Question about Prepaid service

[J R Mtz]

Got a general question about prepaid service, as well as recommendations for a phone.

About once every 2-3 months my boss goes to some cabin in New Mexico for about a week. Currently, his only phone is a work-provided Blackberry with AT&T service. He gets no actual service in the cabin, and only ISP is a local one which offers a choppy 500kbps down for bout $80/month, which he does not have. Out of curiosity, I check T-Mobile coverage and his place is shows up as with either really good, or fair 4G LTE service there. I suggested potentially getting some sort of Android phone with hotspot capabilities and some sort of pre-paid plan. He seemed very excited about the idea.

So my actual questions are:
- I've never used a prepaid plan, so I'm not entirely sure how they work. Can he say buy 500 minutes, and 5GB, and then have to pay nothing until that actually gets used up? If so, that would be great for him since he'd only have to refill whenever he goes. He'd probably make a few calls, and mainly use the internet to check work emails.
- If the above is doable, what's a good non-expensive Android phone I can recommend? The Spectrum Gateway map shows the area either already has Band 12 available, or its coming soon. So I'd prefer a Band 12 capable phone, that can do hotspot. And keep in he'd only use the phone on that trip and just for some calls and hotspot capability, so nothing fancy is needed.

Thanks!

 

[Tim1954]

Prepaid here (Australia) works like you said, you put money in the account and you can top up any time from phone or shops etc. Here you lose the money is you haven't used it in a certain amount of time. I usually stick a local pre-paid into my phone when I go overseas and use WiFi for internet coms with family ((whatsapp) ... Not sure what devices are available in your neck of the woods if he doesn't want to use his own phone...

 

[Rukbat]

In addition to that:

1. Not all prepaid plans allow tethering (hotspot). The device connects to the hotspot in the phone, but it never connects to the internet (because the carrier droops any packets not originating in the phone).

2. Don't depend on the map. He can get a TMobile phone for a 2 week (I think it's still 2 weeks) trial and return it if it doesn't work (paying for any time he's used). You'd be surprised. Sprint covers this whole town - except that at one house I need coverage, there's none at all. Useless to me. But the map shows coverage. (There's good coverage on the front step, on the rear deck and on the sides - just not inside. Maps won't show that.)

 

[J R Mtz]

- Yeah, i'd definitely talk to them to confirm hotspot availability and price.

- and yeah, this will be have to be try and see on the service there. though quite frankly, he says he has to drive about 5 miles to get back in AT&T coverage range, so I'm sure he'd be happy even if it worked in one specific area of his place.

And any low cost phones you can recommend for this purpose?

 

[gtt1]

I use prepaid when we spend the winter in Florida. My phone is a Zenfone 2 and I use the $30. walmart plan which gives you 5gb data for 30 days and 100 minutes additional minutes are .10. I have a google voice number and use the wifi to make calls to save on using the minutes.
You can get a sim and the $30.00 plan from walmart stores for $34.99 [URL="https://goto.walmart.com/c/1943169/612734/9383?sharedid=159229&subId1=UUacUvbUpU5457157&subId2=vbac&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fip%2FT-Mobile-Complete-SIM-Kit%2F39081494%22]https://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Mobile-Complete-SIM-Kit/39081494[/URL]

Pretty well any unlocked android smartphone should be all he needs. Someone here can probably recommend a phone

I tether my laptop or tablet to use the phones wifi when needed.

Key will be what the reception is going to be like at the cabin.

Problem is he will have to refill the $30. each visit as it expires after 30 days. I don't believe T-Mobile has any prepaid where you can bank your data.

Maybe he will find $120 a year if he goes 4 times may be well worth it especially with the 5gb of data that he can use.