Updated G* phone price survey (see post 15282 for prices in early August).
G*USA's "great" offer of 300$ time or money has been adopted by several dealers by now. This offer basically replaced the "Freedom" plan promotion which reduced the handset price by 500$ in conjunction with a two year service agreement, with a flat $300 rebate check or 300 free minutes.....big deal.
A better deal by far at ICC, and its affiliate Claracom
skyplus.icc.com
satellitepayphones.com
skyplus.icc.com
which offer the G* Q-phone for as little as 200$ when committing to 12 months of the Beyond 500 plan (500$/month with 500 bundled minutes, 0.99/minute
therafter.) The phone is discounted to 500$, after rebate, with a one year commitment to just the Beyond Basic plan. At intermediate service levels, other discounts apply, so that the phone is 400$ for the Beyond 100 plan, and 300$ for the Beyond 250 plan. A 50$ activation fee applies.
Buyphone.com will sell the Q-phone for 550$ after rebate, but before a 50$ activation fee and 30$ shipping/handling charge for all the "Beyond" pricing plans bundled with 50 or
more minutes...
buyphone.com.
PSN has an innovative lease to own program; 99$ down plus 99$ a month buys the phone over a twelve month period. This plan would be good for those who want the service but are afraid to plunk down too much up front in case G* goes belly up.
skyhelp.net
It's Wireless.com offers Phones for 700$ after rebate, no plan commitment required:
itswireless.bigstep.com.
Several dealers feature the 300 buck rebate on their websites, but only offset against the 1200$ list price of the phone: GMPCS, Airlink, Atlantic City Radiotelephone and Norsat
gmpcs-us.com
airlinkcommunications.com
satphonestore.com
norsatglobal.com
Airstar, with banner ad "we will not be undersold" has not updated its site to reflect the new rebate offer. It is one of the few to offer an alternative to the G*USA suggested airtime rates. Airstar customers save a few cents per minute on airtime relative to
G*USA suggested prices. The best deal is for those using between 250-500 minutes per month: they'll save 11 cents a minute relative to the G*USA
suggested airtime rates.
Shamefully, the Verizon/Airtouch's Globalstar pages have not been updated to include the rebate; moreover, they're hard to find and feature an obsolete coverage map
app.airtouch.com |
