O2 Wireless is a bare bones prepaid wireless service. They offer two simple pricing plans. The first is pure pay-as-you-go and costs $.14 per minute. Their monthly plan costs $29.99 for 500 minutes of airtime. You can add a nights and weekend option for $1 per day used which allows unlimited nights and weekends for the specific day the phone is used. The first text message sent in a day costs $.10 but subsequent texts in that day are billed at $.05. O2 is a GSM based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) meaning that it utilizes the network infrastructure of AT&T and/or T-Mobile so the coverage footprint is large. Roaming outside the network costs a hefty $.49 per minute.

The service offers a single very basic phone from Alcatel or Nokia, depending on which is available, for $9.99 and it comes with fifty free airtime minutes.

O2 advertises free international calling to Mexico and more than fifty other countries; however, the claim is misleading at best. Any of these calls requires accessing a special access number for which customers are charged at the regular plan rate so it certainly isn’t free. Admittedly, there’s no additional charge beyond that airtime but the price for accessing the access number on O2 is already more than the international calls would cost on many other services.

For better options in prepaid cellular phone service, we suggest taking a look at our reviews of Boost Mobile, Cricket or Virgin Mobile.