Movil Listo!

CheapPhoneCards now has the product we've all been waiting for since the going rotton of STi: MovilListo aka Movil Mobile.

As said before, the charge is 13.3 cents a minute (think about 7.5 minutes to the dollar) flat, and you get a toll-free number. You also get the usual caller ID, call waiting and 3-way calling features. And the phone, though old, is fairly small and cheap at $44.91 with the paymecell coupon code. It comes with 10 + 40 minutes of airtime (10 on the phone, 40 on a starter card) and the airtime never expires. It says it uses the Cingular network. I will confirm this later when I get the phone (possibly this weekend).

Now to the wierd part: the rebate. You send in $100 in airtime PINs (proofs of purchase) before you've had the phone 6 months and you get $49 in airtime added to your account. This doesn't seem to be as much a rebate program as a time-limited "Gold Rewards" option. So you buy the phone, buy $100 in airtime (I'm thinking CheapPhoneCards will mark them down at least 3% and have the "cheap" coupon code), send in the rebate and get a total of around 1150 (maybe closer to 1175 due to it being 13.3 instead of 13.3333333... cents a minute) minutes for $137.13 at most (assuming a 3% discount; there might be a 5% or even higher discount). So, counting the phone as free, you wind up getting your airtime at roughly 12 cents a minute. Not bad considering that it never expires and you have a toll-free number. Just don't think of this as an STi-style "free phone" rebate.

So, in short, I'm getting this phone. Granted, it doesn't even have text messaging yet, but it does have great rates and no expiration. And its network (Cingular it seems) is a good bit more expansive than Sprint's, though I do have a prejudice against the little orange man...

I'd say go for it.