Gettin’ Carried Away

Which carrier offers the best deal for American travelers? As I said in my previous posts, I will explore a different carrier in each article, and I’ve decided to do it in alphabetical order to eliminate bias. Next up is:
Boost Mobile.

THE LOGISTICS

Monthly Unlimited

Boost Mobile’s big pitch is that they don’t offer the typical two-year contract like other carriers do. Instead, you choose a pay-as-you go option. In the case of Monthly Unlimited, for $50 a month you get unlimited:

• days
• nights and weekends
• mobile-to-mobile (to Boost, Sprint and Nextel customers nationwide)
• text messaging (and picture messaging, available on select phones)
• wireless web

Click on the coverage map, and you’ll notice that you can use a BM phone anywhere in the U.S. …except in Montana, Wyoming and Mississippi.

International Connect Add-On

If you frequent other countries, you may consider purchasing the International Connect add-on. For an additional $10 per month, you’ll get unlimited text and walkie talkie. Rates for actually speaking on the phone vary.

MY ANALYSIS

National Plans

It’s $50 a month for unlimited, well, everything? AND you’ve got national coverage? AND no contract? Sounds like a deal to me…unless you live in Montana, Wyoming or Mississippi, of course.

What doesn’t make sense to me is saying that you get unlimited days, nights/weekends and mobile-to-mobile (to Boost, Sprint and Nextel customers only). If you have unlimited days and night/weekends already, it doesn’t really matter if you have free mobile-to-mobile, right? However, perhaps that is for the “walkie talkie” option.

International Connect Add-On:

An extra $10 for the international add-on is a bit pricey compared to Alltel and AT&T, however, there is only one price ($50 per month) for all phones, so you wouldn’t be paying more than $60 for an international service. With some other carriers, depending on the package you choose, you could pay up to $100 for national coverage before you even add on international capabilities.

Also, I know I did not include text messaging information in my previous posts, but when I saw this bit of info on BM’s website:

I could not pass up the chance to talk about it. International texts are FREE to receive? And only 10 cents to send? I’ve never heard of that before, and I’ve been with two different carriers.

** All prices are projected for your average, run-of-the-mill mobile phone, and none of them include Blackberry phones, iPhones, PDAs and other Smartphones.