Here are my conclusions

Telecom
1

Small bit of background to put this all in perspective...from our POV=>
Last year we were forced into a mid-winter relocation which cost a small fortune in truck rental, deposits on utilities, fuels bought & not used, etc., and were struggling financially after that.

Fortunately we also found RP & the lower cost of that helped us some, and now that time seems past & done, so here we are.

We use only talk & SMS & with both our RP lines combined somehow that would still be well under 1000 minutes/SMS per month.
I use more talk time, my partner prefers SMS over calling...
We have perfectly good phones already - so any provider that refused to use them was eliminated.

Looked at pretty much ALL Sprint MVNOs I could find & it really looks like it comes down to these:

EACH phone MUST have a separate account.
2 lines with Twigby @ $12/Month
500 Minutes, Unlimited Texts, 0 MB data
Monthly total: $24/Month (before tax)
Amex is accepted, which is our preference for payments.
They also say this:

Phones need not have separate accounts.
2 lines - 1000 min/sms - 0 data - $17.50 per line
Monthly total: $35.00
Amex is accepted, which is our preference for payments - as well as Amazon payments.

EACH phone MUST have a separate account.
1 line - 500 talk/unlim sms/200 data - $17/month
1 line - 500 talk/unlim sms/0 data - $13/month
Data plan for 200mb is $4 & after that is used up, it goes to unlimited 2G.
Must have a data plan to get that, no data = no unlimited 2G.
Their "Payg," does not include unlimited 2G.
C64FP5 = 30% off plans for the 1st month
CL6TMP - 5% off promo - recurring ??
Amex is accepted here too.
Finally, they say this:

(Which does not impress me very much...)

Conclusions:
Lowest=> highest pricing looks like this from those above:
Twigby - $24/mo = $288/yr....Tello $26/mo = $312/yr...Ting $35/mo = $420/yr - a big spread for very similar allotments.

Possible discounts:
Ting can be started off with a $25 referral credit; Twigby has something like this but I've seen no direct links or offers of it, and Tello has none that I could find, but the 5% off thing - which is all of $1.30/mo., is nothing to crow about really.

All others were either too funky, too $pendy, or too restrictive in some fashion IMO.

Given the price spread, looks like Twigby is the best choice for us, but wait !!!:

This was just posted at the rp forum by Hhfpphone=>

We can wait a day, for sure - but at least the 'homework' part is done AFAIAC.
Phew. Maybe someone else may find all that helpful, I hope ??

PS:
Another thing I am considering just on a spare phone is Cellnuvo's free deal...

The only discomfort with that are some poor reviews and their $29 Activation fee.
They say the below, but I've not seen any confirmation that it has been claimed with success:

https://cellnuvo.com/#no-doubt
https://cellnuvo.com/faq_nuvo.php

2

Redpocket on eBay.

500 talk. 500 text, 50mb. $95 year works out to $8 a month.

Also, on Tello, you can mix plans and paygo. You mentioned one of you talks less so they should have a $6 plan with $3 unlimited SMS + $3 for 100 minutes and then pay overages for minutes above 100.

As for Cellnuvo, looks like R+ 2.0. A review says they were suspended for no reason and that nobody responds to emails or phone calls.

3

Thanks to both of you for doing the legwork.

4

So, yes, tello is the lowest I could find for low usage users. Get their PLAN that is 200MB data, and either lowest minutes or lowest text depending on your needs. Leave the other one at "none". This will give you for $6 or $7 per month 200MB data and unlimited 2G, and, either the allotment of minutes or text. But, you can also go beyond those allotments (even the zero allotments) for 3c per minute or 1c per text. Being a almost never text person, I picked lowest minutes (100) and no text since even if I use my all time record of 12 in one month, it will cost me 12 cents. So, hard to beat Tello for $7 per month with unlimited 2G and small overages. If a big user, sure, not the lowest.

For my other line, business, couldn't find a better deal than mintsim. Including taxes, it was < $180 for 12 months, 2GB data per month data LTE, unlimited talk and text with coupon code SHOPCLEVER.

I should note that, for my iPad, which was also on R+, I used an Apple SIM and got a T-Mobile data plan, 5GB over 5 months (one allotment, you have 5 months to use it) for $10 total! Kind of hard to beat that one except for FreedomPOP I suppose but they do not accept Apple iPads, only Sprint sold ones.

5

Wow, can you provide link to the T-Mobile deal? Is that iPads only?

6

694×800 55.4 KB

There is no link the way I understand it. It's only for certain newer models, such as iPad AIr 2 and pro and I think maybe 3rd gen mini. It has to be the Apple SIM, and, I think you can never have used the SIM. You sign up on the iPad via the cellular signup method. Shocked when I saw it, did some searching, and, found a few posts on the internet about it, you might try 5gb 5 months $10 tmobile or something like that. But you must sign up on the device itself. I had ordered a couple unused Apple SIMs off of eBay. Probably, you could get one at an Apple store. Been out for a few years, the plan, and, I see some posts from people who have been able to renew it too. It works such that you also get the free for life 200MB Tmobile plan as well, it uses it first, and, when you've used your 200MB in a month, it then starts using the 5GB, so, it's actually more than 5GB in essence.

Here's a thread with a picture of it during the signup: T-Mobile 5GB for 5 Month Promotion on iPad Air 2? | MacRumors Forums

And here's a guy who claims he can keep renewing it: 5 Month / 5GB $10 Tablet Pass - Really one time offer?

Reportedly no binge-on, and, it does seem to allow tethering.

7

TWIGBY 1st month free FREE2START
TELLO GET50OFFNOW for 50% off the first month with a plan over $10 or RINGPLUS for 30% off any.
Ting are offering $35 for ringplus customers RingPlus customers: A lifeline from Ting

All of which are nice to make up for some of our lost top ups.

8

Thanks for replying JTSR71:

Redpocket will not allow us to re-use our 100% fine RP phones that we like - so that makes it unecomical for us.
We may go with Tello or Ting - but the free verizon raoming is most attractive with Twigby - which is the cheapest of the lot anyhow.

I know Cellnuvo's fee is a gamble - but I figure thusly=>
Get that on our spare phone/line using a good CC - and if it turns out sucky with no refund, challenge the charge & end that risk...seems simple enough for a $29 risk, perhaps ??

9

Did you see? We're getting moved to Ting. Ting-Sprint has Verizon roaming included.

10

Cool, sort of...:

So it now appears that both Ting & Twigby are offering that, yes ??

I cannot see the rp forum right now, it must be overloaded...but I did see this summation here:
https://www.nthcircle.com/forum/ringplus/51-might-make-sense-to-port-to-ting#184

That COULD BE very attractive to us economy minded folks - except that we do not trust much coming from rp & prefer to make our own choices with attention to how the numbers actually work out beyond the immediate future.

Thanks.

11
12

Concluding the conclusions, for now...
Much has been going on with all this CDMA stuff for me for some days now between the fact-finding & queries & then finally getting it all squared away - and finally it IS all squared away for the moment.

The 1st big test was setting up a cheapie spare phone on Cellnuvo - which has shown itself to be very good considering the cost thus far of exactly zero.

Next came porting our 2 main numbers from RP to Twigby - which has gone very well and we have a free month to start as well as a referral or 2 that some nice folks gave us, and that looks very good also.
Since earlier today they also announced lower pricing, which we do not need, but it is a cool change to see.

After that a port was initiated for our friend's RP line to Cellnuvo - and he is also delighted to be able to have his low use phone for free, even if he must view an ad now & then.

Our other friend chose to ditch RP for Ting with their top up as credit as well as the sign-up bonuses, and that showed me (finally !!) just what I'd been missing by not having access to their site & settings before today - which is a clear view of their actual fees and features, and now I must admit those all impressed me greatly enough so that...:

We also got some service there to use up our highest top-up & get the bonuses, which should altogether keep us in phone services for a good long while - especially with all data shut off at Ting & their really good notification system which can do all sorts of helpful things, right up to disabling a function if a limit is reached.
Impressively well done GUI & features at Ting I must say.

Our goal was to get really decent allotments with the lowest possible outlay - and obviously free services are cheapest, dollar-wise, next;
Twigby is also quite nicely priced and as long as it stays good & cheap we'll keep it;
Ting is really also cheap enough for as long as the bonuses cover the $6/month line fee - and if/when it may be time that a larger cost starts showing up from any of these, that will just be time to consider whatever may come next.

For now it is just time to enjoy what we have & be glad that the work of it all has been a learning experience !!!

13

Not sure what phones you tried with Red Pocket but I was interested in taking my 2 LG Tribute HD phones to Red Pocked and several R+ members said they did that with a little effort.

14

All of 'em we have actually failed their test when I tried them there:

And that service also refused our zipcode besides.

All good just the same as we are delighted with those we have now, especially Cellnuvo with its very attentive folks.

The main lesson from rp was NOT to put all our eggs in one basket, and that idea is also working quite handsomely for us right now.

15

True. Only problem now is that we only have 2 players... Freedompop - no work except to check up on acct once in a while. CellNuvo - lots of work to get free data.

16

For us, here it looks more like...:

FP, which simply does not work via cellular in our area vs. Cellnuvo which works fine, is quite easy, and I'm piling up some credits there as I do other stuff, right now.

Given that we also have paid services the only decisions we will make will be whether ultimately we'll keep Twigby vs. Ting after the freebies are used up at both - and as of now it looks like Twigby & Cellnuvo will be the keepers for us.

YMMV.

17

I am seriously looking at CellNUVO since my needs are probably only about 20 minutes/month on average. So Tello PAYG would be a good choice and probably better than my old PagePlus plan. Data/texting are not important for me to have on a phone. Ting would also work but is far more costly than the others for that usage.

How much effort is involved in building up CellNUVO voice credits and it is "fun" or more of a "chore"?

Thanks.

18

Interesting. I checked 3 LG ESN numbers on their site and 2 passed (may have been new, stored in a text file) and one came back in use by other provider, probably the phone I gave to a kid I mentor. Best is ride out the Ting transfer and take some time to find your best deal. With kids no overage charges are most important and Red Pocket minimal for $8.xx/month from eBay looks great.

And your eggs <> one basket rings (plus) true with me. I've already spent 3 figures in top up this/that and overages with them for my 6 lines. Most R+ members would say it's still worth the price for free cell service but in my case it wasn't really a wash.

19

There are lots of kiip ads which give 5-15 credits each. It doesn't take much effort to play the ads repeatedly throughout the day while doing other things. Yesterday, I earned over 8000 credits and usually get 3000-5000 per day, depending on how long I do it for. It would be more interesting if there were a greater variety of ads, as right now the same set of ads are repeated, such as Coast Guard, Malt-O-Meal, Biotrue, Silk, Froot Loops, and Sprout. I find it suits my needs very well as the credits can be used for any combination of voice, data, and text. My data needs are small and the majority of the credits can be used for voice. Also, coverage is not a problem as roaming can be turned on by request.

20

You must be glued to your phone for 3000-8000 a day. No wonder I haven't received any qiips for a while. Hopefully you are my referral! Someone is going to be lucky that is for sure unless they used rpfree.