Net10 Prepaid Wireless
The Net10 Prepaid Wireless phones first hit the
shelves in the spring of 2005, and have immediately become a serious player in
the prepaid cellular industry. It's hard to beat a flat rate of 10 cents
per minute, and there are no contracts, credit checks, monthly fees, security
deposits, activation or deactivation charges, or age restrictions!
While researching the Net10 service, you might
notice that it is similar to TracFone is several ways. For instance, they
only offer phones that are also offered by TracFone, and the Net10 and TracFone
websites are similar in a lot of ways. In fact, if you read the fine
print, you will find that the reason for the similarities is that Net10 is owned
by TracFone!
Since I already have a full
TracFone Review on this website, I'll mainly focus this Net10 review on the
differences between TracFone and Net10. In general, TracFone is going to
make more sense if you are a light to medium cellular user who mainly wants a
cell phone for emergencies and occasional use. Net10, on the other hand,
is going to make more sense for you if you plan on using your phone on a regular
basis and need more than just a few minutes per month.
As with TracFone, a Net10 phone has to be active and
has to have minutes remaining on the phone for it to work. When you buy
and redeem an airtime card, it will add the minutes to your phone and extend
your activation time.
Net10 currently offers the following airtime cards:
300 minutes and up to 60 days of service for $30
600 minutes and up to 90 days of service for $60
1,800 minutes and up to 6 months of service for $180
3,000 minutes and up to 1 year of service for $300
Note that the due date is extended
based on the date on which you add the airtime to the phone. Also, the
minutes never expire as long as you keep your phone active. If you let the
phone expire, however, you will lose any minutes on the phone. The good
thing is that your activation due date is shown right on the screen of the
phone. You might even want to mark your calendar so that you're sure to
remember!
Minutes are deducted from your
phone whenever you make or receive calls, and your total minutes remaining will
be displayed right on the screen of phone so you'll always know at a glance how
many minutes you have left. This is a very handy feature that is not
available on any other prepaid plans other than Net10 and TracFone.
The coverage area for Net10 is
identical to the coverage area for the single-rate TracFone phones. It
covers all of the major cities and highways, and many rural areas as well.
I have a single-rate Nokia 2600 TracFone, and it has better coverage than I
expected.
I have taken that phone on a drive
from Springfield, MO to Wichita, KS, and it received a signal for most of the
trip. There were a couple of stretches of a few miles along the way in
southern Kansas where it wouldn't work, but my standard TracFone didn't get a
signal either, so there was simply no cellular signal available to pick up.
Click here to see the latest offers at the Net10 online store
Click here to see the latest offers at the TracFone
online store
My wife, Amy, and I also recently
took the phone on a vacation to Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and northern
Virginia. The only place that I noticed that the phone didn't get a signal
was in some of the valleys in the mountains near Front Royal, VA. Overall,
though, I was very happy with the coverage area on the phone.
A coverage map is available on the
Net10 website, and it has proved to be pretty accurate in my experience.
Of course, your local circumstances may be unique, and there's really not a good
way to know for sure in advance if you'll get coverage in your specific area
unless you either ask around to see if anyone you knows already has a Net10
phone or a single-rate TracFone.
Net10 Coverage Map
I have owned my single-rate Nokia
2600 TracFone for over a year now, and it has been a great little phone.
Since Net10 is simply a different brand of TracFone, I have no doubt that Net10
phones will also work well.
So the question is whether it
makes more sense for you to go with TracFone or Net10. Since the Net10
phones are basically identical to the single-rate TracFones, it really just
comes down to which would be cheaper for you based on your anticipated usage.
Also, it's unfortunate, but you can't convert a TracFone phone into a Net10
phone or vice versa, and you have to buy TracFone airtime cards for TracFone
phones and Net10 airtime cards for Net10 phones.
When comparing the cost structures
of the two plans, let's look at what $30 buys you. With Net10 that $30
will buy you 300 minutes and 60 days of active service, while you would get only
120 minutes and 60 days of active service with TracFone. Thus, if you're
happy with spending only $15/month on a cell phone, then it's pretty much a slam
dunk to go with Net10 over TracFone.
TracFone offers a 60 minute card
for $19 that also includes 60 days of active service, so if you talk less than
30 minutes/month, you can keep your phone active for the equivalent of
$10/month, which is a little cheaper than Net10.
Another thing to consider is that
a standard TracFone is going to get coverage almost anywhere in the country
where a cellular signal is available, while Net10 and single-rate TracFones will
not get a signal in some rural areas. Check the coverage maps and think
about how important this is to you.
You can buy the 3,000 minute
1-year Net10 card for $300, while the 150 minute 1-year TracFone card only costs
$90. It 's very convenient to have your phone active for a year at a time,
but what you really have to consider is how much you are planning on using the
phone. Yes, the Net10 airtime is cheaper per minute, but if you are only
planning on talking a few minutes per month, then it would still be cheaper
to go with TracFone.
I hope that the above has helped
more than confused! Just carefully consider how much you plan on using the
phone, and it will probable become clear which is best for you. If you're
on the borderline, then I'd probably go with Net10 because most people end up
using their cell phones more than they thought they would!
Click here to see the latest offers at the Net10 online store
Click here to see the latest offers at the TracFone
online store
Happy Shopping!
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"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"
Joshua 24:15
