mobile phone plan advise

danger_mouse_tm

Currently I'm on Vodafone Ireland, top up by 30 euro a month, send a text to Vodafone and they take the 30 euro, and give me unlimited calls and texts to any network , 3gb of data and 100 international minutes. That's plenty for me.

So I'm looking for an equivalent GSM plan in the states for next year. It would be nice to push up that data a bit but I'm not too bothered. I would probably get more out of an extra few international minutes for the first few months anyway. I already have an unlocked 4g phone. Any suggestions?

spideog7

danger_mouse_tm wrote: »

Currently I'm on Vodafone Ireland, top up by 30 euro a month, send a text to Vodafone and they take the 30 euro, and give me unlimited calls and texts to any network , 3gb of data and 100 international minutes. That's plenty for me.

So I'm looking for an equivalent GSM plan in the states for next year. It would be nice to push up that data a bit but I'm not too bothered. I would probably get more out of an extra few international minutes for the first few months anyway. I already have an unlocked 4g phone. Any suggestions?

Where in the US? Coverage can vary a lot.

T-Mobile offer a similar plan to what you're on, $30 a month for unlimited data (throttled after 5GB), unlimited texts and 100 mins. You can go to their $50 plan also which is the same but gives you unlimited calls also. It's only cheaper if you expect to use more than 300mins a month since they charge 10c a minute after the first 100mins.

Use WhatsApp, Viber, Google etc. for international texts. Skype, Google and Vonage all offer free WiFi calling too so that helps.

danger_mouse_tm

It will be Cape coral Florida. The 100 minute plan wouldn't suit me. I would use that in a day over here anyway. So that puts me into the €50 a month plan. Very few people I know bother with the VOIP calling solutions because they're nearly always out and about. I suppose the way the big US companies bundle everything, it might be better to look at the bigger picture and include my wife's phone, fixed line broadband and perhaps cable tv (although most of what we watch is a la carte tv)

spideog7

danger_mouse_tm wrote: »

It will be Cape coral Florida. The 100 minute plan wouldn't suit me. I would use that in a day over here anyway. So that puts me into the €50 a month plan. Very few people I know bother with the VOIP calling solutions because they're nearly always out and about. I suppose the way the big US companies bundle everything, it might be better to look at the bigger picture and include my wife's phone, fixed line broadband and perhaps cable tv (although most of what we watch is a la carte tv)

I still struggle to go over my 100 minutes a month plan! VOIP works on data too, mind you it's just an option I don't use it myself I just don't talk on the phone much.

I haven't seen anyone that bundles fixed line broadband with mobile data although it would be nice (maybe Verizon?) I guess you could use your phone as a hotspot when at home if so inclined.

Bundling your wife's phone in will probably not give you a huge discount on these cheaper plans. Most of the companies here want to sucker you in to buying their phone and paying it off over contract, multi line will definitely give you a better discount in that scenario, although in the long run you'll be worse off.

T-Mobile have been great for me but I'll admit their data coverage is poor if you go far out of built up areas. Verizon would be the best for coverage probably but you can't use your GSM phone.

Dave1442397

The best you'll get is a small discount on the cable/Internet bill when you bundle it with the cellphone bill. I get $10/mo discount for that with Verizon. Cellphone plans here suck compared to what you have in Ireland.

Ponster

I used the T-Mobile $30 package and phoned everyone with VOIP (get yourself a Google Voice number). No need to use any minutes really. Also for an extra $10 a month you get unlimited calling to International landlines. $15 per month to include mobiles.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Metro Pcs gives unlimited calls, text and data for $60 a month.
Extra $5 for international landline calls and $5 more to call cell phones and text international.
So basically $70 a month for all calls, texts and data.
Think you will need to get a new phone though as 4g runs on a different frequency but they are reasonably priced there too.
Also don't need to sign up to a plan just pay by a certain date every month and away you go.
You can pay in store or using your handset.

danger_mouse_tm

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

Metro Pcs gives unlimited calls, text and data for $60 a month.
Extra $5 for international landline calls and $5 more to call cell phones and text international.
So basically $70 a month for all calls, texts and data.
Think you will need to get a new phone though as 4g runs on a different frequency but they are reasonably priced there too.
Also don't need to sign up to a plan just pay by a certain date every month and away you go.
You can pay in store or using your handset.

Someone mentioned metro pcs to me before. They are definitely one to look further into. Does the phone have to be 4g? I could go back to my lumia 820 for a while (assuming they are gsm based) or just take the plunge and buy a nexus 5

spideog7

danger_mouse_tm wrote: »

Someone mentioned metro pcs to me before. They are definitely one to look further into. Does the phone have to be 4g? I could go back to my lumia 820 for a while (assuming they are gsm based) or just take the plunge and buy a nexus 5

They use T-Mobile's network so they are GSM.