Solid alternative? Data cut off?

When I was comparing the different prepaid T-Mobile MVNO's I thought Solavei was the best value if you wanted any reasonable amount of data, but didn't need to be truly unlimited/unthrottled.

Solavei is $49 for unlimited talk/text/data unthrottled for the first 4GB. It looks like Simple Mobile is $60 for 4GB unthrottled - (If you only want 500mb of 4g then it's only $40 through Simple Mobile.) Even with the defined limits I think any of the carriers reserve the right to cut off data if they think you're abusing it. I don't have any experience with that...

My husband and I have been using Solavei since January and are happy with them. They also have a referral program which can effectively lower their rate if you're interested in such things - participation is optional.

And yes, you can port your number in if you want. One weird thing with them is you can only port when you activate your sim, you can't port in a number to an active sim.

 

I would completely skip on Solavei and stick to Spot Mobile or Simple Mobile. Customer service has been a touch better with Spot, but Simple has a bit more flexibility in plans.

Spot offers Unlimited Talk, Text and Data with 3 different offerings - $39.99 gets you 500MB @ 4G - $49.99 gets you 1GB @ 4G - $59.99 gets you 2GB @ 4G... All these include free international calling credits and unlimited 2G after your limit is reached. Spot plans are purchased over the internet so there are no taxes or fees.

Simple offers the same with 3 different offerings as well - $40 for 500MB, $50 for 2.5GB and $60 for 4GB... No taxes or fees as well.

Solavei offers 4GB of data for "$49" plus up to 24% taxes. They charge you a post paid tax setup while marketing as a 'prepaid' service. It's loaded with billing issues, coverage problems and horrible support (check out http://support.solavei.com if you want to see some of the stories first hand).

My Solavei bill for the 4 months I spent with them was $59.60 a month. I get better service support from Spot (I use more Wi-Fi so I don't worry about exceeding the $39.99 plan too often) and save $20 a month off the top. Simple would do the same for me as well and their coverage is exactly the same as Spot's.

If you want to try either one, Discount Cellular from Red Pocket Mobile, Spot Mobile and More! is giving away a free sim with any activation of $29.99 or more. It's pretty much a no risk deal for you. If you email them and ask for a second one to try out first, they might even send you a tosser card and one to port your own number over to Simple.