use sim card slots. In theory, switching phones is as simple and moving the SIM card to another phone. Basically, your 'service' is tied to the sim card, so you can switch service providers by inserting a sim card from another service provider into your phone. In practice, in the US, if you buy phones from a carrier directly, they usually lock the phone to that carrier. It can be unlocked again, which used to be legal to do youself. Sometimes the carrier will do it for you for free, but they have a number of restrictions on doing it. If you want to use a GSM phone in the US, you are limited to T-Mobile and AT&T, or a few minor prepaid carriers like Straight Talk. Just search for GSM carriers. Most of them will let you order just a sim card from them online, and you can bring your own phone. If you want a phone that will work easily with other GSM carriers inside and outside the US, search online for Quad Band Unlocked Phones. Amazon has a ton. If you just use texting, T-Mobile prepaid has $30 month unlimited texting and internet, but only 100 minutes. Or there's a $30 1500 minutes/texts plan. Or you can just do 10 cents a minute.
http://www.howardforums.com/showwiki.php?title=General+Prepaid+Wiki:Prepaid+Rate+Plan+Comparison
T-Mobile still offers their "unlimited web & text with 100 minutes talk" plan through their web site. It was originally a Wal-Mart plan. I've been quite happy with it. Never needed more than 100 minutes, but if I do, it's only 10 cents per extra minute.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
I get my prepaid refills from third party web sites that offer them at a slight discount. For example, $30 of refill value for $29.70 (or less with a coupon code). Here's one:
https://www.callingmart.com/
It's worth noting that, unlike most postpaid/contract plans, there are no additional tariffs or other fees to push a $30 plan up to $35 or so. I really do pay less than $30 per month.
I thought I'd be a bit more specific ....
My wife has ALS, and cannot use her hands, and has difficulty speaking. She uses a Tobii C15 with EyeGaze for speaking. Her computer also allows her to use it as a phone for voice (the voice output can be routed through the internal SIM) and SMS.
I appreciate all the thoughtful suggestions. Coverage is not an issue for me, as I live in Los Angeles. I may go with the T-Mobile $15 unlimited text thing. However I am reconsidering some stuff... because it's very slow for her to type with her eyes, I may need unlimited voice minutes as well, in which case, I might be better off with just a regular unimited voice/text plan.
Maybe I should start with the $15 plan, and change it if necessary.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Well, since the submission asks: I have this plan where the monthly fee is 66 cents, I can speak up to 24 hours a day and it'll cost me max. 1 euro -- ie. if I spoke 24 hours a day for the whole month it'd still cost a maximum of 30 euros + the 66 cents in monthly fees -- and I also have an extra 3G - service with no speed or data caps whatsoever and the extra costs 13.90 euro a month. Oh, and I can drop either the 3G - service or the whole plan whenever I wish to. SMS - messages cost 6.65 cents per message, so depending on how much one uses those the bill can be really small or really big -- personally, I don't really use SMS.
Unlocking the phone yourself was legal in the US until a few days ago. If you want a phone you can easily swap to another carrier, you can search for unlocked phones on Amazon, there's a pretty good selection, but obviously you're going to pay full price for the phone.
As I understand it, you can still unlock a phone *you own,* it's the subsidized phones that you cannot legally unlock.
I've been using Page plus for a while now. Their system has some bugs, but once you get used to dealing with it, it's hard to find cheaper. I pay $25 for 400 minute or texts and that lasts 4 months, so $75 a year for me. My daughter pays $12 for 250 minutes + 250 texts + 10MB and that lasts a month. Good Verizon network and quite a few different pay as you go plans. Color me happy.
T-Mobile has a program that gives you 1000 minutes or texts for $100, and you have a 1 year to use them. I'm not on the phone a lot, so that lasts me five or six months. So I'm paying less than $20 per month.
We have monthly plans, and pre pay plans.
The difference is the monthly plans are honest about it.
In a monthly plan you pay $X per month to get Y minutes and Z texts
in a pre-pay plan you pay $X to get Y minutes and Z texts that expire if you don't use them in a month.
Most T-mobile (except the $10 cards) expires in 3 months, and roll over if you refill before it expires. After you've spent $100, expiration period lengthens to a year.
The US plans are like a pay as you go (pre-pay) where the credit expires 30 days from purchase, and include some "booster minutes" for buying credit. That's the nearest I can put it in European equivalent.
Learn to love Alaska
THE SIMPLE MOBILE 25 DOLLARS IS ONLY FOR 15 DAYS!
100 Minutes, 100 Texts and 400MB of data per month for free: http://ovivomobile.com/12/our-offer/the-ovivo-smartphone-tariff/
It costs £10 to get your sim card from them but you get £10 worth of credit for any calls or data you use beyond the free ones.
We had those years ago, but then the companies got wise that people weren't spending as much as if they had a monthly plan, so they made the minutes expire to force people to pay at least as much as it would cost to be on the low end monthly plans. Now the cheapest plans you can get are the 3 yr term contracts with the "free" phones (no such thing as a bring your own device plan)
Have you looked at plans designed for this? From AT&T "AT&T is pleased to offer our Text Accessibility Plans (TAP). TAP was developed for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have difficulty speaking." http://relayservices.att.com/content/225/Text_Accessibility_Plan_TAP.html
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
All the 4G LTE phones for Verizon use a SIM card of some form or other. When I switched from 3G unlimited data on a Blackberry to a HTC Thunderbolt, I just went to my Verizon store and got a SIM card for it, and plugged it in, and it's connected. As the unlimited data is no longer offered, I won't buy subsidised phones anymore, so I'll just switch SIMs from phone to phone. Have you talked to a manager at one of the Verizon stores, or a higher-tier supervisor on their customer service line? One of them should be able to help you with this.
2 euro per month (free if Free is also your ISP), unlimited calls and texts.
30 days, huh? Finnish prepaid expires only if you haven't bought credit for 12 months... You don't have to use the credit at all if you don't want to but you do have to buy credit at least once a year to keep it active :) I've lived with prepaid for ~10 years now (thank god it's gotten cheaper) and usually I do buy credit once every month, but sometimes there have been a month without extra credit bought...
In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
So they steal your money if you don't use it? Nice...
Our prepaid's in Finland can expire if no credit is bought for 12 months, and that's just because in such case the card is not in active use anymore.
In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
I never said it was good, I just said it was the closest European analog I could come up with.
Learn to love Alaska
I pay $29.95/month for 1,200 Minutes, 3,000 Text/Picture Messages, 250 MB Data, no contract with PagePlus Cellular. They are a MVNO on Verizon, so no SIM. Since I don't have a smartphone I don't care about the data.
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
Yes, exactly like a contract plan.
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
I didn't say the monthly plans were dishonest, I said the pre-pay plans were dishonest. and pre-pay is what the carrier calls "pay as you go", they're the same thing.
Monthly plans are always pay X, get Y. they are honest that way.
Pre-paid plans on the other hand are pay X and get Y, but only if you use Y within a month. so in effect they are the same as monthly plans, but they pretend to be different because you only buy what you need, when in fact they force you to "need" more than you actually do, so much so that you end up paying as much as a monthly plan anyway.
Yeah, you might have to get on your parents' account, but after $50/mo. for 2 lines, the next 3 lines for kids are just another $5/mo., but are usually /free/ for the first year (and also any subsequent year you renew your contract to, say, take advantage of a cheaper family plan).
Text is extra, but I never use text enough to justify $10/mo. anyway.
I'd sooner pay $15/mo. for a full android plan with a 2GB "soft cap" (you get only 3G instead of HSDPA after you exceed it) or $25/mo. for "unlimited" android data. Then use a free Google Voice account for free unlimited SMS.
GiffGaff wins in the UK, no doubt. Cheap PayAsYouGo prices and cheap monthly prices, possibly the cheapest around, it's because they don't have a customer service, however they have a forum for everyone in need.
Tracfone is good for 90 days plus 90 days added everytime you buy more minutes. I still have one laying around that's good until about a year from now with 212 minutes on it. I keep it for emergencies like when I can't find my newer straight talk phone. Until my mom died and my dad started calling me 2 or 3 times a day I never used more than 150 minutes or so a month. After he started calling me continuously it ran to more like 500 minutes a month and I had to get a straight talk phone with 30 bucks a month for 1000 minutes plus 1000 texts. I seldom use more than half the minutes or 100 texts but it's still cheaper than the tracfone for that usage level.
no need to shout.
I'm in Canada which is usually much worse then America when it comes to cell phones. My wife has a prepaid plan through 7-11 (Speakeasy) which after paying $100 for a year, costs $25 per year. It's not cheap either, 25 cents a minute, 20 cents a sms, both incoming and outgoing.
I started with Fido years ago, it was $25 for 3 months, 20 cents a minute with per second billing. Now it's $10 a month + 10 cents a minute, 20 cents a sms with monthly expiry. Every couple of months part of the plan goes up, like sms, roaming, long distance and so on. These companies need to break last years record earnings every year and their prices reflect this. The idea of phones getting cheaper, at least for people like me who use it minimally, is a dream
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Can someone explain to me why some services (like tracphone) require that you use certain phones?
I got the best plan 1 year ago. 1500 min or text, 30 MB Yes that is Megabytes, enough to receive email when away from wifi. And the important part I can put the SIM in any GSM phone. Even with tax only $32 a month
Is an MVNO of Verizon that will work with the phone you already have. How does 39.95 a month for unlimited talk and text or 29.95 a month for 1200 minutes and 3000 texts sound?
Everyone else which supports SIM-based (read: GSM band) Pay As You Go is a reseller of one of these:
T-Mobile
AT&T
If you are talking about a CSIM rather than a SIM (you have Verizon with no "SIM", so I assume you are talking one of the standard WWAN cards in the device, which means they won't take a CSIM anyway), then there's:
Sprint
Verizon
TracFone
While there are a couple other CDMA carriers, they force you to take data plans. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communications_service_providers
PS:
You should be aware that manufacturers that do not support the SIM circuitry in their devices often have a SIM slot, just like the devices that support it. The non-support will potentially include lacking a GSM antenna, or even a SIM holder. So you stick the SIM in, and it just rattles around until it shorts something out.
This typically happens because it's a lot cheaper to keep one SKU for the plastics for devices than it is to roll out two sets of plastics, without knowing which model will sell better. The manufacturers usually (but not always, if the slot location is in a place like under the battery, etc.) put a piece of tape over the slot, so if you had to pry tape off because you thought you could buy the cheaper model, pull off the tape, and stick in a SIM, you are likely sadly mistaken.
PPS:
Even if all the parts are there electrically, if you bought the cheaper unit thinking to pull a fast one, typically the firmware for the cellular module is licensed and won't be distributed to the unit, even after update, since that would add cost (which is why the unlicensed units are cheaper in the first place).
Virgin Mobile USA has a $35/month "Beyond Talk" plan ($30 if you provide a credit card) with unlimited text & data, plus 300 talk minutes per month. There is no contract. Virgin Mobile USA is the Sprint Pay-as-You-Go division (Sprint obtained Virgin Mobile USA from Richard Branson's Virgin company a few years ago).
Not quite what you asked, but here's a great deal on a smartphone---sms, talk, Internet---plan. 19USD all-you-can-eat-no-nagging-powerusers plan from Republic.
You need their $250 Motorola DEFY XT dual wi-fi/talk purchase to partake. However, they say they're working on a luxe smartphone offering!
Basically pay-as-you-go using the Sprint network. Requires a CDMA phone, but you get 5c a minute, 2c a text, 10c a megabyte. They frequently run deals and they have monthly plans too.
The paygo plan has no contract, there is no conversion from money to minutes, and you can use your own phone (if it's unlocked). It's the cheapest pay-as-you-go option I've seen and from using them, I haven't had any problems with their service.
http://www.platinumtel.com/
(Apparently they changed things this year, they now also offer plans for SIM cards using the T-Mobile network)
I'm honestly unsure why they haven't caught on, I've already converted most of my family that doesn't use a cellphone a lot. Other paygo plans are really expensive, have crappy networks, don't allow data without a addon, or you have to use their special phones.
8ta is possibly your best bet, however 3g data coverage is spotty outside the major metros. When you do get coverage, expect over 5 megabits/sec. Pay-as-you-go data costs are pretty high, but a R300/month 2-year contract gets you 20gb/mo, or you can just buy their whopper 60+60gb bundle for R1800. Voice coverage is good.
Voda will demand your firstborn -- they're rather pricey.
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Yeah strange that the question was asked for "both the US and around the world", since the question barely needs answering in most countries outside the US. As you say, wander down the store and there's about freaking 20 different brands of prepaid PAYG SIMs sitting there, most of which are dirt cheap and would suit the OP's needs.
The question does make more sense in the US where prepaid plans are rare, not every phone/plan uses SIMs, and of those that do, most are far more expensive than they would be in other countries.
Actually many netbooks and laptops built in the last few years do indeed have a SIM slot and a GSM/HSDPA radio. Our standard corporate issue laptops at work have them - very handy not having to carry around a separate 3G data dongle for connecting on the go.
UK:
A very nice prepay market thanks to fair competition. Prepay is better value than contract in all cases. Yes I know it's controversial. Hard to unpick the brilliant salemanship of contact phones but if you do that maths and actual case studies I think you'll find it's better across the board. When doing your sums remember: 1) Risk analysis on the debt risk converted to a monetory amount 2) take off the value of the "free" phone and divide the X-net minutes by the remainder 3) would you actually use this much if you didn't have already paid for it and feel you had to use it? 4) unused allowances that don't roll over 5) bill theft risk; your base to quantify is insurance 6) "unlimited" internet... isn't
Wallmart (ASDA UK) do a very basic and simlpe billing service. Giffgaff also but with an option for extra data at 1gb/£10 and more. Plenty more options.
EU in general:
Anti-competitive practices on roaming clamped down with limits enforced by gov - a shame to have to resort to but... nice! Now people can travel across the EU with the same prepay simcard and it's like the big country it's supposed to be.
Australia:
Similar to the UK but maybe slightly not quite as good... researching. NZ similar.
Peru: :-) Still not as good as the UK though.
Now has `ok` prepay options. South America in general was terrible only a few years ago with basically no prepay data but thankfully that has changed and travellers can now email!
Argentina:
Similar to Peru. Telefonica, Claro, Personal. Personal seemed the best for prepay by a way. No support at all - better to ask other travellers and just buy a new sim/throw money at it.
Spain:
Only very slightly better than South America? Not sure. Cuold be exactly the same now as South America... similar companies of course; Claro, Movistar..
North America:
Sounds contract centric. CDMA options confusing. I don't get it.
A blog I run for the wealth
Over here in Blighty we have a little known provider called giffgaff. It runs on the O2 network. It's a very community driven business, the only advert I've ever seen in before The Big Bang Theory. I've been using them for over a year. I pay (no contract) £10 a month and get 250 mins, unlimited texts and 1GB data (+ free giffgaff to giffgaff calls). For £12 you get the above with unlimited data. And they mean unlimited.
Silly name, great company.
That's not entirely true since not all stores carry all brands and they're not always all that helpful helping you select; you're supposed to have done your homework. Also, various brands try to do is to create a "community" by offering cheaper or near-free calls within the brand, to tempt you to stick around because your friends do too.
Further, some brands can only be ordered "online" which is a bit of a bummer if you want to keep your name off of it. Some countries actually require you to register your name to the sim, even with a copy of your passport, but then again some are sloppy enough that this is circumventable also (and not a crim does it catch extra, just drives costs up a bit, and makes copies of passports to use for registration more viable as a tradeable commodity). Another caveat is that some of those "online" brands don't offer topping-up vouchers but require a (local) bank account number and permission to dip to ensure you always have enough credit on the card. Handy, innit?
But it isn't really a good question for ask slashdot, no. Since it differs by country it comes down to gathering the price lists and comparing. That or use handy dandy price comparison sites, again per country. The sites offering ex pat-tailored info are usually out of date. Around here, the MVNOs and operator sub-brands pop up and perish like, well, something that isn't expect to last half a decade.
The only generic information to be had is that there are a few that offer roaming for a fixed, predictable price across europe or even the world that's a lot higher than a local PAYG but a lot less than the usual roaming charges, and that cost very little to keep around when not in use. Oh, and that voice and text plans are hairy but not as much trouble as sorting out PAYG data. It's just a spot of work, is all.
On that note, do work out the frequency bands the equipment supports; if it's not "everything" you run some risk of ending up with a dud sim as not all operators are available on all frequency bands in use in a country. For MVNOs you usually have to work out whose network they're using, mapping back to the "parent"'s frequency usability. Again, it's a bit of homework, but generally doable.
I had page plus on my Droid 2 for quite a while. It was pretty easy to set up. Just call up their customer service and give them your device esn. You don't get very much data on their cheaper plans, but it's great for people who just want minutes and texting. I used their $12/month plan.
I know a lot of people from different churches who are connected to church "private networks" here in Europe. The idea is that the church gets a lot of SIMs for their employees, and also for people that the pastors trust and can vouch for - that work quite well in many smaller churches. The more SIMs you have the bigger discounts you have, so the plans that I know have free communication between all the members of the network, plus half price plans with double the free minutes and SMS than normal retail plans. The only issue is the one of trust - when someone ends up not paying their invoice the pastor has to deal with it :)
That deals kicks the shit out of my Verizon plan. I'm paying $90 for 1 smartphone, 1 dumbphone, with 750 min shared, no texts, and 150mb of data per month. We did get our phones for free in this deal, so that's something, but we're month to month now. Might as well switch now.
Thanks for the tip!
For their prepaid plan the only monthly fee is $1.25 for 911. You can get unlimited web browsing for $10/month (good for 2GB/month), and do all your texting via the data connection. Voice quality over the data connection is variable...if you care about that then you'll want to use the voice minutes which might mean another plan makes more sense.
If the device can send texts and uses a SIM then odds are it's a GSM device. That means in the US you're likely to be best served by T-Mobile or AT&T's networks. You'll need to find out what frequency bands the device supports as that may force you onto one or the other. Aside from that, any of the Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) that sell service on AT&T or T-Mobile are viable candidates. They'll sell you a pre-paid SIM card without a phone that will provide voice and SMS access. Wikipedia will help get you started: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators
I'll be switching to AirVoice Wireless once my AT&T contract ends next month. For $10/mo you can get a plan that lets you spend the $10 at a rate of $0.04/min voice and $0.02/msg SMS.
I've got pay as you go, through T-Mobile. They expire after ONE YEAR. Adding any amount to the account extends the time for another ONE YEAR.
H2O wireless has 5 cent texting. Combine this with a google voice app for free texts when you're in wi-fi range and you'll be good to go.
The C15 page indicates the Optional phone module is GSM, Quad-band 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
The manual indicates it is only Optional on the C15 because a non-RF model of the C15 is available. So it would seem that any network that can provide voice service over those bands and will provide SIM-only service is fine.
in the US that would be both AT&T and Tmobile (850/1900 MHz). I believe even Verizon will sell you a SIM, but only for overseas roaming.
specs http://www.tobii.com/en/assistive-technology/north-america/products/hardware/tobii-C15/technical-specifications/
manual http://www.tobii.com/Global/Assistive/Downloads_Training_Documents/C-Series/PDF/GettingStartedGuideC-Series/Tobii_GettingStartedGuide_CSeries_V1_3_01032012_UsEng_WEBHQ.pdf?epslanguage=en
I'd see whether you could get a telemetry subscription. It's GSM text messages only and people use it for alarm systems and heating up their cabin.
In Norway you get a subscription for 20NOK/month (3.6$USD/month) + .6 NOK (10 cents) for each SMS. If it's too many SMSs you need a regular sub.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
I was just baffled, didn't assume you thought it was good either :)
In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
Did I misunderstand or do you get billed for receiving calls? Man that must suck....
In capitalist USA corporations control the government.