[char777]

Okay, I'm probably getting a prepaid Sidekick pretty soon, and I'm very excited to have T-Mobile! I'm just a little worried about the coverage, and I'm going to test things out and see how it is in my area (I'm going to the mountains a lot, so it'll be a good exercise for the Sidekick) and if coverage turns out to be not the best, I might go for a second prepaid phone from someone else. I need the best coverage possible, preferrably GSM (so I can get an unlocked phone) and also no sticky terminations after minutes have expired after a certain amount of days. Who should I go to?

Thanks.

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› See More: Need help choosing a prepaid carrier.

[casenickles]

Net 10

[mkendallpk]

Okay, I'm probably getting a prepaid Sidekick pretty soon, and I'm very excited to have T-Mobile! I'm just a little worried about the coverage, and I'm going to test things out and see how it is in my area (I'm going to the mountains a lot, so it'll be a good exercise for the Sidekick) and if coverage turns out to be not the best, I might go for a second prepaid phone from someone else. I need the best coverage possible, preferrably GSM (so I can get an unlocked phone) and also no sticky terminations after minutes have expired after a certain amount of days. Who should I go to?

Thanks.

Ask friends about how their phone reception is and goto Prepaid Comparison Chart: http://www.cellguru.net/prepaid_compare.htm
This helped me decide.

[roberts1953]

There are only 2 GSM networks in your area that would have a service that would meet all the needs you mentioned, Tmobile and Cingular. Cingulars prepaid plans are so expensive that I would avoid them at all costs. One good plan that uses Cingular's native network is Speak Out Wireless. They are only sold in 7-11 convenience stores, and you have to but a phone with it. You might be able to find just a Speakout SIM somewhere on the net. Rates are $.20/min, and all cards have a 1 year expiration. There's a $1.25/mo fee. They do have very limited roaming. But coverage would be mostly along the front range and along the I-70 cooridor up in the high country. There are a few coverage areas near the major ski resorts as well. But if you travel outside of this then I would avoid Cingular/Speak Out.

Tmobile, on the other hand has added quite a bit of free roaming in the state recently. And GSM coverage is available in most populated areas in the mountains now. Definitely much better then Cingular's native coverage.

Net10 has been mentioned. It will roam on just about all GSM available in the state, so best yet for coverage, but you will have to pay a minimum of $12.50/month to keep the service active. The other side is that, while it is true that net10 is GSM, there is no way to remove the net10 SIM to be used in another phone. The SIM is tied to the IEMI of the net10 phone and is worthless in any other phone.

Unfortunately there are no SIM-only GSM prepaid services that are economical that will give you substantially more Colorado mountain coveage then Tmobile prepaid will provide, and will let you swap SIMs.

CDMA coverage is much more extensive then GSM in Colorado. If you want the best available coverage, I would go with a cheap CDMA prepaid service like PagePlus or Alltel U pay-per-minute. Both are dirt cheap. And both will primarily be on Verizons native network in Colorado, which is really good. Plus if it's a back up/emergency phone it might not be such a horrible thing to have 2 phones because you can leave it in the car. There is some info on another thread comparing the 2 for emergency phone service.

I know that you only want to carry 1 phone. But you will sacrifice coverage because of it. I would start with just Tmobile and se how it goes. You might find out that you have service in all the places you travel, and might not even need to supplement.