vey wrote:

> $1.25 a month
> 20 cents a minute
> 5 cent text messaging
> Minutes good for 365 days, anything less is a rip-off.
>
> $40 gets you in. Nokia 1600 (which is a sweet little simple phone).
> No need to "activate" the phone. Open the box and start making calls.
>
> Uses the "new" ATT network. No roaming and no roaming charges.
>
> It's a simple as that.
> Eat your heart out SMS. For me, it's the best. If you are talky, get
> a plan.

LOL, I won't eat my heart out, because I have a SpeakOut phone and
service. I got it mainly for comparison purposes in terms of AT&T
coverage versus Verizon coverage as it's too expensive to use except as
strictly an emergency phone. I got the Motorola V180, which they no
longer offer. They have cut back significantly on the SpeakOut program,
they used to offer a bunch of handsets.

There's an in-between being "talky" and an emergency-only phone. Many
parents want a phone for their kids where the kids can call for rides
home, contact their parents in places like amusement parks and shopping
malls, etc. This is more than four minutes/month, but well under the
need for a postpaid plan. I've averaged around 30 minutes per month on
the PagePlus phones, or about $3.60/month in airtime.

It's true that if you almost never make any calls, SpeakOut is
$2.08/month versus $2.50/month for PagePlus. However keep that 42¢ in
perspective.

With PagePlus, the remaining $2 (after the $0.50 monthly fee) will buy
you 17-37 minutes (depending on the amount of minutes you bought).

On SpeakOut, the remaining $0.83 (after the $1.25 monthly fee) will buy
you 4 minutes. $2.50/month on SpeakOut buys you six minutes.

So if you make more than four minutes of calls per month, PagePlus is
the better deal.

If you make four or fewer minutes of calls per month, then SpeakOut is
cheaper, and if cost is the only metric you care about then indeed it's
a better deal.

It's true that it's very nice that the minutes last 365 days, but the
only prepaid services with this feature are SpeakOut, and T-Mobile (if
you buy $100 worth of airtime all at once). 120 days on a $10 card,
which PagePlus offers, is actually one of the better expiration times,
some others are as low as 30 days on their least expensive refill, i.e.
$15 for Net10, and Net10 doesn't even sell their least expensive refill
on their web site (you can buy it in stores or on eBay).

I don't remember how much airtime you get with the SpeakOut handset.
With PagePlus, the activation kit gets you 100 minutes.

The problems with SpeakOut are the following:

1) High monthly fee ($1.25).
2) High per minute cost (20¢ per minute on-network, 39¢ or more
off-network).
3) Even worse than PagePlus in terms of a web presence for purchasing
airtime (no web presence at all other than a scan of their brochure and
some marketing material).
4) High roaming charges outside the AT&T service area (at least
39¢/minute, possibly more, according to their brochure (see
"http://www.7-eleven.com/products/docs/sfw054111_mch_bro_06_E.pdf")).
5) Coverage is much worse than PagePlus outside of metro areas (similar
to the AT&T versus Verizon coverage difference).

By the way, SpeakOut also sells a Sprint based service as well, but it
may be Nextel because they are touting "Press and Talk." Nextel service
is very poor, and there is almost no roaming available on other iDEN
networks. But it's not clear if it's Nextel based or CDMA 1900 MHz based).

For those that are interested, the SpeakOut SIM will work in an unlocked
or Cingular locked GSM handset. However they won't sell you just a SIM,
you have to get the phone as well.

In Canada, the Canadian version of SpeakOut seem to be the cheapest
prepaid, because Canada doesn't have the wide selection of low cost
prepaid carriers. I recently advised someone in Canada looking for four
emergency phones to use SpeakOut, since it would only cost then
CAD$10/month total for four phones.

[Copied to alt.cellular.attws. Cingular is no longer in operation, and
alt.cellular.attws is the proper venue for discussions regarding
wireless service from AT&T]