Sunday, April 22, 2007

News: SpeakOut & Beyond GSM

Remember SpeakOut Wireless, as in 7-Eleven's cellular service? Well, now it's no longer exclusively on Cingular...in fact, the new Sprint-based plans offer another feature or two, namely faster (1xRTT vs. GPRS\EDGE) web surfing (though still at a painful penny per kilobyte) and push-to-talk (aka Sprit ReadyLink), at a now typical 50 cents per day (unless you're bundling it with something else, like the hybrid carrier xTreme Mobile does). Wonder what phones they have...I'm guessing some Sanyos and the Samsung a820...

Also, Beyond GSM just added a 1-year airtime card to their airtime lineup...with 102 minutes...for $50. Hey, it is one year of service, but it's doggone expensive unless you buy it with a new phone, in which case it's just $35 extra generally (though on the Siemens s56 it's strangely $45 extra). Then again, there was probably a little "give" in the price of the phones Beyond is selling...except for the powerful yet $20 Siemens s56...they're selling the Nokia 3390 for the same amount! And the Motorola c139 for 150% more!

And if you're wondering, yes I'm going to review the Audiovox 8600 (thanks BabbleBug!) soon and update the reviews section with this phone and the Kyocera Marbl. But not tonight...homework is heavy and time is short...all the more reason to stay tuned!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speak Out is currently offering the Sanyo 2400 as their CDMA/PTT phone.

Bill in NC said...

But Sprint _prepaid_ coverage (native towers only, no roaming) is often abysmal.

Cingular GSM coverage is usually better than Sprint CDMA prepaid.

Tracfone CDMA, with the single-rate LG or Nokia phones, is very attractive now that there is no more 120-day limit on stacking refills (annual cost as low as $40)

Anonymous said...

Beyond GSM's $50 1 yr PIN (now w 113 mins) is great if you add it to another PIN, especailly the $100one. That's the whole point of it.

$150/(1110+113-79.2)=13.1c/min, 95mins/month, $12.50/month. Not bad, and no worries for a year.

79.2c is the effect of the 99c E911fee. 99/15(the base rate)x12 months