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

We Help You Decide, in which we profiled various phone users and how each of our featured providers matched up with each one. That’s still a viable source of information, but now we’re taking a step further. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to pit pay-as-you-go plans head to head to see which ones come out ahead. This is strictly for per-minute or per-day plans. The monthly rate plans will duke it out later. Up this week, Alltel vs. AT&T. Is it fair to use Alltel’s pay-per-day plan as a comparison here? After all, it is a pay-as-you-go — it just bundles your entire day into a flat rate, plus excess charges. In that case, it’s 75 cents per day for two of the following four features (and 25 cents each if you want more): unlimited mobile-to-mobile, unlimited favorite number calling, unlimited text messaging, unlimited nights and weekends. And then you have calls at 10 cents per minute. Sweet, huh? 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.]]>

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7 Comments

  1. ThinkingJim on May 1, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    I know this piece is about six months old, but still.
    How do you figure it’s only a $10 discount for AT&T’s 3000-minute N&W bundle? A $10 discount off their 3000-minute ten-cent rate would be $290, as 3000 minutes at ten cents per would come to $300, not $30. It’s still not the best deal, but in general, you get the quality that you pay for.
    If you never leave your home area (due to spotty roaming coverage and double-dialing), don’t mind poor network reliability, and if you’re content with hit-or-miss text messaging, Alltel prepaid is just fine.
    It seems like a good deal on paper, but if you don’t regularly use a particular network there are too many unseen variables to credibly judge one service over another.
    And any expense estimations should be made with the caveat of “everything else being equal.” When it comes to Alltel and AT&T, they’re not even close.



  2. jeff on August 16, 2008 at 11:33 am

    i use mainly texting so alltel is the best for me in my opinion because free texting and i dont call many people on my cell so i also got the 1 person unlimited calling. so with the phone ativation fee and miniumn fee it averaged out to be 79.99 and all i have to do is pay 30 dollars a month because i dont call any one compared to other company’s this beats them all in price.



  3. Whatabout on March 28, 2009 at 3:40 am

    I’ll call shenanigans on this because AT&T technically does not charge $1 per day. It charges $1 per day that the phone is used. Now, this would only benefit someone who doesn’t use the phone every day, but it isn’t a fair comparison without mentioning this difference from Alltel, which charges $.75 a day regardless of whether the phone is used or not. FWIIW



  4. William Reynolds on April 25, 2009 at 8:05 pm

    I think for any pay as you go plan you should get unlimited calling weekends all the time.



  5. Zee on July 25, 2009 at 5:28 am

    I dunno, I use T-mobile prepaid and I’m happy with it.



  6. KEY on November 6, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    PAY AS YOU PHONE SUCKS I TRIED TO UP LOAD SOME MORE TIME ON IT BUT IT CANT I HAVE BEEN TYING FOR TWO DAYS.



  7. Drew on June 22, 2011 at 12:29 am

    alltel is the winner i dont care what anyone says about jack. i have never had a text lost or any dropped calls or anything negative about alltel. i honestly dont understand how people can be so blind and not see free benefits but would rather pay more with at&t just because of its name. i been posting this all over this site on the alltel review. tho it might seem “expensive” or unnecessary to some people to charge a .75 cent daily fee… my god, do the math, it equals out to $20 a MONTH. for 2 unlimited features. with the option of adding 2 more. do you know how much that costs with any other prepaid plan? well, to each his own.. if you wanna spend more with at&t for GSM service that i honestly dont think is more reliable over CDMA then, thats you. but for me i dont know why alltel didnt actually beat verizon and at&t to be the biggest wireless company in America with the options they offer for the price. i even get unlimited data even when my balance is $0. i can use my phone as a modem, have it connected to my tv to watch netflix, etc- all FREE. you guys really need to know the benefits and cost of a company before judging. alltel wins no doubt and to me, above them all