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Prepaid iPhone in a Nutshell
After spending far too many hours trying to set up pre-paid iPhone directly with AT&T, I decided to take matters into my own hands this evening. Instead of trying to connect my newly provisioned AT&T account, I iSigned up using iTunes and entered 999-99-9999 as my social security number (as recommended by one of the more clueful AT&T people). Of course, this failed the credit check and I was offered the prepaid plan. I selected it, agreed to the terms, and pretty much 1-2-3, I was put into the activation queue. At this time, I'm getting the "Your activation requires additional time to complete"/"You will receive an email confirmation", but my iBrick has taken some major steps forward in its uselessness. %Gallery-4461%It LIVES! Update and advice here
Maybe a contract-free iPhone is NOT out of the question
Yes, the commercials say "2 Year Activation". Yes, I said that it looked like prepaid options were out of the picture. This came a few weeks after after we had heard rumors about prepaid iPhone codes. This evening, Christopher Price over at Phone News dropped me a note and we briefly chatted back and forth. He pointed me to an article he'd written about newly launched AT&T options for pay as you go customers. Price thinks prepaid isn't dead despite what you see in those commercials. The new AT&T feature packages look as if they're ready to bring prepaid phone services to a new level. So 2-year-contract? No 2-year-contract? Prepaid? No prepaid? I'm just getting whiplash. What do you think?Oh and by the way: that commercial Scott posted earlier today? Check out the very end and see if you notice...what's missing.Update: Commercial is LIVE at Apple. No "2 Year Contract"--although the earlier commercials still say that.Update 2: TUAW Reader Steve reports that he's not seeing the "2 Year Contract" line on the live repeats of the first 3 TV ads either. Can any other readers confirm that these have changed as well?Update 3: TUAW Reader Gruff reports that the text is now missing from all the online Apple ads.
Rumors: iPhone with Prepaid service
So would an iPhone that you could buy outright with prepaid service appeal to you? If priced attractively, would it make the difference in your buying decision? BoyGeniusReport has tracked down some curious iPhone codes: "We can infer from the 3 codes received that the iPhone will be available to...postpaid users...[S]ince the masters of prepaid can purchase these, anyone will be able to snatch one up, whether they are in contract or not." Of course, we have no idea how much these plans will cost and what the final cost of phone + plan will turn out to be but surely the idea of a contract-free iPhone is appealing, right? Electronista thinks AT&T may have reconsidered it's in-network-only stance.
Apple iPhone heading to prepaid crowd?
iPhone's going prepaid, really? Even though we already know AT&T intends to ask for a two-year contract to get hooked up? Considering the often dreary stable of devices holding down the prepaid fort on most major carriers, this was about the last thing we expected, but alas -- the Boy Genius appears to have tracked down documentation indicating that the iPhone has a date with prepaid destiny. Whether pricing will remain the same for prepaid accounts or whether it'll launch simultaneously with postpaid is unknown -- doubtful, we think -- but at any rate, it seems now that it won't take a contract to nab one of these things (just a fistful of cash and a little luck, depending on how scarce these things end up being for the next few months).
Sagem's stylish my411x for the prepaid crowd
Gone are the days when going with a prepaid account meant sacrificing style or functionality in your choice of handset; actually, we think those days have been gone for a while now in Europe, but at any rate, add the Sagem my411x to the list. The fashion-friendly candybar features a mirrored front, media player with dedicated buttons, Bluetooth, and a VGA cam -- groundbreaking features by no means, but hey, when you consider that it goes for £49.99 (about $100) contract-free, it ain't bad. Look for it now on Orange in the UK.
Virgin Mobile rolls out MARBL from Kyocera
See, that wasn't such a bad wait, no was it? A few weeks after we told you about the MARBL coming down the pike for Virgin Mobile from frequent partner Kyocera, the cheap flip is now available for public consumption from retailers everywhere. At $30 sans contract (remember, Virgin is a prepaid MVNO), the MARBL doesn't offer terribly much in the way of features, but it does manage to pack a speakerphone, internal antenna, and color display -- and hey, it doesn't look half bad. Just as long as you're cool with the name, Motorola, we are, too.
Bandai hatches Tamagotchi handset, coming to AT&T
Just in case your kids haven't gotten into WoW, MSN, or any other addictive pursuit, Bandai and PlayPhone bring drug-like amusement to cellphones with Tamagotchi (see our playful mockup over there on the right). Tamagotchi as a game isn't anything terribly new on mobiles, but unique on this prepaid mobile device is the ability for kids to convert their prepaid minutes to credits on the Tamaphone.com website. Youngsters will be able to pick up things like wallpapers, ringtones, and games all on their own without a credit card or any adult interaction required (of course, parents will still have control over what they are up to at the site). No word on when this little hatchling will pop up, but it should ring in at roughly 100 bones and will make its home on AT&T's network. Based on the the Motorola V190 of old, it ain't exactly packed full of the absolute newest tech, but kiddies will likely adore it.
Virgin Mobile adding another cheap flip, "Marbl"
The Oystr looks poised to give way to the Marbl in the "what $30 will buy you" department on Virgin Mobile -- the US' prepaid Virgin Mobile, that is, not its DVB-H-havin' cousin across the pond. The Kyocera-sourced clamshell follows Virgin's typical keep-it-simple strategy with a minimal internal display and clean exterior (read: no cam or external display to be found). That said, the phone doesn't look half bad -- and seeing how this is prepaid, that $30 is going to get you this thing outright. No word on an exact release date, but Virgin's site lists it at "Coming Soon" and -- in our experience, at least -- waits are measured in days once a carrier admits that they're going to launch a model.[Thanks, Charlene]
National Geographic's Talk Abroad global phone
This phone looks so boring, we can't actually look straight at it -- we kinda have to aim our eyes just right or left of it and take it in with our peripheral vision. Then again, gearheads don't appear to be the target demo sought out by Cellular Abroad with its new National Geographic-branded Talk Abroad candybar; the upshot here is keeping global roaming relatively cheap and simple (as in, prepaid simple) on an equally simple, no-frills handset. For your hard-earned $199, you get the phone (a quadband GSM piece -- we'd expect no less when they're playing up the global angle here), a set of plug adapters for whatever countries the average National Geographic reader might visit, a UK-based phone number, and thirty minutes of outgoing talk time. Best of all, incoming calls are allegedly free of charge in 65 countries, though the countries aren't spelled out. Look for the Talk Abroad handset to ship next month; if you've got it in your heart to accept an exceptionally uninteresting cellphone, that is.[Via Mobilewhack]
Wal-Mart cracks the whip on prepaid phone purchases
There's plenty of us who aren't exactly fond of commitments, especially those multi-year types that wireless providers try to rope you into whenever they drop a snazzy new phone. But if you're looking to snag a prepaid GoPhone / TracFone for the entire family, you may have to take your business somewhere other than Wally World. The world's largest retailer is cracking down on "entrepreneurs" (read: notorious phone hackers) who are buying the subsidized handsets "by the hundreds to resell for profit," by reducing the amount of prepaid mobiles one can purchase from three to two. While "two national carriers" voiced support for Wal-Mart's decision, the only confirmed provider was said to be Cingular, who certainly doesn't stand to profit from selling prepaid devices sans (pricey) prepaid air time. While the company hasn't exactly figured out how to stop tricksters from circumventing the system by purchasing multiple units at varying registers, at least the restrictions give parents with teenage triplets (or quadruplets) a valid excuse to delay their gratification.
Pantech C120 heads to Cingular prepaid
In case you haven't heard, Cingular has an official corporate policy of not talking to us (no, seriously) so forgive us in taking a few days to gather all the requisite details of Pantech's new C120 for Cingular's GoPhone prepaid service. The diminutive candybar serves as Pantech's followup to the crazy-small C300 clamshell; like the C300, it's initially available exclusively through GoPhone, but we wouldn't be surprised to see it head over to postpaid before terribly long. Considering the handset moves for $140 contract-free, the C120 holds its own with a 128 x 128 color display, speakerphone, and VGA cam, but with a mere 2.5MB of memory on board, don't expect to fill 'er up with your favorite tunes.[Via Slashphone]
VZW prepaid code thief gets hard time
Nothing quite like six years in the pokey to make you rethink your actions, we say. That's what one wayward Verizon Wirelss employee got thrown at him last week (70 months, to be exact) for fleecing his employer to the tune of $21 million, stealing a handful of wireless access codes, reselling them at a discount, and helping himself to the revenue stream. Adding insult to injury, the guy owes Verizon that $21 million back plus a bonus $300,000 in damages. By our rough calculations, the heist works out to a mind-boggling 210,000,000 hot daytime domestic minutes -- so if you happened to recently scoop up a few INpulse cards for a song, you might owe yourself a quick slap on the wrist.
Amp'd prepai'd deets emerge
Amp'd is finally adding a prepaid service option, especially appropriate given their young target demographic. Touted as "the first pay-as-you-go 3G wireless phone service," it looks like voice minutes and plain ol' SMS will run you 10 cents a pop, MMS messages come in at 25 cents, and speedy EV-DO data will be a relative bargain at 37.5 cents per MB (by comparison, Cingular can run you $10 per MB if you're not careful). There's a 25% surcharge tacked onto music track downloads over what postpaid customers shell out -- about $1.24 instead of 99 cents -- which sounds sketchy until you realize that your $1.24 covers the taxes and whatnot that the postpaid guys are going to be hit up with at the end of the month, anyway. We haven't heard a name being floated for the service yet, but "Prepai'd" is pretty clever, no?
