Suggestions for prepaid provider?

G

Gorilla

Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm in Portland, OR and need a basic prepaid smartphone (something like a moto g or an older iphone) for a family member. Text is more important than voice, 1gb of data is fine. So far it looks like Ting is more expensive than Sprint. Cricket is the same price as Sprint, but their network might be getting shut down sometime in the future (or has that already happened because of the ATT purchase?) which will mean having to buy a new phone to be able to use ATT's network.

Anyone else I should look at?
 
Cricket's network is basically att's network

Depending on your budget:

$180-250: Moto G LTE w/ microSD (1.5 gen) is probably the best inexpensive future-proof phone you can get with microSD
<$100: One of the Nokia phones 521/520/6xx...

T-mobile's network is pretty good in Portland OR, but not as good once you leave... ($30 5GB LTE, 2G after, 100 min, unlimited text)

straighttalk, Cricket, pretty decent for AT&T, $40-$45 (unlimited everything, data throttled to 2G after 2-3GB)

(click on the different networks / LTE/3G and compare)

http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/T-Mobile/lte_310260#q=Portland,+OR,+USA|coverage
 
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If you like Sprint's network, you might look at Virgin Mobile: $35/month for 300 minutes, 2.5 gb fast data (then throttled), unlimited text; or $35/month for unlimited voice and text with only 250 mb fast data (throttled after)
 
paperwastage said:
Cricket's network is basically att's network

Depending on your budget:

$180-250: Moto G LTE w/ microSD (1st gen) is probably the best inexpensive future-proof phone you can get with microSD
<$100: One of the Nokia phones 521/520/6xx...

T-mobile's network is pretty good in Portland OR, but not as good once you leave... ($30 5GB LTE, 2G after, 100 min, unlimited text)

straighttalk, Cricket, pretty decent for AT&T, $40-$45 (unlimited everything, data throttled to 2G after 2-3GB)

(click on the different networks / LTE/3G and compare)

http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/US/USA/T-Mobile/lte_310260#q=Portland,+OR,+USA|coverage
Click to expand...

Thanks for the informative post. The t-mobile deal sounds just about perfect. The phone is for my little sister and I suspect that she is much more likely to use data and text than actual voice minutes. Anyway, it looks like that plan is available only at walmart. So what, I order a moto g lte from amazon or wherever and then go to walmart to pick up a sim kit and prepaid card?
 
JapaneseGorilla said:
Thanks for the informative post. The t-mobile deal sounds just about perfect. The phone is for my little sister and I suspect that she is much more likely to use data and text than actual voice minutes. Anyway, it looks like that plan is available only at walmart. So what, I order a moto g lte from amazon or wherever and then go to walmart to pick up a sim kit and prepaid card?
Click to expand...

For some reason, its hard to find the moto g LTE w/microsd("1.5" generation)... Good luck with that (1st gen had no LTE or microsd, 2nd gen doesn't have LTE yet)

Note:moto g doesn't have WiFi calling or volte or band 12, dunno if you would want it. If you want all that, Samsung avant $230, but its touchwiz and you won't have as quick updates to android L/future updates


The $30 plan is basically diy- phone reps and store reps won't help you. You can either get the Sim card ffrom Walmart(operates by Walmart Mobile, a mvno using tmobiles network) or T-Mobile online shipped to your house and you activate it manually(I recommend this way). T-Mobile usually have promo codes that sell you the Sim at $0 or $0.01 vs the usual $10 fee, try googling for one)

Btw,for the $30 plan, extra minutes are $0.10/min, you need to have a balance on the account to deduct from, and certain music services are white listed (I.e. streaming from Pandora/Spotify/a couple other services won't count towards your 5gb limit. Search for music freedom T-Mobile)
 
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A comparable option to Ting would be GSMNation's US Mobile which is an MVNO of T-Mobile. Ting and US Mobile are the cheapest options that I know of if you barely use the service.

If you use $45+ worth of service, then Cricket is best IMO. And AT&T's network is generally better than Sprint and T-Mobile (there are some exceptions, of course).
 
paperwastage said:
For some reason, its hard to find the moto g LTE w/microsd("1.5" generation)... Good luck with that (1st gen had no LTE or microsd, 2nd gen doesn't have LTE yet)

Note:moto g doesn't have WiFi calling or volte or band 12, dunno if you would want it. If you want all that, Samsung avant $230, but its touchwiz and you won't have as quick updates to android L/future updates


The $30 plan is basically diy- phone reps and store reps won't help you. You can either get the Sim card ffrom Walmart(operates by Walmart Mobile, a mvno using tmobiles network) or T-Mobile online shipped to your house and you activate it manually(I recommend this way). T-Mobile usually have promo codes that sell you the Sim at $0 or $0.01 vs the usual $10 fee, try googling for one)

Btw,for the $30 plan, extra minutes are $0.10/min, you need to have a balance on the account to deduct from, and certain music services are white listed (I.e. streaming from Pandora/Spotify/a couple other services won't count towards your 5gb limit. Search for music freedom T-Mobile)
Click to expand...

I just wanted to say thanks for the info. I just noticed that slickdeals had a link to an ebay seller with the first gen Moto X new for $230 so I ordered one of those instead of the Moto G LTE from amazon for $200.
 
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