Tracfone News

Sorry everyone. I'll start posting more regularly now...

First, Tracfone has some sweet deals:

1. Refer-a-friend is now 120 minutes instead of just 100, probably due to the fact that the $30 card is now 120, instead of 100, units. Plus, promo code 54604 adds 30 minutes to the previously "un-promo-able" airtime, or any other airtime card for that matter, though you can only use the code once per phone. In short, this means that you can get a new Tracfone of any sort and start out with an amazing 170 minutes on it. And if you are willing to use a refurbished Nokia 1100 as your phone you'll get at least 60 more units (plus any promos on 60-minute cards you can scrounge up) for a total of 230. Even with tax and shipping this will get you fairly close to 10 cents a Tracfone is coming out with some new phones! And one of them is...yeah I know God forbid but I saw it with my own two eyes on Tracfone's website...a camera phone!

Tracfone recently release the reasonable svelte, reasonably modern Motorola c139 bar phone for $30, then marked the price down to $20. I've said ut before and I will say it again: this is probably their replacement for the aging c155.

And it's a pretty good replacement, but for one thing: incoming text messages now cost 0.3 units, just like outgoing ones do. I guess Cingular gave Tracfone Cingularitis, that is to say, started charging Tracfone for incoming texts just like they charge their own GSM prepaid options. I am going to review this phone; see item 3...

So what's next? Why, replacements for the Nokia 1100 and Motorola v170 of course! Plus Tacfone's first cameraphone! Looks like GSM is much cheaper for Tracfone to buy minutes with or something to that effect, and thus they're pushing GSM to surpass the standard set by their excellent CDMA Nokia 2126. One note of warning though: all new GSM Tracs deduct 0.3 units for incoming texts, even the welcome message as I found out, just like the Motorola c139. Bleh; no more Yahoo SMS messenger using Tracfones...

First off, the Nokia 1112. It, naturally, is a step up from the long-toothed but still good 1100. The most obvious addition is a 4-way D-pad and the now-standard two-navigation-button system found in, well, all of Nokia's mainstream phones. This is to be contrasted with the 1100's menu system, which uses the much older, albeit still quite usable, Navi system, which has a select (Navi) key in the center, up\down buttons on the right and a clear button on the left. The older system dates back to the 5125\5165\5185 phones (circa 1999 I think...but maybe 2000 or 2001 at the very latest). Okay, the two-button navigation sytem dates back to the higher-end (6160 etc.) models of the same period, but they weren't\aren't as common as the Navi interface, and the 4-way D-pad looks to be a more modern creation. Anyway, I'd expect the 1112 to replace the 1100 eventually at $20 new or $20 refurbished plus a 60-minute airtime card.

But wait! I just looked and the phone also has longer talk time (5 vs. 3 hours, though standby time is 15 vs. 16 days) than the 1100 and can hold 200, instead of just 50, contacts in the phone's address book. Oh, and the site says the phone has polyphonic ringtones. I at first thought 'fat chance' and was about to write the same here, since the Motorola c139 is incorrectly marked as having poly tones (it doesn't). But then I looked on Nokia's website and sure enough, the phone has poly ringtones. Sweet. It also has a groovy white backlight. Oh, and the phones is thinner and lighter than its old counterpart. That's always good. And the phone's end button is also its power button, something that most other cell phone manufacturers have done for awhile but something Nokia is just now starting to do.

Below are the links to Tracfone's 1112 page and Nokia's:

http://www.tracfone.com/content/nokia1112.jsp

http://nokiausa.com/phones/1112/0,7747,feat:1,00.html

Next up, the Motorola v176. I'd like to call it "the poor man's PEBL" mainly due to what it looks like on the outside: rubberized...or at least nice and black. In other words, Tracfone has come out with a pretty stylish phone in my opinion. The trend seems to continute with the c261...but anyway the other features that set this phone apart from the v170, the phone it will probably replace, are a speakerphone (yay...no wait...it's half-dublex...listen-only...dang), a color display that actually deserves to be on the inside of a flip (yay! down with the postage stamp on the v170) and a little bit smaller form factor. This phone may come into the market at $50, but then again it may start at a higher price because of its better features.

Tracfone and Phonescoop links, respectively:

http://www.tracfone.com/content/motorolav176.jsp

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=708

Third and last, but certainly not least, the Motorola c261. Yes, it has a camera. Yes, it's 640x480. No, I don't know whether the ease of GSM data roaming will facilitate Tracfone picture messaging, and of course no I don't know how much it will cost to send a picture message. But this is one slick phone, especially for Tracfone. It looks like it shares the v176's 128x160 screen, which is huge for a bar phone, as well as the v176's half-duplex speakerphone. Oh, and it has a camera; the v176 doesn't. And, last but not least, the dang thing is thin. As in thin...0.59" thin, which is actually 0.01" thinner than the original CDMA Razr (v3c) and only 0.05" thicker than the GSM Razrs and the new CDMA Razr v3m. Not bad for a Tracfone; not bad at all. It even looks somewhat stylish! I don't know how much this will cost, but if it's even relativly cheap I'm going to pick it up. Looks like a sweet phone to me, and one giant leap ahead for Tracfone-kind. :)

Phonescoop and Tracfone links, respectively:

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=858

http://www.tracfone.com/content/motorolaC261.jsp

3. I actually ordered and have received the Motorola c139 phone, and a review will be coming soon, after I finally finish my reviews of the Samsung a820 and the Siemens a56\MovilListo. I also got the Nokia 1100 refurb deal, and again that review will be coming soon.

4. Right now (at least until Thursday I think) Tracfone is including a "Deluxe Starter Kit", aka a headset (wired of course; no Tracfone has Bluetooth), car adapter and leather case, with all new phone purchases (Moto c155, which is incidentally still $30, Moto c139, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2126, I guess some TDMA models but don't know). Of course this rules out the Nokia 1100 refurb deals (the phone is free with both 60-minute and 1-year cards) but these accessories, in my opinion, are nice perks rather than necessities, especially considering the long battery life of all the phones. By the way, looks like there are no more new Nokia 1100s for sale. Get ready for some 1112s! Hmmm...and the v170 is gone too. Guess we know what its successor is!

And now let me call it a night. I hope this post was worth the wait and dead silence this blog has been experiencing. But if it wasn't, don't worry; I'll have more posts coming tomorrow!

Verious Announcements

Sorry for the long wait between posts. I have been pretty busy. And the last time I tried to post I accidentally got out of the Blogger window, sending 20 precious minutes or so of my time down the drain!

First, let me do some announcements. Then, in another, later, post I'll get back to my reviews of STi and MovilListo.

1. The sweeps is almost over. If anyone wants to get a prize sign up on the Free iPods link in the linkbar, and have six other people do the same. Otherwise, on June 1st, no phones for anyone (the prize would otherwise be a nice Boost i285).

2. I have ordered both the Nokia 1100 and the Motorola c139 on Tracfone as of Sunday, mostly for the minutes but (as evinced by my getting the c139 over the more-minutes 1100 for a second time) also to review the phones. I'm looking forward to telling everyone how the new c139, now $20 at Tracfone.com, works.

3. Cingular's Nokia phones are now cheaper on GoPhone. The 6010 is $40 new (wow! Finally in line with what TMo is charging) and the 6061, a phone that is sadly inadequate, is $40 as well, except it's refurbished. The Nokia 6020 is still $30 refurbed though. I'd get it...

4. Net10 now has a $150 1-ytear card (instead of $300) and their 6-month card is now $100. So you can now get 10-cents-a-minute service for just $12.50 a month. Pretty cheap if you ask me. Also, their cheapest phone, a refurbed Nokia 1100, is $40 with $30 in airtime. The Motorola c139, in silvery color, is $60 with the same amount of funds preloaded. Groovy.

5. I've ordered a data cable for my LG 225 cameraphone to use to access the internet using CDMA 1x, which is about twice as fast as my current connection (dialup). I'll post here with instructions about how I got the dang thing to work.

6. Hmmm...T-Mobile's Nokia 6010 is now $50 on their website. Ah well. You can just get the phone from Cingular and unlock it anyway...

So those are all the announcements I have. I'll be back sometime later with more on the Samsung a820 and the MovilListo Siemens a56...

CheapPhoneCards Miscellany

Last weekend I negotiated with CheapPhoneCards, and they're sending me two Samsung a820s to try (I'll be paying special attention to STi's walkie talkie feature)! Look for a review here next weekend (it'll take a week to fun the phones through their paces). Anyway, this phone is "free" with $100 in airtime (AKA $99 and it includes $100 in airtime), so if you want to go STi this shouldn't be a bad choice anyway if you plan to stay with them for awhile. I'm also pretty sure that a coupon on CheapPhoneCards will subtract out the shipping cost of the phone. Again, look for a full, full-color review of this little guy late next week.

Next off, I'm also getting the Movil Listo Siemens a56. I've heard mixed ratings about this service, which seems to use a callback system for cellular calls, the only thing it does. It does have a toll-free (1-888-xxx-xxxx) number but what shows up on caller ID is reputed to be 500-xxx-xxxx, with xxx-xxxx in this case being seven totally random digits. Anyway, since I'm getting this phone and it will probably be my main line (because of the toll-free number, pretty low rates and zero expiration and zero fees) I'll be able to give everyone a nice review of this servie as well pretty soon after I get the phone.

By the way, don't forget the sweepstakes!

The $25 Secret - Debunked

Sorry guys. I'm sad to say that the $25 secret is a mere myth. Prove me wrong and I'll be happy but the Boost walkie talkie workaround to make it free doesn't work. I apologize for however many dollars went down the Boost tubes because of this...

Motorola c139 - Now Available!

As I expected, this phone is entering at the same $29.99 price as the Motorola c155. Looks like it would be a pretty good replacement for that phone if you ask me. Granted, there are no promos on it yet so I'm waiting a little before I buy it (I'll bit when there are promos) but if you want a chewap SIngleRate Tracfone and want either ultra battery life or a color screen, take this one. Just be forewarned that the screen on it looks to be smaller than that of the Nokia 2126, which isn't very big...of course it's probably the same size as the Motorola v170 screen so...

Virgin Mobile Phone: They're Cheaper...

Because of the impending release of the Kyocera Switchback phone on Virgin Mobile for $150 (camera phone, clamshell\bar hybrid, IM centric, seen this sorta thing before on such likes as T-Mobile) Virgin Mobile has marked down their phones on their site a good bit. Here are the prices:

Kyocera K7 - $20
Kyocera K10 (Royale) - $30
Nokia Shorty (2115i) - $50, includes $40 in airtime so the phone is more like $10
Audiovox Snapper (8915) - $100
Kyocera Slider Sonic - $180

By the way, click on the iPod shuffle link! The sweeps, with my LG 225 cameraphone as the prize and two Nokia 5165s as second place is still going...

News from STi

So you want unlimited 1xRTT web access for a reasonable amount per day, as well as walkie talkie service. Too bad STi's your only option here, but if you plan to stick around you can just buy their Samsung a820 handset from their site for $25 + $100 (airtime locked to the phone) + shipping. I wouldn't but I don't want walkie and 1x in one phone that badly, though I hope to be able to review this phone and STi's incompatible-with-readylink walkie service sometime...

Go4Prepaid Digest #3: Third Time's The Charm and the $25 Secret!

Now for the third-time's-the-charm mega digest, which probably answers most, if not all, of the questions you've had about prepaid phones :)

Let's start off with the $25 secret: how to get FREE Boost walkie talkie...

1) On your Nextel or Boost phone hit # * Menu Right to enter Debug Mode
2) Go down to Error Channel and turn it on
3) Clear both Resets and Flags

Remember to do this every time you turn your phone on though, because the Error Channel function turns itself off when you turn off the phone. So is that worth a few ad clicks? ;)

To access voicemail on a cell phone you usually just hold down the 1 key. But sometimes you have to program it. What usually works for the programming aspect is inputting either your own number or *86 (*VM). If you run into having to enter a passcode even when calling from your cell phone, insert a hard pause (T in LG terms

The Nokia 6061 may seem like a nice phone, by virtue that it's a Nokia, a flip and...um...a Nokia (yes, being a Nokia is very, VERY good). But it suffers from an undersized earpiece, which leads to bad, soft, sound quality. If it weren't for this tragic flaw I, and everyone else, would wholeheartedly reccommend this phone.

2126 tidbit: you can't unlock this phone per se. It's CDMA so it just can't be done. Of course, you could hook it up to a computer and reflash the firmware to that of the Nokia 2128i (Verizon's version) and go along your merry way, since actually the phone can go on whatever service it wants (it is SPC unlocked) but the big hurdle to overcome is that nice little airtime balance display and the software behind it.

2126 tidbit #2: Because this little guy is CDMA, SPC unlocked, and roams like postpaid due to its on-phone tracking of airtime, it will roam practically anywhere that has a CDMA or analog signal (it does analog). Of course, if you're off your own region's towers (for example, Verizon, south Texas) you'll get charged twice the normal amount per minute (two units per minute instead of one), but text messaging while roaming may very well work (I've used it while roaming before with a Verizon-based Tracfone roaming on Alltel) and the rate is the same as when you're in your home area. Nifty.

Anyone heard of Larry'sCellForLess? I have heard of it and even used it, but beware that he doesn't anser support requests AT ALL. I still don't know whether the extra bunch of refer-a-friend minutes ib ny dad's Tracfone came from him or were just a fluke...if the latter I've been cheated out of $15, kindof a steep price for a referral if you ask me. However, quite a few people have had a positive experience with this guy, and he does offer the cheapest Tracfone refills around besides free refer-a-friend offers...

Somebody wondered whether Cingular used to have nights starting at 7 p.m. It's definately possible that they ahd it as a promo some time or other, but not on traditional prepaid...though when the service was still AT&T-owned (well, it is now but anyway...) GoPhone could very well have had this feature.

So how do you get weather alerts on a Tracfone? You have two major choices: either send a text to Google SMS (46645 is the shortcode) with the word weather followed by your zipcode or city\state, or you can go to http://alerts.yahoo.com and set it up to send you weather alerts automatically. If your carrier doesn't support shortcodes you can probably use 411sms (http://www.411sms.com) for this purpose as well...I just don't remember the phone number you send it to as it is 10 digits.

So what's PagePlus voicemail? Four words: it works, it's expensive. Why expensive? Because you have to pay for when people leave you messages. So it's set to off when you start service with PagePlus; you have to call them to turn it on. To access voicemail I'm pretty sure you can just dial *86 as long as you're on Verizon's network (you wouldn't want to check your voicemail off-netowrk anyway...not at a dollar or two per minute). Or you can dial your own number from either your cell or a landline, with the latter waiting for your recording to come on, then hitting either * or # (I don't have a Verizon phone myself so I'm not sure) and thus getting into your voicemail that way.

So everyone's been wondering where to get lots of ood Tracfone promo codes. Well, just go to the database at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/tracfone_users

But how do you enter these promo codes into Rapid Refill (aka Add Airtime using the phone)? Just put the code in right after your airtime PIN. It's that simple!

And the question remains: is there prepaid EVDO? The answer is for the most part a resounding No, though if you have the equipment you can use Verizon's EVDO for $7 a day if I recall correctly.

STi Mobile Tidbit #1: Web access, which is fairly snappy using Sprint's 1xRTT network (faster than dialup, maybe even twice as fast), is unlimited for 19 cents a day whether you use it or not on any given day. Remember though that the LG 5350 and 1200, and the Sanyo 200 and Samsung a460 can't do web; only the LG 5225, LG 225 and Samsung a820 can do it. But I've heard that you can, if you have the right cable and I guess software, tether the LG 225 to a computer and access the internet this way. If anyone knows more don't hesitate to email me; I'd rather not pass up faster-than-dialup internet for $9 a month (including the 10 cent per day ripoff charge).

STi Mobile Tidbit #2: The only ways to check your balance are to either call 611 and talk to a customer service rep, or listen to the balance announcement on an outgoing call.

STi Mobile Tidbit #3: Why are they so bad? Because they have a daily fee-for-nothing on all their normal plans, and their hybrid plan is pretty bad really. I mean, why did they have to add the 10 cent fee to a perfectly good plan (before February Plan 1 had no fee and has the same rates, except that international calling was not free to anywhere, though it was MUCH cheaper to everywhere).

Want a cheap prepaid with unlimited text? You have two options, depending on whether you're in T-Mobile or Alltel coverage. Maybe if you're in Verizon coverage it'll work too...

1) Take a T-Mobile To Go sim and convert it to the Sidekick II plan using a Sidekick 2 IME1 (serial number, just Google it). Then put it into a normal phone (anything as long as it isn't a Sidekick\Hiptop). The only things that will work will be voice (15 cents a minute) and text (free) which means no T-Zones or MMS, but this also gets rid of the $1 fee associated with Sidekick access. Enjoy...

or

2) Get an Alltel U Prepaid phone and set it up for the daily plan. Granted it's 75 cents a day, but you can choose unlimited text as one of the options and unlimited calls to a certain number for the other, then assign that number to a calling card (2.5 cents a minute or so to the continental US). Then talk away and text away!

So you want to unlock a Virgin Mobile Shory. You can most likely do it by going into the programming menu of the phone (dial in *3001#12345#) and set the SPC code to all 0's. But I'm not quite sure on this so please someone email me and set me right here.

Tracfone Tidbit: You'd have to reflash the firmware of a GSM Tracfone to get it to work on Net10, due to the latter's different rate structure (texts are 0.5 units both ways on Net10 as opposed to 0.3 units to send\free to receive on Tracfone) and suchlike differences. I'd say it isn't worth the effort; you can now get for around $40-$50 a Net10 Nokia 1100 with $30 of airtime included (all Net10 phones now come with that much airtime).

And thus ends the mega-digest. Hope this helps people...

Latin Carrier Overview, Sprint Nights

Movil Listo means ReadyMobile in Spanish basically. Interesting...ReadyMobile makes Movil Listo. Anyway, these guys now have both cards and a phone on CheapPhoneCards, albeit they're not in stock yet.

Movida is now in direct competition with Virgin Mo9bile, except that the one has English as the default language and the other has Spanish, though things can be switched fairly easily. Movida has their 20 cents plan, their 50 cent a day + 10 cents weekdays\5 cents weekends plan and now a hybrid plan that's 25 cents a minute for $20 (15 day expiration) and $30 (30 days) and 20 cents a minute for $50 (30 days). Plus you get unlimited nights and weekends on the hybrid plan, starting at 9 p.m. Theis carrier runs on the Sprint network and basically takes Sprint surplus phones (Sanyo 200 for example) like STi does. They show a big map with lots of area (aka non-Sprint-network) marked "manual roaming". I have a sinking feeling that this means American Roaming Network $3 to connect plus $2 a minute. Bleh, but such is life for Sprint prepaids.

Speaking of Sprint, their Fair&Flexible plans now have nights starting at 7 p.m. Not that anyone on prepaid cares, but an interesting bit of trivia for people on the border between postpaid and prepaid. Heck, considering that STi's cost for the same thing would be $60 ($50 for Plan 3 plus $10 for extra minutes) you might well want a contract...

Go4Prepaid Digest #2

OK. So here comes the second Go4Prepaid digest...

First, the Motorola v170 is a pretty low-tier phone, with no speakerphone and a screen the size of a Nokia 2126's (acceptable on a small bar phone, not acceptable on a medium-sized flip). But it is currently the only color flip phone on Tracfone. Nope, Trac doesn't have any flips with both color and an external caller ID scren, but if you need a flip and want Tracfone's coverage you'll have to get this guy. It's a GSM phone. The upside of it is that you can select what network you want to be on, at least for the next five minutes...

Second, you can't "unlock" the LG VI-5225 phone per se. If it's on Sprint it stas on Sprint or one of its hybrid MVNOs (like Venture Mobile and xTreme Mobile). If it's on STi Mobile it stays on STi Mobile.

Third, let's compare Tracfone to T-Mobile To Go. The former has the advantage that you'll get a local number and service wherever you activate, and depending on whether the phone is CDMA or GSM either get astoundingly great coverage or merely excellent coverage and no roaming fees. T-Mobile on the other hand has fancier phones, better features and generally cheaper minutes, but coverage suffers. I may expand on this sometime later, but those are the basic differences.

Fourth, on Tracfone the Nokia 1100 is either $20 with no airtime (at stores and online, new) or $20 refurbished with a 60-minute card. The actual price with tax and shipping for this model will be about $27 but it's a nice thin phone and 180+ minutes aren't bad...

Fifth, the Virgin Mobile Shorty is a nice, though fairly basic, phone. Unfortunately, it is beset with the fact that its color sibling, the Nokia 2126, sells for $20 on Tracfone at a store near you, while it languishes in black & white at $30. But if monochrome is better for you (think sunlight) and you're on Sprint a lot then this is a good way to go prepaid.

Sixth and last, Virgin Mobile's Chat Park seems to be just a selection of mobile chat rooms, sort of like those found on Yahoo, though I need firsthand experience from someone else to confirm it. If you want instant messaging, they also have AIM for a fairly reasonable amount, though with AirIM and STi Mobile it'd actually be cheaper. Personally, Virgin Mobile's chat park is just another gimmicky way to zap your Virgin Mobile dollars.

Thus ends Go4Prepaid's second digest. Hope this helps everyone...

Go4Prepaid Digest #1

So I have this nifty thing on my site called Google Analytics (that's why the counter changed from a big obnoxious one to a little nice one), which tells me what people searched for to get my site. So now I'm going to periodically address the questions they put in...

First off, I know a lot of people want Tracfone promo codes. I'll get to those later...

Second, the Motorola c139 should be available soon on both Tracfone and Net10, but I can't say when since Tracfone has removed their tipoff that they update their site on Fridays and has decided to update their site any old dat. I think the reason that the c139 isn't out yet is that it hasn't been FCC approved or something wierd like that...

Third, to get a Tracfone or Net10 Nokia 1100 to go onto any other network you have to:1) Unlock it (I can do that)2) Reflash (reprogram) the phone software so that the Tracfone software isn't there anymore (I can't do that...yet)

So it's a two-step process and it's not too easy, so I would just pay $10 more and get either a Nokia 6010 or a Nokia 6030 (the former for durability, the latter for features) off of Cingular's GoPhone site and easily unlock it (I can do that for you). Yes, the 1100 is nice, basic and small, but the unlocking\reflashing hassle isn't quite worth it in my eyes...yet...
Third, you can activate PagePlus (the Verizon provider with the lowest per-minute rate and lowest monthly fee and longest expiration) with a "kit" sold on eBay. They're really chap now, running at a maximum of $10.

Fourth, Simple Freedom was a pretty good deal when they could seamlessly use both Alltel and Verizon networks. Granted, you had to pay 25 cents a minute but the home coverage area was huge and roaming was 50 cents a minute everywhere else. But now that Verizon doesn't like Alltel anymore Simple Freedom owners on Verizon's network (if you have a Verizon number you count, if you have an Alltel number you don't) Simple Freedom coverage is going down to just the Alltel network, being replaced with an interesting Verizon plan:

20 cents a minute daytime1
0 cents a minute nights and weekends
99 cents a minute off the Verizon network
$30 minimum every 2 months

Sound a little like Boost mobile? Nah, too expensive per month. For what people were using their Simple Freedom phones for it's probably not worth it. But this means you can probably defect to PagePlus, which has lower rates.

Regarding various phone and service hacks, I'm in the dark on airtime code generators, cell phone hacks (except in a very few cases) and ways to double Boost airtime.
Sixth and last for this "issue", Sprint seems to have totally blocked Free411 on their (and MVNOs') cell phones. Which is bad. But 1-800-411-METRO (1-800-411-6387) does the same thing so no reason to cry.

I'll be coming out with these digests of questions and answers fairly often, so if you type in something into Google (or MSN or A9.com or Yahoo) and get here I'll probably answer your question that you had in an easy to see form within the week. Hope you people like it!

Cingular GoPhone Deals

OK. Now back to normality...

Cingular just put two of their newest lineup of phones onto GoPhone's prepaid lineup. Looks like I'll do some Nokia unlocking soon...

Nokia 6030 (refurb) - $30 - This guy is a basic phone, but for the integrated FM radio tuner (you need an extra headset though that probably costs as much as the phone but anyway...) but the really nice thing about it is that it has a pretty big screen and it's nice and thin. Oh, and this was a $110-$120 phone on eBay the last time I looked...so I'd say this is an outstanding deal...

SonyEricsson z300 - $50 - Or was it $60? Anyway, this is a new phone (as in non-refurb) and is pretty good for the basic phone that it aims to be. It's a normal-sized color flip with an external caller ID display, but don't expect to unlock it like you can the Nokia.

In short, Cingular will be out of the Nokia 6030 soon so pick it on up. And unlock it. And put it on T-Mobile To Go. Or just sell it on eBay.

IE WARNING!

Yeah I know this has nothing to do with cell phones, but just to make sure people don't bring their computers to a standstill (and thus not be able to visit this blog) DO NOT download the new Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview. Though the interface is pretty nice at least on my PC (hp pavilion m300y with Media Center 2005) it totally schmutzed up the internet settings. It was only after I uninstalled it that not only my internet would log off correctly but my taskbar would show what programs I had running. Typical Microsoft junk...

Anyway, for whoever's reading's sake don't download the new IE just quite yet...

CheapPhoneCards and STi, MovilListo addition

CheapPhoneCards finally has the Samsung a820 ReadyLink STi phone. And you can breathe a sigh of releif if ReadyLink is worth 59 cents a day to you (I'm counting the absolutely outrageous 10 cent daily fee that eats up money unbelieveably): the phone, like the LG 225, includes $50 in airtime and is just $99 total. Paymecell, however, doesn't work on it. Cheap does, but simply takes the price down to $100 (shipping is $5.95), which isn't a very big drop. I'll get with CheapPhoneCards to see what other promos they'll have on this phone.

Second, MovilListo aka Movil Mobile is now supposedly running (and has been) on an expanded T-Mobile network, which gets Cingular coverage in some areas and maybe Suncom in others. Mexico also has coverage, and for cheap too, seeming only to have a one-minute surcharge (3 minute call gets billed for 4 minutes?) which is absolutely sweet.

Third, Cingular's GoPhone website now has the Nokia 6010 back at $30. So it's once again a pretty good deal. Granted, it's refurb, but I probably for one wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the refurb phone and the new version...

Net10 Is Getting Better

I just noticed\confirmed that all new Net10 activations come with $30 in airtime and 60 days of service (aka a non-transferrable 300-minute card). Even the refurb Nokia 1100, which is $40 plus shipping and tax. And Net10 will probably start clearing out their current phone inventory in favor of the new phone models that will come to both Tracfone and themselves, meaning that you may be able to get a fancier phone for closer to the cost of the airtime on it. As it is this is one pretty sweet deal if you want Cingular coverage and use more than about 100 minutes a month (150 minutes a month is optimum).

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.

STi Snorefest

April 1st has come and our worse forebodings have been proven: STi's Plan 3 includes only 100 minutes, though the unlimited nights and weekends start at 7. I mean, come on, for $50 I'd expect something better. For the same price on a Sprint PCS contract plan you'd be able to get 400 minutes a month. Heck, even if you paid $10 extra for the no contract option you could get 200 minutes. Again, STi plays Captain Ludicrous. May it die a violent death...after I get my rebate...

Second, the LG 225 and Samsung a820 now require $100 in airtime plus the cost of the phone if you buy from STiMobile.com, and probably with other places to follow. I'm not paying $200 for a simple camera phone, or a ReadyLink-capable phone. Are you? Right, I thought so. CheapPhoneCards still has the 225 with $50 in airtime for $99, the price of the phone alone on STi's website (read: you can get 2 for the price of 1 with the airtime of 1), if your usage patterns match up with what's cheap on that carrier. But not much is cheap on that carrier anymore if you count in one or another of their daily fees...

STi on Amazon, Virgin Mobile Pricing, Cingular 6010 Pricing

First off, Amazon now has STi Mobile phones. This company is becoming mainstream now, but their 10 cent daily fee is probably why, and that disgusts me. Amazon has, of course, free shipping on the phones, which cost $110 for the 5225 and $50 in airtime, or $150 for either the Samsung a820 or the LG 225 with $50.

Second, Virgin Mobile's Nokia Shorty and K10 Royale are both $30 now. If you don't need web or a color screen I'd definately go with the Nokia but the K10 has those two fairly pivotal features. At least the K10 isn't $50 any more. Also, I think I said this before but the Slider Sonic is now $180. Still a ripoff though in my opinion.

Third, the Nokia 6010 refurb is now $40 at the GoPhone website. Personally, that's too much for such a phone, considering T-Mobile has the same phone new for that price. Plus the T-Mo phone has 50% more airtime and a month more of service included.

Motorola c139 on Tracfone

Nowhere on Tracfone's website is any mention of the Motorola c257 or v176, but now there's a sleeker, more modren, closer equivalent and successor to the c155: the c139. The main benefits are that the c139 looks better, is a little smaller (though not by much), has a better screen (16 bit vs. 12 bit, one extra pixel tall) and has a good bit better battery life, clocking in with at least 8 hours of talk time and 16 days of standby time, with phonescoop's information saying it's even better (11.67 hours \ 18.8 days talk\standby times), versus 6.67 hours \ 12.5 days for the c155. Oh, and the phone can store 100 contacts on the phone itself, whereas the c155 has no internal memory for this purpose (everything's on the SIM) and has precious little memory otherwise (300k). Granted, I still hope that Tracfone will come out with the c257 (I don't really care for the v176 as it's pretty big but it'd be nice too) but this model is more in line with what they have already and if they price it like they are pricing the phone it's succeeding ($30) I'll bite, if only for the bttery life and the cheapness.

Here are some links to info about the phone:
PhoneScoop
Motorola (preview page)

Cingular and T-Mobile Updates

First I'll start with the comparatively small news: T-Mobile's T-Zones internet is now snazzier-looking, though this means it'll load slower on ye olde GPRS phone. Anyway, there is now a search box on quite a few pages (though it just searches within the limited T-Zones WAP deck) and a new theme that includes the T-Zones logo and various outher eye candy. You can also mess with voicemail settings from the My Account screen now, and the FAQ section inclusdes a bit about national (not international) roaming! Problem is, this roaming, slated to be on Cingular and EDGE Wireless networks, is reputed by the rep I talked to to not be on yet. :( Well at least T-Zones looks nicer and is still free.

Second is the better deal here: Cingular now has quite a selection of phones available (refurbished but that's still great) on their GoPhone website (http://www.cingular.com/gophone) at very nice prices. Before you go over there, check out DealKing and see if you can get $30 back extra from them, though that's about all I know about their promo. Here's the list (the last I checked) of what phones they have (I'm just looking at ones $50 and under), for how much, and how they're rates (by my experience and others')...

As a side note, only a few days ago they had the absolutely sweet, though refurbished, Nokia 3220 cameraphone available...for $40!!! I should've bought one, but alas I didn't. I beg of everyone to take a good look at the models they have and get them while they last, though as a consoling note I'm sure the Samsung c207 and Nokia 6010, and probably the Sony-Ericsson T290a will last for awhile...

Nokia 6010 - $30 ++++ - Tame phone, but a good one
Sony-Ericsson T290a - $30 ++++ - Again basic, but seems to be more feaure-rich, though in my opinion less user-friendly, than the Nokia
Samsung C207 - $30 +++ - It is reputed that the Java on this phone flat out doesn't work, but the fact remains that it is small...
Motorola v173 - $40 +++ - Right. This is the same thing as Tracfone sells, except a little cheaper and refurbished, Personally I'd choose elsewhere but if the shoe fits...
Nokia 6061 - $50 +++ - Normally you wouldn't be able to go wrong with a Nokia, but people have complained about low volume in this otherwise stylish basic flip.
Samsung x497 - $50 ++++ - This is a nice phone, no doubt about it, being a color flip with an external caller ID screen (the 6061 lacks the latter feature). But it is rather large; I've used one for a minute or two



Oh and by the way, Cingular's $100 card now lasts a year. Finally they're in the game again in that respect, but their voice rates are still a good bit higher than they should be (25 cents vs. 10 cents or maybe a tad less with T-Mobile). So I'd unlock the Nokias with a code generator (if you don't have one email me with your model and IME1 and carrier if it's not Cingular and I'll get some codes back to you) or the other phones with a T-Mobile unlock voucher (*grin*) and put them on T-Mo. But then again, Cingular has a nice coverage footprint and un-limited (as in you can go wherever but you pay an arm and a leg for it) internet so I wouldn't throw out the Cingular SIM just yet.

PagePlus Update

It seems as though PagePlus has given their airtime cards a few more minutes. The $25 card is now 200 minutes (up from 150), the $10 card is a minute more (71), and the $50 card has 25 more minutes (425 total). Considering the monthly fee and saying that you used the card for the full 4 months (thus $2 in monthly fees) here's the math:

$10 card -> 56 minutes -> 17.85 cents a minute
$25 card -> 184 minutes -> 13.6 cents a minute
$50 card -> 408 minutes -> 12.25 cents a minute
$80 card -> 780 minutes -> 10.25 cents a minute

All in all the per-minute rates aren't that bad, but CheapPhoneCards doesn't seem to carry them any more. Keep on the lookout for someone who does and gives a discount while doing so, then email me so I can put that info here.

Vaporware and Things To Come: Tracfone, STi, CheapPhoneCards

First of all let me start out with the last thing...I am as surprised as anyone else that CheapPhoneCards has gone a week without introducing really their new MVNO. I can't wait for it, as I barely use my STi phone and those daily fees really add up. Come on CheapPhoneCards, let tomorrow be the day that ReadyMobile's flatrate plan makes its appearance!

CheapPhoneCards has also increased the prices on their LG 5225 phones. So now an open-box 5225 is the same price as the refurbished, older 5350. I'd pick the 5225, even though it doesn't have analog (the 5350 doesn't have web access...). The new 5225s are now $89 (or $94 with the car charger\case extras) so with discounts they're $76.95, or $27 plus airtime Not horrible, but not great either.

Speaking of STi, the second topic: they're introducing a hybrid plan. Or rather re-introducing; back when their 10\12 cent plan carried a $1.95 monthly fee (about 6.6 cents a day) they also had a hybrid (aka postpaid-without-the-contract). This time, however, the deal seems a lot worse...100 minutes and unlimited nights\weekends for $49.95. Seems a bit odd, because the STi rep kept saying "5 cents a minute". Maybe it's 1000, in which case it'd actually be a quite good plan, for someone who would otherwise be on postpaid but doesn't like contracts. Overage minutes, reminiscent of Sprint's new Fair&Flexible plans, are 10 cents apiece. This plan will launch April 1st.

A second thing about STi: now all their phones come with $50 in airtime...except now it's phone-specific "starter" airtime so

a) You can't transfer phone-to-phone
b) It's an extra cost on STi's website if you buy a phone from there, making the phones rediculously expensive
c) The airtime is nonrefundable so if you hate your phone you might as well eBay it as most of your money is sunk into nonrefundable airtime

Then again the airtime may just start being included in earnest on the 1st, taking phone prices down to a sane level, but then again it might not, rendering STi wierder than ever.

Now to Tracfone: they are releasing new GSM phone models soon to very soon, or at least that's what PhoneScoop and LetsTalk think...

The Motorola c257 (I don't expect that Tracfone will get a camera phone for a few more years ;) ) is a likely, thin successor to the c155 wierdphone. It does have a nice big, bright screen (128x160, 16-bit, the same as the LG 5225 or LG 225) and...yeah...it's as thin as a CDMA Razr (maybe a little thinner at 0.59 inches), but the one pitfall is that its speakerphone is only one way, one pet peeve that made me migrate from my LG 5225 (listen only) to the 225 (two-way). It's nice to see Tracfone getting a pretty modern phone like this, probably for around $50 if the past is an indicator of future performance, and especially nice to see that the phone is thin.

The Motorola v176 is a chubbier phone, a flip that's successor (probably) to the v170\v171 currently on Tracfone and Net10. Again, it gets a bigger screen (looks to be the same as the c257), upgraded looks (personally though I think the phone is pretty ugly but that may just be me) and a one-way speakerphone. Again, this will probably retail for $80 like the v170 did around the time it came out. Personally though, since this phone offers no real advantages over the c257 other than being a flip, I'd take the likely-cheaper bar phone.

It will be refreshing to see Tracfone stock these new models. I hope they'll do it soon. I kind of have my eye on the c257, if for no other reason than it's thin and is a bastion of free incoming SMS.

Now for some undocumented writing: the sweepstakes is still going on, and now there are two Nokia 5165s, each with a home charger and battery, as second prizes. As said before, complete an offer for the "FREE" link in the link bar at the righthand side of this page to enter. The first prize will most likely be my 225, along with its car charger, home charger, leather case, and $10 airtime PIN (I'll get the PIN when I send the phone to the lucky one-in-eight winner). But please enter soon; the sweeps ends May 30th, and if I don't have all eight entries by then I'm not giving out the prizes. So click on over and sign on; the 225 is a nice phone, even with STi's wierd rates.

Undocumented Writing 2: Virgin Mobile's Shorty and K10 phones are now around $30 at my Wal-Mart. They're $35 online, along with the Kyocera Slider (V5). The Slider Sonic is $200, and the Snapper is $100. This is a pretty good time to get a Virgin Mobile phone, but personally I wouldn't get a Virgin Mobile phone; the rates for EVERYTHING are too expensive and the $35 phones (Shorty, V5, K10), while OK phones, are starting to show their age (think the age of the GSM Tracfones currently available...ech).

New MVNO: Coming Soon To CPC!

I called CheapPhoneCards today because I needed to order another $10 STi card and the reward points mechanism wasn't working correctly. Well I got my card and this info about a super carrier that is coming out next week on CheapPhoneCards...

Movil Mobile (aka Movil Lista, see below)

13.3 cents a minute flat
No Expiration
Includes a Toll-Free Number (heh heh my phone is always local now), I'm guessing 1-866-xxx-xxxx
Text Coming Soon
Cingular Network (prepaid of course, but that's still big)
Phone *may* be free with a rebate (see below for a little more; the guy at CPC didn't know everything either)
Phone comes with 50 minutes (10 + 40 minute card)
Phone is nice and small, if basic (Siemens A56 is the first offering)
Free international calling to some countries (as in no extra cost above airtime)
Call Waiting, Caller ID, Voicemail, 3Way Calling, Domestic Long Distance (of course)

All in all the offering is pretty darn good. You get a number that's always local, no expiration date, and a large service footprint. It's voice only for the moment, so it's not a full-fledged STi replacement (no camera phones, no web access, no text yet) but for voice only you get a good deal. As far as the rebate goes here's what the guy sent me (probably a direct quote from Movil Mobile but he was somewhat usure about it in general):

"Movil Mobile offers a $39.95 rebate. You simply submit $40 worth of purchased Movil refill pins along with your rebate. You can purchase them upfront or over time. You have six months to submit your rebate."

In other words if the A56 turns out to be $40 then with the rebate will make it free. Not quite like a free LG 5225, or one with $4.05 back, but there's no active service period either so the rebate gets to you fast. I'm thinking from the wording that you buy $40 in airtime before six months are up, then write down the PINs on the rebate form as sort of proofs of purchase. You can of course add the airtime to the phone. Then you mail in the rebate (before six months are up) and get back the $40 you paid for the airtime, or around that amount. So I suppose you could think of the rebate more as $40 worth of free airtime than making a free phone, but you can think of it both ways and be happy either way...

I was also told that this and ReadyMobile (www.readymobile.com) are the same company, just that this wing is newer and aimed at the Latin sector (don't worry; it and Movida and Tuyo Mobile, some other such carriers, speak English just fine). I was told that ReadyMobile is doing an overhaul right now supposedly to match its rate scheme with this one, which is nice because currently that wing's rates are pretty bad. This is good because Movil will probably get the somewhat nicer phones of Ready and Ready will probably get the same rates as Movil. The slight downside is that Movil may share the usage requirement of Ready:

30 days of inactivity (no calls AND no refills) - $3.95 fee
60 days of inactivity (same) - termination

But it's not that bad really, putting the carrier's policies in that arena with U Prepaid, whcih has a similar 30-day requirement (except no refill part; you have to call). It's not quite as good as Beyond Wireless TDMA or STi Mobile were, but they're both gone now (the former to technology going obsolescent, the latter due to ?greed?) and $1.60 a year isn't that bad.

In short, we've got pretty much of a winner here, recreiving the baton of unlimited expiration from a now-miserly STi Mobile or a now-aged Beyond Wireless TDMA. I'm getting it.

STi Sale!

CheapPhoneCards.com today put their LG 225 and 5225 STi phones on deep-discount sale! The paymecell coupon code still works on the LG 5225 bunbles, except now they're $20 cheaper, making the phone and $50 of airtime a cool $68.95. In other words, for $18.95 you get a very capable, if somewhat battery-sucking, color flip phone. The LG 225 is marked down to $99 with a $50 card but paymecell doesn't work so your price will stay around there when you add the paltry 5% or so in coupon codes you find on the website to the price. Still, aside from the airtime the phone is a cool $50 or so, not bad considering you could get it for maybe $10 less a few months ago...with a rebate that should arrive in the next few weeks. :) Rebates and STi junk fee aside, now is a great time to get a cheap phone on STi.

Oops! Double typo (in bold)

Oh, and CheapPhoneCards just put online a few open-box 5225s with $50 airtime cards. I'm on the brink of getting one; with paymecell they're $52.95! $2.95 with no rebates is superb for even a refurb color flip phone with external caller ID display, and this isn't even refurb!

STi on CPC, My T-Mobile To Go, AirVoice Disappointments

Sorry for the long period of nonposting. It's spring break and I've taken up with a vengence my other hobby: pure computeres (namely compiling five or so systems donated to me into two or so). Anyway, it looks though like I haven't missed awfully much.

First off, CheapPhoneCards now has the LG 5350 phone in stock, and has dropped the price of the LG 5225 by $10. They also have the LG 225 again. Small problem about the 225: there is no coupon code of any big value (cell4 takes 4% off but that's not much) for it. But with the 5225 paymecell still delivers a nice $19.80 discount, making the phone\card combo $84.95, $34.95 if you count the $50 card that comes with the phone at face value. Not bad, until you remember that you could get this phone for the same price with a $10 card a few months ago...and get $89 back with a rebate! As said, they also have the LG 5350 and it, like the 5225 and the Samsung a460, has the ability to be discounted by paymecell. As a result you can get a color flip phone with external caller ID (albeit old and refurbished) for $60.95 including $50 in airtime. $11 isn't bad for a color flip...

Second, the long-awaited release of My T-Mobile for T-Mobile To Go is here. Note the omission of an exclamation point. The offerings on the site are quite underwhelming if you ask me and practically everyone else. Sure you can see your balance and expiration date, and add airtime, and see what your phone is and what services you can get, but you can't actually sign up for any new services, nor can you see a call log online, which in my opinion and a lot of others' is the big point of online account management, My T-Mobile included. Sure, it's a nice perk, but I'd rather have sooner...

The third thing: T-Mobile is going to open up roaming (for the same rate as home calling) onto Cingular and Edge Wireless (!) for prepaid, thus filling in a good bit of dead spots that 1900 MHz signals can't reach. Also, they will have $1.49\minute Mexico and $0.49\minute Canada roaming. Others have said that they'll also get the same international roaming countries and pricing as postpaid customers, but unfortunately I don't know who to believe yet: them or the TMo reps I've talked to. They're also supposed to have a bigger, better version of T-Zones for T-Mobile To Go, including real (POP3) email, driving directions, chat and a whole bunch of other stuff, but again there are discrepancies (such as the site that says it has it and reps who say it's only for postpaid). I'll keep everyone posted.

The fourth thing: AirVoice. Sorry people, but these guys have proved a disappointment. Their TDMA plan is no more and noncompetitive when compared with Beyond Wireless. Their CDMA plan is similar to Locus Mobile's fairly expensive Viva Wireless (short expirations, half-price night and weekend calling) except with more expensive rates and I think less local numbers (25 cents daytime vs. 18 cents). Their GSM service is plagued with the short expiration dates that are common to most Cingular-based MVNOs (Beyond Wireless GSM not excepted), contrary to my first impressions, and they don't offer any redeeming qualities (read: web access). Oh, and AirVoice Express's SMS is a whopping 10 cents both ways! Sorry to get people's hopes up on the GSM part of the service but I'm sad too...

OK. Now for the last thing: the Go4Prepaid Sweepstakes is still going on! I'm still waiting for 7 more people (3 for FreeiPodShuffle, 4 for FreeiPods) to complete their offers before May 30th. Let's get this thing moving; I have stuff to give away :).

AirVoice GSM and CheapPhoneCards

First off, I have re-found a carrier that I had heard of nearly a year ago: AirVoice. Now they have a GSM plan (before they didn't) that's pretty competitive in reality. All airtime expires in 90 days, which is much better than Beyond Wireless if you buy their $10 card (despite my loyalties to that once-great carrier). Also their rates are pretty good, with the $10 card giving 70 minutes and their $100 card giving 1000, with $20, $30 and $50 cards in between. I'm 99% sure that they use the Cingualr network. The only problem here is finding a SIM card for their service; eBay seems to be the only place, though it is rumored that you can activate a Cingular SIM with them. I will try the latter action tomorrow. Their site isL

http://www.airvoicewireless.com

Second, CheapPhoneCards (see link at right) has resurrected the huge promotional values of their paymecell promotional code for the moment, giving a huge 20% off the STi phones they carry. This means that for $45.74 you can get both an STi Samsung a460 (not a great phone but a phone nonetheless) and a $50 airtime card...that's less than the price of the airtime card alone...with the "cheap" promotional code! Even with the daily fee I'll probably pick one of these up, put a $10 card on it, and give it to a friend, probably keeping the $50 card for myself, and reviewing the phone. The discount also applies on the LG VI-5225 packages, making the phone and $50 of airtime $93.74. Adding a car charger and leather case kicks the price up to $97.74. That makes the phone $43.74 (like $39.99 plus tax basically), which isn't bad at all for a color flip with an external caller ID screen. Now if only STi would kill the ten cent daily fee again we'd all be happy. I was also informed though that this code will, after a few weeks, go back down to 5% like its cousin payme25, so I'd say grab this promo while it lasts...

New Tracfone Deals

Gone are the free Motorola v170 with 250 minute card\Nokia 1100 with 60 minute card deals. Now the only deals in GSM areas are either of these phones are their being free if you get a 1-year card, which is now $100 but has a promo code for 100 extra minutes. I think that the v170 is refurbished while the 1100 is new. So you get 470 minutes (120 + 250 + 100) for $110 or so...not too great but not insane either considering you're getting a 1-year card in the mix. Personally I wouldn't buy; seems too much like a contract with a free junk phone to me, albeit a 1-year contract with a fee of $8.50 a month for 35 minutes a month, all paid in advance with no refunds...

Sweeps Alert, Boost Walkie

Just as a sort of warning to everybody, FreePay, the company that has the Free iPod\Free iPod Shuffle promo, will kill my account on the 30th of May if I don't have ALL the referrals done by then. Not good. As a result, I need eight signups before then. Please complete your offers so that this whole sweeps won't turn into a flop. By the way, I will be using a different place other than FreePay for subsequent sweeps.

Also, Boost Mobile yesterday took 33.333333% off their walkie talkie rate, making it a much more bearable $1, the same as Cingular's unlimited Mobile to Mobile GoPhone. Looks like STi won't be as hard competition, plus all Nextel\Boost customers have a walkie number while most STi customers don't...

On Second Thought...Stuff about STi and Alltel

OK, so I decided that there was enough prepaid phone news to post. My bad. Anyway...

First off, CheapPhoneCards, which has had no STi phones on their site for about a week and a half now, has just added the LG 5225. Unfortunately, they, like STiMobile.com, require a $50 card to be purchased along with the phone. There are three coupon codes that you can use, paymecell, payme25 and cell4, but the lowest the price is going to get is $110.24. In other words, you basically get free shipping and about $3 in reward points if you buy from CheapPhoneCards.com over getting the phone from STiMobile's store. CheapPhoneCards is a better deal, but don't look for the miracles that were happening (phones where you get money back with a rebate, plus some airtime) a few months ago. :(

Second news is better news. I applaud U Prepaid (at http://www.alltel.com/personal/wireless/plans/prepaid.html) for

1) Low rates (15 cents a minute isn't bad, plus the daily plans are great)
2) No expiration (as long as you make a call every 30 days you aren't socked $4)
3) A HUGE network (Verizon + Alltel, 59 cent roaming where these networks don't service, which isn't much)
4) Great phone availability

You've probably heard about the first three great things, but let me tell you about the fourth. First off, the bad news: you have to pay an additional $55 on top of the "phone price" to get a certain phone on prepaid. $20 of that goes toward airtime so it's not a total loss. But anyway, here are the phones Alltel offers (the good news) and the prices, including the $55 for activation and airtime (think of it as 133 minutes free with the phone, or $20 free if you have the daily plan, which is really great for people who use more minutes). By the way, I seem to remember that you can get web access for $20 a month...not cheap but pretty good considering the huge coverage footprint. By the way, the model name links are to PhoneScoop descriptions, while the price hotlinks are to Alltel's product page.

Audiovox 8910 - $90 - This is a camera phone. Not the best brand but it is a camera phone and now, with no more STi rebate, the cheapest camera phone that I know of for prepaid, outside of eBay.

Kyocera SoHo (KX1) - $70 - This is a pretty nice starter phone; it's a color flip with an external caller ID display. Again, not a super brand but from what I've heard the SoHo is a solid, if visually quirky, phone.

Kyocera Slider Remix (KX5) - $270 - You'll pay dearly for the luxury, but nobody will EVER know you're on prepaid with this phone, which has an MP3 player, 1.3 Megapixel camera with video recorder, and Bluetooth. Granted, Virgin Mobile sells their Slider Sonic for around $200, but it doesn't have nearly as good features, rates or coverage.

Kyocera Candid (KX16) - $135 - This is on the expensive side for a simple cameraphone, even for prepaid, but it appears to be solid phone and it's pretty new to boot.

Kyocera KX440 - $175 - Personally I wouldn't get this phone on U Prepaid, firstly because of its price considering it doesn't even have a camera, secondly because of U Prepaid's lack of Touch2Talk service, the thing this phone was built for. Neverthless, if you need something rugged Alltel has it in this phone.

LG AX4270 - $135 - Another phone I wouldn't get on U Prepaid, this guy doesn't have a camera, nor any other redeeming feature that justifies its rather hefty price tag. Of course, if you like the phone though, go for it...

LG AX4750 - $170 - Hmmm...yet another phone not suited for U Prepaid. Its primary focus of features is walkie talkie, as with the Kyocera KX440. U Prepaid doesn't have that yet, so I'd mark this phone off as a choice, unless you really like the big ole speakerphone speaker.

LG AX5000 - $165 - Boy, this phone is expensive, but it just might be worth it, with a camera that has a flash and no-training-required voice dialing. Then again, this may be too much to pay for a normal-sized camera phone, meaning that U Prepaid has the...

Motorola Razr V3c (CDMA Razr) - $305 - Say it with me now, "expensive". Now that we've got the moderately insane cost of this model out of the way we can whoop about having the CDMA Razr on prepaid! Granted, T-Mobile and Cingular already sell their Razrs with prepaid kits, but even Cingular doesn't have the coverage that the combined Alltel\Verizon network does. Plus the newer v3c has key features that are simply better, among them video capture, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and EVDO high speed data. I doubt you'll be able to use the last feature on U Prepaid, but it just might work, which means that if you're in an EVDO area you'll be getting speeds from a prepaid phone that you used to think only came from your home-bound DSL connection. Oh, and did mention that this is a Razr? As in THIN? :)

Motorola v262 - $105 - There isn't much special to say about this phone, which is about on par with the Kyocera KX1, except that it's moderately cheap, which is always good, and that it's a Motorola, so if you like brand names here you go.

Motorola v265 - $145 - Yet another phone Alltel isn't pushing on their prepaid service, but the fact remains that it's a pretty good phone. It has a camera, speakerphone, other such good features, and a Motorola logo.

Motorola v710 - $205 - This is a pretty good phone, at a pretty high price. It has an MP3 player, a 1.2 megapixel camera, bluetooth, and a full-sized SD slot, plus all the normal goodies. It's not a Razr, but neither is it $305, and it still has a lot of nice features. For an advanced user I'd say this is at worst a fair buy.

Nokia 6235i - $165 - If you want the Nokia brand name on U Prepaid, prepare to pay. But you do get a good-looking bar phone with infrared, a video camera and an FM radio. And a nice little Nokia logo.

Nokia 6255i - $225 - This is a phone that's definately expensive, but it does have a lot of features, a flip, and a Nokia logo. Among these features are an MP3 player, a video-capable camera, streaming audio and video, Bluetooth and an FM radio. It's a lot of money but once again you have a phone that will never be accused of being prepaid (aka for now "old and featureless")

Samsung n330 - $145 - Personally I wouldn't pay this much for a non-cameraphone just because it says "Samsung" on it and has a pop-up, pop-down screen, but to each his own...it is a pretty good phone if a phone is all you want, but so are cheaper models...

So that makes 15 handsets available for U Prepaid out of the 18 available for Alltel as a whole. This beats the prepackaged (not counting eBayed or otherwise "introduced" prepaid phones) count for any other carrier that I know of for sheer selection on prepaid phones. Impressive, though most handsets will cost you. But if you want a phone you can be proud of, rates you can be proud of, a network you can be proud of and expiration you can be proud of, U Prepaid just works, though you may have to swing by an Alltel store aways from where you live to get one of these phones (and a non-local number) if you live in a Verizon-only area.

Sweeps Update

Just to let everyone know, I've received one more than enough potential referrals on the FreeiPods site and thus I've changed the link to freeipodshuffles. On either site I'll only accept the first few offers completed to keep the sweeps numbers nice and small. I'll email the other people that are potential referrals as people complete the offers on either site. To get technical, only the first 5 offer-completed referrals on the Free iPods site will be entered (that means 4 more and I'll post as people complete offers) and only the first 3 offer-completed referrals on FreeiPodShuffles.

To stress the point I WILL post here when people complete offers so people don't needlessly throw away their completed offers. Oh, and I WILL have more sweepstakes after this one is over. Hope this helps anyone wanting to enter my sweeps and have a nice day everyone!

P.S. The reason there's no prepaid phone news here is there is no prepaid phone news elsewhere worth enough to post here. When there's enough news I'll post it. Hopefully that time will be around the end of this week...

Sweepstakes Rehash

OK. To keep this topic known I'm rehashing in short the Go4Prepaid sweepstakes. For more info, scroll down to the full post.

WHAT YOU GET:
Grand Prize - Either an LG 225 with accessories or a Boost i285 with accessories. The former will come with at least $5 in airtime, the latter with around $30. Software, ringers and wallpapers are also included for both phones (actually no wallpapers on the i285 because it can't do them).

1st Prize - Nokia 5165 with home charger

TO BE ELIGABLE - Follow the current referral link (right now it's Free iPod) and complete an offer.

I'll draw the winner as soon as I have the 8 required referrals. Yees, your chances are 1 in 8 that you'll get a pretty good phone...

Tracfone Promo Code

Tracfone SMSed another promo code directly to the home screens of my mom and dad's Nokia 2126s (seems to be the delivery method of choice now for promo code ads, and of coure the message is free). The code is 59879.

Tracfone CDMA

I'm happily reporting that Tracfone (who knows when they did it) now has Nokia 2126s on their website. If you want to get them from there type in 78624 for the zip if yours only shows GSM phones (Nokia 1100, 2600, Moto c155, v170). The phones ARE $30 plus tax though so my offer ($30 for a 2126 with 120 minutes) still stands. Oh, and I can help anyone needing a referral for their new phone; just email me.

Go4Prepaid Sweepstakes!

Okay, so I want to promote my site and get rid of a phone and get a few freebies in the process. With these filthy motives I present the first Go4Prepaid Sweepstakes!

First of all, to qualify you need to click on over to the Free iPod link in the link bar and complete an offer. After 4 people have done this it'll change to a Free iPod Shuffle link. Click that one too. You can enter multiple (in this case up to 2) times in my little sweepstakes by entering once when I have the iPod link up and one when I have the iPod shuffle link up. If you've alreaady completed an offer you're already entered into my little sweepstakes. When both my freebies are on their respective ways I'll pick the winner and send the prize off.

I have two prizes, and I'll choose the winner of the greater-value one first but otherwise you have an equal chance of getting one or the other. One thing though is that no one person will get both prizes. With that little bit of legalese aside, here be the prizes:

GRAND PRIZE (either or, my choice, with a good chance that it'll be the 225 since I will have to pay $30 or so to get the other phone up and running again, though if STi lowers their rates again the winner may get the Boost):

A great condition Boost Mobile Motorola i285 with a home charger and extra faceplate. It also has a ringtone I bought, a racing game and TeleNav (not standard with the i285; I paid for it) with one route. The phone will come with a newly reactivated sim card with $20 of airtime on it. This phone is rather basic and rather low on battery life (model characteristics, not due to my use) but it's ultrasmall for an iDEN phone and has great reception (better than any other iDEN phone I've run across).

--OR--

My right now primary cell phone, a very good condition LG 225 cameraphone on STi Mobile, complete with car charger, case, home charger and manual. It will have at least $5 of airtime on it. It, software-wise, has 13 downloaded ringers (mostly movie themes but other stuff mixed in), a few downloaded wallpapers, various downloaded games and apps (basic stuff not worth mentioning) and Opera Mini, which lets you browse the full (HTML) web, or most of it, if you pay STi 19 cents a day for data services. This phone will be the prize if everybody becomes eligable between the time I receive the rebate for this phone and when either STi once again kills the 10 cent daily fee (April at earliest) or I sell the phone locally. Neither are likely to happen so it's pretty safe to assume that you'll get this phone if the winner gets their prize after I get my rebate.

1ST PRIZE:
Yeah, this is summat of a joke, but this lucky winner gets my very own, great condition, Nokia 5165 TDMA phone as well as a home charger. You can use this on whatever TDMA servie you have locally (Beyond Wireless is no more...) or use it in analog mode for a Verizon-based prepaid service where Verizon has an analog signal (which is generally where they have an 850-MHz digital signal). I may even throw in an extra battery.

Some Quick Notes:

-There are only eight referral slots total for the iPod and iPod Shuffle, combined. So you have a SUPER chance of winning something, especially since I'm offering two prizes (though one is a bit more of a joke prize...).
-Some of the offers there are free so you could say "no purchase necessary"...
-I will email you when you show up as having completed an offer on my referral account, which will be when the same thing shows up on your account
-If you're already participating in the FreeiPods or FreeiPodShuffles promos through somebody else's referral link sorry but for that particular promo you won't be eligable here to enter, as I wouldn't get credit.
-Clicking through my referral link won't make it any harder for you to receive your own free iPod or free iPod Shuffle. If you had gone straight through www.freeipods.com or www.freeipodshuffle.com the only thing different is that you wouldn't be able to enter my sweepstakes.
-Sorry, no prize substitutions. If you don't live in a Sprint or Nextel service area (depending on the phone I send) then you may not want to sign up, though I'd give you
the Nokia 5165 if you really wanted it and you won.

I guess that's about it. If anyone has any other questions about this deal, email me...

Tracfone Promo Code

Tracfone sent an SMS to my dad's phone (for free) with a promo code (I don't personally own a Tracfone...yet). It said you can get 30 extra minutes on any airtime card (its wording ws 40 units or more but anyway...) with the promotional code 50386. Which means that you can get 90 minutes on Tracfone for $20...not bad at all considering that this is just 22.2 cents a minute. Enjoy, everyone!

STi WARNING #2!

To borrow a cheesy tagline from half the lower-tier horror films available on store shelves now, Evil Never Dies. STi is reinstating the 10 cent per day fee March 19th. Looks like they once again fall off my reccommended providers list. Fortunately, this one month free of the evil daily fee-for-nothing (besides free lng distance to about 16 countries, none of which I call - ever) gives me enough time to qualify for the $100 rebate on my camera phone. Once I get the rebait (I spelled it that way intentionally) this phone is up for grabs, for the same price that Sprint sells it for on their website with a 2-year contract ($50), and with more stuff than Sprint sells it with (case, car charger and home charger would be included).

I'm completely disgusted with STi in case you can't tell. Granted, their fee isn't here yet but I'm still highly annoyed. Unfortunately I doubt this widespread annoyance will get STi to stop nickel-and-diming us to death (literally) for a second time...once again let me sing the saga of a great prepaid company gone terribly wrong...

The interesting thing is that those ten cents per day may be going into branding, as in the ugly STi logo being put onto the plastic of their phones with more than just a sticker. Or am I just seeing things on the Samsung a820 displayed poudly on STi's homepage? Granted, it's a nice phone and I would love to have it, but unless STi kills the daily fee for good I'm not biting...unless they give me a REALLY good reason to do so (30-day service period $100 rebates on the Samsung a820 anyone?).

On a side not, a rep actually did mention a rebate on the Samsung a820 coming next month to promote STi's ReadyLink aka Press and Talk service. But I probably won't stick around. Let the search for the best carrier around these parts begin... :(

STi Phones: New True Blue :)

Okay, there aren't any blue phones except the old LG 5350 but STi has finally made available most of the phones it has in its lineup on their site. Furthermore, the prices are OK. The sad thing is though that CheapPhoneCards now doesn't have any good deals (only the Samsung a460 and that at their former deal which is not bested by STi's site) but that may change next week when they get the Samsung a820 in. Anyway...

All STi phones on the site require the purchase of a $50 refill card and possibly some cash for shipping and maybe tax, but the breadth of offering is large and when you take into account the fact that you'll probably use up the card anyway eventually the prices aren't that bad...

Samsung a460 - Free
LG 1200 - Free
LG 5350 - $20 ($19.99 but anyway if I quote a price it's really a wee little penny less on their site)
LG 5225 - $60
Sanyo 200 - $60
LG 225 - $100
Samsung a820 - $100

There are no rebates involved any more, or at least not right now, so no outrageous deals, but the phones aren't that bad for the price either...by the way the Samsung a460 and LG 5350 are refurb but that usually means nothing as to quality detriments

Samsung a460 - For a freebie this is a nice phone; I think it even has web browsing. Granted, the screen is black and white but this may be a plus in some cases and it has poly ringtones and suchlike amenities. With the Virgin Mobile Shorty, also black and white but a mere bar phone (though a Nokia) selling for $40 on Amazon this isn't such a bad deal. Oh, and did I mention it was free?

LG 1200 - You'll probably want to stay away from this phone, but the fact remains that it is pretty darn free and it is a flip phone. Disposaphone here we come ;).

LG 5350 - This is a lot of phone for $20. It's pretty old and a mixed bag as far as ratings go but it is a color flip with an external (black and white) display plus it does have analog capability (the LG 1200 doesn't; only 19800 digital) so if you break down you can still call 911 or make a horrendously expensive credit card call.

LG 5225 - The old STi standby is now pretty expensive but the phone is solid, if on the old side. It's didital-only and battery life isn't stellar but it has web access and is in general good all around. If you want web access and have a budget limit of $75 or so for a phone on STi here it is.

Sanyo 200 - If you just use voice and text this $60 phone is superb, if you can live without a caller ID display. Since it's a Sanyo it is tuned for Sprint's network and will thus net you the best reception on STi (99.9% sure). Plus there's a gloriously huge speakerphone grille on the outside so everything is gonna sound loud and clear. Once again, there's no caller ID display or web (on Sprint this was called a "Voice Phone") but it's a darn good basic phone with STi's darn good airtime rates so it's a winner. Interestingly though, my local Wal-Mart is selling the Movida version of this phone (Latino-centric 20 cents per minute or cheaper with a large daily fee) for $50, but the airtime would even the difference out pretty quickly.

LG 225 - If you can live without walkie talkie this is simply a great phone, doing everything it does pretty darn well, though if you get in a dead spot the otherwise strong battery will get sapped unreasonably quickly. At $100 plus airtime it's no longer an outrageously cheap bargain of a camera phone but it's still worth the price.

Samsung a820 - This phone is the newest of the STi lineup, both in date added to STi and date added to Sprint (it has never seen a red diamond logo). It's expensive (just as expensive as the 225) but a massive speakerphone grille, a massive external screen and the ability to do ReadyLink (STi is iffy about whether it will call Sprint but I'm thinking it will) set it out from the pack. If you were thinking of putting your family on Boost for walkie, don't. This phone has faster data access, more reliable text, clearer voice and walkie talkie (if not faster to connect on the latter) and best of all cheap pricing on everything, though the phone is $20 more than its iDEN match, the i450 (which is a lesser phone in my opinion). If and when STi does get a rebate on this phone that brings the price down to less than $50 I'll get it to see how it works.

So no, there aren't any blue phones on STi yet that are really snazzy, but the opening of the selection on the website bodes well for this company's future, especially with its putting a Sanyo phone within easy reach.

Trac Promo Codes

Here are some promo cods (the hotlink in the title)...

STi Update!

Just to let everybody know, the STi fee removal for the 10\12 cent plan is bona fide! I placed a text call this morning and it gave me the same balance as yesterday. I'm happy, aren't you? :)

As a side note, there is no more double minute promo for the Nokia 1100 in GSM areas on Tracfone. No big loss there though. Otherwise everything is the same, except that the big promotion box in GSM areas is the 1100 with the 1-year card.

Boost, STi, and Various other important miscellany

First of all I want to shout from the treetops that STi is supposed to repeal the 10 cent fee for the 10\12 plan! Looks like I'm not selling ym camera phone after all! :) There aren't any rebates available for STi phones right now, except for the wierd Staples rebate that makes you use about $50 worth of airtime to get a $100 rebate, but still this is good news.

Second, Boost Mobile is supposed to decrease walkie-talkie in mid-March. Its price, that is. It will then be $1 a day. For this reason, and for TeleNav (turn by turn driving directions powered by Nextel GPS...suffice it to be called "rockin'" ;) ) I'm going to keep my Boost Mobile i450.

I have two Boost phones and yes I'm selling the other one, the i285. I'd be willing to accept $30 for it, except that shipping cots a bit, so I'm thinking more like $35. It's worth every penny; it's the smallest iDEN bar phone I know about, and while the battery life isn't good the reception is, beating out any iDEN phone that I've come up against yet. It has about $15 worth of stuff I put on it, namely TeleNav (plus one route), a ringtone, and a racing game. The sim card inside it is inactive, but it's cheap to replace. Email me if you are interested, ye readers.

Third, taking the principle that Beyond Wireless TDMA was able to activate CDMA phones, I'm going to try to activate my Nokia 5165 on a Verizon prepaid, USAOneRate (www.usaonerate.com). Granted, it will run in analog only, but it should be home coverage and it will be a neat experience, as well as a nice way to resurrect an otherwise-useless phone.

Speaking of USAOneRate, I'll talk later about it and other Verizon prepaids. Suffice it to say that the map on its site is incorrect; only Verizon towers are home territory. But the rates are not too bad...though there is a nasty 5 cent daily fee.

Tracfone Specials - Part Three

Sorry this was so long in coming but life once again caught up to me. This is the best part of Tracfone at the moment: GSM. At least as far as prices go for minutes...

Starting small, Amazon has the Nokia 2600 for $40. No tax and free shipping make this phone nice. If you want it, which you have good reason to, get it here, though if you are willing to settle for less you can get better deals.

Next up is the Nokia 1100 with a 60 minute card for $27 shipped and taxed from Tracfone's website. If you get two or more you will get free shipping. Each phone will get at least 180 minutes, with the potential for up to 320 minutes if you refer from another of your phones, then add the airtime card with the aforementioned promo code, then transfer the whole sheband to the referrer phone. Which makes for a cool 7 cents a minute or so if you get two phones and thus kill shipping costs. Of course the phone is refurbished but it's worthy enough to even be used as a normal Tracfone, not just as a vehicle of profit.

You can also get a free new Nokia 1100 with your choice of the $130 double-minute card or the $100 1-year card. Sounds like a 1-year contract with a cheesy phone to me, but hey, it's not all that bad. For the first you'd end up with probably 620 minutes plus double minutes for a year, making for about 22.5 cents a minute. On the second you'd get 570, for about the same cost per minute but less initial outlay and no doubling.

Now for the grand finale: the Motorola v170 deal. New airtime rates have made this good deal even better, netting a pretty darn capable, though annoyingly small-screened, color flip phone (the only color flip on Tracfone) with a total of between 400 and 420 minutes (depending on the promo code used) for $54 or so. If you have another Tracfone and do the refer-a-friend fandango you'll end up with 500 to 520 minutes. That works out to about 11 cents a minute, not counting the shiny new (okay, it's a refurb but looks like new) flip phone. Even without referring yourself and jumping through umpteen hoops you still get 12.5 or so cents a minute.

So yes, Tracfone has some good deals. All of the above phones have outgoing text at .3 units each, and incoming text at 0 units each (yeah, free) so if you want a lean mean texting machine this is actually a pretty cheap way to go. I might have to pick up one of these myself, even though there aren't any local numbers here...

Tracfone Specials - Part 2

Unfortunately, CDMA seems to be the technology Tracfone is trying to downplay on its website. The only phone available is the abysmal (or so I've heard) Motorola v120c, which costs $27 (tax and shipping included; if you get two phones shipping would be free so more like $21.40 apiece with tax only) and includes a 40 (now 60) minute airtime card. It is a fairly good deal though, since with each phone you get 120 minutes (port it over to the Tracfone of your choosing, which could also refer the phone and get 100 more minutes) plus at least 60 from the airtime card. With the promo code I mentioned awhile earlier you could actually get 100 minutes on the card (COULD is the key word here) so 220 (or even 320) minutes total. There are better deals out there in my opinion but this one is OK if you can live with getting another phone (same story as the TDMA Motorola v60).

Amazon has the Nokia 2126, but it's $22 plus shipping. Dunno about that one...

Tracfone Specials - Part 1

In these posts I'll tell you what all you can get on Tracfone's (and others') websites. They're all pretty good deals, but some are better than others.

First, TDMA:
On Tracfone's website the only model available for TDMA is the Motorola v60it. You can get it either for $60 plus tax for just the phone or $140 including a double-minute card. Yes, that would make the phone, which is brand new (not the model, the phone; the model is old as the hills), $10. Not bad, until you find out that it's a subpar phone. But even with this in mind with tax you get 720 minutes for $150 or so, plus one year of service and double minutes, if I heard right about the promotional code for the double-minute card. You could just activate the phone, get the referral minutes (refer another Tracfone, preferably yours), then port all the other minutes over to your main Tracfone (mor on what that should be later), then add the double-minute card. Right, I lied. You can get 820 minutes with this deal...not bad considering you get a year of service and a phone that's sellable for something on eBay...

Amazon, on the other hand, as a truly nice deal. They have the Motorola v120t, which unlike its CDMA brother is a truly nice phone, for $30 with no tax or shipping charges. Granted, there aren't any airtime cards or other such junk included in the package, but hey, this is the last haven of the cheap TDMA Tracfone. If there's superior TDMA service in your area, and Tracfone runs on that carrier (more on that in another post) then by all means buy it. Just keep in mind it's not the most modern of phones.

Tracfone Changes...

In the last few weeks several things have changed for the better around Tracfone. One thing is somewhat a change for the worse but I'dd take the good stuff :)

First of all, though you now have to enter EIGHT HUGE CODES to activate at least a new Nokia 2126 (may be for other models as well) or put in SIX HUGE CODES for one that hasn't had the program enabled, you mow most likely have access to Tracfone's nifty Rapid Refill system on the Nokia 2126. What happens is

1. You put in your airtime code and the promo code right after it in a certain menu of the phone
2. You wait
3. You get a nice message saying that you need to restart your phone since airtime has been added

The system still has a bug or two but now you never need touch a landline again to refill your phone, though you'll probably want to use the web to find good deals on airtime.

Speaking of airtime, there have been some nice minute increases that finally puts Tracfone on par with every other prepaid comany as far as price per minute goes. Here's what has changed:

40 minute card ($20) is now 60 minutes
100 minute card ($30) is now 120 minutes
200 minute card ($50) is now 250 minutes
1-year card (previously $90) is $10 more expensive (now $100) but gets 100 more minutes (250 total)
Double Minute card ($130) now has 400 minutes

In other words, the montly cost of Tracfone ownership just went up by about 85 cents if you just purchase off-the-shelf airtime cards, but rates are now in line with normal prepaid carriers like Simple Freedom (for Verizon areas RIP) and Cingular StopPhone...er...GoPhone, with the $30 card giving 25 cents a minute (120 minutes). Plus there are a few promotional codes that you can use to get a bit more airtime. Mor on those a little later.

By the way, if anybody wants a Nokia 2126 Tracfone, which are reputed to be rare creatures in some aprts of the US, my Wal-Mart supercenter usually has plenty (between a half dozen and a dozen). Yes, I'll ship the phone, charger, manual and of ourse battery out (no big blister pack to save postage) for $30 loaded with 120 minutes (the other end of the referral would go to either myself or someone who pays $10 for it), or rather with 20 plus I'd email the 100 later so I can ship the phone ASAP. If you want 220 minutes the phone is $40. I'm not leaving much room here for postage and PayPal fees and such (dunno if there would be any on PayPal but anyway...) so it might end up being $32 or $35 for the phone with 120 minutes (and that much higher on the 220 minute phone) if I find out that I lost money on the first phone or two I send out, which at Wal-Mart costs $21.36 including tax if my memory serves me right. I'm doing this because this is a nice phone and some places just won't give it to you. And yes, it would come activated to whatever zip you tell me. Or unactivated for $40. email me with any questions.

OK, now to the promo codes for airtime...

59837 which expires the 28th gets 200 minutes extra on a double-minute card
59647 which does the same thing (no expiration date posted) for a normal 1-year card
57381 which adds 50 minutes to any other card but may be expired already

Additionally it seems like you can use any active promo code on the new airtime value corrosponding to the one it was designed for. In other words, if a promo code (like the foursomes in the often-found booklet that came with earlier Tracfones) worked on a 200 minute card it will work just the same on a 250 minute card. This makes for some nice deals on airtime.

I'll probably post more but time escapes me right now. Hope this helps everyone.

Beyond Wireless: Out With The Old, In With The New

January 31st was the last day that Beyond, or anyone else for that matter, could activate any TDMA phones on AT&T's roam-able network. *Sounds taps*. But Beyond Wireless isn't gone yet. They now have a pretty good service on Cingular's GSM network.

Naturally you won't be able to use the old TDMA phones, and as a consequence of the network shift there's no more practically unlimited roaming. With this goes double-dialing though, but I still think double-dialing is a small price to pay for cheap home minutes and roaming everywhere. Cingular's Pay As Yoy Go network, which Beyond runs on, seems to have free roaming on certain small networks though, so the coverage map on the site is inaccurate in a positive way in some areas, though you'll definately not get all the coverage a Cingular plan gets, and where there's no home rate coverage there's no service.

Now to the phones. You can buy a sim card (ah the joys of GSM) for $16.66 including shipping, which gets you $6 in airtime as well (more on airtime later) so you can use any Cingular or unlocked phone out there as long as it has 850 and 1900 bands (all but those ritzy Europhones or really old Voicestream phones have both). Keep in mind though that as far as has been seen the only services Beyond GSM offers are, like its TDMA sibling, voice and text messaging so don't buy too rich. They can even activate an unactivated Cingular sim card, though I'm not sure about how much airtime (if any) that they give you. You can also buy one of (only) three phones off of their website, one of which is good and the other two of which are of dubitable value. There's the $60 Siemens S56, probably the best non-camera, non-MP3, non-keyboard, non-PDA phone out there. In other words it's definately made for talking on, and it does that, as well as other phone-centric features, well. It even has bluetooth!

The other two phones are the not-so-hot ones. There's the oh-so-old Motorola T720 and the oh-so-lousy LG C1300, around $65. I'd look elsewhere for a flip phone, like eBay. An interesting thing Beyond GSM had when it just had come out about a week ago was the Motorola c155 for $50, so if you wanted that phone and didn't want Tracfone's high rates you could get it, though I for one would pass.

As far as rates go things can be rather sketchy but everything seems to be very good, though a far cry from TDMA's super rates. The $5 card, with 36 minutes, remains, but on all cards there are now expiration dates, which range from 15 ($5) to 90 ($100) days. The lowest monthly cost is achieved with the 60-day $15 card, which gets 105 minutes. The lowest per-minute cost is of course the 1000-minute $100 card, just like on TDMA, except with the expiration date.

Interestingly, the billing system on Beyond GSM is based on play dollars (you ALKWAYS get between 15% and 70% more than the cost of the card, depending on how big a refill you get) similar to Cingular's GoPhone Pay As You Go system, and, seemingly jsut like it as well, you get texted with your balance after each phone call. Minutes are decremented at 16.75 or so "play cents" each from your balance, which in real life as said before ranges from 10 to about 14 cents. As a side not, if you buy from a bricks-and-mortar Beyond Wireless dealer (as opposed to their website) you get less minutes for any given ($5, $15, $25, $50 or $100) refill amount so it's definately better to buy from their site.

Text messaging is more of a blurry subject. Incoming text is always 6 cents, probably in "play money", while outgoing text rates vary, ranging from 8 to 6 cents depending on how many are sent, I guess within some mystery time period... Realistically incoming text will be more around 3.5-5 cents (refill values once again factor in) with outgoing text proportionally cheaper, but I'd rather just have free incoming text and a steeper outgoing rate. If you text a lot you probably want to look elsewhere.

All in all, Beyond Wireless has come out with a reasonably competitive GSM product after the demise (plays taps again) of their excellent (though roaming in my area) TDMA plans. It won't get anyone jumping up and down for joy, but it's a good deal for people who just talk and text a little and are in Cingular areas (I'm not so I won't be getting this, not until Cingular stops razing the bar here in central Texas at least). Oh, and the Siemens s56, as well as the "activate your own sim card" and "activate with your choice of number" bits are nice things we've all come to expect from a pretty good prepaid reseller.

STi Mobile: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This post has been a long time in coming but first let me tell you the good:

STi now has Walkie Talkie service! It's 49 cents a day and available on the Samsung a820. Problem is, it is supposedly limited to STi only as of right now; so maybe no ReadyLink to Sprint yet. Also the phone is $130, plus a $50 card. A $100 rebate will probably come, along with its being available at CheapPhoneCards.com so you only have to get a $10 card with it, and that at a discount. Anyway, it's the cheapest walkie choice on prepaid, with a nice new phone.

Now for the bad, and there's lots of it. I'll start sotly, then work up to the huge points.

First of all, though STi now gives you free international calling to some countries with all plans, the list has shrunk to 15 countries or so. For the rest the rates range from reasonable to highway robbery. That's sad.

Second, there are no more rebates for the STi phones sold online. If you want a rebate, prepare for using 100 minutes a month for three months, thus sort of nullifying much of your rebate money because of all the airtime you have to buy. Anyway, now all STi phones are overpriced. I'm not paying $150 for an LG 225, $100 for an LG 5225 (or even %85 if paymecell still works on CheapPhoneCards) or $130 for the Samsung a820, PLUS a $50 card if I want the 225 (which CheapPhoneCards has ceased selling,a t least for now) or the a820, even if it has really cheap walkie talkie, web access, picture messaging or just plain old voice minutes!

Third, and this is HUGE: STi now has a STUPID, UNANNOUNCED, SLIMY LITTLE DAILY FEE! Yes, I feel that strongly about it. They didn't tell anyone it was coming. It just happened...for 10 cents a day the only added benefit for 10\12 users like myself is that you get free international calling to 15 countries. I don't know any phone numbers over there.

The other STI plan now has less distinction than it ocne had from the 10\12 plan. It used to have a flat rate (18 cents) per minute that included free long distance to a HUGE amount of countries. No more. It gets the same short list of freebies. But not only that, its rate structure has totally changed, rendering it a very much hybrid plan only good for people who use a ton of minutes per month, at least by prepaid standards. Yes, it's 7.9 cents a minute (applause) but with a 39 cent fee EVERY SINGLE DAY (just like the 10 cent fee on the other plan). BOOOOOO! Yes ladies and gentlemen, that's $11.70 per 30-day month just to keep your phone ready to make a phone call. Of course if you're used to Virgin Mobile this isn't so bad; 3 minutes a day on this plan is about even with Minute2Minute. But Virgin Mobile has a $25 color flip phone with external caller ID. STi's phone is now $85 or more. No good.

I remember about a year ago when I passed STi off because of its $1.95 monthly fee. This was back in the good ole days when the free phone (only 30 days of active service were required) was an LG 1200. Bleh I know. Granted, the plan didn't even have text messaging, or international calling for that matter, but now the minimum is $3 a month, or if you want a hybrid $11.70. Granted, for some people it's still OK but for myself, who use the phone between 50 and 100 minutes a month, the 10 cent fee drastically increases the price per minute, making some other carrier more economical. And I'll find that carrier, and quickly, unless STi gets that 10 cent fee off their plan.

I have a hunch the fee had something to do with STi's having to pay Sprint huge gobs of money to be the second prepaid carrier (the first prepaid MVNO) with walkie talkie service. But I'm not pitying them; a mandatory daily fe is absolutely negative when it comes to keeping customers.

In this vein I offer my LG 225 cameraphone for $60 shipped, with car and home chargers and a case, plus maybe some airtime, as soon as my rebate check comes in. If you can't get a good prepaid deal elsewhere STi may be the cheapest you can get, or you may really really want web and picture messaging, though it will, in sum total, cost you $12 a month or so. Also I'm selling my friend's LG 5225 for him, at $50 with the same accessories plus a data cable. It's available now.

Needless to say I'm really sad to see STi go this way but the way they added the daily fee leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I'm already paying them 29 cents for web and picture messaging I know but I don't want a 33% fee increase for no gain on my part, especially when they don't tell me about it. When their rates subside again I'll go back but not until then.

As an aside, I trned off web and picture messaging a day or two after the daily fee-for-nothing started. PLSPictures, I found, allows 30 days for you to download every single one of your uploaded cameraphone photos as one big zipfile before they delete them off of their system. Just so everyone knows. Oh, and by the way, the 225's photos look very good on a computer screen as long as you weren't moving the phone too much when you took the picture. Of course, you probably saw that already with my previously posted pictures.

In short, bye bye STi as soon as I get my rebate. I'll say hello when they kill the daily fee on one of their plans and put rebates back on their phones (or at least make them less expensive). Until then I'm scouting the world for the greatest prepaid carrier that has local numbers in my area (T-Mobile sadly doesn't), keeping a near-zero-balance Boost Mobile phone for the local number, walkie and GPS and a T-Mobile To Go phone for other stuff. Which reminds me, my i285 and Nokia 5165 are both waiting for buyers. Email me...

Virgin Mobile Developments

Now to the big-name Sprint provider. First of all, the highest level of their Month2Month plan ($50 plus junk fees) now has unlimited nights and weekends. Wow, who knew VM could be civilized?

Actually, they can't be. At first glance their new "Inner Circle" plan seems great. It looks like you get unlimited calling to 3 people for 70 cents a day. Or is that unlimited nihgts and weekends? Neither. Rather, you get unlimited calling to three people ONLY on nights and weekends. What a rip...I can get REAL unlimited nights and weekends elsewhere for $18 a month (xTreme Mobile).

As far as phones go though they just got a little more reasonable. The Audiovox 8610, while not a great phone, has become the cheapest color flip with an external caller ID screen, at $25. Yes, it's a refurb phone and yes it's an Audiovox but if you want to try out Sprint coverage you can get a fuzzy idea of what it's like from this phone. The Kyocera Slider Sonic is down to $200 but that's still outrageously expensive for what you get.

Never mind; I take that back about the phones getting cheaper. They have just cleared out a lot of their old phones, leaving only color ones. Right, there's no Nokia Shorty on their website any more. The Kyocera Slider is the same drab $40 as it has been for awhile, but if you really want a slider phone it's cheap. The only other phones on the site (besides the Sonic, the regular Slider and the Vox 8610) are the Snapper (Audiovox 8915, $100) and the Kyocera K10 ($50) whose prices are unchanged since...a few months ago? Yeah, that sounds right...

Oh, and by the way, the Shorty is back up to $30 at my Wal-Mart. Let the dust collecting begin, as the Nokia 2126 Tracfone is sitting right next to it and is only $20.

T-Mobile To Go Developments (have to start somewhere)

Sorry, but I've been doing various things for the past several days and haven't caught this blog up to the changes made in the prepaid world on and around February 1st. I'll tackle T-Mobile To Go and Virgin Mobile tonight, with the others later.

First of all, T-Mobile's voicemail now works normally, namely that you get the specially-formatted voicemail message that lets you listen to a newly received message with just one button push. Nice...

Second, though little know, the $25 and $50 cards are now 166 and 500 minutes on Gold Rewards, respectively. I got all this info from a TMo rep, but sounds right.

Third, if you want to get free text messaging don't hope to keep it for too long; T-Mobile knows about the bug and is starting to work to patch it, or so I've heard. But it's not patched yet so have fun while it lasts...

Fourth, T-Zones is going to get bigger any day now. It'll still be free and not unlimited, but it will be larger than what it is right now.

Fifth, an account management system (but no call logs yet) will be added as well as an online photo album funtion (MMS charges apply, so it will cost 25 cents per photo uploaded) around the time the new T-Zones comes out.

Sixth, and probably the best of all, T-Mobile To Go will get (at the same time as it gets T-Zones and account management I think) free (yes free) roaming on Cingular's and Centennial Wireless's towers! Roaming in Mexico and Canada will also be available, albeit at an extra cost. Hey, I'll take 10 cents a minute with a $100 1-year card that's good almost everywhere where a normal, expensive, Tracfone GSM phone would have coverage. And no, there won't be any more fees for this...more on why I said that bit later...maybe tomorrow...

Have To Start Somewhere: Virgin Mobile

Sorry, but I've been doing things for the last few days. But a lot has happened on and since the 1st. I'll tackle Virgin Mobile first, then tomorrow you should hear about the other carriers...

First of all, now on Level 3 you can actually get unlimited nights and weekends