Burner Phones

[EyeCarry]

Cricket Wireless has "bring your own phone" sim card kits, and work off of AT&T towers. Activate it at your leisure. You can even port your number over.

May or may not have issue with the phone being locked to AT&T though, but I've never worried about that before when swapping GSM sim cards around.
https://www.cricketwireless.com/support/switch-to-cricket/bring-your-own-device-byod.html

H2O wireless runs off of ATT towers. Been using them for years. 90 day "pay as you go" unlike some 30 day plans. I'm still a little unclear what your after here bw. It does sound like you are wanting android, unlocked phones and ATT compatible.

 

[Jin]

There's two companies that actually has free service. It's very limited and when you start to actually use the phone for data and talk it would add up quickly, but that service is something you could activate and then leave in a bag somewhere for emergencies.

Freedompop and Cell Nuvo are two companies that provide free service

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[bwframe]

Thanks folks!

I looked at Cricket. Their cheapest plan was $30, couldn't readily find an expiration date from activation time.

H2O does seem intriguing at $10 for 90 days, with charges per use per talk and txt, metered data charges.

I'm gonna check out those free outfits when I have more time, Jin...

In the meantime, after seeing Criket's pricing, I remembered AT&T was advertising a covid19 promo. $15 for 2gig data and free talk txt. Five bucks more for the SIM. I went ahead and picked up this $20 deal for one backup. Waiting to see the particulars on timing and activation requirements.

Speaking of activation, two of the sites I looked at had online activation. Anyone know if and how this is doable on a phone that you are trying to activate out away from WIFI?

 

[bwframe]

H2O wireless runs off of ATT towers. Been using them for years. 90 day "pay as you go" unlike some 30 day plans. I'm still a little unclear what your after here bw. It does sound like you are wanting android, unlocked phones and ATT compatible.

Thanks for asking, my friend.

I have three very nice phones that I've picked up for extremely good prices. These were flagship smart phones three years ago. They are beyond further android updates. Still fantastic pocket computer/communicators, yet eventually they will become less viable, stuck on Android 8.0.

Two of the phones, S7 Actives, are rotated out every month to keep them somewhat synced. The extra S7 lives in my EDC pack. What I'm looking for is a way to emergency activate that phone in the event my user phone is lost, destroyed or left behind.

Another part of the consideration is that the backup phone could turn into a loaner/gift for a friend or family member in need.

Yes, I'll always be keeping an eye out for good deals on Android smart phones. And ways to frugally manage a backup phone cellular account.

 

[bwframe]

Looks like AT&T didn't care for me signing up for their promo plan just before it expired. They cancelled the order, claiming that they couldn't verify that the order was from me. Kinda looks like they want me to re-sign up for twice the price. Not gonna.

I'll look into Jin's free services and Eyecarry's H2O further in the coming days...

 

[Talonap]

Check out HSN. They usually have good deals on phones + plans. Both my wife and I get LG phones + 1200 talk, data, text +365 for about 70.00 each. We don't use them much, so when the 365 days expire, we just get another phone from them - good for another year.

 

[Jin]

I was in Target today and saw the Freedom Pop SIM cards. Looks like it’s free for 200 minutes a month and like 200mb of data. The SIM cards were $4.99


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bwframe]

OK, back to life, from three years ago...

I'm contemplating phone shopping again. My old Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is still a solid phone, but getting long in the tooth. It'll be a good backup to a newer phone.

I pretty much have my search narrowed down to a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Old enough to be affordable, new enough to have state of the art camera, processor, etc. Not to mention current Android OS.

I'm looking a purchasing sometime in February, after Samsung comes out with this year's models. Hoping for a hundred dollar drop in pricing to the $400ish range after the new models hit the retailers.

I started shopping eBay phone resellers, then somehow loped onto a reseller outfit called Black Market. Haven't checked on my other old standbys of Craigslist and Swappa or any others.

 

[bwframe]

Still interested in a nice burner phone option for the car bag. I never got beyond one of my old Galaxy S7's in the bag to pick up a pay per minute card of some sort in the event of phone disaster. The Note 9 will be the replacement for old S7, when I get the newer daily user.

 

[bwframe]

You’re Not Stringer Bell, but You May Still Need a Burner Phone

Prepaid phones are looking good as privacy worries peak.

www.wired.com

 

[Tomahawkman]

Not directly related to the concept of having a back up phone incase of a failure. But I have been having issues with my Verizon coverage in my area and will be switching services, likely to AT&T. However during my reasearch on phone providers I found out that Starlink will be launching a satellite based phone service (kinda? I think from my understanding) launching 2024 for text 2025 for voice and data. In theory should be more reliable than anything on the market right now and only improve the more satellites Elon sends up.

 

[Jin]

I’ve notice that the 5g phones are now working much better and getting better reception than 4g phones. I’d try upgrading to a newer 5g phone before changing from service providers.

Pixel 6a was $99 not long ago, that would be a nice phone on a budget

 

[Tomahawkman]

I’ve notice that the 5g phones are now working much better and getting better reception than 4g phones. I’d try upgrading to a newer 5g phone before changing from service providers.

Pixel 6a was $99 not long ago, that would be a nice phone on a budget

Ive been on 5G for a bit. Verizon coverage in my area has been getting pretty bad over the last year, im not sure why its getting worse or what would cause it. We used verizon for our PD computers but there are now several areas in town where everything shuts down and we have 0 service, just switched work computer to AT&T no issues now.

 

[firecadet613]

I’ve notice that the 5g phones are now working much better and getting better reception than 4g phones. I’d try upgrading to a newer 5g phone before changing from service providers.

Pixel 6a was $99 not long ago, that would be a nice phone on a budget

5g doesn't seem to work as well in buildings as 4g does. If I'm out in the open, 5g download speeds are super fast, and its signal just can't penetrate structures as good as 4g.

 

[Salmonslice]

Ive been on 5G for a bit. Verizon coverage in my area has been getting pretty bad over the last year, im not sure why its getting worse or what would cause it. We used verizon for our PD computers but there are now several areas in town where everything shuts down and we have 0 service, just switched work computer to AT&T no issues now.

I am on Verizon aswell, have also noticed this.. especially when going to foreign areas I have never been, even if it’s a highly populated area, it’s almost like there is a invisible barrier that once I pass it all of a sudden drops to 1 bar every time

 

[Cameramonkey]

Most efficient way:

Buy a new sim from your carrier. Tell them you arent quite ready to activate it. I did similar with ATT. But ATT doesnt sell sims and will GIVE you one, but requires you to register in the store. ATT Resellers will sell you a sim for $16 to be activated later. (I dealt with this firsthand)

Keep that sim and a spare phone. When your phone disappears, (stolen, at the bottom of a lake, etc) , contact your carrier and let them know you need to move service to a new sim. within 20 mins you will be back in business on your old number.

 

[bwframe]

Most efficient way:

Buy a new sim from your carrier. Tell them you arent quite ready to activate it. I did similar with ATT. But ATT doesnt sell sims and will GIVE you one, but requires you to register in the store. ATT Resellers will sell you a sim for $16 to be activated later. (I dealt with this firsthand)

Keep that sim and a spare phone. When your phone disappears, (stolen, at the bottom of a lake, etc) , contact your carrier and let them know you need to move service to a new sim. within 20 mins you will be back in business on your old number.

This is very interesting.

I wonder if you need to mask what you are doing when planning on doing this with AT&T?

 

[Cameramonkey]

This is very interesting.

I wonder if you need to mask what you are doing when planning on doing this with AT&T?

Nope. I was programming cellular routers and ATT kept screwing up programming causing us to have to keep going back for more sims. I was in one store 3x in one day. Nobody batted an eye.

EDIT: every time I walked through his door it was $15 in his pocket. He didnt care.

 

[bwframe]

Nope. I was programming cellular routers and ATT kept screwing up programming causing us to have to keep going back for more sims. I was in one store 3x in one day. Nobody batted an eye.

EDIT: every time I walked through his door it was $15 in his pocket. He didnt care.

As always sir, thank you for your professional input!

I'm likely springing for a newer phone in the next month or two. I'm gonna put a backup SIM card in the current phone, which will be in my car bag.

 

[bwframe]

I'm shopping for a newer phone. I'm noticing that Amazon has renewed phones for comparable pricing to other resellers and eBay. Anyone had experience buying an Amazon renewed phone? Amazon seems like a go to when there is a choice in the matter?