Saturday, May 05, 2007

Virgin Mobile Updates & Tracfone On Dobson

Sorry that I've not posted in a few days...I've been busy and my high-speed internet connection went out for a few days. but I'm back and have some info...first to Virgin Mobile...

1. The Kyocera Cyclops is now my main phone, as I couldn't justify the cost of an unlimited plan, and will be moving this fall to Colorado. I'll have a review of this phone probably tomorrow.

2. Calling derekm2008! Calling derekm2008! If you don't post on cellphoner.net and PM me back with your address, I can't send you the phone you won!

3. Virgin Mobile has a policy about lost\stolen phones, or rather phones reported as lost\stolen: they sell you another one at what is usually a sizeable discount. I found out the prices of each phone, should that happen to you:

Cyclops - $50 (no better than Wirefly)
Snapper - $35 (If I remember correctly)
Slice - $25
Marbl - $21.50
Oystr - don't remember
Slider Sonic\Switch_Back - $45 (niiice)
K7\K9\udiovox 8500 - $7
Shorty\K10 Royale - $10

Sometimes you'd be better off to just get the phone new (I'm pretty sure these phones can be refurbished) and change your number, but on the more expensive models you actually get a good deal, should theft or loss strike.

And now to Tracfone...

They've apparently signed on another carrier for GSM service: Dobson CellularOne. For Texas and such areas, you'd actually get better coverage with Dobson than with Cingular, so this is nice...and in some places you'll get a local number with them where you wouldn't othewise. The downside to this is that Cingular-based Tracfones are still the only ones that can do anything other than talk and text (the Motorola w370 won't show up on either T-Mobile or Dobson Tracfone service anytime soon). But hey, it's SingleRate! If you want to buy a Dobson-based Tracfone, just change the "tech=" part of the Tracfone Orders website to gsm6.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The phones you can get through VM if you report your lost/stolen are refurbished (paid for it with my account balance). I got a Switch Back last week, but it was sent in a basic plain white box, with a charger. This note, about the old phone, was in it:

"If you find your old phone withing 30 days, you can return this phone for a refund."

"If your old phone turns up after 30 days, you can always pass it on to someone else. If you do, you'll each get $2.50 in bonus airtime when they activate your old phone and Top Up."

So, it looks like they don't blacklist the phone you report lost/stolen.

Anonymous said...

Is CellularOne replacing Cingular as Tracfones GSM carrier or is Tracfone going to have both carriers now?

Anonymous said...

The VM website has lowered the price of the Marbl to $19.99. That's in line with almost all retail prices.