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Cellular forums Home > Archive > AT-T wireless service > September 2007 > Re: PagePlus, the Prepaid Service Few People Know About even though
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Re: PagePlus, the Prepaid Service Few People Know About even though
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| Vic Smith wrote:
> I'm assuming coverage always includes good signal quality. SMS has
> claimed he can get a signal - with PagePlus I think - in some isolated
> backwoods area he frequents,
Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far from
mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a major
ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the roads
into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate). Much of
CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are out in the
woods at all.
It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.
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| Marsha 2007-09-24, 10:33 pm |
| SMS wrote:
> Vic Smith wrote:
>
>
>
> Not so backwoods actually. All on fairly major roads, often not far from
> mid-size to large cities. One of the routes to Lake Tahoe, past a major
> ski area (CA 88). Much of Crater Lake. Much of Yosemite and the roads
> into it (served by Golden State Cellular, a Verizon affiliate). Much of
> CA 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. None of these are out in the
> woods at all.
>
> It's true that if you never leave the urban core that prepaid services
> that use AT&T's network are fine. What you want to avoid, at least out
> in the west, is any Sprint or T-Mobile based prepaid carrier, as both
> the 1900 MHz GSM and 1900 MHz CDMA networks are _much_ less developed
> than AT&T's 800 MHz GSM and Verizon's 800 MHz CDMA networks.
I have Page Plus and several times have gotten strong
signals where my friend was not able to pick up
anything and she had to borrow my phone - e.g. Amish
country in Central Ohio.
Marsha
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| Marsha wrote:
> SMS wrote:
>
> I have Page Plus and several times have gotten strong signals where my
> friend was not able to pick up anything and she had to borrow my phone -
> e.g. Amish country in Central Ohio.
Yeah, several times when I've picked up my daughter for sporting events,
I have to wait because her friends are using her PagePlus phone to call
their parents because their cell phones don't have a signal. This isn't
out in the middle of nowhere either, it's typically at playing fields
located at middle schools. The schools are usually in very residential
areas, with no tower very close. When I look at the maps for T-Mobile
they show no coverage, and I assume Sprint is the same since they have
almost identical needs in terms of towers (CDMA has slightly longer
distance from the cells, but not enough to make much of a difference at
1900 MHz).
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| Vic Smith wrote:
> Try to keep priorities straight.
> And nominal per minute cost is meaningless if you lose minutes.
> Refill hassle is also a consideration, and sometimes related
> to losing minutes.
Yeah, four months is about as short as I'd tolerate in terms of having
to do refills. I can't imagine having to do them every sixty days.
PagePlus is one of the easier ones to refill, just call them and they
re-up your account, without having to enter any PIN numbers, or buy the
card directly from their web site (which does require a PIN number IIRC).
On the one occasion when I missed the refill date, I called them and
they restored $50 worth of minutes I had lost. I doubt if the large
carriers would have been nice enough to do that.
Always look at the big picture, coverage, cost, and hassle.
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| Steve wrote:
> SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>
> Might be easier to use the Yahoo store -
>
> http://pagepluscellular.stores.yaho...epaidcards.html
Then you have to enter the PIN to recharge it, rather than just letting
them do it. Also, my Visa card wouldn't work on their site, but worked
fine when calling.
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| Steve wrote:
> Not sure what you mean - as I remember, just entered the phone number,
> and the minutes (and time extension) were added automatically...
This is true, it's not a big deal. For some people they just want to
call up and get the phone recharged without entering anything. I called
them because their e-commerce site wouldn't take my Visa card, and they
did the re-upping for me.
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| Todd Allcock wrote:
> I used to keep a calendar for my prepaid customers and call them a
> week or so prior to expiration, take a credit card over the phone and
> refill for them (only if they preferred that arrangement and agreed
> to it, of course!)
Now that's good service!
BTW, there is one advantage of a service like Tracfone and Net10. Since
their phones use proprietary firmware, and can't be unlocked (though
some models can be reflashed to standard firmware, and unlocked, if you
send them to a service that has the equipment), the phones are very
cheap, and easy to buy in retail stores. For short term visitors to the
U.S., something like Net10 would be a lot cheaper than roaming on their
home carrier (assuming they had a 850/1900 MHz GSM capable phone).
Buying a PagePlus capable phone is not so cheap--you can buy a Verizon
prepaid phone, but these cost a lot more than a TracFone, or Net10
phone, so for short term use it's expensive. You can buy T-Mobile SIM
cards, but T-Mobile coverage isn't very good.
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| Zee wrote:
> I got a T-mobile prepaid and use only for very important calls. I'm
> using ever reliable Onesuite prepaid calling card and Onesuite Voip
> for my long distance calls. Saves me a lot especially for those long
> calls to U.K. and Singapore. You can track your usage online and
> there's an option to hear your balance or minutes whenever you make
> calls on the prepaid calling card service.
Yes, OneSuite is the way to go for long distance, especially
international calls.
OneSuite is also a good companion to prepaid and postpaid cell phones
for international calls, since they are so much less expensive than
international calls dialed directly.
They also have started to have a lot of toll-free international access
numbers ("http://www.onesuite.com/ access_international
.asp").
T-Mobile is a good deal in prepaid, especially once you buy the $100
card and get the one year expiration on all future airtime purchases.
Alas, the T-Mobile coverage out west is not good at all.
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