Prepaid cell plans for Web, e-mail an option

Minding your megabytes
If the size of an “average” e-mail is between 5 and 10 kilobytes, and the “average” digital music file is 3 megabytes, according to Karthikeyan, you start to get a sense of how some of the prepaid data plans from major wireless carriers might or might not work for you. Here’s a snapshot offered by CurrentAnalysis:

• AT&T: One cent per kilobyte; $4.99 a month for 1 megabyte; $9.99 a month for 5 megabytes; $14.99 for 10 megabytes.
• Boost Mobile: 35 cents a day for unlimited Web usage; unlimited text and Web plan, $10 a month; "Unlimited by Boost" unlimited mobile Web usage included with a $70-a-month plan.
• Verizon Wireless INpulse: 99 cents a day for unlimited use of Mobile Web 2.0 (through Verizon Wireless).
• T-Mobile FlexPay: MobileWeb add-on for non-smartphones, is $5.99/month; Total Internet Web and e-mail add-on plan is $19.99 a month.

T-Mobile, the exclusive carrier of the Sidekick, has a pay-as-you-go plan for it of $19.99 a month for unlimited Web and e-mail.

If you have a BlackBerry, it’s the same cost. If you want to have unlimited Web use, as well as e-mail that will let you connect to a BlackBerry Enterprise Servers for corporate e-mail, the cost is $29.98 a month.

Sidekick prepaid users can also choose to have unlimited e-mail and Web browsing for a $1 a day if they don’t want to go with a monthly plan.

Virgin Mobile also offers monthly data plans that include $5 a month for 20 megabytes, as well as $20 a month for 50 megabytes. There’s also a pay-as-you-go plan for $1.50 a day for 1 megabyte of Web and e-mail use.

“For prepaid users who do not have the option to pick a data plan, like Verizon Wireless’ INpulse customers, spending 99 cents per day of use, or spending a few cents per kilobyte of data used can run up a steep bill on top of voice, depending on usage,” said Karthikeyan.

T-Mobile’s FlexPay option is probably one of the most popular for prepaid customers” because, in part, it offers BlackBerry and other smartphone options, which are “usually not even sold to prepaid users,” said Kunkle.

Unofficial double duty
Sometimes the prepaid option for data is so attractive price-wise, some customers have used their cell phones to get Internet access on their computers.

That may have been the case with AT&T’s $19.99-a-month unlimited MEdia Net plan for its prepaid GoPhone users. The company is discontinuing the pricing plan as of Nov. 12.

“While the feature will no longer be available for purchase, customers who have already signed up for unlimited data through the GoPhone ‘Pick Your Plan’ option will not lose it,” said Alexandra Trask, AT&T spokeswoman.

“The prepaid pay-per-use data rate remains unchanged at one cent per kilobyte,” she said. “GoPhone customers may also choose from two data packages at $4.99 for 1 MB and $9.99 for 5 MB.”

Among the major prepaid wireless carriers, MetroPCS, TracFone (which does not have data add-ons), Cricket, Virgin Mobile and T-Mobile were rated highest for customer satisfaction, according to a J.D. Power and Associates report earlier this year.

Doesn't want to be 'locked in'
Kirby of Sacramento figures he pays about $105 a month, “after taxes,” for his phone. He uses the BlackBerry Enterprise Service ($30 a month), has 1,000 text messages a month ($10) and 1,500 voice minutes ($60 a month).

“There is no difference in cost between my plan and a contract plan. I get to pick from all the same choices for the same prices as a contract customer,” he said.

The difference for him is that he “doesn’t want to be locked into a contract, and I don’t want overage charges. I was on a contract plan in 2006-2007, and I ran up a ton of overage charges — nearly $250 in a month.”

Wireless companies generally subsidize the cost of phones as an incentive for customers to sign a one- or two-year agreement, figuring they’ll make up the difference in the cost of the phone and more with the monthly service fees a customer pays.

To Kirby, “A free $300 phone is not worth being tied into two years with a particular company or plan that’s going to be taking thousands of dollars from you over the lifetime of the contract.”

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