Prepaid Faceoff: PTel vs. GoSmart Mobile

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With the massive number of prepaid MVNOs and carrier options, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of it all and even harder to compare and decide which company is the right one for you. So, every once in a while we’re going to go through and do a Face-off of two popular companies, comparing plans and services to help you better decide. Today, we’ll look at GoSmart Mobile, a T-Mobile owned MVNO, and PTel (formerly Platinum Tel Wireless). Both companies use T-Mobile’s network so it’ll be a good matchup! Here’s how they compare:

Plan Prices  Price range? What is included?

PTel  – Plans range from $20 – $60

PTel has a wide variety of plans from cheap and limited monthly plans to unlimited plans with lots of high speed data. PTel does offer 4G speeds on plans priced at $30 and up. Read more about PTel’s plans.

GoSmart Mobile – Plans range from $25 – $45

GoSmart Mobile offers a handful of plans with unlimited talk/text and varying amounts of data. Data options are decent, but only 3G speeds are offered. However, all plans include unlimited access to Facebook and Facebook messenger. For whatever reason, Facebook access is listed as 4G speed despite everything else being stuck at 3G. Use of Facebook/Facebook messenger does not subtract from a user’s regular monthly data allowance. Check out GoSmart Mobile’s plans.

Unlimited Talk/Text  Is it offered? What is the lowest price?

PTel  – Yes; $20 is the cheapest which includes unlimited talk and text plus 250 MB of low-speed data.

GoSmart Mobile – Yes; $25 is the cheapest unlimited talk and text plan. No data is included, but unlimited Facebook and Facebook Messenger access is included. If you need data, $30 is your cheapest price for 1 GB of 3G data.

Data Ranges  What is the most and least data available?

PTel  – All of PTel’s unlimited plans include data, although high speed data is only available on plans costing $30 or more. Unlimited low speed data is available at $25, and you can get as little as 250 MB of 2G speeds or as much as 10 GB of high speed and unlimited 2G speed data. There’s really a little bit of everything, and the prices aren’t too bad. Data can be purchased per MB, but it’s expensive.

GoSmart Mobile – GoSmart offers 3G data on all plans priced at $30 or higher. Data ranges from 1 GB to 10 GB, and all plans (even the no-data $25 plan) come with unlimited 4G LTE Facebook access. Mobile hotspotting is also allowed at no additional cost.

Pay-As-You-Go Rates  What are the pay-as-you-go per minute rates?

PTel  – PTel charges customers $0.05 per minute, $0.02 per text (including international texts and MMS messages) and a whopping $0.10 per MB which is pretty expensive. Top-ups are available in various increments ranging from $10 – $100. Expiration dates change depending on how much the top-up is for, but the lowest is 60 days and it goes up to a year. Check out the PayGo plans here.

GoSmart Mobile – Pay-as-you-go is not offered.

International Calling  What options are available? What does it cost?

PTel  – Monthly plans with PTel all include a “Cash Bucket” which varies by the plan and can be used to make international calls. There are also top-up options for international calling and penny-per- minute destinations. All international calls are billed at a per-minute rate and minutes are subtracted from your regular minute allowance. PayGo customers must pay the regular per-minute rate as well as the international per-minute rate making it super expensive. Direct dialing is not supported. Check international rates here.

GoSmart Mobile – There are two international add-ons available priced at $5 and $10. The $5 international add-on includes unlimited international texting to more than 200 select countries. The $10 add-on gives customers unlimited international texts, unlimited outbound landline calling to select countries as well as a $50 International Calling Allowance which can be used to call any international number. Read more about the $10 add-on or Check international rates.

Activation Fees  How much do they cost?

PTel  – No activation fee

GoSmart Mobile – No activation fee

BYOD  Can you activate your own device?

PTel  – Yes, PTel SIMs cost $5 and unlocked, compatible GSM phones can be activated.

GoSmart Mobile – Yes, GoSmart Mobile SIMs cost $8 and can be used with select compatible unlocked GSM phones.

Network/Coverage  What network does it use?

PTel  – T-Mobile | Coverage Map

GoSmart Mobile – T-Mobile | Coverage Map

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1 Comment

  1. Ike Denvers on August 7, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    Actually the $20 plan’s 250 megs of data is 3g/4g based upon Tmobile’s hspa+ 42 network. That means that it’s MUCH FASTER then 2G and almost as fast as LTE. Hspa+ 42 can typically get speeds up to 10 mbps easily, much faster then the typical 128k of 2g.