> T-Mobile has 3 prepaid plans: "Pay as you go", "Pay by the day", and > "Flexpay".
> Anyways, I thought I should report on all this research. I've been > waiting so long for the day when I could walk into a store, give > someone some money (hell, any amount!) and get ... access. You have > no idea how many times I've walked into stores prior to this year and > tried to give someone a bunch of cash, only to have them tell me my > money was no good there because I wouldn't let them xerox my ID, run > my SSN and sign a contract. I've been doing some prelim on this too. I can buy a t-mo prepaid voice cell for $20 and activate it fully anonymously on pay-go or pay-day plan. They don't even ask for a name, which I think is awesome and totally inline with what a business should be, providing a good/service without hassling the consumer for anything unnecessary to that end. However, when I inquired about flexpay, every place I asked wanted positive ID [self-serve purchase and activation was not available] and they required a credit card as the only means of refill... not store bought minute/refill cards. I wanted flex-pay because the minutes were much cheaper. Are you saying you've found flex-pay does NOT require these things any longer? That would be good news to me. My minute usage was nearing the Boost and Virgin $50/mo unlimited zone. Boost had gsm phones. Virgin had what appeared to be non-gsm phones. I've not switched to either yet. The other carriers voice plans were not competitive with the above three. I think it's important when people talk of this subject to also specify: - Requiring real credit cards vs. anonymous debit cards [refillable or not] - Positive ID / verified real world data [mailed bills, etc] vs. supplying random data that is never checked. Also, I've run into prepaid 'no-contract' 'plans' from various providers that were two sided. One plan was more expensive and could use store bought refill cards. The other less expensive one required a 'credit card'... typically on file, not just on customer demand... as the only means of refill. You can see this if you detail the kiosks/flyers at any Walmart, Target, Kmart, etc. Thank you for starting this topic! Although it's not necessarily directly related to Tor, it certainly is of interest to Tor users, for exactly the same good reasons that Tor is of interest. I hope others can pitch in with their experiences pursuing anonymity with various carriers. I do think the USA is finally beginning to catch up with the rest of the world in this area. Provided no draconian ID law is enacted, it will continue to be a win for consumers and business. Consumers like simplicity and freedom, and a business that provides agressive service to that end will prosper. Hopefully the days of contracts and ID's preventing giving your phone away to others or switching to more suitable services are ending. > Or, if you prefer to send all of your data to the NSA[1,2], AT&T now has Certainly it's safe to assume that, by cooperation or otherwise, various agencies already have said access to all Tier-1 providers. *********************************************************************** To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with unsubscribe or-talk in the body. http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/
