GoPhone Data Packages

[agentasian]

It seems that no one can get the GoPhone Prepaid Unlimited Plan to work with a smartphone with unlimited data - and that one of the data packages is required - i.e. $25/500MB.

1. What would be the difference between the following options?
[$25/month voice plan + $25/500MB data package]
versus
[$35/month No-Commitment 3GB Data Package (for Tablets) + Skype Number/SMS]

2. The main (questionable) assumption I know that I'm making:
- The Tablet Data Package will work in a smartphone (in my case, possibly an unbranded GS2 from China). Anyone know if this will work?

I travel abroad a lot - so I am particularly interested in economical prepaid plans. I already have a Skype account (with a phone number + unlimited US calling) for use when I'm out of the country.

Thanks!

 

[rui-no-onna]

The $35/3GB plan is only available for 2-year service agreement. The no-commitment $25/2GB plan, I think you can only get if you buy a tablet from AT&T.

Do you really need the $25/month voice plan? Because if you're already routing SMS through Skype/Google Voice, the unlimited texting with the $25/250 min plan is irrelevant and it would end up costing the same per minute as the Pay As You Go $0.10/min plan. Given that, PAYGO becomes more economical as you're not forced to pay $25 per month even on months when you don't use your phone. Another thing, if you only used 100 minutes in one month, you're only charged $10 for that month on PAYGO while on the $25 plan, you still pay $25 regardless of whether you used all your minutes or not.

I'm not sure how much bandwidth Skype uses but I've tested Google Voice and worst case is 1MB/minute. With the $25/500MB plan, it's $0.05/MB so a 1 minute call on 3G data basically costs $0.05. However, call quality isn't as good as a native call, particularly if you've got low signal strength. On 2G/EDGE, forget it.

 

[agentasian]

The $35/3GB plan is only available for 2-year service agreement. The no-commitment $25/2GB plan, I think you can only get if you buy a tablet from AT&T.

Do you really need the $25/month voice plan? Because if you're already routing SMS through Skype/Google Voice, the unlimited texting with the $25/250 min plan is irrelevant and it would end up costing the same per minute as the Pay As You Go $0.10/min plan. Given that, PAYGO becomes more economical as you're not forced to pay $25 per month even on months when you don't use your phone. Another thing, if you only used 100 minutes in one month, you're only charged $10 for that month on PAYGO while on the $25 plan, you still pay $25 regardless of whether you used all your minutes or not.

I'm not sure how much bandwidth Skype uses but I've tested Google Voice and worst case is 1MB/minute. With the $25/500MB plan, it's $0.05/MB so a 1 minute call on 3G data basically costs $0.05. However, call quality isn't as good as a native call, particularly if you've got low signal strength. On 2G/EDGE, forget it.

I agree entirely.

I'm actually using a combination of GVoice and Skype now as it is. I guess if I really wanted to go nuts on data while I'm back home, I can just stack two 500MB data packs for the same $50 as the voice plan + 500MB data package.

Thanks for the input!