vs.

Last week, we featured AT&T, a full national carrier, vs. Alltel, which, despite having coverage in all major markets, is not available for purchase and activation everywhere. It’s an inherent problem that we’re inevitably going to come across often. That’s why we’re going to compare as many of these companies as possible. That way, you can see how each service stacks up against all the others.

Boost’s pay-as-you-go is quite average, considering the per-minute rates of other prepaid carriers. During peak hours, calls are 20 cents per minute. If you’re talking to another Boost or Sprint customer, or after 9 p.m. and on the weekends, the rate is 10 cents per minute. It’s tough to assume where a user’s average per-minute rate is, since everyone uses their phone differently. But we can make a rough estimate by splitting the difference. If you can average out to 15 cents a minute, we’ll say you’ve used your Boost pay-as-you-go account wisely.

If you don’t travel out of your home calling area much, Jump offers a far superior rate. First off, incoming calls are free, the way it should be (you know, the way it was back in the day, before we had phones attached to our hips). When you place calls, they’re just 10 cents per minute. Once again, there comes the issue of average rate per minute, and this one is even tougher to figure than Boost. Why? Simple manipulation, our friends. Since most other people in the cell phone bearing world pay whether they make or receive a call, you can get people to call you more often…or send a text message rather than calling…or call them, tell them to call you, and hang up, effectively using just one minute.

However, the plan becomes less ideal when you travel outside of your local calling area. And by less ideal, we mean absolutely horrific. It’s 69 cents per minute, both outgoing and incoming. So — and we hope this is needless to say — if you don’t work strictly within your home calling area, you probably shouldn’t be using Jump. This also goes for people on the fringe of a calling area; you’re just more apt to leave the calling area and pay four, five, or even six times what you’d pay with other carriers.

When it comes to text messaging, Boost and Jump are on even ground, both offering 10 cent outgoing messages and free incoming messages. Ah, but then we get to the Jump caveat. Surprisingly, text messages outside of your local calling area won’t cost you a penny more. Heh, the catch: text messaging simply will not work in these ares. So once again, we have the give and take of price vs. convenience.

Boost has a major edge in data services. For just 35 cents a day, you can explore the web on your Boost phone. With Jump, such a service is not available. They do have Jump Downloads, which allows you access to select media outlets. But it’s a one-time, $5 fee for access, plus the cost of each download. If you’re an Internet junkie, it’s all Boost.

Like most other prepaid carriers — and heck, telecommunications companies in general — both Boost and Jump have hard to reach customer service departments. We once called Boost to ask a simple question (pertaining to number porting, if our memory serves us), and waited on hold for an inordinate length of time. However, our experience with Jump was far worse. In fact, we never even reached a rep. This shouldn’t be a problem for subscribers, since the reason we couldn’t get through is because we don’t have an account number. Either way, we can’t vouch for their level of service.

And now we get to phones. Now, we’re not saying that Boost has anything resembling a comprehensive selection of phones. In fact, they’re exclusively supplied by Motorola, which certainly limits your options. But when they’re put up against Jump’s selection, it’s like the King’s army vs. the peasants. Jump offers just two phones. And while we’ve been told that you can “flash” a CDMA phone so it will work on any network, it’s not something we’d recommend. So many things can go wrong in that kind of process. Even so, in theory, you could do the same with Boost.

The verdict: It’s tough to gauge the average per-minute rate under each plan, though it’s clear that Jump’s is lower. WIth text messaging being equal, you’d think it’s a tough call. We don’t see it that way, though. Boost has better coverage and the same rates no matter where you’re talking. If you so much as step outside your local calling area with Jump, you’re basically screwed.

Given this, plus Boost’s superior data services and phone selection, we have to hand it to them. Yeah, if you only call within your local calling area, if you don’t care about data service, and if you don’t care about a limited phone selection, yeah, you might be fine with Jump. But that’s a lot of ifs. Boost is simply better on a universal level.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Pay-As-You-Go Faceoff: Boost vs. Jump

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Pay-As-You-Go Faceoff: Boost vs. Jump

Yes, you can get calls for 10 cents per minute with AT&T. You just have to pay a one dollar per day access fee. Now, it does give you unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes, which are far more valuable than Alltel’s mobile-to-mobile minutes, since AT&T crushes Alltel in subscriber numbers.

However, Alltel’s pay-per-day plan lays down the Hammer of Thor on AT&T otherwise. You can scrap the mobile-to-mobile minutes and take the other three options for the same per-day rate as AT&T charges you for just mobile-to-mobile. After that, call rates are the same. Except with Alltel, you won’t be paying for your night and weekend calls, whereas with AT&T you’ll run up your bill doing so. Unless, that is, you want to pay another $20 per month for 3,000 night and weekend minutes. But really, that’s just a $10 discount.

You’ll also be hit with text messaging charges with AT&T, a feature known to slowly inflate a cell phone bill. While Alltellers can text whoever they want, whenever they want with their plan, AT&T customers will be paying 15 cents per text message, both incoming and outgoing. No, you did not read that wrong. A hundred text messages with Alltel’s pay-per-day: zero dollars. A hundred text messages with AT&T’s pay-as-you-go: $15. This puts Alltel’s plan completely out of AT&T’s league.

So let’s break it down before getting into the other aspects, because if voice and text prices are that discrepant, the other features shouldn’t matter. We’ll stick with the base of 100 text messages per month, though that’s on the low end nowadays.

Say you use 400 minutes per month. That’s $40 per month with AT&T, and less than that with Alltel, since you have unlimited nights and weekends and favorite number calling. So we’ll say, being generous, that you’d spend $25 with Alltel. On top of that, you use 100 text messages. Alltel: free. AT&T: $15.

End result
Alltel: $55 ($25 in voice fees, $30 access fee)
AT&T: $85 ($40 in voice fees, $30 access fee, $15 in text messaging)

Of course, many people will call shenanigans on us, saying that a more accurate comparison would be for Alltel’s per-minute plan, lest we bring AT&T’s monthly plans into the fold (once again, that’s for another day). Okay. We can live with that.

Alltel’s per-minute plan is 15 cents per minute, so while you’re not getting as good a rate as AT&T, you’re not paying a dollar a day for the privilege of accessing their network. Text messages, though are a full five cents cheaper than AT&T. So let’s go back to our model of 400 minutes per month and 100 text messages. That would add up to $60 in voice charges, plus $10 in text messaging. That still leaves it $15 shy of AT&T’s deal.

Truth is, you’d have to use over 600 minutes per month in order for the AT&T and Alltel plans to even out — and that doesn’t even suppose any more than 100 text messages. Remember, for every text message you send, you’re favoring Alltel, since their rates are lower.

We’ll now take the time to call shenanigans on the people who called shenanigans on us. We think that our initial comparison of AT&T’s $1 per day plan and Alltel’s pay-per-day plan is apt. Why? Because AT&T offers you a pay-as-you-go plan without an access fee as well, and it costs 25 cents per minute. Yes, that’s 10 cents more than Alltel per voice minute, and still 5 cents more per text message. We don’t need to run any comparisons to show you that Alltel clearly wins here.

By that model, you can then compare the $1 per day AT&T plan with the Alltel per-day plan. They’re very similar; you just get a ton more features for paying the access charge with Alltel. So are we ready to declare Alltel the unequivocal winner of this Pay-As-You-Go Faceoff?

Almost. We just wanted to mention that picture messaging is the same on both networks, at 25 cents per message. Their mobile web plans are similar: between $5 and $20 per month, with similar features at each price point. Once AT&T launches MediaFlo sometime in 2008, they may win on that front. But for now, it’s a virtual tie. They offer comparable handsets, too.

The only advantage we see AT&T having is coverage. They have better coverage in more places, plain and simple. You also can’t activate an Alltel phone in many regions of the country, including the densely populated Northeast. Really, that’s the only thing between Alltel and a unanimous victory.

The verdict: It’s still Alltel. If you have beef with anything we’ve said in this pieces, check out the Alltel review and the AT&T review to see where we’re coming from. Then leave us a comment and let us know your take on this faceoff.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Pay-As-You-Go Faceoff: Alltel vs. AT&T

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Pay-As-You-Go Faceoff: Alltel vs. AT&T