Christmas Competition

Regular visitors to Mountain Wireless know we're always trying to keep up to date on the cheapest way to buy and maintain cellular service. Some prepaid plans can be had for as little as $2 per month (SpeakOut), but prepaid phones are not that cheap. During the holidays we're keeping an eye out for great deals and thought we found one at Walgreen's Pharmacy. They are selling a T-Mobile2Go Nokia 6030 (or similar phone) kit for $30, which includes the SIM, accessories and $10 worth of time.

T-Mobile2Go is a very cost effective service with cheap minutes and an even cheaper 1-year refill requirement with their "Gold Rewards" program. They also do well in our online ratings. The beauty of this Walgreen's phone was not just the phone, but the SIM that came with it. Until a few days ago, T-Mobile sold a prepaid "activation kit", with SIM, for $50, for those of us who want to use our own GSM phone on their network.

Unless you picked up a "pre-activated" SIM on eBay, this was the only way to activate your own phone on T-Mobile's prepaid. With The Walgreen's deal, you could keep the SIM and either toss the phone in the trash or sell it on eBay, and you were at least $20 ahead.

Somebody must have caught on at T-Mobile, and as of today, they now offer their SIM-only for just $10, which includes 10 minutes of talk time. They told us they are only offering it from their telephone sales line (800-T-MOBILE), it includes free overnight shipping, and I bet T-Mobile stores will have it as well.

We're seeing a few other super low-cost offers, especially at retailers like Target who use them to get people into the store. Watch their weekend circulars. I bet we'll see even more deals for the holidays, and at some of these prices, we might be buying whether we need 'em or not (wouldn't a SIM card look cool on a necklace?).