I have been using the 5 dollar CNT combo for the last six months and my conclusion is that this is the best prepaid cell phone plan that you can buy in Ecuador, above any Movistar or Claro combo, for its price or cost benefit, the quality of coverage and the benefits you get..
The big problem with any prepaid combo in Ecuador is its validity based on its price. Only the combos that cost more have a duration of 30 days maximum. The minimum you have to pay to get a data package with this duration is $10. You can pay less for any other Claro or Movistar combo, but they have a shorter expiration period.
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This is the great advantage of the CNT operator. They offer you a 5 dollar combo with a validity of 30 days, which offers 50 minutes to all operators, free calls to conventional and CNT numbers, 30 minutes of international calls, 5 GB of mobile data and some “free” gigabytes for WhatsApp and social networks. You certainly receive half the benefits of what Claro or Movistar offers for double this price, especially minutes to other operators and mobile data, but when you do not use many gigabytes or minutes, it is very good for you to have the CNT combo as an option. half price, which will be valid for the same 30 days..
Another crucial factor when you decide on one operator or another is the coverage or signal quality. At the level of Ecuador, Claro has the best coverage and signal quality, however, I have been using CNT in the city of Ambato and both factors are not very different from what Claro offers in this city. Likewise, I can say that Movistar is behind Claro in signal and coverage. This can vary from city to city, so I recommend trying or asking for references in your city.
Although operators in Ecuador offer “free” social networks, including CNT, you should keep in mind that the gigabytes assigned to these networks only begin to be used after you have used up the mobile data assigned to your package. That is the little trap and fine print that exists in the marketing of prepaid plans, and both CNT, Claro and Movistar work the same in this regard..
In case you are interested in switching to CNT for its attractive combo of $5 for 30 days, you can try it by simply purchasing an alternate CNT chip to see how it goes and after that decide whether or not you want to change your main number to this operator , a fairly simple personal procedure. In my case, the 50 minutes that CNT offers to other operators, as well as the 5GB of mobile data are enough for me for the month. Although sometimes they end early, it is not common, but in any case you can always deactivate mobile data or restrict it to control its use.
Personally, I don't like CNT as a company, not necessarily because it is public, but mainly because of a history of unfair and high charges to clients, which are fully documented on the Internet, but their prepaid combo of $5 for 30 days is very beneficial for my pocket.
More information : CNT