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Find information about prepaid internet service, providers of prepaid internet access and related information in the sections below. Please let us know if you have additional questions or can suggest additional prepaid web providers.

Site Contents:
What is prepaid internet?
Where can I get the best service and price when prepaying for internet access
Web Services and Other Related Resources

What is Prepaid Internet?

What is prepaid internet? Is it better or worse than paying an ISP for a subscription? Well, first off, as the phrase implies, prepaid Internet is simply paying for your access to the Internet up front. As for whether it is better than paying an ISP for an ongoing subscription, that depends on how you will use the Internet.

Most of us access the Internet through an ISP we pay on a monthly basis. I've personally used NetZero, AOL, and a handful of local ISPs. (In my opinion, NetZero is the best balance between price and performance.)

Of course, some folks pay on longer recurrences, trading a longer term commitment for a reduction in the subscription fees. Usually early withdrawal results in penaltys in this scenario.

I have however run into a variety of conditions where my current ISP (at that time) hasn't been able to meet an immediate need. For example, travelling out of state, I wasn't able to check my e-mail for days at a time (this is a big problem in my business). I also had a lapse in service as I left a popular, very large provider after being extremely frustrated and had a space where the public library offered the best opportunity to access my e-mail and client web sites. The list goes on. If only I'd had a backup prepaid Internet access solution at the time, I'd have saved considerable aggravation, and likely have made more money (I did lose an account while out of state and unable to make a timely response to an e-mail).

So, generally speaking... prepaying for Internet access makes sense in a variety of scenarios.

  • You don't use the Internet often enough to justify the costs of a recurring ISP subscription.
  • Access to the Internet is critical to your business... having an ISP -and- a prepaid solution provides some fail over safety.
  • You travel and don't have access to your local area ISP... (this might not apply to large ISPs like AOL or NetZero since they often have access points all over).
  • You have kids... like a phone card, prepaid internet gives you a means of controlling expenses and helping your kids learn to function responsibly... ie by limiting their time away from people ;-)

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