Around a year ago, I decided to turn off my phone service and to survive on WiFi, with a cheap prepaid phone as my backup for emergency non-WiFi situations. I was tired of an insane phone bill, and realized I spent 90% of the time in either my cable provider’s hotspots or WiFi from whatever venue I was at. I really only used my data during commuting, and I wanted to see if I could make it work. For texting and phone calls, I downloaded an app called TextNow. The app gives you your own phone number, free text and incoming calls, and you can download the app on different devices and sign into the same account. With WiFi everywhere these days, it so easy to make it work. Then, some really exciting news happened. TextNow became the world’s first all-IP cloud based mobile phone carrier.
Here’s the scoop:
-TextNow Wireless customers receive all of the benefits of a traditional mobile carrier without the contracts, high costs or hidden fees. Plans begin at $18.99/month including unlimited voice, text and 2G data services with no contracts.
-This means, even if you’ve exceeded your monthly amount of 4G/5G data, you will still have 2G at no cost to you for the remainder of the month.
-TextNow has a great selection of affordable phones to use if you need one, or you can use your previous Sprint phone to activate your plan.
Available Plans:
MOTO X
For us to review the service, we received a Motorola MOTO X. At first glance I figured I would still use my Samsung Galaxy Note for most things, only using the Moto X to test out the service and see if the data would last me for the month, of course using WiFi whenever possible. But, I actually ended up falling in love with the phone. The quality of the photos taken with this phone blew my mind. I was able to download all of the apps I normally use on my Galaxy, and quickly got used to a smaller keyboard again.
I was able to capture our summer beautifully so far with the camera on the Moto X
Back to School
Beyond the Moto X, there are some other phones to choose from at really great prices from TextNow. From as low as $11.99 for a refurbished Moto G to $299 for a Samsung Galaxy S5, making TextNow a great solution for students. Parents can spend as little as 12 bucks on a phone for their son or daughter, and let them earn a pricier phone with good grades as the school year progresses if they’d like to. With TextNow, no excuses for not calling or updating mom and dad if the phone dies or is lost- they can always download the app and sign in on a friends phone, or even computer.
Final Thoughts
We really love the TextNow app along with the plan. After a month, we didn’t go over our data amount- and we made sure to use the phone when out of WiFi to see how often we’d need it. What we also loved was the fact that you can turn the Data on and off just like the WiFi- so you really know that you’re not using up your data while in WiFi, or when you’re getting close to reaching your limit. And of course, we love the fact that if you do hit your limit you have the option to upgrade to more data or simply run on 2G until you receive new data. We know with some phone carriers, if this happens they automatically charge you for a bundle of data- even if you only have one day until your new monthly amount arrives. None of that nonsense with TextNow.
So, we’ve learned it is totally possible to survive without a phone contract thanks to today’s technology. And with a game changer like TextNow, we are sure more budget conscious folks as well as students will love what they have to offer.
Promo
We’re also sharing a great promo on the Moto X here.
For more information on TextNow, visit www.textnow.com.
Thanks to TextNow for allowing us to review their service and the Moto X to facilitate this review. As always, all opinions are our own.