What's the best cellphone service for your
granny or maybe for you if you only make a call every day or two? And
you only want to pay once per year? If you live in native Verizon territory, this is probably it:
Just buy a Verizon INpulse phone at Walmart or
Best
Buy for about $30.
Activate it with Verizon INpulse and burn up the
free $10 they give you by downloading ringtones, games or wallpapers. Call
Airvoice, port the phone and number and receive 100 free mins which last
for six months. Then buy a $50 PIN which
will last a FULL YEAR. You can also activate directly with
Airvoice if you have a PIN but you won't get the 100 free mins unless you use a
dealer (hard to find).
The real-life details:
Airvoice $50 1yr PIN w 700 mins, real
costs:
$1/month fee means you lose 120 mins/yr ($12/10c) Actual yearly
mins 580 Monthly average mins 48.3 Real
rate per/min 8.6c Real SMS (text messages)
8.6c (500/580 X 10c) both ways
Real MMS (picture
messages) 77.6c (500/580 X 90c) Real roaming
cost 94c/min (500/580 X $1.10)
However, if you use up your airtime in less than a
year, your costs per min will be less.
You can add money directly to the phone via the
Airvoice website using Paypal (useful if you are maintaining the phone for
someone else). $50 PINs are $48.50 at Callingmart and you can pay with a credit
card. Get an additional discount with a coupon.
Add your PIN by calling #7799. You CANNOT add time by
calling customer service and using a credit card.
Coverage:
Red is normal coverage, purple is roaming, white
is no coverage.
There is no data service but you can send picture
messages (but you have to activate it). The nominal charge is 90c. The roaming
charge is pretty steep but since you will be on the Verizon network and its
roaming partners, you will be able to make a call just about anywhere. And
Verizon just bought Alltel so native coverage is excellent nearly
everywhere.
Check the Verizon Prepaid maps
for detailed coverage in your area. Any Verizon or Amp'd (excluding the E816 and
W385) phone with a free ESN should work.
Check eBay and Craig's List.
If you call
more, roam more or want data, and are willing to pay every 4 months, then Page Plus Cellular is a better
choice (it also uses the Verizon network). If you're not in native Verizon
country, there's no point in getting either Page Plus or Airvoice since roaming
charges would be too much. Then, Tmo2go (GSM) would
be an obvious choice to investigate.
Airvoice also
has a GSM service. All you need is an unlocked GSM phone and an
unactivated AT&T SIM. A phone locked on AT&T will also work. Just
buy an AT&T GoPhone or ask for a SIM. Airvoice will also send you a SIM with
zero airtime for free.
It's not as
good a deal as their Verizon-based Express service but if you need AT&T
coverage it might be worth considering (otherwise, for GSM go with Tmo2go,
cheaper per min and free roaming). You have to buy a $100 PIN to get the
1yr expiration date. You get 1200 mins tho. And a daily access fee of 20c
will be applied to the first call/SMS made or received each day, only on days
used. If there is no usage for that day then no charges will apply. There is a
$1 monthly fee. Billing is at 10c/min so if you make a call every other day,
your real cost/min would be $100/(1200-120-365) or 14c. You'll
average about 60 mins/month. This is a better deal than GoPhone unless you need
AT&T M2M.$100 PINs are $97 at Callingmart and you can often get an
additional discount with a coupon. Coverage is the same as AT&T GoPhone, NO
roaming:
Coverage:
.
Corporate info:
AirVoice Wireless (AVW) is a privately held leading
provider of Nationwide Prepaid Cellular Service and associated support products.
Established in 1999.
