Long-term wireless phone contracts, commonly known as post-paid contracts, are evil and always have been. They’re evil because you’re committing one to two years of your fiscal life to something you either won’t use at all, or something that won’t be enough for your needs; there’s never a happy medium.
There is such a thing as a no-contract smartphone plan, but they’re not easy to come by. Technically speaking, any piece of paper you sign is a contractual agreement. The only time it isn’t is if you can buy the phone and service in 100% cash without signing a single piece of paper. It is possible to buy smartphone + short-term this way, but as I said it isn’t easy.
"No-contract" in the context of this article means a smartphone you purchase along with a prepaid plan that only requires a short term month-to-month obligation, such as the way MetroPCS does it.
How much?
Prices are actually pretty good concerning prepaid plans. It used to cost a bare minimum of $70 monthly just to have smartphone features enabled on prepaid. Today it now costs $40 – and that doesn’t include tax. But even with the tax it’s still a whole lot better than the $70 it used to be.
Where the real cost comes in is with the phone. With prepaid you have to buy the phone outright, and oh yeah, you’re going to pay a pretty penny for it and then some.
Assume for the moment "smartphone" means "has touchscreen". This is what you’re going to spend:
On the low end, you’re going to spend $100 minimum for a new smartphone. At this stage of the game, touchscreen smartphones have not busted the $100 price barrier yet when buying the phone outright.
On the high end, the price used to be $700+, but the ceiling now is around $400. Obviously there are phones that cost more than that, but for the models that have features you would actually use, that’s more or less the most you would spend.
LTE vs. non-LTE
This factor is the real kicker here on how much you’re going to spend for the handset.
"Plain" non-LTE connectivity smartphones are easily had for $100 brand new, but when purposely going with an LTE-capable handset, you’re going to spend at least $300.
"Is there are any real difference in features between non-LTE and LTE smartphones?"
Not really, and that’s the insulting part. The only real reason the price right now is higher for an LTE-capable phone is because those who are selling them know they can get away with it.
"Is LTE the same as 4G?"
The telecom industry has no frickin’ clue when it comes to names of things. If it’s Verizon, LTE and 4G are one and the same. If it’s AT&T on the other hand, it isn’t.
Don’t go by "4G", go by "LTE", because that is a legitimate real thing for a next-generation wireless network. "4G" is just naming fluff.
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Timely article. I was just looking at alternatives to my Verizon prepaid phone.
What about true prepaid (the “Pay as you go” plans)? Unless I read it wrong, T-Mobile now has plans with data use for $1.49/day. Could be good if you’re not a frequent user. Unfortunately, it looks like all the smartphones for their plans are refurbs (but…maybe that’s web only?).
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/prepaid-plans.aspx
T-mob is, pardon the pun, up in the air right now because of the whole potential AT&T/T-Mobile merger thing: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20068630-17/at-t-support-growing-for-t-mobile-merger/
Because of that, I literally could not advise on whether going T-mob prepaid is a good deal or not simply because I don’t know if the same rules that apply to T-mob services now will be the same next month/year/etc.
With Virgin Mobile you can get a plan for $25 a month (plus tax, for me $2.19 a month in California, a highly taxed state) including 300 anytime phone minutes with unlimited internet and texting. The smartphones available are:
1. LG Optimus V for $199.99;
2, Samsung Intercept for $199.99; and
3. BlackBerry Curve 8530 for $179.99.
Other available plans are $40 a month for 1200 anytime minutes and $60 a month for unlimited minutes.
Both of the latter plans also include unlimited internet and unlimited texting.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, so if you are in range of a Sprint tower, you are almost certainly in Virgin Mobile range.
With Virgin Mobile you can get a plan for $25 a month (plus tax, for me $2.19 a month in California, a highly taxed state) including 300 anytime phone minutes with unlimited internet and texting. The smartphones available are:
1. LG Optimus V for $199.99;
2, Samsung Intercept for $199.99; and
3. BlackBerry Curve 8530 for $179.99.
Other available plans are $40 a month for 1200 anytime minutes and $60 a month for unlimited minutes.
Both of the latter plans also include unlimited internet and unlimited texting.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, so if you are in range of a Sprint tower, you are almost certainly in Virgin Mobile range.
Boost Mobile seems to have a good option right now with the Samsung Galaxy Prevail for a $179.99. What’s great about their service is they have unlimited everything for $50 with the ability to go as low as $35 a month with 18 on time monthly payments. That is what I’m trying to save up for right now.