I mentioned on a previous post about cheap cell phone service here about Safelink Wireless a life line cell phone service provided by TracFone. Since that time another company has begun offering free life line cell phone service, Assurance Wireless
Assurance Wireless is provided by Virgin Mobile, which is now owned by Sprint. They offer 200 minutes per month for free, and additional minutes are 10 cents each. Text messages are 15 cents each or $5 for 200 messages.
Safelink Wireless minutes vary by location, but NY only offers 68 minutes per month. Tracfone Wireless minute cards can be purchased to add time to the phone a 60 unit Tracfone card will give you 100 minutes of service that expires in 90 days, and a 120 unit Tracfone card will get you 150 minutes that expire in 90 days. Sounds stupid, but two 60 unit cards will get you 50 more minutes.
So my conclusion would be to apply for the Assurance Wireless phone. Not only will you get more minutes per month for free, but you will also be on Sprint's CDMA network, unlike Tracfone, which mostly operate as an MVNO on AT&T's GSM network. (People who have read previous posts from me will notice that I am partial to CDMA, and critical of GSM, even though HSPDA is a GSM technology, and supposed to provide faster 3G data speeds.)
