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PrePaid costs less than contract price, flash phone

DrFrito

Dec 12, 2012, 3:25 PM
I've been checking, my phone is pretty much dead and that limits me to a choice of 4 phones I can get without a data plan.

We pay ~$88 per month after taxes for unlimited minutes and texts. If I add the 2gb data plan to our phones our cost jumps to $133.49 give or take after taxes.

BUT, if we switch to prepaid, we would have our 2 lines and 1gb data per phone with unlimited talk/text for $100 after tax.

We don't really have a choice of providers here other than spotty coverage of Verizon.

Could we flash our phones so they would work on prepaid us cellular?
mine is a Motorola w385 which is dying and my wife's is a LG something with a slide out keyboard.

Sorry so long. Any thoughts on this?
btw. Why is their p...
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maxymax

Dec 15, 2012, 8:17 PM
I take it you aren't with US Cellular currently right? The plan price you mention of 2 lines unlimited min/text for $88 isn't a USCC rate that I'm aware of. You can't flash a non USCC phone to their network. Maybe theoretically you could flash the firmware, but they won't activate the phone if it doesn't say "US Cellular" on it. If you do currently have USCC and want to switch to prepay, you will have to change your number as you can't keep it, but you could keep your old phones and switch to prepay w/out any flashing. If you are asking about why prepay is so much less, I'm wondering if you're looking at U Prepaid through Walmart. It's very inexpensive to compete at Walmart. Other carrier's prepay at Walmart are priced similarly at $5...
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DrFrito

Dec 15, 2012, 9:32 PM
Hi,
Thanks very much for your time/response. Yes we currently are USCC customers. The $88 comes from the $99 per month plan which is unlimited talk and text. We get a 5% discount for auto bill pay, and a 20% discount from being a state employee. So it's $75 per month plus taxes which totals $88.

Thanks for the tip on U Prepaid, but it won't work out here. We're very limited basically it's Verizon or USCC. Verizon doesn't work too well such as in the church or school. In our other house I had to make calls from one end of the home. StraightTalk uses Verizon service and again doesn't work very well. No Sprint, ATT, Tmobile, or any other services work here.

If I were to get new 'contract' phones with USCC, our bill would go ...
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Joshiwa

Dec 16, 2012, 2:15 PM
As of right now 4G devices are not available for prepay service, same for any windows or blackberry. If you were to bring in a windows or blackberry we couldn't activate it on prepaid and so I'd think it'd be the same for a 4G device like the Motorola M (sweet phone btw).
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DrFrito

Dec 31, 2012, 12:21 PM
Thank you for the reply. Sorry, just saw it as we were out of town for Christmas. Since today is the last day of bogo we'll probably go ahead and get them.....for $79 you can't really go wrong for a Motorola.
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DrFrito

Feb 23, 2013, 10:12 AM
Thanks again. I know this is old.

I found out now that uprepaid will work out here and is only $50 per line with the 2gb data plan.
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dlxn

Mar 13, 2013, 11:38 AM
What smartphones work with prepaid? It shows not available in my area on the website.
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DrFrito

Mar 13, 2013, 3:16 PM
Huawei Ascend Y

That's the only smart phone that works with the www.uprepaid.net service. That is the us cellular one. Since it's a partnership with alltel, they may offer a different phone.
This service is $50 per month with unlimited talk/text and 2gb data.

The actual prepaid service directly from us cellular costs more, ?? $65 ?? per month but its possible you get a choice of more phones.

They keep saying with the prepaid you won't get 4g service. That's something to keep in mind if it's available to you. Out here I am on 1x service sometimes and 3g the rest. We aren't on the list to be upgraded to 4g service.
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Bparker86

Dec 13, 2015, 9:58 PM
Hey just so you know.... You can actually use uprepaid. Becuase it is run solely on USCC towers. it's nothing more then uscc equivalent of Strait talk. Sold in a box phone through Walmart it's nothing more then uscc prepaid. I'm on my uscc LG g3 on the 45 dollar plan.! Unlimited everything with 3 gbs of high speed data then 2g thereafter. It's an awesome Deal. The uprepaid is kind of done tho. Now it's just sold as uscc prepaid any uscc contract phone cam be turned over to prepaid also. Nationwide coverage.... Which is the big one where Verizon prepaid nd St come up short. On those one... If your phone says roaming.... You cannot make calls or send texts or get data. Instead it directs you to customer service to add funds or it wi...
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