I need information and opinions...

[cabbitzilla]

It's rapidly getting to the point where I simply -must- have a cell phone. Between my less than splendid health and the amount of time I spend in transit (an amount that's going to increase, I believe), some sort of contact needs to be available. As those who know me can attest, I absolutely -loathe- telephones, so it's not something that would see excessive use.

Now before you start pitching your favorite plan and/or phone, there's a catch: it HAS to be a pay-as-you-go service. There are credit issues, and I don't have the $1000 deposit everyone seems to demand.

So... who knows anything about the pay-to-play outfits and the phones that're usable with them? Sound off, please.

Comments

[elix.livejournal.com]

I've worked for T-Mobile for two years, so I can tell you everything and then some about their prepaid stuff. Disclaimer: I work for T-Mobile.

One good option is to pick up a prepaid kit and drop $100 on a single refill (NOT two $50 refills). This gives you 1000 minutes at $0.10/min, and it's good for a year. Any other refills (even $10 for 35 minutes) extends expiration by a year once you've put a total of $100 down. (If you work up to $100 in smaller increments, like $25 at a time, the one-year-expiration doesn't kick in until you add a refill AFTER hitting the $100 threshold. With a straight $100 in one shot it's instant.)

Of course, coverage may vary. http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage and be sure to click the "Prepaid and FlexPay coverage map" link to get the right map.

[tarragon918.livejournal.com]

I have a T-Mobile pay-as-you go phone. It seems to work out okay for me; I get $25 worth of calls every couple of months or so. The larger the amount you spend, the more time you get. We got a $50 phone off the T-Mobile web site--however, it's in my daughter's name. Might not be helpful for credit issues. Wish I could be more helpful there, sorry. :(

I think Target (or Wal*Mart) has pay-as-you-go phones, which I think you purchase the phone with a card, then you just buy more time as you need it. Not very helpful, I know, sorry! Good luck!

[wibbble]

T-Mobile in the US are GSM, right?

Given that, any unlocked triband GSM handset should work with a T-Mobile pre-paid SIM card. They can be obtained very cheaply here, and eBay would probably work in the US.

[elix.livejournal.com]

GSM1900, yes. You can get a prepaid kit (without a phone) off T-Mobile.com for $10, includes 10 minutes of airtime for setting up voicemail and the like.

[wibbble]

I couldn't be bothered looking up what GSM frequency you guys use - do you sell handsets that are just GSM1900? That would be a pain for global roaming.

You don't use the same UMTS frequency as Europe either, do you? Still, at least T-Mobile /do/ use GSM and UMTS.

[elix.livejournal.com]

I don't think we've sold any single-band handsets for a couple years--everything's at least 850/1900. (850's used by a few smaller carriers.) Many are triband or quadband.

T-Mobile USA doesn't use UMTS yet. (A report buried in press releases and investor relations from spring 2006 states that T-Mobile IS building a UMTS network and has a big mess of UMTS towers deployed in NYC. They're not public, yet. Several handsets on the market are GSM1900/UMTS1700(?), but that hasn't been officially acknowledged yet.)

[wibbble]

Europe uses 2100 for UMTS. I'm sure there's at least one carrier in the US that already uses UMTS - my phone's set up to allow UMTS on 1900+850 as well as 2100. I thought it was T-Mobile, guess not! Having said that, I know that all the Nokia handsets sold in Europe that are '3G' are all UMTS 2100 only. (I used to work for Nokia.)