Prepaid Phone Service

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you know me at all then you know that I am addicted to my cell phone. Even before I had a smart phone, I was constantly on my phone, and not only talking. I always described myself as an "unlimited everything type of girl". I need to have unlimited talk, text, and web on my phone or I pay bazillions of dollars in overages.

Unlimited plans are just one way to avoid wireless phone bill overages. One way that is gaining in popularity is with a prepaid phone service. While some carriers deal exclusively in prepaid service, I think that nearly every wireless provider out there has some sort of prepaid service. Actually, now that I think about it, I am pretty sure they have to. Wireless phone service providers are considered a utility and therefore no one can be turned down for service. A prepaid service requires no contract and a very limited risk for the service provider, so it's a way to get around paying a deposit that might be required of someone after a credit check.

I myself use a post paid and a prepaid service. One service that I have not used is Boost Mobile. That isn't because of reputation, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Typically, I have found that prepaid services offer you a less reliable coverage area. Even large companies that do post paid and prepaid services, will have a smaller coverage area for their pre paid customers. Still, I find that those larger name companies have larger and more reliable networks anyway. They usually own more cell towers first hand and therefore your reception and call quality are increased.

A nice thing that boost mobile has is a program called Re-Boost. The re-boost program allows you to refill your prepaid calling service multiple ways. You can pay online, over the phone, or in person. I use a go phone from AT&T and this is the same set up they have as well. While both providers will allow family / friends to refill your account, boost makes it a little easier by having a "gift" button on their website. It seems to be geared more towards a set up that will allow people to make payments on your airtime.

One big difference between the AT&T go phone and the Boost Mobile program is that on Boost, you can use a Blackberry as a phone. Personally, I would never use a smart phone on any other network besides AT&T. Because of the simultaneous voice and data alone. I think using a smart phone on any other network makes the phone less smart; it just doesn't do as much and it doesn't reach its full potential. On the other hand, large deposits, or a desire to avoid a 24 month commitment can turn many people on to the prepaid services. While there are people out there using Blackberry devices on AT&T's go phone plans, this is not typical. The reason is because there isn't a data plan on the prepaid service that can support the Blackberry's data usage in a cost effective way.

Boost not only advertises that you can use a Blackberry on their prepaid phone service, but also that you can use the phone online for web browsing and social networking. I've had a facebook for a long time now, but I never started using it until I got the app on my Blackberry and later on my iPhone. In fact, more people are accessing their social networking sites via mobile devices than they are on their home computers! The reason is because it is fast, efficient, and instant! Your status update can read, "Having lunch at fair" with a snap shot of your kid covered in ketchup - as it really happens. If you only access your social networking site from home your status update is more like, "Got up, had coffee, went on a walk, bought groceries, took the kids to the fair, Johnny covered himself in ketchup, now I'm sleepy". Several short updates not only get more attention and comments, but they also keep your friends more informed of the fun little details of your day. Being able to snap a pic of my kid and send it straight to facebook is something I take advantage of every day if not several times a day.