Airvoice Wireless: New $10 monthly plan

[seank]

I am switching my wife's iPhone from AT&T prepaid to AirVoice on the new $10 plan. She does not use much data, but she wants to have access to it when needed. I thought I would share my brief experience. I purchased an AirVoice Sim card for $4.99 shipped. It arrived fairly quickly. Activation was painless. I called customer service to activate data. That was very quick and easy. Customer service was very helpful and I got a real person right away.

The next today I added another $10 plan to her account. This was on a Sunday, when I have heard there are no customer service representatives. It took about 24 hours for the new $10 to show up on her account balance. But when it did, the expiration date was extended an additional 30 days. Not 30 days from when the second card was added, but an additional full 30 days. So now she had almost $20 on her account which doesn't expire for 59 days.

There is some slow background data usage. In the 5 days it has been active she has used about $1.33 of data without really specifically using data. That includes some time when she was out and I was using Find My Friends to track her location though.

But today I deactivated location services and to my knowledge she has not done anything specific data wise, but her account balance is still dropped about $.15-$.20.

Anyway, so far I am pretty happy. I am not 100% sure whether the data on this plan will make sense in the long run for her use.

[Pabster]

iPhone leaks data on the cellular side even with WiFi, only solution is to turn off cellular data completely. Otherwise you will have bits here and there leaking out on cellular and being charged the 33 cents per MB for them. On my phone it isn't much, usually amounts to no more than 100 or 200kB per day of usage, but it would add up over 30 days...

[k-sider]

Just got a new activation, a few thoughts while they are fresh in my mind....

-CS is excellent, called 3 times in an hour and never waited for more than a few seconds. Rep emailed me apn settings before I activated.

-Even though it says to call CS to enable data, it appears that they enable it by changing the apn setting on the phone, so if you have the settings it doesn't seem to need a call to CS.

-I notice when I get a text message you get a notification before the text saying "the last transaction costs $.02" or something like that before you even see the message. Odd. But I kind of like it, its like a little warning that you are about to get a text message

-Balance seems to be updated immediately. Confirmed that there is rollover which is no surprise to anyone already in the thread.

-Apparently you need a new sim to port a number so I got a new number to test the waters before committing my main number.

Overall despite its limitations like no OLAM I think I like it so far....obviously you can use the USDD *777# as much as you need to for free, right?

[Jairzinho]

I'm willing to testdrive Airvoice as an alternative for at&t GoPhone PAYG now that they have removed the data packages.
I see that there is still a page for an Airvoice PAYG plan HERE but I cannot reach it from the main page. I read quickly thru this thread but I cannot find some answers:

1- Has the PAYG plan been discontinued and replaced by the $10/month plan?
2- If not, does the PAYG plan offer data? for how much? I cannot find any info in that page.
EDIT:3- What info/things can be obtained/done in their OLAM? I'd really would like a call/transaction history. (In case I decide to port my kid's number to AV).

PAYG would be ideal for me as I don't even talk 100 min/month but I want some occasional data access.

EDIT: I found the PAYG option in the activation page, but still the PAYG information page cannot be reached from the main page. So I guess that the PAYG plan is still available.

[bohbot16]

The only thing I've found is that you can check your balance and expiration from http://www.airvoicewireless.com/Refill.aspx

[PL1]

1- Has the PAYG plan been discontinued and replaced by the $10/month plan?
2- If not, does the PAYG plan offer data? for how much? I cannot find any info in that page.

When you select the $10 PAYG, you will see "Not the right plan?" on the right. There I select PAY AS YOU GO.
http://www.airvoicewireless.com/PlansPayasYouGo.aspx
HOW TO USE MY FEATURES:
Mobile Web (Data)
The Mobile Web, or Data, provides you with Internet access on your mobile device. Use of this feature requires a Data compatible phone as well as a Data package. Please note, although you may attempt to view any webpage using your mobile phone, not all websites are formatted for mobile devices. You may experience delays as well as the inability to access certain websites when using the internet on your mobile phone.

Pay As You Go customers will be charged $2.00 per 1mB used, and must contact customer service to request Data to be added on the account.

Where as, the $10/mo. plan
http://www.airvoicewireless.com/Plans10Min.aspx
Data 33 cents per MB

[Pabster]

Wow, $2/MB on PAYG?! And here I thought PP was ripping us off at 99 cents per MB!

[PL1]

Wow, $2/MB on PAYG?! And here I thought PP was ripping us off at 99 cents per MB!

There has been some confirmation that it is .33 per MB and that their site has not been updated.
Edit: And I still think that is a rip-off. It is easy to rack up some hefty charges at .33/MB

[Pabster]

There has been some confirmation that it is .33 per MB and that their site has not been updated.
Edit: And I still think that is a rip-off. It is easy to rack up some hefty charges at .33/MB

Yes, it is a rip-off. 50MB seems to be a common usage figure for "light" users, that would be $16.50 for data alone. No freaking way I'd pay that for such little data. But hey, to each their own.

[seank]

Everyone has different usage patterns and needs. If someone really has extra light phone usage, the AirVoice $10 plan might really be a good deal. If you need more than a few tens of megabytes per month then it probably makes sense to look elsewhere.

[PL1]

It sounds like a great deal honestly, but when you look at how fast the data could eat up your balance, that's the only issue. For a non-data plan it is great. I could go through 10MB reading a few news sites. If I did that a couple days a week, we are talking $30/month. For $30/mo I can get a TMO unlimited text/data w/100 min talk.

Eliminate the data, then they are cheaper than TMO & AT&T.

[Pabster]

It sounds like a great deal honestly, but when you look at how fast the data could eat up your balance, that's the only issue. For a non-data plan it is great. I could go through 10MB reading a few news sites. If I did that a couple days a week, we are talking $30/month. For $30/mo I can get a TMO unlimited text/data w/100 min talk.

Eliminate the data, then they are cheaper than TMO & AT&T.

Yep. I guess we keep awaiting a $10-$15 monthly plan with reasonable data rates. Or a useable size bucket option. GoPhone was the closest to that but has been killed.

[jchf]

I ported my wife's number to this plan for her iPhone since she's a light user. She uses wifi at home so she didn't need the internet option. Either way, she burned through the first $10 in about 2.5 weeks and with an initial expiration date for that first month of 4/6/2012. She had about 68 cents remaining in her account when I added another $10. Her new balance was $10.68 and the the new expiration date has now been pushed to 5/6/2012. I was surprised to learn that the new expiration date added a month beginning from the old expiration date and not the date after I added the new card.

There is no OLAM but you can call them. AirVoice customer service is excellent and you're not on hold for long at all. Data is disabled by default anyway.

So far she's happy and you know what they say, right? A happy wife is a happy life!

Hi, how did you do the port into the $10 plan?
The problem is that I can't find where to buy this $10 PIN number.

If I select "Option 1 - Prepaid Wireless Check Out",
I only see the $10 "Buy Additional Data, MMS, & Other Content"... which doesn't seem to be for 'talk or text' plan.

If I select "Option 3 - Shopping Cart Check Out",
it asks for an Airvoice W Number, which I don't have because the SIM is not active (unactivated SIM required in the porting form).

And the western union is NOT an option I want to use.

Thanks.

[jchf]

I am switching my wife's iPhone from AT&T prepaid to AirVoice on the new $10 plan. She does not use much data, but she wants to have access to it when needed. I thought I would share my brief experience. I purchased an AirVoice Sim card for $4.99 shipped. It arrived fairly quickly. Activation was painless. I called customer service to activate data. That was very quick and easy. Customer service was very helpful and I got a real person right away.

The next today I added another $10 plan to her account. This was on a Sunday, when I have heard there are no customer service representatives. It took about 24 hours for the new $10 to show up on her account balance. But when it did, the expiration date was extended an additional 30 days. Not 30 days from when the second card was added, but an additional full 30 days. So now she had almost $20 on her account which doesn't expire for 59 days.

There is some slow background data usage. In the 5 days it has been active she has used about $1.33 of data without really specifically using data. That includes some time when she was out and I was using Find My Friends to track her location though.

But today I deactivated location services and to my knowledge she has not done anything specific data wise, but her account balance is still dropped about $.15-$.20.

Anyway, so far I am pretty happy. I am not 100% sure whether the data on this plan will make sense in the long run for her use.

Hi, did the switch include porting?? I want to port into the $10 plan.
The problem is that I can't find where to buy this $10 PIN number.

If I select "Option 1 - Prepaid Wireless Check Out",
I only see the $10 "Buy Additional Data, MMS, & Other Content"... which doesn't seem to be for 'talk or text' plan.

If I select "Option 3 - Shopping Cart Check Out",
it asks for an Airvoice W Number, which I don't have because the SIM is not active (unactivated SIM required in the porting form).

And the western union is NOT an option I want to use.

Thanks.

[zigy24]

I called Air Voice and they did the port, activation & added the $10.00 plan over the phone. Took less than 10 minutes. Less than fifteen minutes after I called my sim was activated & number was ported.