Wish they had given notice so I could have bought a couple extra but just FYI truphone have stopped selling prepaid sims as of last week. Can't find any resellers so looks like that is it.
Current sims will still work but no idea if there will be plans to kill them off eventually. If you haven't used yours in a while might want to log a call in case they start enforcing their 180 day rule.
Oh oh. That doesn't sound good...
They are still selling sims, but esim only..... bummer: https://www.truphone.com/us/consumer/sim/
Also if people need a dummy number for outgoing calls, I use 804-222-1111. I sometimes use it for microphone testing
What's their new main line of business now?
Their site was down for a bit lately so I couldn't log into my account at all...but now it is back up.
This eSIM stuff is totally unknown to me.
Given this news and our needs, I have emailed them asking a few things, they replied amazingly fast !!
Here is the exchange:I am more than willing to assist you on your questions for the Prepaid SIM card:
1 - Is there any way we could get a 2nd SIM card now ??
2 - Does this eSIM stuff require a very new or special phone for it to
work ??
3 - Is my existing SIM based account going to stop working at some point
in the future ??
Wow. Major bummer about the physical cards.
But nice that they are grandfathering those who already have physical SIM cards!
Yes it has been nice of them to keep the service going. Truphone and Freeup have been very good to keep old plans active.
To me - 'nice' & corporate entities seem quite unrelated;
People can be very kind because they are living, breathing, thinking beings - but corporations are all about profits.
That being said, my attention was drawn to this portion of the reply:
Which tells me=>
A - They have the SIM cards in stock & on hand;
2 - I am an existing customer - NOT a new customer.
So, given that we literally have zero income right now - buying an eSIM type phone is a total non-starter & frankly since that mostly seems like an iphone thing, we are not fans of that whole deal & prefer to avoid it.
When the ms.' Redpocket time runs out - short of something miraculous happening somehow - we'll likely have to do some sort of AT&T prepaid for our minimal uses.
Also - did a test call via Truphone & got 'carrier not available' twice before it finally connected.
To make this into a complete picture=>
When Twigby makes our existing phones into paperweights, and all the other stuff turns towards forcing IOT stuff on the masses - we may have no more cellular...anything.
Haha well even if they are not being nice I sure am thankful
It is always a goodness to be grateful.
It is also a goodness to comprehend the nature of corporate culture as a whole.
(Sadly, most folks simply accept that stuff without looking any deeper.)
EZ, IIRC you have been using Twigby for the backup/secondary VZW coverage? Won't they continue to work as Twigby transitions to VZW primary? Is Twigby going to refuse you a new SIM card because your current phones don't meet some requirement? Maybe can be gotten around by activating SIM in a whitelisted phone then transferring SIM to current phone? Of course none of this will work if your current phone is locked to Sprint or 3g voice only w/no 4g voice compatibility since VZW is shutting down 3g voice at the end of 2021 (& they say they mean it this time!).
Thanks for your very thoughtful reply Redrotors !!
You recall correctly.
All we have here for carriers is AT&T & VZW.
Our phones are Sprint CDMA - not VZW compatible & I ran them through the Twigby switch checker...natch.
For us to stay on Twigby when the change becomes final means having VZW compatible phones.
We'll just stay as we are until the other shoe drops !!
The more immediate concern is whether we'll be able to refill her Redpocket $10/month deal when it comes due because there seems to be none cheaper to get AT&T coverage for the almost zero usage she makes of it.
Having no income a'tall lately makes that $100 spend to ouchy for such low usage.
Thanks Again !!
Maybe you are already aware of these EZ but in case not -
AT&T MVNO Beast Mobile SIM is $20 to start on their free plan. Unlimited/unlimited/1GB a month. Risky, no one knows how long it will last and there is supposed to be an app to use to "earn" service that is nowhere to be found.
https://www.nthcircle.com/forum/other-services/2500-beast-mobile?start=0
Last year Net10 had their unlimited/unlimited/1GB (soft capped) 365 day plan on sale for $100 via EBay TracFone store, AT&T was a network choice (VZW also). You can use a referral code (within 14 days of) when you activate to get several (currently 4) free months worth of points beyond the year if you join their rewards program, more months if you put your code out there and it gets used (mine is in the referral thread). The only issue is the forthcoming VZW takeover changing things with Trac brands and of course there is always the "wonderfully competent" TF customer service to fear if you ever need them, that said my experience with Red Pocket CS was not at all pleasant or reassuring.
If 1200 min./1200 texts/3GB for a year would do the TF eBay store has had that on sale for $30-$40 periodically. I would be surprised if they don't offer it again between now and the holidays.
Thanks Again Redrotors !!
Net10 & TF are the same - and best avoided (we had them some while back...bleah.).
Fortunately there's been no real need to interact with Redpocket for support as it has all been basic & simple.
If they do a decent black friday offer on the cheapo plan we might be in better shape by then - but a $100 spend one way or the other for service that is seldom used is not on the map for us right now.
As to Beast Mobile - since we have a couple of month's leeway before her service needs a refill & as of now my Truphone is still mostly OK - it is time to wait & watch.
Twigby is 'sposed to be OK for a while yet & that has been what we've mostly used via the VZW service it has.
The AT&T services are ONLY used if we go anyplace with zero VZW signal - and since we seldom go anyplace since 2020, it is a want rather than a need.
Living in Vermont & doing stuff in nearby NH can be quite strange when it comes to cellular coverages.
Last time I was at my old office & had to go out for some cleaning supplies - getting signal had me slowly driving up & down 3 parallel hills for maybe 15 minutes until there was enough signal to make a single call !!
The most important reason for having both networks is that we each drive an older car, and when needed, reaching AAA is important - that is of course, if we're lucky enough to break down where there is ANY signal a'tall.
Thanks Again.
Yes, I've been in that same type situation searching for signal, any signal, with three different phones/networks. Both on land and on water.
Wish I knew of an AT&T version of PagePlus (TF again. I know, I'm no fan either) $10 for 4 mo. paygo (.04/min. when used). I'm really not up on AT&T paygo options.
h20 wireless is a good paygo for att. $10 min every 90 days ($9.00 with auto pay) 5c talk text and 10c per mb.
Mmfacemm - your reply gets a -WOW- !!
In considering this potential for a new provider soon, I remembered 2 that we used in the past=>
Consumer cellular and...H2O (Oxygen ??) - and was going to make a reply about them, but you beat me to it !!
Thanks.
As it happened, both gave us severe billing headaches - and also did about the same things.
CC made a huge error & overcharged us - and when notified & asked for help literally just cancelled both our numbers a minute after that request was made.
H2O made repeated 'errors' & their 'support' which was seemingly all ESL folks wasted endless amounts of my time with no useful results - but (fortunately ??) this was when Ringplus became possible.
Suffice it to say that we've really been around the block TOO MANY times in our efforts to have phone services which we can afford, and a firm result of that has been seeing that all the AT&T child companies we have tried are basically evil, anti-consumer sorts of things.
Looking at the Beast Mobile site frankly gives me the shivering willies with its wild claims & lack of specificity, so:
If it is still around in a month or so & not too many reports of bad things come around I may give that a try on my GSM phone, but for now it just strikes me as creepy.
Good thing we have a month or 2 for this to be settled in some direction or other !!
Thanks for replying.
I found some useful looking info here:
The $20 or less 90 day things will work for us, I think:
And I have an AT&T Go Phone SIM - but no idea how to use it & their site is about useless ?!?
Not sure what your thought is with the AT&T Go Phone SIM: if you're hoping to use it to activate on Black Wireless, I'd be surprised if it works. If by any chance you have a Red Pocket GSMA SIM kit, that one might have a better chance of working. Red Pocket owns Black Wireless.)
Greetings KentE !!
Well...my thought process was...
Gophone SIM + AT&T compatible phone + refill (?) = usable phone, perhaps ??
I think that SIM is a leftover from when we got some super-cheap deal so long ago that any further details are totally lost to time & mind !!