Pardon me, Utilizer, but did you bother to actually read the thread as well as the comments? If you did you would have discovered the answers to your questions.
I stated:
“The ‘contract free’ prepaid cell phones out there are not that reliable. I should know, I’ve been using em for years.”
Tracfones are not “essentially” free. You have to purchase the phone. The key word here is “coverage”. We have used Tracfones, and during one of our trips a while back we visited Las Vegas. We had absolutely zero coverage. No cell coverage at all. Coverage at our house wasn’t good as well.
No offense, now, and yes I just skimmed your initial thread.
I stated that Tracfones were “essentially” free, since I know I purchased one with a 60-day card and could have purchase another Tracfone at the end of the period with no problem. Hence the “essentially free” comment.
I have had good luck with tracfones over the years, although their customer support is decidedly lacking, and the fact that they seem to be tied into the Verizon network (for the most part) is probably a good reason for that. It has worked reliably as far as I have been able to determine from California to Florida, and quite a few places in between, so I have continued to use their services. YMMV.
Sorry to hear you did not experience the same degree of coverage I did, but then again pretty much every carrier has a dead spot or several existing. Only way to really get beyond that limitation is a SatPhone, actually.
Anyways, just thought I would offer the thought.