looking at their network it looks like TDMA and GSM devices... not a lot of info forth coming at the site... I would call and ask a person...Customer Care Center at 1-800-867-7183.
GSM: Cingular or T-Mobile CDMA: Verizon or Alltel This is dependent on the geographical area. They may also utilize smaller carriers in some areas. One of the nice things about TracFone, is regardless of which carrier the phone is activated on, it will roam off-network. With their GSM models, the phone deducts 1.0 Unit per minute, regardless of whether the phone is in the home area (display is "TracFone") or is roaming (display is "Roaming"). Their CDMA phones will deduct 1.0 Unit per minute when in the home area and 2.0 Units per minute when roaming. Text messaging: Older GSM phone models charge 0.3 Units to send, 0.0 Units (free) to receive. My understanding is that the new GSM phones that will be released soon will deduct units to receive text messages. Their CDMA phones will deduct 0.5 Units for each message sent or received. As long as the activating carrier has roaming agreements with other carriers, the TracFone will roam on those other carriers as well. My past TracFones have roamed on Unicel in Vermont (GSM) carrier, Rogers (GSM, in Canada) and U.S. Cellular (CDMA) in New Hampshire.
i have a question about per-minute charges. if u buy minutes and they're activated and everything (ready-to use), do you still have to pay like a few cents per minute after theyre on your phone? example: i buy a 100 min. card and now i have 100 min. on my phone. do i still have to pay a few cents per minute after i've bought them and everything?
You pay for your minutes up front, so there is no additional charge to use them. The only time you would have to pay more to use 100 minutes is if you have minutes left after your due date (usually 60 days, unless you bought a one-year card). All unused minutes roll over, but you will need to purchase more time to keep the phone number active for another 60 days. If you let it lapse at the due date, you still keep your unused minutes, but they'll give you a new phone number when you re-activate the phone, if it's been longer than a couple weeks. It may sound complicated, but it's very easy. The phone shows available minutes and your due date, and you'll get e-mail or landline reminders from them with special offers for bonus minutes.
