Yesterday, someone at work laughed at my cell phone — “It’s so tiny!” And, that reminded me that the accompanying bill was equally tiny. What’s my cell phone secret? Basically, because I wanted an unlocked dual-SIM phone so that I could use European SIM cards, I thought I was stuck with AT&T domestic service. But, I was so tired of its large monthly cell phone bills that I looked for viable alternatives. Turns out, there are now several companies purchasing bulk minutes from AT&T, and re-selling those minutes at more reasonable rates. One such company is Black Wireless.
Black Wireless carries two types of plans. The first is a unlimited text and talk monthly plan whose rate varies depending upon how much bundled data you want with your plan (500MB, 1GB, …). This can be setup to have automatic reoccurring billing and the $30/month plan was the first one I tested. Notice that the bundled data with these plans worked fine on my Android phone, but did not allow tethering.
The second type of plan carried is “Pay As You Go” with talk being 5 cents/minute, text being 5 cents/message, multi-media text being 10 cents/message, and data being 10 cents/MB. On these plans, each time you make a call, you get an informative [free] text message letting you know the remaining balance. Once I figured out that tethering wasn’t going to work, I moved to a “Pay As You Go” plan because my phone data usage is so minimum, running around 30MB/month, that even the cheapest monthly plan were overkill for me.
In addition, the “Pay As You Go” plans have the advantage of being active for 90 days ($10, $20, or $30 plans) or 365 days for the $100 plan. To me, being able to purchase the latter plan for my mother, and then not having to worry about her having an emergency and being “phone-less” was a big convenience.
Black Wireless charges $10 for the SIM card. Before ordering the SIM, but sure to validate if your phone takes the regular, micro, or nano size. The SIM cards arrive in a regular letter-sized envelope by US mail within a couple of days. Once you receive your SIM, its an easy process to place it in your cell phone, and use the online web form at https://www.blackwireless.com/PreActivate.aspx to activate the new SIM. The new SIM worked within the hour.
Before you order a new SIM, but certain that your phone is unlocked. If you have completed a contract with AT&T or T-mobile, you can visit their stores and get your locked phone unlocked. Tell them you will be vacationing in Europe! Alternatively, you can purchase an unlocked phone directly — for instance the Google Nexus 5 — or search on Amazon for other alternatives.
Want $5 off your order? Use code 12731 during checkout. See https://www.blackwireless.com/Plans.aspx to sign up.