These are the cheapest data plans you can buy in the U.S.

Discussion in 'Cellular - Voice - Data' started by Danajc, Sep 11, 2017.

  1. Danajc

    Danajc Light Load Member

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  3. Bumper

    Bumper Road Train Member

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    Kingsport, Tennessee
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    I just brought my ATT iphones to Sprint on their one year free talk text and data plan. I pay the surcharges and taxes. comes out to $15.00 a month for both lines. So far it is working great.
     
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  4. x1Heavy

    x1Heavy Road Train Member

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    White County, Arkansas
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    I pay my phone through trac phone. I think it works out to 3 months blocks of service of all types to 6.70 a month. Nothing is thrown away. I have a couple gigs of data ready to go, a few thousand unused texts ready to go and over a couple years worth of voice calling ready to use that I never use.

    I quit ATT, Sprint, Verizon and so forth years ago after 2008 elections burying my home phone in robo calls and our cell phone prices per month got outrageous when the celluar carriers migrated from the old dual tri band to the new 2G back then and told us we needed to spend a bunch of money to buy a flip phone. Like rubes we hooked it line and sinker. We still have one of two of those flips in operation since we bought both outright in cash at the ATT store for 567 dollars total in 2009.

    As long that flip is in operation, the carrier supporting that service MUST provide contractual voice and text service to that old phone. They would LOVE for the person owning that old flip to migrate to a smart phone. But no. And her costs are even lower than mine because Reagen passed a Law I think that enabled people to have a government provided service if they were too poor to support several hundred dollars a month in home phone, internet, smart phone etc etc etc etc.

    It's disgusting. I studied telco in college and understand it's 5 layer copper system. It's all digital except in certain patches of Alabama and Miss where there is still elderly communities on copper. They will die off and that will be fibered right quick if that has not happened already. Arkansas last copper exchange was ripped out at el dorado in '87.

    Cell towers went up about that time everywhere. At that time I think the upfront deposit for bad or no credit was a thousand dollars and then about two thousand per year for voice service, more when you added beeper service. There was no text or net back then. Yet.

    Oh one final thought. I visited ATT store to see what they can do to replace trac phone. It's 45 dollars for a similar spec'ed smart phone outright purchase and then 55 dollars a month under contract for 2 years with up to a 480 dollar early term fee should I cancel prior.

    ARE YOU KIDDING!? How stupid do they think I am?

    Oh with a new twist. They were offering actual television service to that smart phone. Live tv from satellite.

    I considered it. My Dish costs 21 a month. If it goes up, I dump dish and see if I can find 5G tv service or something via a app....
     
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  5. tscottme

    tscottme Road Train Member

    Coverage is more important than the small difference in prices. Ask anyone with Sprint Unlimited how much data or how many calls they can make in rural Arkansas or middle of Missouri.

    You can always find CHEAPER deal. But a cheap plan with limited connection is overpriced. You need to honestly evaluate where you run (states, parts of states, rural, urban, etc) and then shop plans with carriers that have good coverage in those areas. If your phone won't connect who cares how little you are paying NOT TO CONNECT?

    There are services like StraightTalk, Simple, Cricket, etc that resell Verizon & ATT and lower prices than Verizon & ATT. That's how you save money, not by going to a network that covers all of the big cities and leaves you without service everywhere else. Look at their coverage maps before you look at their prices. The whole point of the phone is connection. If you can't connect why have the phone? BTW, you can't boost a signal that isn't in the area. A phone booster cannot overcome a non-existent signal.
     
  6. Balakov100

    Balakov100 Road Train Member

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    Temple, TX
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    I don't want cheap I want good coverage.
     
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  7. Bumper

    Bumper Road Train Member

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    Kingsport, Tennessee
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    I agree. Back when I was OTR I wasnt too hot on Sprint. I have heard they all pretty much the same now.
     
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  8. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

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    Everybody has improved on their coverage. I can't imagine running a 2g phone today. I just can't see it working anywhere. I wouldn't even dream of using my note 2 on either sprint or Verizon. My s6 and now my s8 has so much better coverage then my note2.

    As said above. Cheap service is worthless if it can't connect.

    Carriers aren't going to spend money maintaining tech from 10 years ago while trying to keep up with tech upgrades of today.
     
  9. chalupa

    chalupa Road Train Member

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    Before i left ATT I had a long chat with a techie in their troubleshooting dept. Very interesting....
    When I grilled him about coverage he explained it this way ...." its a trade off, people want internet and live tv on their phones and they want to talk too, Unfortunately we can only do one or the other otherwise you would have to carry one of the bricks out of the 80's. Right now our marketing shows more people want internet than talk so we engineer the phones with that slant however you lose long distance voice capability
    ( Rual ops ) unless we put up more towers....which is a very expensive proposition that is not supported by the customer base" He continues that before a tower goes up use patterns are researched for that area and there must be enough pay traffic to justify the tower.

    He told me to get a booster....
     
  10. Bumper

    Bumper Road Train Member

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    Kingsport, Tennessee
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    I found out too late that sprint has issues with Iphones. Not able to use data when actually talking on the phone. Hoping this is resolved soon or I see a Samsung S8 in my future.
     
  11. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

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    The s8 has the same problem. It's sprint. Not the phone. But they updated the software last month. I think we're good now. Haven't tested it yet.

    My s8 also wouldn't set up wifi calling also. A.hard reset fixed that. Now there's wifi calling plus with the new software update.
     
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