Cheapest prepaid GSM vendors that accept 2G phone

[teetee]

...or a dumb phone..


I looked 5 different MVNOs (red pockets, straight talk, etc) and couldn't find one that accepts my ZTE R225 phone when I did the compatibility check for BYOD.


Any recommendations are welcome.

 

[clobber]

Why do you want this? Network operators are literally ripping 2G out of their networks.

 

[pb4uski]

+1 splurge a little and buy a modern phone. We have Moto G7 Plays and really like them. Unlocked and will run on either GSM and CMDA... $130 directly from Motorola or BestBuy.

We use airvoicewireless MVNO... AT&T network, unlimited talk & text, 1.5GB high-speed data and 1.5 GB reduced speed data for $18/month on autopay. Service has been good.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I think it could be pretty tough finding a carrier that will support 2G. All the MVNOs use the "big 3" for infrastructure and 2G support is pretty much non-existent right now. We have gotten notice that AT&T will stop supporting 3G data for our alarm system within the next 12 months, and I would assume the others will be following suit. There are so few folks using 2G, it just isn't in their interest to support it.

I have been using the latest phones for the last several years. You can find value phones (that work perfectly well) for $150 or less and are usually unlocked...so they can be used on most systems.

Edit: It appears that T-Mobile will stop 2G Dec of this year and Sprint is saying Dec of 21...although this might change with the merger.

More info on 2G/3G sunset(s): https://www.digi.com/blog/post/upcoming-2g-and-3g-global-cellular-network-sunset
https://www.multitech.com/documents...d_Sunset_Cellular_Carriers_PDF_2020-06-23.pdf

 

[FIYes]

Try the LG classic flip phone on HSN. Is it close enough in form and operation to the ZTE R225 that your relative could use it without much of a learning curve? It is on HSN as a Tracfone bundle with 1 year service and 1200 minutes for the year.

I think your best bet will be a phone that operates like the ZTE but uses modern networks instead of 2g.

 

[FIYes]

Oops, my bad, I was assuming that you were looking for a phone for someone else. I was thinking an older relative who didn’t want to learn new technology. I really wouldn’t try to stay with 2g...it is going away.

 

[teetee]

I am the op. The phone is for my mother. Her current 2G phone is with Tello prepaid (she has low cellphone usage ~$10/yr and not familiar with smartphone). Tello is ending their forever prepaid minutes and forcing their prepaid users to refill once every 3mo with minimum of $20. I have a spare 2G phone that is GSM and unlocked so I figure a different inexpensive prepaid plan may work better for her but if no vendor is accepting 2G phones any more then I may start looking for a different phone. All she wants is a small phone that she can use to call friends and relatives when she is taking a walk or has car trouble. Text and data are absolutely optional for her.

 

[REWahoo]

Search for "Jitterbug phone".

 

[OldShooter]

... if no vendor is accepting 2G phones any more then I may starting looking for a different phone. ...

A hundred bucks on CraigsList should get you/her an entirely acceptable phone that will not have issues with most carriers. We have Nexus 5X phones bought a couple of years ago. I don't see them available locally right now but our local CraigsList has 290 phones under $125. Pixel 3a and 3aXL are showing up well under $300 and they are current technology and still being updated. https://www.woot.com/ has phones periodically, too. You could lurk there.

We use Google Fi as an MVNO but it's probably not a good fit for your mother. $15/month plus tax IIRC, unlimited text and talk, with data cost only for what you use at $10/gig. For us the main attraction is a couple hundred countries international coverage with no changing SIMs.

 

[RE2Boys]

Consumer Cellular has a plan as low as $15 per month (add taxes) and a flip phone for $30

 

[pb4uski]

Sounds to me like this is a good excuse for you to get a new phone for yourself and hand down your current phone to your mother.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I am also a tello user. She can get the $5 a month Tello plan for 100 minutes and free texts and if she manually renews the plan each month she gets to keep the unused minutes. That would cost you $15 every 90 days. She could also start the first month with 300 minutes for $6 then drop to 100 minutes for the following months to give her some extra minutes to carry forward just in case she needs them. Just remeber you need to manually renew to get to keep the unused minutes.I know you don't want a smart phone but the Moto G6 or G7 plays are cheap and easy to use and once she tries talk to text she may like it. I never type a text, voice only.

 

[retire-early]

Tello is Sprint MNVO which is CDMA.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Tello is Sprint MNVO which is CDMA.

Yes but she is already using Tello, and can stay with it and continue to use her existing phone if she wants to just by changing to a monthly plan.

 

[retire-early]

Yes but she is already using Tello, and can stay with it and continue to use her existing phone if she wants to just by changing to a monthly plan.

I understand but the title of this thread is Cheapest prepaid GSM vendors... . Just wanted to point out that Tello uses CDMA technology because Sprint does.

 

[teetee]

A quick update: I got a used unlocked Moto phone from amazon with the $100 discount and installed a launcher called baldphone which offers simple but highly customizable layout for elderly. As for network provider I am still looking but right now I switched to Tello monthly plan from its prepaid and plan to change to the same plan a day before it renew itself every time so the unused minutes from the previous month would roll over.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I'm sure you already know that the Sprint/T-Mobile move to GSM is about to happen. Tello will supply a new free Sim card to current customers and start moving us to the new service beginning of 2021. The CDMA service will continue for a while with a 3 months notice when it is to be discontinued. They say we will still have the same great pricing plans, I hope that is true. I looked at the existing T-Mobile MVNO's and the cheapest I could find was $10 a month on Boost Mobile who I'm pretty sure has already upgraded to the new network. I'm hoping my Moto G6 will work but it's 2 years old now so if not Motorola phones are pretty cheap and it will be a good excuse to upgrade.

 

[DallasGuy]

I'm sure you already know that the Sprint/T-Mobile move to GSM is about to happen. Tello will supply a new free Sim card to current customers and start moving us to the new service beginning of 2021. The CDMA service will continue for a while with a 3 months notice when it is to be discontinued. They say we will still have the same great pricing plans, I hope that is true. I looked at the existing T-Mobile MVNO's and the cheapest I could find was $10 a month on Boost Mobile who I'm pretty sure has already upgraded to the new network. I'm hoping my Moto G6 will work but it's 2 years old now so if not Motorola phones are pretty cheap and it will be a good excuse to upgrade.

I also have Tello. I have a Moto G6 Play. One day the Tello website said that it would work with GSM and so I ordered the new GSM SIM card. It didn't work with my Moto G6 Play and then Tello customer service said I couldn't put the old SIM card back in it and get it to work on CDMA again. It turns out that it was a temporary glitch in their system saying that it would work with GSM.

At that point since I knew I'd have to eventually get a different phone if I wanted to stick with Tello, I ended up just buying a new unlocked 2020 Moto G Fast from Amazon for $150 and it works on Tello. It's a nice phone for the price and will eventually be updated to Android 11.

 

[Athermos4u]

...or a dumb phone..


I looked 5 different MVNOs (red pockets, straight talk, etc) and couldn't find one that accepts my ZTE R225 phone when I did the compatibility check for BYOD.


Any recommendations are welcome.

2G you say? What country are you in? My parents live in remote, rural Alabama and can't even access 2G any longer. 3G and 4G only. They had to say goodbye to their motorola StarTACs.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I also have Tello. I have a Moto G6 Play. One day the Tello website said that it would work with GSM and so I ordered the new GSM SIM card. It didn't work with my Moto G6 Play and then Tello customer service said I couldn't put the old SIM card back in it and get it to work on CDMA again. It turns out that it was a temporary glitch in their system saying that it would work with GSM.

At that point since I knew I'd have to eventually get a different phone if I wanted to stick with Tello, I ended up just buying a new unlocked 2020 Moto G Fast from Amazon for $150 and it works on Tello. It's a nice phone for the price and will eventually be updated to Android 11.

I already upgraded to a G7 Plus which I'm loving. I only paid $69 when Best Buy had a deal on it. It's really a T-Mobil Revllery Plus that they've rebranded back to Motorola who made them for T-Mobile. The only difference is the Pink power button
That's interesting about the G6 Play though, mine meets all the qualifications and it has VOLTE turned off in the hidden menu so that can be turned on if needed. When you say it didn't work what was the problem?? I just pulled mine out just now and punched in the IMEI number for Tello and they will accept it. I've checked it a few times already since I do plan to sell the phone on EBAY. Maybe I'll add it to my account and request the free sim and try it for a month just to be sure.

 

[pb4uski]

Wow! $69 is a great price for a G7 Plus... currently $120 on Motorola's website... we have G7 Plays and really like them but they were ~$130.

OTOH, it might be worth an additional $51 to NOT have a PINK power button.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Wow! $69 is a great price for a G7 Plus... currently $120 on Motorola's website... we have G7 Plays and really like them but they were ~$130.

OTOH, it might be worth an additional $51 to NOT have a PINK power button.

The best website to watch for deals especially on phones is slickdeals, of course you might buy a lot of things that you don't need simply cause it's a great deal.
This was the deal back in January, I think Bestbuy screwed up, they changed it to price with activation shortly after and doubled the price if you did not activate it but I already had mine.
https://slickdeals.net/e/14748683-6...tphone-black-70-free-s-h?src=SiteSearchV2Algo

 

[DallasGuy]

I already upgraded to a G7 Plus which I'm loving. I only paid $69 when Best Buy had a deal on it. It's really a T-Mobil Revllery Plus that they've rebranded back to Motorola who made them for T-Mobile. The only difference is the Pink power button
That's interesting about the G6 Play though, mine meets all the qualifications and it has VOLTE turned off in the hidden menu so that can be turned on if needed. When you say it didn't work what was the problem?? I just pulled mine out just now and punched in the IMEI number for Tello and they will accept it. I've checked it a few times already since I do plan to sell the phone on EBAY. Maybe I'll add it to my account and request the free sim and try it for a month just to be sure.

When I got the new GSM SIM, it just didn't work. Perhaps there are different versions of the Moto G6 released and some work with GSM and others don't.

I looked at buying the G7 Plus for $120 and went back and forth between that and the Moto G Fast for $150. The Moto G7 has more memory and storage than the Moto G Fast but for me it just came down to getting a 2 year newer phone with 1 or 2 more Android updates and the G Fast has a bigger battery. But the Moto G7 is probably a better phone.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

My last 4 phones have all been Motorola, i love them and I'm cheap so they work for me. I'm still on Android 10 but suddenly Moto voice assistant started happening when i was driving and I can send texts and respond to texts and e-mails from my contact list which Moto reads to me. Not sure if I turned a setting on or it came with an update. Now just the other day Google auto has taken over and it's even better, it scrolls my messages across the the bottom of the phone as well. I rarely ever picked up my phone when driving for safety reasons but now I don't miss anything important and I can keep my eyes on the road while I'm talking.

 

[teetee]

At the end I convinced my relative to use my spare LG Rebel 3 ($19) with Tracfone ($30/yr). I still hold on to .y moto g5 plus but did get a rugged Ulefone Armor X7 pro as a spare for free from some deals and ~$700 amazon credits.

I will be recycling the flip phone. Too bad we can't keep using them simply because they are no longer supported by the cellular network providers. It is not sustainable this way.