No-contract/prepaid cell service

[GHTD]

As providers usually try to get you to sign multiple lines for the "good deal" and you need just one or two, many people are going over to prepaid/no-contract cellphone service. What's been your experience with these types of providers and are they any good?

I use Visible. It's basically like Verizon's answer to T-Mobile's Metro or AT&T's Cricket, as they own (or at least have an investment in) the company. It's normally $40 a month but you can get the price reduced to $25 by joining a "Party Pay" group which you can find just about anywhere, usually people use the /r/VisiblePartyPay subreddit. I've had no problems with it, the only thing I'd have an issue is that the hotspot is throttled down to a measly 5 Mbps, so if I was in a need, it would probably be pretty slow. The 4G isn't throttled but the 5G is throttled to 200 Mbps, so no complaints there.

 

[Saint Alphonsus]

Yeah, OK Fed.

 

[Red Hood]

I wish you luck in your crack dealing venture.

 

[Battlecruiser3000ad]

I just bought a SIM card in a newsstand 15yrs ago and put $20 a year on it to keep it alive and serve all my calling and texting needs

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Boost.

 

[Dysnomia]

I have AT&T prepaid.

 

[Uncle Sid]

I use a Mexican TelCel sim. I only have to pay twenty pesos ($1 US) every six months to keep the number alive, and I get unlimited incoming calls with roaming all over Mexico, the USA and Canada. Works for 2FA and I never call anyone/always use wifi for data so it works out great. 17 cents a month is a bill I can live with.

 

[BootlegPopeye]

I have been a Tracfone only user since about 2005-6. If all you need are basic calls/text/simple smart phone, there is absolutely no need for anything else.

 

[GoysGoneWild]

I'd love to switch over to something like these, but need confirmation that cell signal works at my parents very rural homestead. Currently there is only AT&T service in one valley, and everywhere else is very spotty at best. T Mobile *might* work, but also might not. No idea if Verizon would work.

Is there a way I can test both cell/texting signal and 4G down there easily? I know T Mobile gives you a device to test their signal, but dunno if that will just test 4G and not calling/texting.
(Or are those all over the same 4G frequencies so this is an irrelevant concern? IDK, cell shit is confusing as fuck). What about Verizon or a mvno from them?

 

[Kosher Dill]

Is there a way I can test both cell/texting signal and 4G down there easily? I know T Mobile gives you a device to test their signal, but dunno if that will just test 4G and not calling/texting.

On some phones you can type in one of those #$12345$# codes to get a signal monitoring display.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Been using Straight Talk since about 2018. Aside from not allowing tethering, it's pretty good. Wish they'd stop sending these stupid texts that say things like "Yay! Happy dance! Your bill has been paid!" Did I sign up for Gay Talk by mistake?

 

[space man]

I was using mint mobile for a few years. They're pretty decent.

 

[Jump]

T-mobile pre-paid. $15 a month for unlimited talk/text/data. And I don't need to be a faggot reddit user to get it.

I know T Mobile gives you a device to test their signal, but dunno if that will just test 4G and not calling/texting. Or are those all over the same 4G frequencies so this is an irrelevant concern? IDK, cell shit is confusing as fuck).

New phones use VoLTE. Calls/sms go over LTE data. So if T-mobiles test drive hotspot thing works where you are then a phone will work as long as it is a modern-ish one that supports VoLTE and works with all their bands.
So when phone shopping make sure the phone supports LTE bands 2,5,4, and 66. If you live in the sticks then you want a phone that also does bands 12 and 71.

 

[Dual X99]

I use Visible for bootleg home internet.
At their base plan on promo is $20 a month and you get unlimited data but hotspot is capped at 5 mbps.
To bypass I use https://github.com/Mygod/VPNHotspot to trick Verizon into thinking that I am using on-device data.
Then set up OpenWrt router with https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/smartphone.usb.tethering to change the TTL for all your devices.
It's a bit finicky but after fine-tuning the scripts for nightly reboots it's pretty reliable 120 mbps down / 5 mbps up connection.
The hidden abuse cap is about 1 TB per month but I never get close so that much.
For torrents I just run it at night for speed and so I don't clog up the spectrum for other users during the day.

It hasn't been talked about much here, but there was recently some drama with US Mobile offering fake unlimited data. At r/nocontract lots of corporate shills and heavy users arguing with each other.
Independent MVNO's will never be able to offer unlimited since they pay per GB so if you are a heavy user the flanker brands are the only viable option.
But I wish the FTC would regulate "unlimited" advertising since a limited resource can never be unlimited. Now the prepaid market is just flooded with "unlimited" plans with hidden caps ranging from 30 GB to 1 TB which is extremely confusing for consumers.

Also has anyone had experience with silent.link ??? They have $1.08 per GB no expiration data. Getting a pSIM on another MVNO with unlimited calls/text then silent.link eSIM might make for a nice dual SIM setup if your usage changes drastically month over month but don't need an unlimited plan on a cell phone.