Anyone Use Prepaid Cellular, i.e. Boost, Net10, etc.?

[HOF44]

Man, my wife and I pay around $160 a month, and that's with a government discount. And she's the only one who uses data, I have an old phone that is only good for talking and texting. That Wal-Mart thing sounds pretty nice...is the service good everywhere? When you're changing services and want to keep your number, do you have to start the new service before shutting down the old one, or shut the old one off first? What's to keep your number from being immediately reassigned to someone else?

The negatives to the Walmart deal I've been able to find are the data is unlimited, but throttled after 2gb per month use. Also it uses verizons 3g net, not the 4LTE. Not really unreasonable considering the cost. The service is verizon towers and is supposed to be very good.

[Forehead]

The negatives to the Walmart deal I've been able to find are the data is unlimited, but throttled after 2gb per month use. Also it uses verizons 3g net, not the 4LTE. Not really unreasonable considering the cost. The service is verizon towers and is supposed to be very good.

When I say my wife uses it for data, I mean she uses her phone to surf the web and send/receive e-mails. Not streaming music or movies. I don't think being on the 3G network would make a difference to us, and I'm not sure the 2GB limit would matter either.

[HOF44]

When I say my wife uses it for data, I mean she uses her phone to surf the web and send/receive e-mails. Not streaming music or movies. I don't think being on the 3G network would make a difference to us, and I'm not sure the 2GB limit would matter either.

For emails you would see no difference maybe a little bit brisker load on the browser with 4gLTE but nothing earthshaking. I'm really considering this. Plus a lot of my data use would be through wifi.

[martytheman]

The negatives to the Walmart deal I've been able to find are the data is unlimited, but throttled after 2gb per month use. Also it uses verizons 3g net, not the 4LTE. Not really unreasonable considering the cost. The service is verizon towers and is supposed to be very good.

one other thing to keep in mind is overall the straight talk phones are kind of lame... many of them are still running froyo and gingerbread..
the reason I chose VM over ST was because not only were the phones slightly more aged on ST, they were running older operating systems..
VM has the galaxy s2 running ics 4.0 AND 4g... and alot of their other phones on VM run 4.0, plus the usual iphone 4/4s variants
Just FYI

eta. also sprint throttles after 2g on VM from what I've heard, never been an issue for me though.

[HOF44]

one other thing to keep in mind is overall the straight talk phones are kind of lame...

I was considering the iphone 5. My wife has one from work and its pretty nice.

[martytheman]

I was considering the iphone 5. My wife has one from work and its pretty nice.

aside from those, I was just saying their overall selection is booty
if you can foot the price tag for the phone, it's a good deal overall

[Major Harris]

You can keep your number, there are laws regarding how long a company has to wait to reassign a phone #.

As far as throttling speed after 2g....something like 85% of data users use less than 2 g

[martytheman]

oops double post

[HOF44]

aside from those, I was just saying their overall selection is booty
if you can foot the price tag for the phone, it's a good deal overall

Yeah I get what you're saying. In all honesty that's why I have stayed away from these plans, crappy phones like those Hawauii or whatever they are. If not for this thread I'd have never looked into them.

[Koolblue13]

I have a fake blackberry on an AT&T plan and it's $50 a month and unlimited everything. It's pretty basic and I miss having a great camera, but overall, it works fine, it's cheap and I have no contract or worries.

I'm probably going to switch to Virgin for $40 a month and a better phone soon.

[CrabR]

I have been using net10 entire time I have used a cell phone.. I hot a touch screen phone and get triple minutes. So i get 90 days service and 180 mins for 20 dollars

I only use it when I go out . At home only for texting when power is out.

I use it for emergencies. I have no desire surf the net, watch movies or play games on a phone. Just the occasional call or text

[Koolblue13]

You damn kids with your fancy technology, get off of my porch!

I keed, I keed.

[zskins]

I think the catch is the phones aren't the latest and greatest, which doesn't sound like something you are worried about.

Also, coverage may not be as good as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. So there's another catch.

I have been using Boost Mobile since 2009 - When it was on the Nextel network - And only couple of months later the phone broke (good thing I got it from Best Buy with their warranty plan - as I can walk-in and get a new phone by just saying "something" is not working like it should ) and got a new one and the new one was on the Sprint network. Which I liked since Nextel didn't work at my house. I haven't had any problems with Sprint - There are times when I am in the elevator and still be using my phone and my biz partner with his iPhone on ATT can't. All services will have dead spots.

I don't know why. You would think that the service would be the same for my Boost as it is for my Sprint, but I can tell the difference. The Sprint is definitely more clearer. Oh yeah, I get better signals with the Sprint too.

I have had Sprint and Boost. I have no problem with voice quality.

When I say my wife uses it for data, I mean she uses her phone to surf the web and send/receive e-mails. Not streaming music or movies. I don't think being on the 3G network would make a difference to us, and I'm not sure the 2GB limit would matter either.

This is true. Boost as of 1/13 has started to limit data to 2GB as well. Since 80% of the people don't even hit that limit with WiFi being everywhere now.

Yeah I get what you're saying. In all honesty that's why I have stayed away from these plans, crappy phones like those Hawauii or whatever they are. If not for this thread I'd have never looked into them.

I have the HTC 4G Design - Love the phone. I hate phones that are BIG like iPhone5 or the Galaxy 3 - I need the phone to be able to quickly fit in the coin pocket of my jeans - Some of us IT guys are picky like that.

[Major Harris]

I found the catch with virgin....they don't charge for roaming because they do not offer it. If you venture outside of their network, you are dead to the world.

[HOF44]

I have the HTC 4G Design - Love the phone. I hate phones that are BIG like iPhone5 or the Galaxy 3 - I need the phone to be able to quickly fit in the coin pocket of my jeans - Some of us IT guys are picky like that.

Looks like they are about the same size to me.

Iphone 5 4.87 x 2.32 x .30
HTC 4G Design 4.80 x 2.40 x 0.50