Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

People everywhere are looking for savings, and many are looking more for pay as you go cell plans.  Now AT&T is offering just such a plan as part of their GoPhone program.  It allows users to pay $3 up front for each day that they either place or receive calls on their cell phone.  Once paid, they get unlimited voice service for the whole day.  If they don’t make any calls on a given day, no charge.

This method is rising in popularity.  Just last week, Sprint reported seeing a huge boost in prepaid subscribers, a whopping 674,000 in the just the first quarter of 2009.  And the thing is, regular plans actually make more money for the carrier than prepaid plans do, contrary to what some may think off the bat.  For example, in the last quarter, Sprint made an average revenue per user (ARPU) of $56 with its postpaid plans, compared to only $31 ARPU for its prepaid plans.

If you have a lot of friends who also use AT&T, you’re in luck.  They are also offering a prepaid Unlimited Mobile-to-Mobile plan for those who want to talk exclusively with other AT&T mobile users which will cost $1 a day.  With this plan, calls made or received from outside carriers will run you 10 cents a minute.

The GoPhone plans also offer messaging add-ons, for about the same prices as traditional plans, with Unlimited Messaging for $19.99.  It does say you can add both this as well as unlimited nights and weekends for an additional charge.

Phones included are Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung,  Prices range from $9.99 for the phone (after your online discount) for a refurbished Nokia 2610 to $99.99 for the Samsung A177 (new, non-refurbished, again after online discount). 

So, if you are one of those people that mainly uses your cell to text, with the occasional call thrown in…prepaid just may be the way to go for you.  You can check out the GoPhone page here.

via: getweb