In either case, the signal strength will be the exact same as for the “big name” network.

The good news is that if you lose the phone you don’t “lose” the $100 – one phone call is all it takes to have the phone disabled, and you can switch the balance over to a new phone. Buy a replacement handset, and you’re back in business.

[...] We seriously considered dropping the landline but with 4 people in the house and only two cell phones, we decided to keep the landline for now. If you have great cell plans and you have as many cell phones as adults or teens in the house, you may want to consider dropping the land line altogether.  For some, prepaid cell phone plans may be more cost effective, see the MDJ prepaid cell phone plan review here. [...]

Was at 3 stores. 3 different answers. Called costomer service. Closed on weekends for pay go customers. So tried the online help. Found life person who was polite but told me to call a no. that just transfered me to the closed phone line.

[...] Prepaid Wireless Plan Comparison High Interest Rate Savings Accounts MBNA SPG Credit Card Review Child Care Tax Credits Questrade Review… [...]

Instead, I bought my SIM unlocked BlackBerry Curve (mildly used) off of eBay for a fraction of that cost and I use T-mobile’s prepaid service at $0.10/minute. I just plugged the T-mobile prepaid SIM into my Curve and it works like a gem. This doesn’t give me internet access; but, I now have a prepaid mobile phone with a killer PDA and music player instead of an antiquated and featureless prepaid plan phone.

I speak from experience – my local 7-11 seems to hire a continuous rotation of people lacking social skills and brain cells.

I hooked up with Virgin (through a 7/11 of all things) due to it having the cheapest phone on the shelf, an LG. The over-the-counter salesman told me that the phone had a sim card I could switch out. Unfortunately, I was misled. Virgin operates off of a CDMA network (as does Bell, etc.)and are not sim card compatible. So my preferred phone (one I was using on the Rogers network) is useless.

Make sure that if you wish to switch phones easily, go with a network that operates on SIM and not CDMA.

On the plus side, Virgin’s service people were quite helpful… except that I unintentionally agreed on a $40.00 per month plan when asking for pre-paid service. When asking to switch it back, I was informed that the computers lock the initial data in for a month. Still better than the close to $80 per month I was paying with Rogers, but not thrilling.

$15 + taxes (no SAF) for 250 anytime minutes (per month).
Free VM, CD
no contract

If I take a 2 yr contract… any phone for free or $100 rebate :-)

Thanks FT for a great article.

J

[...] mentioned before that I don't use a lot of my minutes on the cell phone (see my prepaid wireless comparison post).  Regardless of this, I would feel naked without my cell phone.  It's almost [...]

Virgin is the first company that I’ve seen to effectively blend their prepaid offering with something that resembles a post-paid plan. Their biggest weakness, IMHO, is the limited selection of handsets.

[...] Prepaid Wireless Plan Comparison by Million Dollar [...]