When you see "Jolt Mobile", and your primary association with the word "Jolt" is a soft drink, you may wonder if this is one of those old Saturday Night Live skits come to life: "It's a can of cola AND a prepaid wireless phone".
But seriously, with a claimed airtime rate as low as 10 cents a minute, it's worth taking a good look at this new service.
There are actually a couple of different cell phone services, Jolt Mobile and Jolt Rewards. Both appear to be owned by Beyond Wireless. The company describes itself as a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE). You don't really need to know what that is. Beyond Wireless also has its own service called Beyond GSM.
The rates are different, but the coverage appears to be the same.
Coverage is provided by AT&T's (pay as you go) network.
You can check out the Jolt Mobile plans and rates here.
Jolt has a 10 cent per minute domestic pay as you go plan where international calls cost a little extra. You can also choose the 15 cents per minute plan which includes international calling at no additional charge. You should check the country rates, however, because some places cost less than 5 cent per minute extra to call.
Jolt unlimited calling plans range from $40 per month for unlimited talk and text with no data to $60 per month including 2GB of data. There are international minute add-ons for $10 extra, and you can rollover up to 500 international minutes.
Jolt offers a bunch of Alcatel and Motorola phones ranging in price from $40 for the basic Motorola C168 to the Alcatel 980 for $265. They even offer the Just5 large button cell phone.
The Jolt plans have some attractive features, but, at this point, I don't know that you should pick them over more established services like Net10 or Straight Talk.
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Good Prepaid Plan But Confusing Options
I've had Beyond Wireless GSM or Jolt (seems they go through regular name changes) prepaid plans for several years and have been satisfied with the coverage …
Transition from Beyond Wireless
The transition from Beyond Wireless was problematic since Jolt did not honor the minutes, but Beyond sent me a reimbursement check after I called and requested …
Jolt okay, just okay. Customer service is terrible! Not rated yet
If you want a phone for data, don't even bother with JOLT. I have paid $50 for the 200GB of data. I have an iPhone 3gs, and it does not pick up any data …
Now carries JUST5 senior cell phones Not rated yet
I am going to try out JOLT, they have great plans right now. They have a $50 unlimited talk/text but free international calls good for 30 days. Free Voicemail …