Cheapest way to get android data on Boost?

[Switching2Boost]

We all know that one can take certain old Windows Mobile phones and put them on Pay as You Go and get data for 50 cents per day.

What is the cheapest we can do with an Android for a person who primarily wants data, if we use very few minutes?

Thanks

[mbellot]

None of the Sprint android phones will work directly on Boost the way some WinMo phones would.

Your choices are:

Get an approved android device and pony up $55/mo (less in time with shrinkage)

Clone an approved PAYGO phone ESN (Incognito for example) into a Sprint android phone and use that for PAYGO service as you would a WinMo phone

The first choice isn't cheap, the second is (according to some) illegal. If you are going to go the second route I would strongly suggest taking the time to figure out how to do it yourself rather than relying on one of the many "services". You need to have possession of both phones at all times or who knows what might happen.

[gotanmp3]

What is the cheapest we can do with an Android for a person who primarily wants data, if we use very few minutes?

Virgin Mobile or T-Mobile, lol.

Someone will probably chime in and say "use a flashed phone", but MEID altering is a gray area as it is and doing it to get around paying for a more expensive plan is most likely fraud.

[kolosus]

Virgin Mobile or T-Mobile, lol.

Someone will probably chime in and say "use a flashed phone", but MEID altering is a gray area as it is and doing it to get around paying for a more expensive plan is most likely fraud.

I second what he said. MEID altering is a definite gray area given that you own both phones or destroy the donor after the change. But getting around paying for the more expensive plan is a definitely fraud. And in case of changing the MEID to avoid the more expensive plan, altering the MEID is suddenly not so gray!

[LargePrime]

MEID altering is a gray area as it is and doing it to get around paying for a more expensive plan is most likely fraud.

The FCC says it is legal. It is not Grey, its white
It is not a fraud to put the device you want ion the service you want. No one has EVER been even charged with such a silly thing

[-banned-]

What is the cheapest we can do with an Android for a person who primarily wants data, if we use very few minutes?

Thanks

for 2 yrs i used an evo on boost with Pay as You Go and just used data ONLY…. $10 per month for unlimited 3G data on pre-paid (grandfathered in to the old $.35 plan)

[-banned-]

MEID altering is a definite gray area given that you own both phones or destroy the donor after the change.

Having 2 different phones with the same esn / meid is illegal and known as cloning..

Taking the esn / meid off a donor phone and putting that same esn / meid onto a different phone and then DESTROYING the donor phone is 100% LEGAL….

[LargePrime]

Having 2 different phones with the same esn / meid is illegal and known as cloning..

Taking the esn / meid off a donor phone and putting that same esn / meid onto a different phone and then DESTROYING the donor phone is 100% LEGAL….

it is not illegal.
ESN Cloning was decriminalized. You can have phones With the same ESN.
What is Illegal is THEFT of Service. One example of which might be ...If you use multiple phones with the same ESN to get service in ways you would have to pay for for less than what you would have to pay for them otherwise, then you have stolen service.

You DO NOT HAVE TO DESTROY ANYTHING.

Why do people continually state things as TRUE, when they do not KNOW them to be true.

Also to the OP
Epic 4G on boost is the cheapest. With a mogul donor.

[gotanmp3]

Still, cloning a phone to make the carrier offer you a cheaper plan than they would've otherwise is fraud. It's like taking a 5 gallon bucket into an all-you-can-eat buffet and filling it with the entire tray of crab legs. While you may technically be planning to eat them and you did pay your entry fee, you're still clearly doing something shady. It's pretty easy to get free music, movies and software on the Internet too - that doesn't mean it's all legit, lol.

[BHPD104]

Putting the phone you want on the service you pay for is not a crime. No one has ever been convicted of it!

Uh afraid not. Boost Mobile charges a different monthly rate for Android phones than they do for non-Android phones. ($5/mo extra) When you put an Android phone the Boost network using the MEID of a non-Android phone, you are cheating the carrier out of $5.00 per month. How in the world can you honestly say that is not fraud?

And in your signature you say "No one has ever been convicted of it." How exactly do you know that? Have you examined the charging documents of EVERY court in the United States since cell phones first came about and found no evidence of ANYONE ever being charged with anything related to modifying ESN's or MEID's? I'm not saying it happens all the time, since for the most part it is hard to detect, but the doesn't mean that no one has ever been charged with it, and it certainly doesn't makes it 100% legal, as you say in your post above.

Sprint, like any other carrier, has the right to charge whatever they feel the market will bear for their services, but you do not have the right to alter your phone so that you can get a level of service which costs X, but only pay Y, by misrepresenting your device to the network. It's no different than using a descrambler to watch cable tv movies that you are not paying for. Just because you are paying for basic service, does not give you the right to modify or use equipment that you to get service you are not paying for.

Now you can argue with me all you want that the service provided to Android phones is the same that is provided to non-Android phones, but the carrier has set the price for using "that type of equipment" on their network, and I can't believe that there are any judges out there that would say it's okay to defraud them by making them think you are not using an Android phone.

Your signature also says "Putting the phone you want on the service you pay for is not a crime." Possibly, if that sentence were actually true. But as I have just stated, the "service" for using an Android phone is NOT the same as a non-Android phone, so your analogy does not work, because in most cases ther person using the altered phone is NOT paying the correct amount for the service they are getting.

[LargePrime]

This is just wrong.
The extra charge for boost phones is for boost phones. boost does not charge such a price for all phones running that OS. (ie touch pro 2 running android)
IF boost had a policy of charging a different policy for a different OS, that would be illegal. and unenforcable.
One can run whatever OS they want on any phone they want.

again the fcc has publicly said this is legal. and we have discussed it ad nausum. Your statements are just wrong.

If you want to contradict established law and the public statements of regulators, then the burden of proof is on you! Show us a case of someone who got in ANY trouble for doing it!

also you should read about contracts of adhesion. you cannot be held accountable for boosts contract. it exists to protect them, not hurt you.

[billm261]

Enough of the cloning already!

To the OP, get a phone on VM and do the automatic billing so you pay 30 a month.

[gotanmp3]

boost does not charge such a price for all phones running that OS. (ie touch pro 2 running android)

So by this logic, if I install Windows on a Mac, it's now a PC and Apple can void my warranty because they don't service PCs?

If you want to take advantage of the TP2-running-Android loophole, buy a TP2 and install Android on it. If you buy a phone that came with Android as its factory installed OS, it's an Android phone and should be on an Android plan.

[LargePrime]

If you buy a phone that came with Android as its factory installed OS, it's an Android phone and should be on an Android plan.

says you, but not boost.
Boost is using "Android" as a marketing term, not a networking term. you are confusing the uses of the term.
Again you have totally ignored the point that the OS of the device is irrelevant to boosts android plan. You cannot take that device and ask for another OS, or change the Os and get a different plan.
You cannot put other phones on that boost "android plan", no matter the OS.

You are paying more for boost support of that specific phone. And they are justifying the price due to the increased costs around support (Employee training. customer support questions, returns, ect.) for that specific device.

Again all you have to do is call boost and ask them. you are totally Wrong.

Also there are several boostable phones that run android. not just the tp2.

[gotanmp3]

You cannot take that device and ask for another OS, or change the Os and get a different plan.

Isn't this basically agreeing with my point that Boost classifies a phone based on the OS it shipped with? Just like a Mac is still a Mac regardless of whether you run Windows or Linux on it, if Boost sells you an Android phone it is still an Android phone, even if you used some sort of technical wizardry to install a dumbphone OS on it. Boost is under no obligation to let you use a Transform Ultra on PAYGO even if you hack the Rant's OS onto it. By the same token, a TP2 is still a TP2 regardless of what OS you install on it.

Unless something has changed recently, there are no Sprint branded phones which shipped with Android preinstalled that can be "Boosted" without being MEID altered.