Unlimited wireless internet for $20 a month w/o contract

Too good to be true?

Hmmm... this sounds almost too good to be true.

So you get a data card, sign it up as a "pay-as-you-go" phone with data, and its just $20 a month, since obviously you can't make regular voice calls with a data card (but they are assigned phone numbers like a regular phone).

I would think this thread would be 10 pages long with everyone ditching Alltel, etc. Alltel is a "no-go" for me since I do not want to have a voice plan with them. Verizon is still incredibly expensive for data, but everyone I know and their brother is on Verizon, which is nice for the phone bill.

Anyone out there signed up for this "from scratch" who can report on the process and experiences so far? This would be great even for regular travel.

Thanks!
-Mike
 
Mike you can go with Alltell no contract on say the $39 plan and use it just for data. The data mins would come out of your 500 pool in the day time and be free at night and on the weekeneds. If you felt you were going to go over you could add unlimited phone as modem option for $24.99 and the best part is you can add this feature when needed and remove it from your online account. I have both Alltel and ATT and will try to help you with any questions that you may have
 
I've been using the AT&T "pay as you go" data service for over a year now and I really don't have any complaints. I ordered an elcheapo $29 Samsung phone when I ordered the service then took it's 3G sim card and slid it into my trusty LG CU500v where I use the Bluetooth to connect to the laptop with AT&T's connection software. I've never tried streaming but for data (GRLevel3) on the road, it does the job.
 
J Kinkaid said:
Mike you can go with Alltell no contract on say the $39 plan and use it just for data. The data mins would come out of your 500 pool in the day time and be free at night and on the weekeneds. If you felt you were going to go over you could add unlimited phone as modem option for $24.99 and the best part is you can add this feature when needed and remove it from your online account. I have both Alltel and ATT and will try to help you with any questions that you may have
Click to expand...

Either plan sounds interesting...although I'm inclined to test AT&T first, though Alltel supposedly has better coverage.

For Alltel - do I need a dialup ISP to use the phone as a modem? When you say "Alltel no contract" does that mean I can cancel the phone at any time, or are you referring to the $25 unlimited phone-as-modem add-on? (I was under the impression from Alltel's site that canceling any voice plan incurred a penalty).

For AT&T, I'm still not sure how the process to start up works. Do I need to sign up and get a cheapo phone, with some prepaid balance, or can I purchase any GSM aircard I want and activate that with the plan? I'm going out to run errands this afternoon, so I'll print out the article from WAP Review and stop by an AT&T cellular place... but I get the feeling this is one of those not-heavily advertised things that is inherently difficult to get any info about from websites or pushy cell phone salesmen!

Thanks for your help!
 
It would better to use a direct usb connection than bluetooth if you plan to stream and want faster speeds
 
J Kinkaid said:
It would better to use a direct usb connection than bluetooth if you plan to stream and want faster speeds
Click to expand...

Which leads to a question I've been waiting to ask -will the phone charge while it's on a USB tether? One of the big reasons I use Bluetooth is so that I can keep the car charger plugged in while in use (on the LG they utilize the same connector).
 
Answers to some of your questions

Mike Hardiman said:
Either plan sounds interesting...although I'm inclined to test AT&T first, though Alltel supposedly has better coverage.

For Alltel - do I need a dialup ISP to use the phone as a modem? When you say "Alltel no contract" does that mean I can cancel the phone at any time, or are you referring to the $25 unlimited phone-as-modem add-on? (I was under the impression from Alltel's site that canceling any voice plan incurred a penalty).

You do not need a dial up isp to use the phone as modem. No contract means buy a phone off ebay or Alltell prepaid then put that on a month to month plan. If you do that you will not have a contract and can cancel at anytime. The $24.99 phone as modem feature allows you to use the internet as much as you want and it doesn't come out of your plan minutes.

For AT&T, I'm still not sure how the process to start up works. Do I need to sign up and get a cheapo phone, with some prepaid balance, or can I purchase any GSM aircard I want and activate that with the plan? I'm going out to run errands this afternoon, so I'll print out the article from WAP Review and stop by an AT&T cellular place... but I get the feeling this is one of those not-heavily advertised things that is inherently difficult to get any info about from websites or pushy cell phone salesmen!

Buy a cheap prepaid phone on the ATT site and add the unlimited internet feature to it on the site or when you get the phone from the Fexex driver take the sim card out and put it in a datacard and you will have unlimited internet for $20.


Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
 
OK, so while I was out today, I stopped by an AT&T wireless store (this was before reading J Kincaid's most recent reply).

The guy there insisted that the $20 pay-as-you-go data feature was only for phone browser apps, and that I could not sign up an aircard with that plan, or put a cheaper phone's SIM card into an aircard, or tether to the pay-as-you-go phone. He then told me the only way to get data not via an in-phone browser was to sign up for one of the $60/mo plans.

No big surprise there, but I don't actually believe him. This hasn't been a very publicized feature.

However, while there I noticed that the "Pay as you Go" coverage area is much smaller than AT&T's "normal" voice coverage area, and of course, much smaller than their "normal" data coverage area.

Pay as you Go (voice) coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/support_static_files/images/maps/payasyougo.gif

"Normal" Data Coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/images/data_coverage.gif

"Normal" Voice Coverage:
http://www.wireless.att.com/support_static_files/images/maps/nat_gsm.gif

The "Normal" data coverage doesn't look too bad, a little sparse in parts of Kansas, but it matches the "Normal" voice coverage. The Pay-as-you-Go coverage, however, is terrible... with Kansas almost left in the dark, and big gaps in the TX Panhandle and much of New Mexico and Arizona.

So... does the "Pay-as-you-Go" data coverage match the "Pay-as-you-Go" voice coverage? Or, does it match the better "Normal" data coverage" area?

I would hate to find out the hard way even with a modest investment, since AT&T GSM equipment will not work on CDMA Alltel.

Sorry if I seem slow in figuring this stuff out... I used to be a big tech geek until I started having bills to pay, but now those bills are slowly going away, and an impending move will allow me to chase again. The last time I knew anything about ceullar internet, it was with a "no-contract" Earthlink dialup plan, a King-of-Hearts modem, and my old Motorola Startac with Verizon...and it just ate up minutes out of my usual
allowance...free on weekends. So, its been awhile and I'm just now getting back up to speed! :confused:

I certainly do appreciate the help and advice, even if the questions are a bit basic. (I didn't even know what a SIM card was until a few days ago).
 
David Mikulec said:
Which leads to a question I've been waiting to ask -will the phone charge while it's on a USB tether? One of the big reasons I use Bluetooth is so that I can keep the car charger plugged in while in use (on the LG they utilize the same connector).
Click to expand...

Really depends on what phone you have. Most of the newer phones will charge by USB.
 
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