What's New?

09/07/2010: Updated Roadrunner page
(Coverage report Andover ME). U.S. Cellular's GSM 850 roaming network is live (not much detail right now, but network is 310-730).

09/07/2010: Corrected Pageplus info on Pageplus page. [thanks Ed]

08/11/2010: 2Q2010 update
Verizon   - 92,100,000 total;   1,400,000 net adds
AT&T      - 90,100,000 total;   1,600,000 net adds
Sprint     - 48,200,000 total;       111,000 net adds
T-Mobile  - 33,600,000 total;     -93,000 (net loss)
Tracfone  - 15,900,000 total;      460,000 net adds
MetroPCS -  7,600,000 total;      303,000 net adds
U.S.C.     -  6,144,000 total;       -3,000 (net loss)
Leap        -  5,288,000 total;    -112,000 (net loss)

07/27/2010: Pulled Airvoice CDMA from the prepaid comparison chart as the Verizon-based service is going away by end of year (to be replaced with Sprint MVNO perhaps). [thanks Big Blue 023]

07/22/2010: Corrected T-Mobile rates on Prepaid Comparison chart. [thanks Bob]

07/15/2010: Updated ME Coverage Area chart - added Sprint coverage to Augusta and Bangor [thanks Jerry]

07/13/2010: Corrected PagePlus plans on Hybrid Comparison chart. [thanks Bob]

05/31/20: Updated NH Coverage Area Chart.  Quite a bit of new 3G coverage for U.S. Cellular, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Sprint stands out for having done basically nothing for years in what seems to be a "third world country" in their book.

05/31/20: Working on a new data plan table.  There are so many unlimited and hybrids to keep track of and voice rates are so low as to be a commodity now.  Seems that getting deals on text and data are where the holes are right now so that is where I am going to concentrate. See newbie page for some updated info.

05/31/2010: PlatimumTel has come out with a new PAYG plan (5c voice, 2c text, 10c MMS and 10c data). The only catch is you have to use their phones and there are no HTML/Smartphone capable handsets in the bunch to take advantage of the low data rate. There are also hybrid and unlimited available. Sprint network only (no roaming).

05/16/2010: New T-Mobile prepay plans in effect. $15/month for unlimited text/mms and 10c voice.  $50 unlimited voice/text.  The downside is data. The new data plan is pay by the hour. 99c. [update 5/31 - only a few select dumb phones can use the 99c/hour data. No smartphones]  

05/12/2010: 1Q2010 update
Verizon   - 92,800,000 total;   1,500,000 net adds
AT&T     -  87,000,000 total;   1,900,000 net adds
Sprint     - 48,100,000 total;      -75,000 (net loss)
T-Mobile  - 33,700,000 total;     -77,000 (net loss)
Tracfone  - 15,500,000 total;   1,000,000 net adds MetroPCS -   7,300,000 total;     692,000 net adds
U.S.C.     -   6,147,000 total;        6,000 net adds
Leap        -   5,400,000 total;     446,000 net adds  [thanks Ed & danny.boi]

05/04/2010: New Virgin Mobile plans revealed to take effect at the end of May. Biggest news is Blackberry BIS add on for $10/month and three new phones (Blackberry Curve $300, LG Rumor Touch $150 and Kyocera Loft $70). Downside of course is no roaming.

04/30/2010: PagePlus Canada roaming confirmed at 60c/min. Updated Prepaid Comparison chart and Hybrid Comparison chart.

 4/20/2010: PagePlus unlimited plan price increase from $39.95 to $44.95 effective May 18.

3/28/2010: Updated My Stuff (VZW shut down Unicel GSM in this area so that they could run CDMA/EV-DO on it).  Also pics of my the a855.

03/26/2010: Updated NH Coverage Area chart - corrected MetroPCS roaming partner [thanks Mike]

03/24/2010: Cricket has one-upped MetroPCS in a big way.  Where as MetroPCS has free roaming on U.S. Cellular nationwde, Cricket now has free roaming on Sprint nationwide.  That's big.  You still have to reside in a Cricket service area to start Cricket service.

03/24/2010: One of the Page Plus owners responds here and that gives you the flavor of how the company is run.  As of right now Page Plus is still a great deal for PAYG. Their unlimited is not exactly unlimited, if you hit their undocumented thresholds you get the boot off of unlimited with no warning. If you talk hundreds of minutes a day, call forward often, or have long data sessions, then I would avoid the unlimited plan and go with another provider. You can not activate several smartphone brands or phones that are sold for Verizon prepay. Other than that things seem to be stable. [upd 3/26]

03/19/2010: Page Plus appears to be going down the tubes, new drama on a daily basis. I can no longer recommend them. If they do not come clean on what is going on by early next week they are off the prepaid charts. Don't port your postpaid or landline right now.

02/25/2010: 4Q09 update
Verizon   - 91,200,000 total;   2,200,000 net adds
AT&T     -  85,100,000 total;   2,700,000 net adds
Sprint     - 48,100,000 total;    -200,000 (net loss)
T-Mobile  - 33,800,000 total;     371,000 net adds    
Tracfone  - 14,400,000 total;   1,200,000 net adds
U.S.C.     -   6,141,000 total;       10,000 net adds
MetroPCS -   6,640,000 total;     317,000 net adds
Leap        -   4,950,000 total;     298,000 net adds 
[thanks for the tip Ed]

2/20/2010: Updated Coverage Report page
(Coverage report Andover ME from last fall! )

2/19/2009: AT&T updated their coverage maps a couple days ago. Nothing much changed in the northeast.

02/06/2009: Updated VT coverage area with AT&T 3g areas [thanks Travis]. Also updated NH coverage area. Corrected USC coverage map link.

02/05/2010: PagePlus is making several unannounced changes (such as denying smartphone activations). They are not stable right now, not sure what is going on. Be careful!

02/03/2010: PagePlus lowered roaming rates from 59c down to 29c. Unsure if this includes Canada. Updated Prepaid Comparison chart and Hybrid Comparison chart.

You can see previous news here