Pay-as-go mobile-phone service company, Boost Mobile, is trying something different: Unlimited service for $55 a month. No contracts, no credit checks and no activation fees!! Boost, owned by Sprint, launched the service because it wants to take advantage of Sprint’s CDMA technology.

The new “Unlimited by Boost” will be offered to a limited number of locales to start and Orange County, where Boost is headquartered, is one of them.

But there are a few catches.

The unlimited service is only if the customer is calling within the Southern California region (for us, the borders are “approximately from San Simeon/Paso Robles in the north, down the Mexican border, and from the California coast east along interstate 15, 40 and 10 to Primm, Nevada, Needles, California and Quartzsite, Arizona.”) Here’s a MAP (a PDF will open)

If you’re calling out of the area, it’ll cost an extra $0.15 cent per minute roaming fee. Voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, 3-way calling and wireless web (until July 31, 2007) are free, as is receiving text messages. But to send a message, you’ll get charged 10-cents each.

Boost does have some nice phones, thanks to in-house designers. But the only discount offered with this promo is on the Motorola C290. It’s $100 but if you buy it, you’ll get a month of unlimited service for free.

Why is Boost doing this?

“Value. Unlimited by Boost helps satisfy the growing demand for a wireless plan that is convenient, affordable, yet also provides reliable unlimited local and nationwide calling with a significantly larger home calling are than competing services. And, of course, both existing wireless users and entrants to the market are seeking value from a wireless service,” says Andy Colley, Senior Manager, Communications at Boost Mobile in a very public-relations prepared remark to me.

Boost, of course, will still offer the pay-as-you-go items.

Not a big bargain but if you hate those annoying 2-year contracts, this is an option.

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