AT&T offers unlimited GoPhone pre-paid plan

60 bucks for unlimited talk and text on prepaid.

I just looked at the regular individual plans and it says Unlimited VOICE only was still $99?

Something isn't right here!?

 

the major difference is coverage

go to this link

AT&T Coverage Viewer

compare the regular coverage with gophone... thats why gophone is 60bux a month....

 

For prepaid, that is still pretty big coverage. I even see "partner" roaming coverage with gophone map. The only thing that is knocked out is the roaming in the dakotas, wyoming, etc....in the west. East of them, the map is pretty much the same as the post paid one.

 

There is a large coverage difference (even between the PayGo and PYP maps) in Kansas, Nebraska, etc. too. And I was on vacation about 18 months ago with both a post paid and a prepaid phone - once you left the major interstates in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska - I can vouch that the PayGo coverage was VERY spotty.

But I do see what you mean - the PayGo map shows some partner coverage near Indianapolis, and I always thought that PayGo offfered no roaming off of the native at&t network.

The $60/month unlimited voice and text is certainly a good deal for someone who is in an area with good PayGo coverage and who doesn't travel much - or at least doesn't travel to rural areas.

 

the whole thing being the coverage... and there is no contract... no international roming restrictions on what device you can use and you buy your phone outright... the factors add up

 

The GO Phone program is pretty darn good as it is, so this only makes it better.

I wonder if (and hope) the other carriers follow suit.

 

I agree, I would love to see other carriers take this into consideration.

 

That's what's nice is someone like me in this area, this plan would be perfect, especially with some area's in PA that wouldn't have native coverage it wouldn't matter anyhow.

 

The improvements in the PayGo plans over the last several years really are amazing.

I'm not a heavy user and never have been - virtually no voice use at all - but very consistent "medium" data usage - when I first switched to post paid (2005) from an ATTWS GoPhone, it was pretty much a push (there were no feature packages for prepaid back then) - I averaged about $5 more/month for the post paid service.

Now with my usage and the feature rollover on prepaid service, I could be using it exclusively for approximately $12/month, compared with the $60/month I'd have to spend for the same thing with the post paid account ($51 with my FAN discount).

Unless some adjustments are made to the post paid plans, it seems the disparity will start driving many users to switch from post paid to prepaid service (where the lack of roaming coverage isn't an issue). I haven't pulled the plug on my post paid service yet - but it is certainly under consideration. (I've spent quite a bit of time traveling in rural areas the last couple of years, and I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the roaming coverage.)

 

i use pageplus for a backup phone,$10.00/4mo's/100 min/great coverage

 

Correct, if you live in the east coast it probably the same coverage. If they do this i wonder where else they are capitalizing on. Yes, we all know, hidden fees, activations, sketchy new "lower" plans, but its a great deal for people who don't want a contract.