Boost Mobile Plans

Boost mobile prepaid cell phone plans are for the young hip crowd. But not to worry, the plans are pretty good, even if you are not so young or not so hip. (You don't look a day over 30 to me.)

RingDJ - unexpected fun

When I first discovered Boost Mobile, I was all set to trash it for its confusing rates and seeemingly inept website which tries too hard to be hip, etc., when I noticed they offer a service on their website called RingDJ, where you could create your own ringtones for your Boost prepaid cell phone. Fun!

Nowadays, their website has gotten a lot better -- you can find your way around it, but, unfortunately, the RingDJ service has been discontinued.

Coverage

Boost mobile coverage is pretty good. Boost is owned by Nextel, so their coverage should correspond to Nextel's. To check out your coverage you have to go to the Boost Mobile Prepaid Plans page and select your zip code in the box, submit, and on the next page click on the "Coverage Map" button. From there you can see both their regional and national coverage.

Where to get

You can purchase a Boost prepaid cell phone and airtime cards from pharmacies, convenience stores like The Pantry, and superstores like Target.

Rates and Plans

You have a choice between three types of "Paygo" pay-as-you-go plans: the Basic, the $1/Day Chat, or the Premium plan.

Basic and $1/Day Chat Plans

Formerly called "Chirp Days and Chat Nights"

Basic Plan
With the Basic plan, calls cost 20 cents per minute from 7 am to 9 pm and 10 cents per minute from 9pm to 7 am and on weekends. Mobile-to-Mobile calls on the Sprint/Nextel network cost 10 cents per minute. Unlimited walkie talkie usage costs $1.00 a day -- great for a day at the mall or going to a game. Wireless web usage costs 35 cents per day, but is charged everyday whether or not you use it. Text messages are 10 cents to send and free to receive. MMS-type (picture and audio) messages are 25 cents to send and receive.

There appears to be no time limit for refilling your account balance, you just need to maintain a positive balance or your service will be interrupted, which is true of all these prepaid services, of course.

Yearly usage of 250 minutes at the peak rate would cost $125(20 cents per minutes x 250 minutes)

Note: Because of the different daytime and night and weekend rates, the phones will display a different number of minutes on your balance during the week and on nights and weekends. This might be a little disorienting at first.

$1/Day Chat
You get charged $1/day. You get unlimited nights and daytime weekend and weekday calls cost 10 cents per minute. Because of the $1/day charge, you have a minimum yearly cost of $365.00

Boost Premium Plan

$30, $50 or $60 a month.

The $30 a month plan comes with nothing other than walkie-talkie minutes. You still have to pay 10 cents per minute for your call.

The $50 a month plan gives you 400 minutes a month. The minimum yearly cost would be $600 plus taxes.

The %60 a month plan gives you 600 minutes a month. The minimum yearly cost would be $720 dollars.

If you consider these, then you may as well compare it feature-wise to standard (not only prepaid) cell phone plans before you make a decision.

Phones

You can choose between the Motorola i425 for $39.99(e or t-versions) and the Motorola i855 for $79.99. The i425 is a handsome basic phone. The i855 is a compact flip phone. These phones is also compatible with the Yahoo, MSN and AOL instant messenger services.

If you have an old Nextel or Boost phone, you can purchase a "Starter Kit" for $19.99 which will let you activate it as a Pay-as-you-go BoostMobile phone

Text messages

In addition to standard text messages, some of the Boost Prepaid cell phones are compatible with the instant messenger services from Yahoo, AOL and MSN.

Community

To maintain its image Boost sponsors many athletes from "extreme" sports such as snowboarding.

There is even a Boost Mobile Facebook page. It's pretty empty with only (as of 5/2008) 162 fans. Your friend's local rock band probably has more fans that that.

Last Word

While Boost Mobile phones are marketed to the hip, the plans are actually pretty good. So throw away your pocket protectors or shoulder pads and get a Boost Mobile phone!

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