When I arrived in San Francisco last week, one of the first things I did was go and buy a new phone. Nothing fancy – all I wanted was a device to take and make calls, and send and receive texts. I set out a short list of criteria, and went to work.
My criteria:
- As cheap as possible: I’m on a budget, so value for money was item number one. That’s not to say I was looking for the cheapest deal possible – just the most bang for my buck.
- The simpler the better: all I needed was US phone number that would last me the two months I’m spending in the States. I didn’t need an iPhone or an Android or any type of smartphone. I didn’t want a long term contract. So all I was looking for was a device that can handle the core functions of a mobile phone: voice and SMS.
- Fire and forget: I wanted to walk in, buy a phone, and walk out again in as short an amount of time as possible. This criterion was to check how pain free buying a phone can be.
- No worries: I didn’t want a plan where I would have to worry about how much time I was spending talking, or what time of day it was. This is what I called my “no BS” criterion.
So on my very first morning in America, I went on a walk around Downtown San Francisco and visited operator stores. I didn’t get around to all of them, but the ones I hit were (in this order) T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. And here’s what I found:
|
|
Cheap |
Simple |
In-and-out |
No BS |
|
T-Mobile |
The device was the cheapest around at $20 – add 1000 mins talk time to that for $100, and 10 cents per SMS. | Couldn’t be simpler. The device was a Nokia/T-Mobile effort, SOLELY for voice and SMS. | The slowest. Despite the store being almost empty, I had to wait 10 mins for a sales rep. | Almost none. Around 17 hours of talk time, with cheap SMS. |
|
AT&T |
At $30 for the device, and $25 for the account activation, this was the cheapest first payment. | Low-tech Nokia device with a few bits and bobs. | The greeter asked what I needed, and personally brought me to a friendly sales rep. Fast and efficient. | Only getting charged $3 per day of use seems good. But receiving a phone call or SMS counts as use. Would easily end up at $90 a month. |
|
Sprint |
The most expensive “walk out” payment. $150 in total for the device and two months unlimited usage. | Most basic handset imagineable. | The fastest. I had a price estimate within 60 seconds of walking in the door. | None. Unlimited SMS and voice for two months. |
|
Verizon |
Overall the worst quality – combining the least favourable parts of the Sprint and AT&T plans. | Low end device with poor quality camera phone. | The same as AT&T – a greeter found out what I needed, and found a sales rep to help me. | “Pay per day” again, but more expensive than AT&T. Excellent SMS bundles, though. |
What we think?
Perhaps controversially, I went with T-Mobile. It was either going to be T-Mobile or Sprint, as I’m just not a fan of the “per day” payments from the other two. Partly this was because I wasn’t happy with the way the deals were represented. Both AT&T and Verizon stressed that I’d “only pay on the day YOU use your phone.” When I pressed the matter, they told me that if I answered a call it would charge me for the day. This tiggered the “No worries” criterion: I didn’t want a plan where I had to think about whether I could afford to ANSWER a phone call, let alone make one.
In the end, the $30 difference between Sprint and T-Mobile was the clincher. Sure, Sprint offered unlimited talk time… but 17 hours is functionally limitless for me. I do not spend over 8 hours talking on my phone every month!
Pingback: Tweets that mention Buying a mobile in the US: Verizon vs. T-Mobile vs. Sprint vs. AT&T -- Topsy.com
This just shows how much the big four are still focused on post-paid. Had you walked into Radio Shack, Walgreens, or Walmart, you could have walked out in 5 minutes with a Tracfone or Virgin phone, complete with a bucket of minutes and a simple ability to add more over the phone.
Welcome to America Bena, land of cheap wireless, but only for post-paid accounts…
[EDIT] – actually, this is Cian!
You really should have looked into Boost Mobile. It’s a no contract prepaid service that is owned by Sprint and runs off the Nextel Network. The service is $50 a month with no other taxes or fees. For that monthly fee you receive Unlimited Calls, Unlimited TXT/PIX Messaging, Unlimited Mobile Web, and Unlimited Walkie Talkie.
Ok. I want to know where this guy gets his figures. The T-Mobile pricing is off, the att pricing is off, half the stuff here is wrong. Activation fees for att at at least 36 dollars, tmobile sms is 0.20 a message not 0.10, etc.
Hi Bob,
I got those figures from the retail stores of the respective operators on or near Market St. in San Francisco. If the figures above differ from the ones offered to you, I suggest you take it up with them!
Cian.
Pingback: T-Mobile 3GSM uber AT&T?
I have t-mobile. I have unlimited everything and my bill is less than $100 a month, be we are from different states none the less. I will say that with the straight talk phone you do get what you pay for. It is cheaper, but on a much less reliable network. I’m from NC. That’s what I see being that my mother has a staight talk phone.