I was having an issue with my Blackberry not working reliably, so I went looking for an option. I found it in the combination of an old Motorola V3m and pre-paid service from PagePlus.
Most pre-paid cellular requires a minimum of $15 per month to stay active. With Page Plus, I paid $5 for activation and got a $12 credit which is good for 4 months. At the end of the 4 months, I just pay another $10 for 4 months, so it works out to around $2.50/mo. Their per-use data is the cheapest I've seen. It's $.0012/kb or $1.20/mb. On my 20 minute commute, I use about $.04 worth of data which works out to $.08/day or around $2.40/mo. Much better than purchasing a data package for your current phone if you don't already have one.
The V3m required a couple of modifications to do EVDO data (it was locked by Verizon), but I'm sure there are Verizon phones out there that can be purchased off eBay or Craigslist and used "out of the box". Since PagePlus uses the Verizon network, it's best to use a Verizon branded phone.
Just an option for those of you who would like to use PLUS services, but don't have/want to pay $$$ for a data plan on your current phone.
Most pre-paid cellular requires a minimum of $15 per month to stay active. With Page Plus, I paid $5 for activation and got a $12 credit which is good for 4 months. At the end of the 4 months, I just pay another $10 for 4 months, so it works out to around $2.50/mo. Their per-use data is the cheapest I've seen. It's $.0012/kb or $1.20/mb. On my 20 minute commute, I use about $.04 worth of data which works out to $.08/day or around $2.40/mo. Much better than purchasing a data package for your current phone if you don't already have one.
The V3m required a couple of modifications to do EVDO data (it was locked by Verizon), but I'm sure there are Verizon phones out there that can be purchased off eBay or Craigslist and used "out of the box". Since PagePlus uses the Verizon network, it's best to use a Verizon branded phone.
Just an option for those of you who would like to use PLUS services, but don't have/want to pay $$$ for a data plan on your current phone.
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