[pct-l] Pct-l Digest, Vol 14, Issue 61

[Tortoise]

I have had a TracFone for about a year which I use very little.  Just 
for those breakdowns like my alternator going out on the way to 
ADZPCTKO, keeping up on a finicky cat while on vacation, sundry quick 
calls, etc.  My fone uses Verizon for service, I don't know which 
carrier is used elsewhere. But, my minutes carry over and over as long 
as I don't run out of days of service. So I've lots of unused minutes 
and a low cost per month but relatively high cost per actual minute of 
airtime.  It does seem like the deal for me.
I've bought prepaid cards online. they are also available at many 
big-box stores, and according to the fone, I can even buy them using the 
fone. Never tried the last though.

Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>



Colby Gutierrez-Kraybill wrote:
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 16:24:38 -0800
>> From: Brian Lewis <brianle8 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Verizon coverage on trail/towns/etc
>> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
>> Message-ID:
>> 	<bd5c16ca0902091624p4f65f0adodee581d30616d238 at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Ralph wrote: "I'm a verizon user, and my experience on the trail is  
>> that I
>> do not get reception as well as ATT users."
>>
>> I suspect there's a little "grass is greener on the other side of  
>> the fence"
>> aspect at work here.   As an ATT user last year, I was pretty  
>> conscious of
>> places where Verizon worked better.   My suggestion would be to use  
>> either
>> of those two carriers based on whatever other dynamics drive such a
>> decision, such as phone offerings from each, contractual details,  
>> maybe what
>> friends or family have, etc.
>>
>> Then hope that people you walk long stretches with have the other  
>> service!
>> :-)
>>     
>
>
> If you're willing to carry the weight of an extra SIM card (or two),  
> you could attempt to get coverage from all potential providers along  
> the entire trail.
>
> You can avoid monthly plans by using pre-paid services.  Expect to pay  
> $20-30 for each sim.  For ATT it's more economical to buy a full pre- 
> paid phone and remove its sim card for later use ($20 for the phone 
> +card, ~$35 for just the card direct from ATT).  Another caveat is  
> that many (all?) pre-paid card plans limit the amount of time that  
> calling minutes are available after you've paid for them to ~1-3  
> months, e.g. if you don't use them within 3 months of activating them,  
> they're lost.
>
> I'm not sure how much each card will weigh, but it's probably less  
> than 1gram.
>
> - Colby
>
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