Cellular phones topics - Prepaid Cellular - Southern U.S., Low Prices, Low LD to Canada?

Author

Prepaid Cellular - Southern U.S., Low Prices, Low LD to Canada?

Mike

2005-11-09, 11:48 pm

A dear friend of mine has been asking about this, and I thought I'd
take the question to this newsgroup.

For relatives of hers, she's looking for an inexpensive-as-possible
prepaid cell phone. She tells me they're looking for a phone that'll
work as they "travel around the southern U.S.", though I haven't heard
what area that exactly covers. They would presumably, roaming around
so much, need really good coverage, and don't want to pay too much for
roaming.

They also need to be able to call Canada, and presumably, not get
charged through the nose for it. I'd guess it would also be a good
idea if the phone worked in Canada, though I don't know if they'll get
up there or not during this winter.

My personal thought leans towards my carrier, VZW, but I'm not sure
how they'll feel about the basic $30-month pre-set charge ($1/day),
and the 69c/min. they charge to call Canada. (I do know, from
personal experience with VZW's former prepaid product, that the phone
should work up there.) There'd also be roaming involved off-network
for VZW, but their network should be fairly extensive.

But I'm not sure what else would work well. The GSM providers have
very spotty coverage in the southwest (off main Interstates), though I
don't know if they're gonna be there or in the southeast.

I've looked into options like the CDMA service out of the eCallPlus
folks, and they could even get calls to Canada for free (no LD), but I
have no idea if my friend's relatives are willing to jump through the
hoops needed to do so...i.e. calling a dedicated "outbound LD" number,
then inputting the number you're calling in Canada. (I also don't know
if this method takes a hit when it comes to call quality.)

I get the idea they'd be more comfortable walking into Target or
something, and buying a phone.

Any thoughts?

Donald Newcomb

2005-11-09, 11:48 pm

"Mike" <inundated9@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4k35n1tog182em3
0hvqicrqlrfsu5asg7a@
4ax.com...
> They also need to be able to call Canada, and presumably, not get
> charged through the nose for it. I'd guess it would also be a good
> idea if the phone worked in Canada, though I don't know if they'll get
> up there or not during this winter.

She might want to look at http://www.simplefreedom.net. It works on Alltel
and Verizon, coverage is very good. Calls within the US are 25c/min and to
Canada are 50c/min.

--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

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