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Old 08-10-2019, 11:59 AM   #41
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Another vote for the Tello PayGo service. Our household has 4 phones on their service.
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Old 08-10-2019, 12:55 PM   #42
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Originally Posted by JoeWras View Post
I've been on a roll lately, looking at all my media costs. I figured it was time to look at the cell plans out there. What are you all using? What do you like?

I currently have AT&T with an unlocked Moto phone. The monthly fee is about $90 for two lines. It is grandfathered, but pretty close to Mobile Share 3GB They say $40 per line "plus fees." The fees on my plan are $12 per month. Grumble.

I'm looking at T-Moble 55+. Any opinion? They list at $70 per month (2 phones), "including taxes and fees." Really? That isn't bad.

An outlier plan I'm looking at is Republic Wireless for about $40 to $50 per month for two phones (depending on data usage). Not sure it includes fees. A friend has it and likes it. I'm not sold. I decided to try it for a month on an older phone and just see how it goes.

The unlocked phones work on any and all of these carriers. I'm a huge fan of unlocked, customer owned phones.
Good2Go is another AT&T MVNO (all prices include $5/month autopay discount):

Unlimited talk/text is $10/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 1GB LTE data is $15/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 3GB LTE data is $20/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 5GB LTE data is $20/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 10GB LTE data is $40/month.

But no tethering officially supported, so you'd need a hack if you need that.

I have Cricket on 3 lines w/ hotspot on one line for $100/month, but I am considering switching to the above.
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Old 08-10-2019, 01:17 PM   #43
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Originally Posted by aja8888 View Post
Yep, that's us too ($100 for 4 lines unlimited). Great service nationwide since they use AT&T lines.
Same here, but might look at the @pb4uski plan reference.
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Old 08-10-2019, 01:18 PM   #44
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Good2Go is another AT&T MVNO (all prices include $5/month autopay discount):

Unlimited talk/text is $10/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 1GB LTE data is $15/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 3GB LTE data is $20/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 5GB LTE data is $20/month.
Unlimited talk/text with 10GB LTE data is $40/month.

Interesting - 5 GB is the same price as 3 GB.
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Old 08-10-2019, 01:36 PM   #45
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A word of caution. As I was just researching some of these MVNO companies, apparently they aren't exactly upfront about what they provide.

https://bestmvno.com/mvnos/airvoice/

For example, they had this about AirVoice Wireless...
One important thing to know about AirVoice’s monthly unlimited plans is that the included data that they show for each plan is a bit misleading. For most plans AirVoice Wireless only allows half the data at 4G LTE data speeds, while the remaining half is throttled to 128Kbps. For instance, on the AirVoice Wireless website, the $30 plan will show it has 4GB of data. However, only 2GB of data is at 4G LTE data speeds and the other 2GB is at 128Kbps. At BestMVNO, unless specified otherwise, only the amount of 4G LTE data is listed for each plan.

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Old 08-10-2019, 02:00 PM   #46
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Until last week we had 4 lines with AT&T, 20 GB of data, unlimited text and talk including free usage of the plan in Mexico, where we spend 2 months a year. The all in cost was $166. After reimbursement from our kids for two of the phones, the plan cost us $126. This included a 15% discount on the data portion of the plan due to DH's military service, but no discout for autopay even though we use autopay.

We just switched to the AT&T Unlimited Pus plan with:

Unlimited data, text and talk, and Watch TV which can be cast using the correct device like apple TV or fire stick. Free usage of the plan in both Mexico and Canada at no additional cost.

We get discounts of 25% of all charges due to DH's Military veteran status
Multi Line Discount of $35,
Auto Pay discount of $20.
Total cost before taxes is $120.

I've been told to expect taxes of $7 per line, so estimating $148. After reimbursement from our adult kids for two lines, net cost should be about $80.00.
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:23 PM   #47
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I've been told to expect taxes of $7 per line, so estimating $148. After reimbursement from our adult kids for two lines, net cost should be about $80.00.
Yep. $7 per line is just about what I have, so that's a good estimate. It isn't all taxes, some of it is just mystery fees.
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:32 PM   #48
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If you can get decent service at the important places in you life (e.g., home, gym), then T-Mobile 55+.
We pay $70/mo for 2 iPhones and 1 Apple Watch.
Worked great for us in UK, Portugal, España.
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Old 08-10-2019, 02:39 PM   #49
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the included data that they show for each plan is a bit misleading. For most plans AirVoice Wireless only allows half the data at 4G LTE data speeds, while the remaining half is throttled to 128Kbps. For instance, on the AirVoice Wireless website, the $30 plan will show it has 4GB of data. However, only 2GB of data is at 4G LTE data speeds and the other 2GB is at 128Kbps.
Wow, that makes AirVoice Wireless a LOT misleading. Also, their "unlimited" data $50 plan only has 5 GB of full speed LTE! The rest is heavily throttled.

This makes Tello an even better deal by comparison. Tello's advertised GB is the actual LTE data, and you still get unlimited data at 2g speed after you use up your data allotment.
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:01 PM   #50
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For comparison, here's the "Taxes & regulatory fees" section of our bill (for 3 lines).
- CA Advanced Services Fund Charge: .17
- CA High Cost Fund Surcharge: .10
- CA Teleconnect Fund Charge: .20
- Local 911 Surcharge: 3.49
- Local Utility Users Tax: .75
- State 911 Tax: .20
- Telecomm Relay Systems Surcharge: .16
- Universal Lifeline Telephone Service Surcharge: 1.43
- Federal Regulatory Assessment Fee: .50
- Federal Universal Service Fund: 4.37 <-- this just went up by $1 on the most recent bill
- PUC Fee: .10
------------------
Total: $11.47, of which $6.56 (last 5 items) appears to be Federal, $4.24 seems to be local charges related to the person who lives in San Francisco, and $0.67 goes to the state of CA.

Back in December when I had only one line on this account, it was $0.28 to the state and $2.31 to the Feds.
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:13 PM   #51
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Wow, that makes AirVoice Wireless a LOT misleading. Also, their "unlimited" data $50 plan only has 5 GB of full speed LTE! The rest is heavily throttled.

This makes Tello an even better deal by comparison. Tello's advertised GB is the actual LTE data, and you still get unlimited data at 2g speed after you use up your data allotment.

I just noticed Tello allows free tethering, too. Nice when staying at hotels that charge $10-15/day for internet access on your tablet.

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Old 08-10-2019, 03:22 PM   #52
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I just noticed Tello allows free tethering, too. Nice when staying at hotels that charge $10-15/day for internet access on your tablet.

omni


Wow! What chains to this?? We do lower end Hilton, Marriott and others, but never found an up charge for WiFi. To be sure, sometimes it’s slow, like 3-5 Mbps. Surprising, enough to stream Hulu if you are patient for the app to load.
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:25 PM   #53
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Yes on tethering and you can also use your Tello plan minutes for calls to Canada, Mexico and China as well.
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:31 PM   #54
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We had phones on Republic and Google Fi and we ended up switching all to Google Fi. Cost for 2 phones on Fi is $35/mo ($20 for one and $15 for each additional) + $10/G for data. We usually use about 1.8G between us, and with taxes and fees end up at less than $60/mo.
Same, Google Fi here. It's also great for international travel
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:33 PM   #55
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Well, I'm very new to the smart phone world. In fact in the process right now of dumping AT&T wireless. had a mega corp legacy plan for $40 per month, all taxes and fees included, with a seemingly indestructible pantech flip with unlimited calls and texts and pay as you go data, which I rarely used more than fifty cents of in any given month. Unfortunately, the pantech internal charging contacts are failing now, and charging is really difficult.

Decided to go with this:

PureTalkUSA wireless, an AT & T MNVO
$160 for a Motorola e5 play
$28 per month, all inclusive of taxes and fees for
unlimited calls and texts and 2GB data
based on the limited data I have been doing plus perhaps using it for maybe a few e-mails, checking the market or AP news feed maybe a few times per week
(I much prefer the screen size of my desktop or much newer laptop for videos spreadsheets and most e-mails)
I'm not into music all that much at all apart from occasional use of my old stereo systems
So I expect the 2GB data will be more than enough
What I liked about puretalkusa is that they do not charge you exorbitant fees for data overages, merely throttle you back to 128 kb until the next month starts
even that will probably seem fast to me compared to the good ole pantech,
and will save me any extra costs if I end up changing my data habits

So far, I'm still waiting for my phone number to be ported over.
I did get the phone, with sim card already installed
I must say smart phones do not seem all that durable, so I also just ordered through amazon, a cover with a glass screen protector and belt clip included
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Old 08-10-2019, 03:38 PM   #56
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Wow! What chains to this?? We do lower end Hilton, Marriott and others, but never found an up charge for WiFi.
Typically places in the downtown areas of major cities do this. $10-20 per day is quite common. One of the reasons I prefer less centrally located hotels. Last time I was in downtown Denver, the Marriott wanted $15 or $20 a day for wifi and $42 a day for parking. Then you're supposed to give the valet guy a tip when he brings your car around an hour after you called for it.

But this is another nice thing about T-Mobile. When I find an expensive or spotty wifi system in a hotel I just tether my laptop to my phone. No charge for using the T-Mobile phone as a hotspot.
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Old 08-10-2019, 04:00 PM   #57
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Wow! What chains to this?? We do lower end Hilton, Marriott and others, but never found an up charge for WiFi. To be sure, sometimes it’s slow, like 3-5 Mbps. Surprising, enough to stream Hulu if you are patient for the app to load.

It's sort of "funny"...the lower end ones give you WiFi for free and the "big names" (Sheraton, Marriott, etc.) want to charge you.

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Old 08-10-2019, 04:05 PM   #58
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OK, I'm noticing that many/most MVNAs do not offer domestic roaming.

I'm currently on Sprint and occasionally see a screen pop up that says I'm now on domestic roaming, but as the phone still worked fine, I didn't give it much thought. So, now I'm wondering how critical is domestic roaming as a 'missing' feature?

Also, I'm in a U.S. border town with Canada. Do any MVNOs work in Canada?

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Old 08-10-2019, 04:51 PM   #59
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Originally Posted by omni550 View Post
...For example, they had this about AirVoice Wireless...
One important thing to know about AirVoice’s monthly unlimited plans is that the included data that they show for each plan is a bit misleading. For most plans AirVoice Wireless only allows half the data at 4G LTE data speeds, while the remaining half is throttled to 128Kbps. For instance, on the AirVoice Wireless website, the $30 plan will show it has 4GB of data. However, only 2GB of data is at 4G LTE data speeds and the other 2GB is at 128Kbps. At BestMVNO, unless specified otherwise, only the amount of 4G LTE data is listed for each plan.

omni
Wow, I just confirmed this in their terms of service. Very misleading indeed. I was looking at the "2GB" plan for $18. I now realize it's a 1GB plan (4G LTE) throttled to 128kb/sec for the rest the month. It's not even unlimited 128kb. They literally stop all data at 2GB unless you start a new 30-day cycle.

It's still a reasonably good price for a 1GB plan. But very misleading for them to call it 2GB. I already ordered a SIM card for $6.99, but not sure I'm going to activate it. I might try to return it. That should be interesting.

I need at least 2GB, and AT&T, so I'm now looking at good2go mobile. They have 3GB (all 4G LTE) for $20 (before tax/fees)... and unlimited 128kb thereafter. Doubt I'll ever get to that point. Plus unlimited talk/text on AT&T. And a free SIM card to boot.
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Old 08-10-2019, 04:55 PM   #60
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Interesting - 5 GB is the same price as 3 GB.
Must be a typo by ncbill. On the website, 5GB is $30.
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