I used a pay as you go phone a few years ago there. It worked fine in all of the major areas like Lahiana, Kaanapali, Kihei, Kahalui ect...

The brand I used was Virgin Mobile. I don't know how the others work there. I'd assume just fine, since they usually use the towers of established companies.

We have cell phones but are not big users of them, so we have the pay as you go phones from Virgin Mobile. They use the Sprint network for transmission of the calls. Sprint is OK, but not the best in Hawai'i. However, I think you will do fine with it though.

The nice part about Virgin Mobile is the cheap price. You can often go on their site and get a phone for free or very low price. Then their month by month plan is as little as $5 per month. You don't get a lot of minutes for this, but if you are not a heavy user, then that should be fine. And as long as you continue to pay in the $5 per month, the dollar amounts not used one month carry over to the next month. For the first 10 minutes of calling in a day they charge 10 cents per minute, and then 5 cents per minute for any additonal minutes that day. So the least amount of minutes one gets in 50 minutes per month. This is plenty for a light cell user like me. The best part is the phone can be used anywhere in the country for no extra charge, and long distance calls are no extra (still the same 10 cents/minute).

The main place I have trouble in Hawai'i with this phone is Lana'i. I don't think you will have trouble on most of Maui.

We use T-Mobile. There is no monthly fee or monthly minimum. You can buy minutes that will last up to a year. Phones are cheap. We are frugal, okay cheap, and both hate cell phones but these are better than trying to find a payphone or using a hotel phone to do any calling. They work just about everywhere on Maui (not sure about Hana or the RTH). I think they sell the Nokia phones at Target and you can pay for minutes with your credit card over the phone or on line or buy a prepaid card at your nearest drug store.

If we buy a $100 calling card, the minutes can be used forever as long as we add minutes within a year ($10 minimum). I had one year where I literally spent $10 for cell phone service. That tells you that I don't use the phone much.

If you're staying at a resort check with them on phone use. Earlier this year we stayed at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach in Honolulu and the Marriott on the Big Island. At both, local and calls to the mainland were free and unlimited.