Prepaid cell plans for Web, e-mail an option

Suzanne Choney • E-mail

You don’t have to buy an iPhone or BlackBerry, along with a contract and monthly data plan, to get e-mail and Web surfing on a cell phone.

A growing number of prepaid cell phone plans offer Web and e-mail service as add-ons. But consumers need to pay attention to the fine print of such prepaid plans, which vary widely.

“The primary benefit of having a prepaid account with data is that users can change their carrier or plan anytime they want without incurring a penalty,” said Deepa Karthikeyan, wireless data analyst for CurrentAnalysis research firm.

Eddie Kirby, a Sacramento political consultant, switched to T-Mobile’s FlexPay prepaid plan for Web, e-mail and voice a little more than a year ago, and is quite happy with it.

T-Mobile is the one major wireless carrier that lets customers BYOB — bring your own BlackBerry — for use with the company’s prepaid service.

“For young people or people on a strict budget, I think it works great,” said Kirby, who uses a BlackBerry 8700g — "a hand-me-down from my boss" — with the prepaid service.

He says he recommends a prepaid data service “to people who want to bring their own phone, or (who) want to have the flexibility to jump to a new device easily. Two years is an awful long time to be tethered to a smartphone, given the rate of progression in smartphone technology.”

17 percent are prepaid subscribers
About 17 percent of the nation’s wireless subscribers are prepaid customers, said Joseph Farren, assistant vice president of CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group.

Among the major prepaid carriers, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile each have about 5 million users; Boost Mobile, owned by Sprint, has 4 million and Verizon Wireless has 3 million, according to CurrentAnalysis. AT&T, queried by msnbc.com, declined to state its number of prepaid users.

The growing appeal of the mobile Web is drawing more customers to smartphones, which generally include Internet access and e-mail on them.

But monthly contracts for the phones can be pricey. The iPhone, for example, offered exclusively in the United States by AT&T, costs a minimum of $69.99 a month, with $30 of that for Web and e-mail. Text messaging is extra.

Other companies, such as Sprint, are offering $99-a-month “all-you-can-eat” plans with no limits on data use, including text messaging.

Prepaid rates can be lower
Karthikeyan said prepaid rates for Web and e-mail are generally lower than those for two-year contracts with wireless carriers.

“The main downsides are that prepaid customers do not have a wide variety of handsets or plans to choose from,” including the iPhone or BlackBerrys, she said.

“Also, their networks are typically slower and not as widespread when compared to 3G (third-generation) networks” of the major carriers, and that can have a “significant impact on the Web-browsing experience.”

If you’re looking to go the prepaid smartphone route, “then T-Mobile FlexPay is the way to go, said Matthew Kunkle, wireless service pricing analyst for CurrentAnalysis.

Any BlackBerry or smartphone can be activated with FlexPay, and the same e-mail and Web plans are available for prepaid customers as for those who have contracts with the provider, he said.

Most carriers “pretty much offer Web plans for a certain amount of time,” such as for a 24-hour period, or by the megabyte.

If you’re not used to tracking kilobytes and megabytes of data, they can add up quickly.

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