No Contract Cell Phones

[John Caves]

I am considering changing my family cell phone carrier to a 2 phone, No Contract carrier like Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, or Cricket. For the most part, they all offer a $55/month Unlimited Talk, Text, and Web, so costs should be similar. Their literature and coverage maps indicate excellent service, but what can I really expect for coverage, especially in fringe areas or traveling cross country? Does anyone here use a smartphone from one of these carriers? Any good, bad or ugly impressions would be greatly appreciated, or any recommendations? I just found out yesterday that they all will be offering an IPhone version to their lines in the very near future. That may be the ticket.

[KiltieTuba]

I use a Virgin Mobile phone. It's OK for in a big city (as it's on Sprint's network) but once I get out in the boonies, it's a little more hit-or-miss. As far as date and messaging - it's unlimited and I use a lot of data - I think I watched 5 hours of HQ youtube last weekend plus all the other internet/data usage. I am on a 300 minute plan though, but I never come close to 200, so it works for me. Besides, messaging is unlimited so I try to text people more often than not.

I find out how reception is when I drive out to the Gorge this weekend for the rave.

[Uncle Buck]

I switched to the Wal-Mart MyFamilyMobile plan a few months ago, and I am very happy with it so far.

I purchased a Samsung android phone at retail price, and my wife did the same. It was expensive, but we more than make up for it over the long run. Coverage is the same as with T-Mobile.

$45 for the first line, $35 for any additional. Unlimited everything, except on data after 250 MB per month you get bumped down to slower download speeds. That isn't a problem at all for email, and just slightly slows down browsing for those few days a month when I'm over the limit.

I'm a fan so far.

[Bob Kolada]

There's no other way to go!

I have a Virgin Optimus that I bought for $130 total (have seen it for $80 WITH a $35 fill up card!!) and my plan is $25+taxes/month. I have 300 minutes, unlimited text, and 2.5G of what Virgin calls 3G (about .7mbps for me on average i Chicago) before throttling down. I like it and can deal with the data speed but really would like a larger phone for my big hands.
I'm scoping out a good deal on a T-Mobile Galaxy S2 for half off MSRP from my brother's friend, a T-Mobile store manager. It is effectively pentaband so I'll be able to get a SIM card anywhere for it. My plan is to get the Walmart/T-Mobile special- $30/month for 100 minutes, unlimited texts, and 5gb of max speed data (42mbps phone). Then, when I get a real job someday I'll switch to the $60 unlimited minutes/unlimited texts/2gb of 4G or the $70 UL/UL/5gb of 4G.
I don't have wifi in my room and would like to hook the phone up to a TV to watch Netflix and such. "Once" I get a real job I'd probably be able to afford wifi in my room and wouldn't have time to sit around watching crap on TV either.


I have a small wifi Samsung tablet (SGP 5.0) that I really like. If I didn't work on the beach and old Chicago gyms and were in stronger wifi environments, I'd seriously consider ditching an actual phone and going VOIP on the SGP; effectively treating it like a more mobile home phone.

[John Caves]

Thanks for everyone's reply. I like BoostMobile's Unlimited Everything Plan, even the free 2.5GB of monthly free data would be more that sufficient for my use. Thanks again!