Can inexpensive prepaid plans for iPhone work in the USA?

Question

How can I minimize total cost of ownership (primarily means low monthly rate) for an iPhone if my voice and data usage is light?

Answer 1

Buy a used phone on eBay and sign up for AT&T GoPhone. It supports all features except visual voicemail.

Costs

One-time costs:

• Phone: around $200 (depending on how much wear and tear)
• AT&T SIM card: $5

Monthly costs:

• Voice & data service: $27

  This includes 240 minutes and 50 MB data. Additional voice is $0.09/minute.

As-needed costs:

• 1 GB data: $22.50

Total cost over 2 years, assuming 2GB/year data usage: about $950

Setup

1. Buy an iPhone from eBay, a friend who is upgrading, or wherever. The iPhone can be unlocked or locked to AT&T. In either case, look for GSM network support (as opposed to iPhones that only support CDMA networks - those are for Verizon).

2. Buy an AT&T GoPhone Micro SIM Card. Put it in your iPhone.

3. Activate per the instructions that came with the SIM card. For payment, don't buy credit directly from AT&T. Instead, purchase an electronic refill card and paste the card number into the AT&T GoPhone web site. A good choice is TMI Wireless $100 refill for $90.

4. Purchase the $25 Monthly Plan. Also purchase the $25 1GB Data package.

5. Enroll in the $5 50MB Data package for Automatic Feature Package Renewal. This will prevent the remaining data from your 1GB Data package from expiring.

6. With your iPhone on WiFi, use Safari to browse to unlockit.co.nz. Install the APN for GoPhone.

7. Turn off WiFi and verify that voice, texting, and internet all work. Re-enable WiFi.

8. To enable MMS (media messaging): (source for this trick)

   1. Order a T-Mobile Micro SIM Card or borrow one from a friend.
   2. Remove the AT&T SIM card (no need to power down the phone), and insert the T-Mobile card. Wait for "T-Mobile" to appear on the status bar.
   3. Go to Settings > General > Cellular > Cellular Data Network.
   4. Swap the AT&T SIM card back in. Wait until the status bar says "AT&T" again.
   5. Enter the GoPhone MMS settings.
   6. Exit by touching the Cellular button.

9. Dial 611. Tell the AT&T computer "more options" and "customer service". Ask the human to enable short code text messaging. (For some reason, by default AT&T disables texting with 5-digit phone numbers.)

Maintenance

• Buy additional credit as needed.
• When your data balance runs low, shortly before the last day of the monthly cycle for the $5 50MB Data package, buy a $25 1GB Data package. This will refill your data balance and reset the clock for the automatic $5 50MB Data purchase.

Answer 2

Walmart has unlimited voice and data for $45. It is called Straight Talk. It uses AT&T cell signal and is fully functional except for visual voicemail.

Your iPhone does need to be unlocked.

Answer 3

For iPhones with CDMA (Sprint) hardware, Virgin Mobile has a no-contract plan for $30/month + taxes, fees, and surcharges.

Answer 4

With great savings over major carriers, two services we enjoy using (billed automatically to a credit card):

1. For USA, Consumer Cellular (“CC” www.ConsumerCellular.com) offers inexpensive, flexible voice and data plans (adjustable anytime before monthly bill date), with no contracts. CC has GSM mini SIM cards for older unlocked phones.

2. For USA and 197 countries worldwide, TelnaMobile.com offers GSM SIM cards (dual mini/micro sizes) for $19/year plus usage rates/minute at very low cost (especially cheap with a WiFi internet connection). Parent Telna.com also offers both "dial around" long distance and a worldwide calling card.

Note: Check tech specs to see which phones SIM cards will fit. CC and Telna do not yet offer nano size SIM cards required for iPhone 5 or iPad Mini.

Here's more info about both (Feel free to delete or edit if too much):

1. www.ConsumerCellular.com ("CC")

   a. Consumer Reports (not related) ranked CC the #1 Best mobile phone service, with highest ratings for value and customer services, in its January 2012 & 2013 issues.

   b. CC offers national service on AT&T’s GSM system. GSM is also the international mobile standard, so phones should work in most of the world.

   c. CC has no contracts, sends text & email alerts if usage approaches limits, and allows customers to change voice or data plans (up or down) at any time, including the current month, to save costs and avoid extra usage fees.

   d. Because CC un-locks phones, we can buy a cheap GSM SIM card for local service—either (i) worldwide [e.g. TelnaMobile.com SIM for 198 countries] or (ii) separately in any country we visit. Many family and friends do so when crossing boarders in Europe.

   e. Since we remove our CC SIM card outside the USA, we pay zero international roaming charges (typically $1 to $3 per minute otherwise). Incoming calls go to voice mail, which we check periodically when traveling, as we’ve done for years.

   f. Voice plans are much cheaper at CC. For our typical usage while in USA, we pay less than half of what AT&T charged (on the same network!). When outside the USA, we pay only $10/phone for standby, instead of full price monthly. (But AT&T would not suspend, reduce, or change service plans, so we were previously stuck with the total contract cost!)

   g. Flexible Data plans for modest usage start at $2.50/month, and can also be adjusted up or down any time. (Zero cost for no service when overseas, or just using WiFi.)

   h. Instead of expensive cellular data, we use Wi Fi for Internet, email, photos, data files, etc. both at home and via free hotspots when traveling. Free or low cost Wi Fi is offered in numerous restaurants, hotels, tourist offices, public spaces, etc.

2. http://www.telnamobile.com and http://www.telna.com

   a.Telna says its SIM card will connect to cellular services in 197 countries of the world. Cost is $19/year plus usage at very low rates, especially cheap with a WiFi internet connection. This is far simpler and easier, and costs much less than renting phones, buying SIM cards, or paying hotel phone fees when traveling abroad. It does require some tech savvy to navigate the differences in phone systems from one country to another.

   b. We also added Telna "dial around" long distance to our cellular phones for overseas calls (big savings--e.g., only 4 cents/minute to France land line).

   c. Telna offers customers a worldwide calling card that can be used to dial from any phone anywhere (rates are inexpensive, but vary due to charges by local providers at point of origin for calls).

Finally, we're happy customers, and don't have any other affiliation with either company.