[monkeyboy]

One of the great things about Verizon is actually PagePlus...

You can take ANY Verizon phone, even a very old one, pay $5 and get that phone activated for 4 months (100mins), on PagePlus prepaid. And the rates going forward are VERY competitive (as little as 6cents/min). And PP does data as well.

PP is great for being able to make *some* use out of ANY Verizon phone you happen to have lying around. Great for giving your kids their first cell phone with minimal risk and cost.

So... I also have some Sprint phones just lying around. I DON'T want to open a full 2 year $800/yr contract on them. I simply want to activate perhaps one or two of them, whenever, for whatever reason, at minimal cost. But NOOO.... not only can you not activate a Sprint phone casually, you can't even activate a Sprint phone for prepaid -- Sprint doesn't even *have* a prepaid service unlike EVERY OTHER carrier, where you can just take whatever phone you have from that carrier and activate it on their prepaid service. NOPE, not Sprint... grrrr... So all these wasted, useless extra Sprint phones lying around... (and I have 4 PagePlus accounts just because with PP it is so easy, with little investment, to get any VZW phone on PP). Sprint, you are losing business because of this... business that every other carrier is mopping up on, particularly in this downturn economy... (I have a bunch of Tmo2GO phones for the same reason... cheap and easy activation of ANY GSM phone)....

/RANT

[Dan]

If you look at page plus, they actually sell old sprint phones for their service. I spoke with a rep there and he said they could flash an old sprint phone to work with their service.

They had the samsung a740 available which was never a verizon phone, so they obviously have the technology to do it.

We can rant about sprint not having its own prepaid service, and yes it is silly, but that was what they agreed to with Virgin mobile back a long time ago, probably for an influx of cash which allowed sprint to make what was considered to be more important moves at the time.

So, if you really are interested in getting your old sprint phones on page plus, give them a call and ask them what they can do. The fee to flash them may be more than just buying a similar device directly from them, not sure about that. Simply put, they say it can be done.

[PokerFace23]

lowest non commitment is $40/month 200 minutes and 9pm free n&w, using a sprint phone.

[ryu hayabusa]

You can use any Sprint or Verizon phone for Metro Pcs or Cricket which are both prepay services for as long as you want. No data though, but most People that have prepaid services are really worried about non data features.

[monkeyboy]

Originally Posted by Dan

If you look at page plus, they actually sell old sprint phones for their service. I spoke with a rep there and he said they could flash an old sprint phone to work with their service.

They had the samsung a740 available which was never a verizon phone, so they obviously have the technology to do it.

We can rant about sprint not having its own prepaid service, and yes it is silly, but that was what they agreed to with Virgin mobile back a long time ago, probably for an influx of cash which allowed sprint to make what was considered to be more important moves at the time.

So, if you really are interested in getting your old sprint phones on page plus, give them a call and ask them what they can do. The fee to flash them may be more than just buying a similar device directly from them, not sure about that. Simply put, they say it can be done.

Actually I tried about a year ago, on my own, to put a Sprint i500 on PP. It worked about 70%... the main problem was that I couldn't figure out how to get the VZW PRL in there and I couldn't get OTA working because I couldn't zero out the MSL. I could make calls, but PP/VZW always thought I was a roamer, so each call costed $$... But the i500 is kinda a special phone (PalmOS) and I have some other spare Sprint phones now that are more "normal". So yes, it is probably possible to put some Sprint phones on PP with some effort. Perhaps I'll do that... only costs $5 to try...

I didn't know there is actually an agreement in place between Sprint and VM that specifically bars Sprint from starting a Sprint prepaid service -- is that true?

[Dan]

Originally Posted by monkeyboy

Actually I tried about a year ago, on my own, to put a Sprint i500 on PP. It worked about 70%... the main problem was that I couldn't figure out how to get the VZW PRL in there and I couldn't get OTA working because I couldn't zero out the MSL. I could make calls, but PP/VZW always thought I was a roamer, so each call costed $$... But the i500 is kinda a special phone (PalmOS) and I have some other spare Sprint phones now that are more "normal". So yes, it is probably possible to put some Sprint phones on PP with some effort. Perhaps I'll do that... only costs $5 to try...

I didn't know there is actually an agreement in place between Sprint and VM that specifically bars Sprint from starting a Sprint prepaid service -- is that true?

The issue you mentioned is why I believe that they flash the phones that are not verizon branded to get the PRL downloaded, etc. You might want to call or email them directly and ask about having a sprint phone flashed for the verizon page plus network.

As far as Virgin, Sprint owns part of the partnership last I read, though a minority share. I believe that their was an agreement for Virgin to do the prepaid offerings that sprint would not directly compete, which is why boost did offer the CDMA no contract monthly plans as well as the pay per minute iDEN option.

I agree that it is silly how sprint has set this up, and think that some rearrangement with virgin might benefit both parties and let sprint sell prepaid minutes on a sprint branded phone. Having said that, I dont believe their is any restriction for a company like pageplus from becoming a sprint MVNO and doing with the sprint network and sprint phones that they have done with verizon. Its just that Verizon has a much larger native network to use!

[Pyramid-3]

Old phones are useful for all those times your Sprint phone conks out and you have to send it out for replacement with an even older refurb. Which of course will conk out, and so on.

[Dan]

Old phones are useful, but some people dont need the large collection of old phones they may have for backups. If sprint started offering no-contract plans like other carriers have now, they could probably attract quite a few credit challenged custimers to get sprint service as prepaid with similar monthly plans. That would let the OP select a sprint plan and know the costs were fixed as well as allowing for free mobile to mobile calling.

All wishful thinking today, but it might happen soom enough.

I know is sprint offered contract free plans I would activate a phone for the summer for my mother to use at her cottage. Its just not worth a year round plan and the basic $40 plan sprint offers is lacking to say the least!

[bdaddydl]

If you got a lot of old phones give them to the local womens shelter or law enforcement they can use them for emergency phones

[Dan]

Originally Posted by bdaddydl

If you got a lot of old phones give them to the local womens shelter or law enforcement they can use them for emergency phones

Yes, that is true, but the thread was designed to discuss activating an old phone on some sort of a prepaid service. Seems silly to buy yet another "throw away" device instead of using what you already have available.

Most "old" phones dont actually get handed to anyone at a women's shelter, they get sold to companies like asurion to be refurbished as replacements. Thats why sprint offers the "buy back" program, to give you up to $50 and to help replenish the number of devices available for refurbishing.