hm I didn't know about the ARN network... have you used this? Asking because it looks suspicious, their page is covered all over with broken links https://prepaid.americanroaming.com/
yes I am on the old $30/month sero (used to be $20 but they took away discounts). I use about 700-800mb/month, and at that amount, the $30 price point wins out for me. I stream radio while I bike/walk (I listen to talk shows/news so it isn't something I can build a library for). The $10 ARN is something that I'll look into but since it uses CDMA, I'll most likely stick with tmobile for the GSM so I have 2 networks to try. I drive through areas of rural Kansas and GSM doesn't seem to do well there. And there's a few dead spots on sprint that tmobile covers. Somehow areas near Sprint headquarters seem to drop all sprint calls when you pass by. Google voice makes it easy to integrate both numbers too so I can use either one and people wouldn't even know.
But for family, 3 sero plans for a little under $100 seems to win out but I haven't rechecked the math in about 2 years. I use the most data, while 2nd line needs unlimited text (over 1,500 texts/month, no idea how but it is), and 3rd line talks a lot (the free nights/weekends covers most, but the 500 daytime minutes is great). None of us really need smarter phones that we got since we don't want to pay more than we already are. Sure there are other $30/month plans for the texting and data but not the minutes, and we rather not break up the phone bills for the same end price but different phones. Even the $10/month prepaid plans would end up costing close to the $30 price point.
Actually, ARN is very legitimate... they just don't keep after their website as well as they probably should. After all, they make
way more money with on-the-spot calls through the network from people roaming than their prepaid calling cards. The thing with ARN to remember is that it's outbound only, though.
On the CDMA end, Kansas and Nebraska are mostly Verizon territory, IIRC. One of the other things with the old SERO plans was that it was Sprint network only (I think), much like a prepaid MVNO, which is why you're needing the T-Mo card to roam for service in spots.
You're right though, breaking things up with individual prepaid carriers only to pay nearly the same amount isn't a useful idea. Instead, since you're already with Sprint and could just take the handsets over, you might want to look into
Ting. You should get Verizon roaming for voice and text out in Kansas (no data), and 1000 minutes, 2000 texts and 1GB of data split between three handsets is only $68+tax a month... plus you get the added benefit of only (mostly) paying for what you use and rationing/monitoring usage for individuals. Get your use down on any of those fronts, you'll save more: pre-downloaded podcasts and live FM radio to decrease data usage, SMS alternatives like Kik, Nimbuzz and Google Voice to reduce text usage (though texting is dirt cheap on Ting), using a VoIP based home phone... you get the idea.