Pre-paid phone for kid or even a cheap contract

My son is going to be going on a trip for about a week and he will be several states away. I'd like him to carry a prepaid phone that will work as he comes back home that is easy to use for a first timer.

The road trip will be from South Florida up to Central Virginia. I imagine that coverage will be shady or non-existant through several parts of this trip...especially the Carolinas. The trip will be straight up I-95.

Any thoughts on what phone to use for him since he has never really used a cell phone or tips for him to call us if he has an emergency? Would like to maximize coverage for him or even institute some sort of GPS tracking for him in case something were to happen to him. I left off with the days of Beacon Buddy in 2010 and that was not an automated type of GPS. More recently, my Blackberry had "show my location" on BBM.

Thanks

Instamapper seems to work....will just give him my other blackberry and top it off via boost if possible

pageplus 80 dollars 2000 minutes 1 year service

any verizon phonewill work thats not prepaid



http://www.pagepluscellular.com/Plans.aspx

StraightTalk [straighttalk.com] through Walmart
Net10 [net10.com] which can be picked up at Kmart and Walmart.
Boost Mobile [boostmobile.com]

All are good with plenty of options, cool phones or basic phones, and can be readily picked up quickly.

I would think I-95 would have pretty good coverage all the companies have coverge maps

http://www.cellreception.com

you don't mention how old your son is 8 or 13?

I'm looking for something similar - for an 11 year old boy walking to middle school in Tucson AZ. He is only using the cellphone to notify his parents that he made it to school daily. Verizon Wireless has the best cell phone coverage in his area.

So far, best I've found is the $4 charge for a VznW prepaid flip phone from Sears (recent SD) which includes $10 worth of usage. Would love to find another bargain like that one!