Update 2/8/20117 4:15 PM PT: Twiby has lowered its prices for most plans. This post has been updated to show the new prices in bold and the old ones in
Twigby offers the following voice plans:
- $9 per month month 200 minutes, unlimited texts
- $11
$12per month 500 minutes, unlimited texts - $13
$17per month 1000 minutes, unlimited texts - $15
$25per month unlimited minutes, unlimited texts
- $3 per month 150 MB
- $6
$10per month 500 MB - $10
$14per month 1 GB - $15
$23per month 2 GB
Twigby was a good deal for unlimited texting with light voice and data usage before today's price cut. Now it's a good deal all around. But watch out for taxes. According to this Twigby Help artcicle, Twigby follows the postpaid model of charging all state and local point of sale taxes and also passes all its telecom taxes and recovery fees on to the consumer. That can mean taxes of up to 30% in some states and cities. See our Making Sense of Taxes on Prepaid Cell Phone Plans and Airtime post for more about the confusing mess of prepaid mobile taxes.
Sources: Twigby, Fierce Wireless; Image: Twitter
Data is expensive and not very competitive. It's good for people with feature phones.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I see some value here in the "Overage Protection" (i.e., throttled 2G data) option. As far as I'm aware, no other provider offers unlimited (albeit throttled) data for $12/month ($9 unlimited text and 200 minutes plan + $3 150MB data plan).
DeleteTello does it for half that. $6/mo gets you 200 texts & MB, after which you get unlimited 64kbps data backup. Install one of the better VoIP clients (I've read that Hangouts & TextNow - among others - will work fine at these speeds) for unlimited calling. I'd prefer to go $7/mo for 100 real cellular mins & the same data just in case of internet problems.
DeleteThey say "Twigby customers use not one, but two of the nation's largest nationwide networks."
ReplyDelete?
I asked the support chat:
DeleteSteve
Hello Mark. How may I help you?
Me
What does "Twigby customers use not one, but two of the nation's largest nationwide networks." mean?
Steve
With Twigby, we allow our customers to use both Sprint and Verizon networks for talk and text. For data, Twigby uses Sprint’s 4G LTE network, recently rated with some of the fastest speeds in the country. This gives Twigby customers access to the widest, most established cellular systems available. We've got you covered. At a price you can afford.
Me
So it's Sprint with voice roaming on Verizon. That's a roaming partnership, not "Two networks"
Steve
I am sorry
They're probably referring to the free roaming, ie Sprint and Verizon.
DeleteWith the possible exception of TracFone, I've never heard of a US MVNO that has its own roaming agreements. MVNOs with roaming share their MNO's roaming agreements.Sprint's biggest and best known roaming partner is Verizon but I suspect Twigby also roams on U.S. Cellular and other smaller regional CDMA networks.
DeleteTHIS is the one feature that makes Twigby worth the extra cost over Tello. While Sprint coverage in my area is pretty damn good (as a local truck driver who can go upwards of 200 miles away and back from my local yard, I have found only two areas so far without signal - one of which is insignificant in size of only 1mi of road), if I travelled further than I normally do then I'd want that Verizon coverage.
DeleteI always run the plans past my normal usage and try to decide if it's a good value. It looks like I would be at $20 with the $17 voice and $30 data plus taxes. Same at Ting would be $32 since I also text a moderate amount. As a Ringplus refugee, that's the math I need to do.
ReplyDelete17+30>20
DeleteWhy don't the plan prices listed in this post match the prices listed on the Twigby site?
ReplyDeleteThe plan prices listed in this post are much higher.
Thanks for letting me know. Twigby has cut its prices. I've updated the post with the new lower pricing.
DeleteNow that's competitive!
ReplyDeletePretty good prices. Expect this MVNO to maybe double their subscriber number after this week?
ReplyDeleteThe taxes scare me. The can really amount to a lot. The free roaming is great. I would use the 15 dollar text and talk plus the 15 dollar for 2 gigs. But again, the taxes scare me.
ReplyDeleteSo go to boom! Mobile (boom.us) for $30 including all fees/taxes on CDMAS (not sure if their Sprint based plan roams) for unlimited/unlimited/2gb
DeleteOR
go with boom's Verizon based plan and get 3gb/mo.,includes full postpaid network coverage inc. all roaming, no extra cost. For + $5 you can have throttled "2g" data after 3gb high speed allotment.
any one knows how to port out from Twigby?
ReplyDeleteAny one knows how to port out from Twigby?
ReplyDeletego there
DeleteTwigby wants your phone. First month is FREE with code FREE2START
ReplyDeleteTwigby 20% off phones now. E.G., $200 for a certified iPhone SE is a good deal.
DeleteDoes Twigby allow hotspot?
ReplyDeleteHotspot is not prohibited in Twigby's terms or service.
DeleteAlready burned through my $35 from Ting does anyone know a cheaper Sprint MVNO for data especially. Want to BYOP so would need MVNO that is okay with that.
ReplyDeleteTwigby is fine. So are Boost and Eco. If you want more, buy a Virgin Mobile phone and get 5GB for $30 w/autopay. But if you are buying a phone, consider the T-Mobile $30 5GB plan.
Deleteis Twigby the one with the unlimited 2g data? I know 2g data is slow, but might be good for my kids phone.
DeleteIf you have a data plan with Twigby you get unlimited 2G data after you use the amount if data included with the plan.
DeleteDennis, can you confirm that VM is $30 w/autopay for the 5GB ($35) plan? I don't see that anywhere on their site. I know Boost has an autopay discount for their $35 (2GB) plan, but not VM from what I see.
DeleteAlso elsewhere on your site someone said you can get that Boost plan for just $25 by downloading a Boost Dealz app, and that your data allotment is slowly increased every month up to 5GB, not the 2GB that the plan normally offers. Is that true also?
For Virgin Mobile information see our Prepaid Operator Profile: Virgin Mobile.
DeleteFor Boost Mobile see: Prepaid Operator Profile: Boost Mobile.
Click on any Virgin Mobile iPhone ad to see the $5 autopay discount.
DeleteYou can also bring your own iPhone and get this discount.
Re Boost Dealz, just search for that on their website. $5 discount. You are confusing Dealz with the old Growing Data plan, which is grandfathered by no longer an option.
DeleteDo you think my RingPlus phone will work with them? It has been migrated to Ting but it was a brand new Sprint Prepaid phone that was never used on Sprint PP; I was able to activate it directly on RingPlus before Sprint's strict rules went into place last year. It migrated to Ting fine and works, but in your RP shutdown article you said "porting a number and MEID from one Sprint operator to another requires extra work by the receiving carrier so not all will do it. Two that will are Ting and Tello." So did it only work because Ting had a unique ability to move it over, and will Twigby not be able to? On Twigby's site here
ReplyDeletehttps://www.twigby.com/blog/ringplus-customers-get-first-month-free/
it says "your phone must first deactivate at RingPlus before it can activate on Twigby". That makes me worry that the deactivation will prevent a new reactivation (under Sprint's new rules), whereas it seems the phone was never "deactivated" during the Ting migration...it was just moved over and that's why it still works. What do you think?
You should be fine. The Twigby MEID check should confirm this. It would fail if you flunked the FED check.
DeleteI agree. I moved a Boost Moto E from RingPlus to FreedomPop last month after deactivating it on RingPlus.
DeleteIt looks like prepaid phones that were activated on a Spring MVNO before the FED changes have been whitelisted by Sprint.
If Twigby, or any Sprint MVNO, suddenly goes out of business, do we get sufficient warning like with Ringplus so we have time to move our phone somewhere else, or might our MEID be trapped there? I would like to try Twigby but I worry about these small MVNOs
ReplyDeleteThere are no guarantees and every MVNO failure is different, but with most recent failures customers have had sufficient warning to port out.
DeleteIs call quality and data speed the same no matter which Sprint MVNO you use, whether it's Twigby, Ting, Tello, etc., since they are all accessing the same Sprint network? I like Twigby's pricing much better than Ting's...it's really a no-brainer, so why would anyone keep Ting, unless quality varies??
ReplyDeleteWe're keeping Ting until we hear more about Twigby, a new company. Ting has the best CS and OLAM software tools. Nice app, too. We might switch later.
DeleteI left Ting, had two lines with them, didn't use one that much so I cancelled it (one line), they still charged me for the extra month. tried to edit my credit card info, lol in your dreams loser. lol. nah. I cancelled the service after that but called CS like a week before the due date. I did not wanted another surprise. great signal, Sprint Network.
ReplyDeletei prefer to try a new one, signal is great, I mean once again, is the same great Sprint network. the switching went flawless. in a minute or two I was up and running again.I truly recommend it so far!!
Taxes are not really that bad with Twigby. They amounted 89 cents for me!
ReplyDelete