Airvoice Wireless Review - From $3.33 per Mo.

Updated 03/07/2015

Airvoice Wireless is a relatively small prepaid provider with prepaid rates from $3.33 per month and unlimited plans from $30 per month on AT&T 3G network.

Coverage on AT&T's GSM Network

The coverage map on their site doesn't list who provides the coverage, but if you look at the page source of the map, you can see that coverage is provided by AT&T. In particular, it is the same coverage as that provided for AT&T Gophones.

They also used to offer CDMA phones that must have run on Sprint's or Verizon's network, but it appears that they no longer do that.

Where to Buy Airvoice Phones

Retail

Airvoice sells its physical phones at retail locations of licensed dealers. So, if you can find a store selling Airvoice phones in your area, then you are in their coverage area.

Online

You can now purchase their phones and airtime online. They offer a good selection of phones. All the phones listed (as of 2011) are under $100, so they're affordable. The selection ranges from a refurbished Samsung Epix Smartphone for $99 down to a basic Alcatel E206 candy-bar style phone for $25.

SIM Card

If you already have an unlocked GSM phone, you can purchase a SIM card. A standard SIM card costs $4.99, and the micro and nano versions cost $5.99 and $6.99 respectively. You stick it into your unlocked GSM phone and activate it.

The SIM cards are mailed via standard USPS mail, so it takes a few days to arrive.

Pay As You Go Rates

The rates is officially 10 cents a minute. Refills start at $10 which is good for 90 days. You get a $1 bonus for buying the $20 refill and a $2 for the $30 refill. This drops your effective per minute rate to 9.5 and 9.4 cents per minute.

Text and picture messages cost 10 cents to send and receive..

Data costs 6.7 cents per MB. If you use a lot of data, that could get expensive. 

Airtime Refills

You can buy Airvoice Wireless airtime refills online. You pay with credit card, and your minutes are sent to your phone within one business day, though it probably won't take that long.

Additional Fees

$1 Monthly Maintenance Fee for E911

There is a $1 monthly maintenance fee that is charged on the eighth day of the month. This effectively increases you per minute cost depending on how much you use your phone. For example, if you only want to use the $10 card for the whole 90 day period, then you would be charged a total of $3 during those 90 days, leaving you with only $7 (or 70 minutes) of airtime to actually use for calling or texting.

The reason for this fee is for E911 access.

Don't Call 411- $2.65 Fee

There is a steep $2.65 charge for dialing 411. There are free options available such as 1-800-FREE-411 (1-800-3733-411).

Monthly Plans

Unlimited Plans

There are four unlimited plans costing $30, $40, $50 and $60 per month. These included unlimited talk and text and come with 500MB, 1GB, 2GB and 3GB of data.

Remember, your phone will be on the 3G network.

$10 Monthly Plan

For $10 per month, you get 250 minutes which works out to 4 cents per minute, which is a pretty good compromise between the pay as you go plans and the unlimited plans.

International Calls

You call the AirvoiceILD number to make international calls that are billed against your airtime balance. You have to buy these credits separately. The rates vary, however, they seem okay. Unfortunately, they don't publish the rates on their site anymore. You have to call them up to find out the rate to the country you want to call. (They have a comparison widget where you can enter the number you wish to call, but it doesn't seem to work.)

Mexico

Calls to Mexico and Canada cost 2 cents per minute.

Canada

Call to Canada cost about 1.9 cents the last time I checked.

Go with Airvoice Wireless?

While it's not a well-known prepaid provider, Airvoice Wireless seems to have some good features and a good selection of affordable phones, so you might want to check them out.

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