AT&T GoPhone
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GoPhone is the trademark for AT&T Mobility's pay-as-you-go (PAYG) service. The GoPhone trademark was acquired by Cingular in its merger with AT&T Wireless. Unlike many other PAYG services when GoPhone was acquired by Cingular they began to offer two options; the first is a conventional card-based PAYG service, for which the customer purchases a reload card with a preloaded dollar amount, which is then deducted from an account based on usage. The second, called Pick Your Plan(PYP), is prepaid, but has features which are more similar to conventional post-paid calling plans and is automatically billed every month. This variation was added on by Cingular. PYP includes Cingular's Rollover Balance which allows customers to preserve unused account balance for up to a full year (vs. 3-6 months for other carriers' prepaid services; T-mobile To Go is an exception, giving a one year expiration for any recharge once $100 has been purchased in the life of the account, under the name Gold Rewards). Payments for both the PYP and PAYG are handled by Vesta, a payment processor for many cell phone companies and MVNOs
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[edit] AT&T GoPhone Pick Your Plan
In mid 2006 Cingular decided to offer its popular MEdia Net plans on Cingulars PYP GoPhone service. Using PYP requires automatic payment with either a credit/debit card, or ACH from a checking account. If the payment fails, the customer must call and make payment within 4 days, or they lose their "roll-over" minutes.
Since the consolidation of Cingular and AT&T Inc, the company has begun offering prepaid data options on Pay As You Go. Data rates run from $4.99 for 1 MB of data, to 5 MB for $9.99, up to unlimited data usage for $19.99 per month. These so-called Feature Packs, can be added to a user's account monthly by calling 611. The data plans do not renew automatically.
Some users have noted that since GoPhone can be used with any compatible GSM or UMTS device (unlocked to AT&T), that the unlimited prepaid data can now be used as a data-only option (for use with smartphones and mobile broadband cards). This effectively dramatically lowers the cost of data versus the typical wireless data plan.[1]
[edit] AT&T GoPhones
- Any AT&T, Cingular or Unlocked GSM handset supporting the 850 MHz band.
As GoPhone accounts are not authorized to roam on the 1900 MHz T-Mobile GSM network, handsets lacking the 850 MHz band will perform poorly if they get a signal at all. This limitation applies to many tri-band European handsets that only support the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz GSM bands.
[edit] Ordering Problems
ATT Wireless frequently rejects online GoPhone orders stating that the individuals credit history could not be verified, even though it is a prepaid service that does not require a credit history check. This "credit history verification" is thought to help seek out terrorists that use prepaid phones for communication. (citation needed.)
[edit] See also
Other prepaid wireless service providers
