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My vacation to Alabama was an eye-opening experience on many fronts. Perhaps one of the most amazing things was …

If you’re a current AT&T Customer:

For those of you not AT&T Customers:…

I managed to play with AT&T’s Cellular Video offering today. On their site, they offer clips to a wide variety of things. On the front …

Given the announcements earlier this week that Sprint rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile just announced, we haven’t really heard from Sprint on what they plan to do. They’ve announced a $120 all-you-can-eat …

If you haven’t been following the various tech blogs over the past 24 hours or so, you’ve missed out on the announcements about Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all offering “unlimited voice …

I can’t say I saw this coming, but the word is out that Starbucks shreds their hotspot deal with T-Mobile and goes with AT&T. The good news is that T-Mobile customers will still be able to use the Starbucks …

I went back to the Gig Harbor Costco on Friday to grab a bite to eat and see if they sold any other phones without a contract. There is one phone they sell …

From the no duh department, the folks at AT&T Mobility were “secret shopped” by the folks at the Consumers Union. They asked what the early termination fee (ETF) was for a wireless …

A while ago, Luca Filigheddu asked me about prepaid mobile phone options in the U.S.. I wrote up a short email explaining it to him, and I thought a more comprehensive work piece on the subject as in order.

I’m only covering the two major GSM carriers in the U.S.: AT&T and T-Mobile. There are a number of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) that make use of GSM, but I am not going to cover them. In some cases, you might find a slightly better deal with these MVNOs, but they typically only include voice and SMS service, no data service whatsoever.

I also realize that the CDMA carriers, especially those that are MVNOs, might even have better deals. I have no experience with them, nor do I want to do anything to encourage the use of CDMA. They’re not being covered.

One thing to keep in mind here in the U.S.: you pay for both incoming calls and SMS, unlike most of the rest of the world. You will need to factor that into your calculations for how many minutes you’ll need.

Details after the jump.

For some reason I thought I wrote about this, but I can’t find the post. In any case, if you haven’t read it somewhere else, you can now order just a SIM …