Setting up your Android phone with Red Pocket’s service is simple. One thing to consider, however, is that unlocked phones are quite a bit pricier than carrier-subsidized phones. The difference between Red Pocket Mobile and other prepaid carriers is that you can use any unlocked GSM phone of your choosing–an appealing option, since one of the weaknesses of prepaid carriers is that they don’t always make the latest and greatest smartphones available to customers. The company also offers a pay-as-you-go plan. Red Pocket Mobile’s other unlimited plans range from $20 to $50. The plan gave me unlimited talk and text, unlimited MMS, 2GB of mobile Web, and up to 200 international rollover minutes. Red Pocket sent me a SIM card to test-drive, so I used an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S II to try the $60-per-month plan, which is the priciest of all of the company’s unlimited and prepaid plans. Service is limited to the United States, including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.

A few SIM-card-only vendors are here in the United States, but I’ve never been satisfied with their plans, their coverage, or their small data caps–until I tried Red Pocket Mobile.Īs an AT&T MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), Red Pocket Mobile uses the exact same GSM network as AT&T does. It was incredibly simple: I bought a SIM card from a carrier such as Orange or Vodafone, picked a voice-plus-data plan, and paid for the SIM card, and I was out the door with a fully functional smartphone. While I was in Europe last year, I brought along an unlocked phone and purchased refillable SIM cards as I hopped from one country to the next.

Red pocket phones