AT&T Prepaid $100 Refill Card

Rating:
Summary: $100 cards now Last 1 Year!
Review: 02/04 Free 2 Go Wireless brochure states, $100 card lasts 1 year. 15¢ per minute. Roaming 69¢/minute. One year expiration makes it easy to keep emergency cell phone active, without frequent airtime additions.

Rating:
Summary: $100 cards now Last 1 Year!
Review: 02/04 Free 2 Go Wireless brochure states, $100 card lasts 1 year. 15¢ per minute. Roaming 69¢/minute. One year expiration makes it easy to keep emergency cell phone active, without frequent airtime additions.

Rating:
Summary: Great for occasional cell phone users
Review: With the new expiration rules for AT&T Free2Go, this is a great way for the occasional cell phone user to get cellular service with wide coverage. The $100 airtime card is good for up to one year and provides airtime at only 15 cents per minute.

For those who only want a phone for emergencies, this plan provides them with a full year of service for around $8 per month, with an average of 55 minutes of airtime per month. Plus, you don't have to worry about refilling your account monthly or quarterly as most prepaid cellular plans require -- just buy airtime once a year.

For those who use their phone a little more, this could work out better than a contract plan, too. If you average 200 minutes of actual airtime per month, this would work out to an average of $30 per month (and no taxes on top of that). Many people pay around $40 per month for a contract plan that allows them 500 minutes, but if you're only actually using 200 minutes of airtime, then you'd be better off with this plan.

I've found that AT&T Wireless' TDMA coverage (which is what Free2Go uses, as opposed to their "Next Generation" GSM coverage) provides the best nationwide availability for me. I get very good coverage from their TDMA signals in most areas, and in the extremely rural areas I can roam onto analog coverage. The cost per-minute on this plan jumps to 69 cents per minute off the AT&T Network, but at least I have coverage and therefore the option of making a call).

My wife has GSM coverage -- we've found the GSM coverage seems to work okay in cities or along major freeway routes, but drops quickly in more rural settings. Since I want coverage in as many places as I can get, that ruled out GSM coverage for me (Cingular, T-Mobile, or AT&T's Next Generation plans); plus, GSM phones will generally not roam onto the rural analog systems. Likewise, my previous experience with Sprint soured me on their coverage (since they use 1900 MHz frequencies exclusively, their signal doesn't penetrate buildings very well), so when I was shopping for prepaid service, that ruled out Virgin Mobile (which uses Sprint's network, and also does not allow analog roaming). I did seriously consider Verizon, but their prepaid plans require a minimum charge of $15/month to maintain service.

The other bonus with prepaid is that you get every minute you pay for. So if your phone usage is inconsistent -- lets say you use 300 minutes this month, but only 100 minutes next month, you get the same 15 cents per minute on all airtime without any worry of expensive per-minute charges when you exceed your contract plan's allowable minutes.

You can set up an AT&T Free2Go account with any AT&T Wireless Digital Network phone, so you don't necessarily need to purchase a brand new phone. I was able to find a nice, but really cheap phone on eBay.