Wireless data links for telemetry, south-eastern US?

[Joerg]

JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
Martin Riddle wrote:
[...]

You'd need a nation wide plan, or set the phone up in the area you plan
to place it to avoid roaming charges.

Roaming charges are unacceptable and could be negotiated away. After
all, I don't pay any on my own cell. It's always 18c/minute no matter
what or where.
That is an expensive phone, unless all the minutes rollover forever.
They do roll over. By now I have a bazillion minutes. I don't think
there is any cheaper way to have a cell phone and always keep the same
cell number. All those other deals I looked at required prepaid cards
that would expire in rather short time frames, between one and three months.

I pay around five bucks a month. That's it.
I pay $0.25/min and $0.05/sms, no monthly. As long as i maintain $100
in the account it rolls over forever.
No min usage either? Which service is that?
AT&T GoPhone. Inexpensive, low feature phones are common with it as
well. It is kind of a variation of pre-paid.
This one?
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...nes.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-002A0A-0-1&WT.svl=title

Nothing there to see without digging.

Well, that's how those web sites usually are. For whatever reason. Maybe
some script kiddies have reached the suit and tie phase by now,
mortgage, kids, the whole nine yards ;-)

Now for the pesky fine print:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms-prepaid.jsp#pyg

That seems to be pretty much what my deal is. One difference is
expiration with account balances maintained over $100, mine doesn't
(yet).

Sorry, but then my deal is indeed better. No expiration, regardless of
balance

Maybe, maybe not, yours has a $10 monthly i believe you said. Mine
has none. Better depends on your usage pattern as well.

It's $5/mo. But no expiration. Those $5 turn into about 28 minutes that
remain in your account.

 

[Joerg]

I missed which service this is.

Virgin Mobile. Not sure if they still offer the same rates to new
subscribers, unfortunately they seem to have thoroughly screwed up their
web site.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/

Is it local to you or nationwide ??

Nationwide, they ride piggyback on the Sprint network. I never had to
pay any roaming which was a non-negotiable condition for me because I
use the phone only on biz travel. Be careful, roaming charges with other
carriers can be a major rip-off.

 

[JosephKK]

JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
Martin Riddle wrote:
[...]

You'd need a nation wide plan, or set the phone up in the area you plan
to place it to avoid roaming charges.

Roaming charges are unacceptable and could be negotiated away. After
all, I don't pay any on my own cell. It's always 18c/minute no matter
what or where.
That is an expensive phone, unless all the minutes rollover forever.
They do roll over. By now I have a bazillion minutes. I don't think
there is any cheaper way to have a cell phone and always keep the same
cell number. All those other deals I looked at required prepaidcards
that would expire in rather short time frames, between one and three months.

I pay around five bucks a month. That's it.
I pay $0.25/min and $0.05/sms, no monthly. As long as i maintain $100
in the account it rolls over forever.
No min usage either? Which service is that?
AT&T GoPhone. Inexpensive, low feature phones are common with itas
well. It is kind of a variation of pre-paid.
This one?
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...es..jsp?wtSlotClick=1-002A0A-0-1&WT.svl=title

Nothing there to see without digging.


Well, that's how those web sites usually are. For whatever reason. Maybe
some script kiddies have reached the suit and tie phase by now,
mortgage, kids, the whole nine yards ;-)


Now for the pesky fine print:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms-prepaid.jsp#pyg

That seems to be pretty much what my deal is. One difference is
expiration with account balances maintained over $100, mine doesn't
(yet).

Sorry, but then my deal is indeed better. No expiration, regardless of
balance

Maybe, maybe not, yours has a $10 monthly i believe you said. Mine
has none. Better depends on your usage pattern as well.

It's $5/mo. But no expiration. Those $5 turn into about 28 minutes that
remain in your account.

So there it is, pump it once a month for about $0.18/min or pump it
maybe annually for $0.25/min (alternatively $1.00 each day of use [any
call in or out] + $0.10/min). So it really comes down to your usage
pattern and which plan suits you best.

 

[Joerg]

JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
JosephKK wrote:
Martin Riddle wrote:
[...]

You'd need a nation wide plan, or set the phone up in the area you plan
to place it to avoid roaming charges.

Roaming charges are unacceptable and could be negotiated away. After
all, I don't pay any on my own cell. It's always 18c/minute no matter
what or where.
That is an expensive phone, unless all the minutes rollover forever.
They do roll over. By now I have a bazillion minutes. I don't think
there is any cheaper way to have a cell phone and always keep the same
cell number. All those other deals I looked at required prepaid cards
that would expire in rather short time frames, between one and three months.

I pay around five bucks a month. That's it.
I pay $0.25/min and $0.05/sms, no monthly. As long as i maintain $100
in the account it rolls over forever.
No min usage either? Which service is that?
AT&T GoPhone. Inexpensive, low feature phones are common with it as
well. It is kind of a variation of pre-paid.
This one?
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-ph...nes.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-002A0A-0-1&WT.svl=title

Nothing there to see without digging.

Well, that's how those web sites usually are. For whatever reason. Maybe
some script kiddies have reached the suit and tie phase by now,
mortgage, kids, the whole nine yards ;-)


Now for the pesky fine print:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms-prepaid.jsp#pyg

That seems to be pretty much what my deal is. One difference is
expiration with account balances maintained over $100, mine doesn't
(yet).

Sorry, but then my deal is indeed better. No expiration, regardless of
balance

Maybe, maybe not, yours has a $10 monthly i believe you said. Mine
has none. Better depends on your usage pattern as well.

It's $5/mo. But no expiration. Those $5 turn into about 28 minutes that
remain in your account.

Quote: "Amounts deposited into your account expire as follows: cards
less than $25, 30 days; cards $25 to $75, 90 days; $100 cards, 365 days.
Unused account balance is forfeited upon expiration."

IMHO that is not a good deal at all. Sorry, but there I've got the
better deal, much better (with VirginMobile).

So there it is, pump it once a month for about $0.18/min or pump it
maybe annually for $0.25/min (alternatively $1.00 each day of use [any
call in or out] + $0.10/min). So it really comes down to your usage
pattern and which plan suits you best.

The per minute cost almost doesn't matter with my paltry usage. But
expirations do matter, big time. So I had to make sure there are none.

However, now they have goofed the web site and I can't get the
statements anymore :-(