Free phone service for those on Medicaid that accepts esim?

[keylii]

Hi all, I have been using Q link wireless for a few months now, which gives me free phone service and I qualify because I’m on Medicaid. Im getting an iPhone 15 for Xmas / my birthday. I checked and Q link wireless only works with a physical SIM card and not esim meaning I’ll no longer be able to use it with my new phone. I was wondering if anyone knows of any free phone services that accept esim as well, as my preliminary search didn’t yield great results thus far. I’m in PA, USA if that helps.

Before anyone asks, I’m getting an iPhone 15 from my nan because I uprooted my life to come take care of my great grandma with dementia for several months while my nan was in the hospital, then helped both of them when she came home after many surgeries so her and my mom are both pooling Money for this to be my Xmas + bday present. Otherwise I most definitely couldn’t afford it myself.

 

[resjudicata]

@keylii I don't have a good answer myself but you might also ask im r/nocontract.

 

[keylii]

@resjudicata Thank you so much!

 

[daisyalice]

@keylii I don't believe you have a "choice" of service.

 

[keylii]

@daisyalice …what do you mean lol

 

[daisyalice]

@keylii That free phone service. I don't think you can choose which service the government is working with to provide that free phone service.

 

[keylii]

@daisyalice Well yeah, duh. That’s why I’m asking which places do accept it.

 

[resjudicata]

@keylii Wait I'm on Medicaid. Tell me more about Qlink! Do you like it? Does it work well? Whose service does it use?

I'm on Visible currently (for $25/month) but I'd love to swap

 

[keylii]

@resjudicata It was super simple, it had me put in all my basic info and click whixh way I qualify which was due to Medicaid obviously. I never even had to upload my proof that I was on Medicaid. They sent me a SIM card right away and I got it only a few days after signing up. It had directions on how to switch your SIM and how to activate your new phone number (I think you may be able to bring your old phone number to Qlink but I didn’t have service beforehand so I had no number to bring so don’t quote me on that). They even have a line where you can call if you’re having issues setting it up but I never did, it was super simple. iirc it comes with 3 different size SIM cards and you just pick the one that your phone takes, pop it in, send a text to anyone in your contacts, and your new service is activated.

The service is absolutely great. I don’t have a clue who it’s through, but I’ve tried mint mobile before and they sucked sooooo bad. Wouldn’t get texts until hours later, use of data was basically impossible, disconnected calls, etc. but that’s totally not the case with qlink! I was very pleasantly surprised, it works exavrly the same as my service did when I was paying $100 for regular service via sprint. It comes with unlimited everything, though data does get throttled at some point, but you get way more fast speed data than I ever figured you would. If you spend most of your time on wifi anyway you’ll literally never get your data throttled. I went a month where I had to use nothing but data and it loaded tik tok and YouTube no problem nonstop for like two weeks before slowing down so I imagine you actually do get a damn good amount of data. It resets each month and should text you when it does. I couldn’t possibly recommend it more! I’m bummed I won’t be able to use it with my esim when I get my new phone.

Can you tell me more about visible? Someone else suggested that so I was wondering if I should try that when I switch…like I mentioned before, mint was absolutely awful, so you do have any issues like that through visible?

 

[resjudicata]

@keylii Visible has been fine! It's a subsidiary of Verizon. They have referral codes so I referred a few people to make it cheaper ($20 off per referral). Honestly I have better service with Visible than I ever did with Verizon proper! There are areas of my town that calls used to drop but they don't anymore so that's cool. But "free" appeals to me more haha. Do you know if you can do the free internet and the free cell phone service? I already use the free internet as part of the ACP and idk why but I assumed it was one or the other lol

 

[keylii]

@resjudicata I actually posted this same post on two other subs and someone under the other sub actually happened to randomly inform me that yes, I can also apply for the free internet service. So I’d say that’s a yes, but I don’t personally have them both set up so I’m just going based off of what they told me!