Amp'd prepai'd deets emerge
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 1st 2006 at 5:58AM
Amp'd is finally adding a prepaid service option, especially appropriate given their young target demographic. Touted as "the first pay-as-you-go 3G wireless phone service," it looks like voice minutes and plain ol' SMS will run you 10 cents a pop, MMS messages come in at 25 cents, and speedy EV-DO data will be a relative bargain at 37.5 cents per MB (by comparison, Cingular can run you $10 per MB if you're not careful). There's a 25% surcharge tacked onto music track downloads over what postpaid customers shell out -- about $1.24 instead of 99 cents -- which sounds sketchy until you realize that your $1.24 covers the taxes and whatnot that the postpaid guys are going to be hit up with at the end of the month, anyway. We haven't heard a name being floated for the service yet, but "Prepai'd" is pretty clever, no?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
drew @ Jun 1st 2006 8:19AM
Acutally... I like Prepay'd better... ;)
Vincent @ Jun 1st 2006 9:49AM
I guess PreAmp'd would be too obscure?
Michael Roach @ Jun 1st 2006 10:03AM
They should have appended " in the United States" to that, since you can do prepaid 3G on most all 3G networks in Europe. I have first hand experience with Telia, 3, and Vodafone 3G prepaid...
Tracy L @ Jun 1st 2006 2:07PM
I'm fuzzy on prepaids versus regular phones in general. Can I buy their prepaid plan and swap the SIM card into any other phone (that's GSM or CDMA o whatever Amp'd uses) and get it to work?
Ian @ Jun 1st 2006 3:51PM
37.5 cents per MB?!?! Damn. I'm with Rogers. If you know their data prices... you'll know how envious I am :|
Vincent @ Jun 1st 2006 7:26PM
@4 Amp'd is a MNVO on Verizon's EV-DO network. So, there is no sim card to swap and no phone that you can import.
With regards to GSM and UMTS networks, generally speaking, you can use your prepaid sim in any unlocked phone. I've used a T-mobile and Cingular SIM card in various unlocked handsets, with no problems. However, you may not be able to use a prepaid sim in a non-prepaid handset locked to that network--some networks bar prepaid SIMs in their regular phones...