Cingular prepay VS Verizon prepay. Game set and match.

Cingular has pretty much finished rolling in all the old traditional prepay
types into two.
The final name for cingular prepaid is GoPhone.
First type is the "Pay as you go"
It's a traditional prepay plan
It includes all the old ATT free to go, and cingular KIC users.
And now they all use the same website to access your online account
information.
That being.

http://www.paygonline.com/websc/index.jsp

The second type is "pick your plan"
That is the set month to month plans.
It is basically the old ATT GoPhone.

It's web site for online account management is.

http://www.selfincharge.com/

The "pay as you go" plans can be set up with an AMPS, TDMA, or GSM phone.
(Bring us all your huddled analog/TDMA masses)
The "pick your plan" plans requires a multi network GSM phone.

Now for the fun part.

The "pay as you go" version has two types of plans.
The first being.
$0.25 anytime with no daily access charge.

The second sounds like the existing $0.10 per minute plan.
With $1 daily access charge, only on days you use the phone.
But!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It now includes UNLIMITED MOBILE TO MOBILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, it does not include unlimited nights.
But it doesn't charge a dollar a day, if you don't use your phone that day.

I think that holds up well to the verizon Inpulse.

Unlimited mobile to mobile, for a $1 a day.
And you are only charged a $1on days you use the phone.
And $0.10 a minute for all other calls.

Verizon, can you hear me now?

Resellers of airtime on the old AT&T TDMA prepay system seem to be
alive and well (CallPlus, Beyond Wireless, others), and by far cheaper
than Cingular prepay. Beyond Wireless, for example sells minutes for
about 15 cpm with a $5 card, and as low as 10 cpm with a $100 card.
Most airtime is around 11.5 cpm for a $20, $30 or $50 card. No free
mobile to mobile, and 4X rate when roaming, with a limited coverage
area, BUT if you are in the coverage area, it's a great deal (while it
lasts!).

"N9WOS" <n9wos@nobugatt.net> wrote in message
news:mHJ6e.562992$w62.79770@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> No, it does not include unlimited nights.
> But it doesn't charge a dollar a day, if you don't use your phone that
> day.
>
> I think that holds up well to the verizon Inpulse.
>
> Unlimited mobile to mobile, for a $1 a day.
> And you are only charged a $1on days you use the phone.
> And $0.10 a minute for all other calls.
>
> Verizon, can you hear me now?


Afraid I don't see it like you do. Most prepay phone users will use their
phone for at least one phone call during a day, so they will be charged the
$1 fee. I would take Verizon's any day of the week to have the free nights
AND the unlimited MTM.

Only advantage Cingular has is they still offer a per minute plan for older
crowd who just uses it sparingly. Verizon needs to to bring back their per
minute plan and offer it along side the InPulse plan.



KC

--
Need Verizon/Alltel/Nextel accessories but hate paying retail? Check out my
Ebay store.
http://stores.ebay.com/totalwireless?refid=store

"_KC_" <kc@kc.com> wrote in message
news:bWP6e.5803$sp3.258@newsread3.news.atl.earthli nk.net...
> "N9WOS" <n9wos@nobugatt.net> wrote in message
> news:mHJ6e.562992$w62.79770@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > No, it does not include unlimited nights.
> > But it doesn't charge a dollar a day, if you don't use your phone that
> > day.
> >
> > I think that holds up well to the verizon Inpulse.
> >
> > Unlimited mobile to mobile, for a $1 a day.
> > And you are only charged a $1on days you use the phone.
> > And $0.10 a minute for all other calls.
> >
> > Verizon, can you hear me now?
>
>
> Afraid I don't see it like you do. Most prepay phone users will use their
> phone for at least one phone call during a day, so they will be charged
the
> $1 fee. I would take Verizon's any day of the week to have the free
nights
> AND the unlimited MTM.

With 4 days to go in this billing cycle, here's my usage so far this month.

Peak Minutes: 0
Off Peak Minutes: 5
Weekend Minutes: 1
IN Calling Peak: 17
IN Calling Off Peak: 5

My usage changed dramatically a few months ago when I started getting
unlimited LD on my landline.

My take is that Verizon and Cingular both have given up any new customers
below $30 per month prepaid or postpaid, they will leave that market to
resellers and others. I think Tracfone will end up with the most new
customers they don't offer the best plan but they are sold at Walmart and
cover both Verizon and Cingular regions. T-mobile will gain a little, Boost
is not gaining on Virgin much with the young customers. Tracfone should
become more expensive as Cingular and Verizon up the cost, at some point
Tracfone will drop the TDMA phones and the TDMA only resellers days will be
numbered. This will be a slow process but it is in motion now. The change
will be in the large markets where Cingular needs the most GSM spectrum
which will come from the TDMA side.

> Afraid I don't see it like you do. Most prepay phone users will use their
> phone for at least one phone call during a day, so they will be charged
> the $1 fee. I would take Verizon's any day of the week to have the free
> nights AND the unlimited MTM.
>
> Only advantage Cingular has is they still offer a per minute plan for
> older crowd who just uses it sparingly. Verizon needs to to bring back
> their per minute plan and offer it along side the InPulse plan.

And the reciprocal is true too.
I don't exactly see it like you.
I guess I am an old timer.
My life dictates my phone usage.
I can't craft my phone usage (and my life) to take advantage of unlimited
nights.

I only turn the phone on when I am away from home.
The land line is my primary phone.
Anyone that wants me, calls that line first.

Most of the days I turn the cell phone on, no one calls.
When someone does call the cell phone, because I am not at the house,
Then the call usually last several minutes. 10+
If I use the phone more than 6 minutes on days I use the phone,
then the $0.10 a minute plan is cheaper than the $0.25 plan.

And unlimited nights is worthless to me.
I can't schedule my talking time to take advantage of unlimited nights.
Almost all of my calling is on peak time.
The same as it is for everyone else.
That is why they call it peak.

The amount of money I would save by not having the recurring
$1 a day when I don't use the phone, will buy a lot of night minutes.

> My take is that Verizon and Cingular both have given up any new customers
> below $30 per month prepaid or postpaid, they will leave that market to
> resellers and others.

How is that?

The minimum per month for cingular prepaid is around $8.33 a month.

Yes they did raise the 90 day card from $20 to $25,
but that is the only change that affects the minimum monthly price.

N9WOS wrote:

> I only turn the phone on when I am away from home.
> The land line is my primary phone.
> Anyone that wants me, calls that line first.
>
> Most of the days I turn the cell phone on, no one calls.
> When someone does call the cell phone, because I am not at the house,
> Then the call usually last several minutes. 10+
> If I use the phone more than 6 minutes on days I use the phone,
> then the $0.10 a minute plan is cheaper than the $0.25 plan.
I use the phone most often when I am away from home, where neither
Cingular nor Verizon has native coverage. So will Cingular still
charge 4X for TDMA roaming? I have a Dobson pre-paid with
40cents/minute roaming. Beyond Wireless isn't in my state, and
according to their web site they don't much want you if you are out of
state.

klugja@hotmail.com wrote:

> Beyond Wireless isn't in my state, and
> according to their web site they don't much want you if you are out
of
> state.

Huh? Every time I have talked to Beyond Wireless reps, they don't ask
me where I live; I ask them if they have my area code. Sometimes they
will offer an area code in a nearby area. (I live in MD and have a
couple of phones with a DC area code). If you are willing to pay four
times the normal rate for every call you make because you live outside
their coverage area, I'm sure they would be happy to set up your phone
and sell you the airtime. (But I think that is a bad idea).

As a matter of fact, with all six phones that I have with Beyond
Wireless, they have never even asked me for my name, address, city or
state. The only information I had to provide to them was the make and
model of the phone and the ESN of that phone. (That's a bit scary,
knowing that any drug dealer or terrorist can get a phone that way
without providing any identification whatsoever).

Lena

What is even scarier is that information technology is enabling big brother
to trace us every moment of our lives. Eventually, we'll live in a Star
Trek world where we are assigned to jobs based on our 'abilities' and then
have to ask permission to go to the hollow deck. I'm glad I won't be around
for that.

"Lena" <lenagainster@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1113435131.679746.38610@l41g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com...
>
> klugja@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>> Beyond Wireless isn't in my state, and
>> according to their web site they don't much want you if you are out
> of
>> state.
>
> Huh? Every time I have talked to Beyond Wireless reps, they don't ask
> me where I live; I ask them if they have my area code. Sometimes they
> will offer an area code in a nearby area. (I live in MD and have a
> couple of phones with a DC area code). If you are willing to pay four
> times the normal rate for every call you make because you live outside
> their coverage area, I'm sure they would be happy to set up your phone
> and sell you the airtime. (But I think that is a bad idea).
>
> As a matter of fact, with all six phones that I have with Beyond
> Wireless, they have never even asked me for my name, address, city or
> state. The only information I had to provide to them was the make and
> model of the phone and the ESN of that phone. (That's a bit scary,
> knowing that any drug dealer or terrorist can get a phone that way
> without providing any identification whatsoever).
>
> Lena
>