Airvoice: general questions

[wdst]

I am looking at a gsm android handset and was interested in Airvoice since they are an AT&T reseller. Is their coverage identical to AT&T pre-paid coverage? Thats how it looks on the map. (T-mobile coverage here is very poor, AT&T is better but not as good as Verizon) How big/financially stable are they? I would hate to see them go under and take my number from me along the way. Page PLus has been pretty good and they seem to be very stable. Thanks in advance.

[fonezfonz]

Air Voice gsm has been around for a long time relatively speaking. At least since the early 2000s. They are a lot older then say Simple Mobile or a few other mvnos. They have identical coverage to the Att Gophone prepaid network. Their strong points are US customer service, lowest paygo rates of any Att mvno (slightly), and offer the lowest paygo data of any Att mvno (but still high at $2 a meg).

Their data offering is the weakest of all the major Att mvnos . They have 30 megs/100 mms vs say H20 or Red Pocket's 50 megs/unlimited mms at the same price ($50 or so for unlimited talk/text plus mms/data).

Other Att mvnos have better international rates by far (H20, Red Pocket and Jolt Gsm all beat Air Voice in that area).

Pure Talk is another Att mvno contender but they have ZERO data though they are supposedly working on it. They also offer strong intl voice/text plans.

Air Voice is okay. They also have a dollar a month e911 fee plus they charge 20 cents for the first minute and regular 10 cents a minute after that.

Page Plus has better coverage and a strong bring your own phone system along with better paygo rates.
Their unlimited plan is cheaper then Air Voice by five dollars and offers only 10 megs less.

Page Plus has been around since the 90s as a paging service and as a prepaid wireless carrier since the early 2000s. They have been the center of some controversy but they are pretty stable.

Air Voice is okay. Nothing spectacular but they do offer a solid lineup. Just that they are somewhat outclassed by their other Att mvno sisters in certain areas. Especially data/mms/intl calling.

I wouldn't be afraid of using them.

[Cell Saver]

Air Voice gsm has been around for a long time relatively speaking. At least since the early 2000s. They are a lot older then say Simple Mobile or a few other mvnos. They have identical coverage to the Att Gophone prepaid network. Their strong points are US customer service, lowest paygo rates of any Att mvno (slightly), and offer the lowest paygo data of any Att mvno (but still high at $2 a meg).

Their data offering is the weakest of all the major Att mvnos . They have 30 megs/100 mms vs say H20 or Red Pocket's 50 megs/unlimited mms at the same price ($50 or so for unlimited talk/text plus mms/data).

Other Att mvnos have better international rates by far (H20, Red Pocket and Jolt Gsm all beat Air Voice in that area).

Pure Talk is another Att mvno contender but they have ZERO data though they are supposedly working on it. They also offer strong intl voice/text plans.

Air Voice is okay. They also have a dollar a month e911 fee plus they charge 20 cents for the first minute and regular 10 cents a minute after that.

Page Plus has better coverage and a strong bring your own phone system along with better paygo rates.
Their unlimited plan is cheaper then Air Voice by five dollars and offers only 10 megs less.

Page Plus has been around since the 90s as a paging service and as a prepaid wireless carrier since the early 2000s. They have been the center of some controversy but they are pretty stable.

Air Voice is okay. Nothing spectacular but they do offer a solid lineup. Just that they are somewhat outclassed by their other Att mvno sisters in certain areas. Especially data/mms/intl calling.

I wouldn't be afraid of using them.

Fonz, is Airvoice still the only ATT MVNO offering MMS on a pay per minute plan? I like their lower minimum vs ATT $25/90 for times I use my phone less. But don't like the fees. And like OP I'm a bit concerned of losing my number if they were to suddenly go out of business.

[wdst]

Airvoice sounds fairly stable and the way to go if I decide to go gsm. Its kinda nice to be able to switch out sim cards on different phones, which you cant do on cdma. But at the same time its hard to beat verizons network down here. Itll all come down to how the AT&T coverage holds up during the trial run that I am doing with a go phone. I also need to see if their is a way to use an android phone and consume only minimal amounts of data. Am also kinda leary of Verizon/AT&T putting their feet down and disallowing android phones on their network after I go out and purchase one.

[LuuDucPhu]

Cell Saver:
Jolt GSM mobile (I pretty sure this is a AT&T MVNO) recently add MMS and data to their "pay per minute plan." see company link:

http://www.joltmobile.com/rateplans.aspx

but they used to be Jolt PCS under Sprint, so I don't know how stable they are.

It looks like the cheapest yearly cost is $40 per year ($10 every 90 Days), but not 100% sure.

[Cell Saver]

Airvoice sounds fairly stable and the way to go if I decide to go gsm. Its kinda nice to be able to switch out sim cards on different phones, which you cant do on cdma. But at the same time its hard to beat verizons network down here. Itll all come down to how the AT&T coverage holds up during the trial run that I am doing with a go phone. I also need to see if their is a way to use an android phone and consume only minimal amounts of data. Am also kinda leary of Verizon/AT&T putting their feet down and disallowing android phones on their network after I go out and purchase one.

I get better a VZ signal in my home than I have with a variety of TMo handsets and with AT&T I get a great signal on one handset but not another. That is the beauty of GSM though. The ease of switching phones.

[Cell Saver]

Cell Saver:
Jolt GSM mobile (I pretty sure this is a AT&T MVNO) recently add MMS and data to their "pay per minute plan." see company link:

http://www.joltmobile.com/rateplans.aspx

but they used to be Jolt PCS under Sprint, so I don't know how stable they are.

It looks like the cheapest yearly cost is $40 per year ($10 every 90 Days), but not 100% sure.

Thanks it has been awhile since I looked at Jolt so I'll check it out.

[robandjeanne]

I just acquired an iphone 3gs. The owner left their att sim card, but is using their old number in their new ip4g. Can I somehow reprogram (e.g. change the phone number) on this att sim card and use it with a pay as you go plan like PagePlus (without interfering with the original owner/phone number)? If not, where is a good place to buy a sim card that I can use on some prepaid plan like PagePlus, Airvoice, or PureTalk. I make very few calls so I think would be happy with the $10/3mos plans most of these carriers provide.

[LuuDucPhu]

robandjeanne: No on Page Plus, they are CDMA, and your iphone is GSM

Jolt Mobile: http://www.joltmobile.com/rateplans.aspx

$10 every 3 month for 10c per min, 10c per text, 20c per MMS, and 1c per kb for web.

BUT I read on the internet that is there is a size different between a 2G sim and 3G sim, which may be real or not.

I recommend buy a " jolt sim " on ebay for $5-$10 and see if it fit in your iphone.

another option is Spot Mobile.
but you would have to unlock your iphone (which may not be easy).
their strength is $5 every 3 month and you can use almost any GSM tower in USA (including the verizon gsm towers).
note that Spot Mobile does not support MMS or web on phones.

[fonezfonz]

The iphone 4 would be the only iphone with a different sized sim. The iphones 2g, 3g and 3gs all have standard sized sims. The iphone 4 of course, is still 3g data speeds only.

Spot Mobile gives nearly a full year of paygo for $20. And roaming. Imho the best deal in talk/text prepaid for gsm today.