Prepaid Wireless Tracker -
June 2011 Issue
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T-Mobile USA Sweetens Prepaid Data Access Offerings
FierceBroadbandWireless
In the wake of stiff competition, as well as the pending AT&T
merger,
T-Mobile ups the ante by improving its prepaid data plans. 2GB of data on a
smartphone certainly didn’t
cut it; upping that to unlimited
is a wise move.
Though, at $70, this plan is far from inspiring
in the currently hyper-competitive prepaid landscape.
HP Offers Prepaid
3G Laptop Data Plans
Wireless
Week
Certain lines of HP laptops will now offer prepaid HP Data Pass
services
running on the Sprint broadband network.
While I like the idea of prepaid broadband proliferation,
to maximize
the usefulness of
data plans (whether prepaid or postpaid), a device
that can
be used by multiple PCs (ex. USB Modems, MiFi Hotspots) is probably a
better
route for most people. Also,
I think
most people will find that pricing is nothing notably competitive
compared to
prepaid broadband plans already available in the market.
Leap's Mixed Bag for Q1,
Shares Up
Wireless
Week
Despite its net losses, Cricket’s stats were looking good
enough to
give its
stock a boost. Despite
the excitement
and media around its Muve music unlimited model, if it doesn’t offer
the
service on its smartphones, I can’t see this product going anywhere. Perhaps it’s an investment
limitation, or a
DRM issue that needs to be resolved at the handset level by its OEMs, I
don’t
know; however, notwithstanding, without a broader compatible handset
rollout,
in 12 months no one will be talking about Muve.
Hopefully that won’t be the case, and what we’re
witnessing is a
cautious rollout strategy.
Clearwire Drops Rover Prepaid WiMAX Brand
FierceWireless
I suppose it’s arguable that offering its own prepaid branded product
(or any
of its own branded products for that matter) never made any sense. When I chatted with the
Rover online support
via their website, they noted that their product is still available,
and no end
date for product availability is currently known (or at least it’s not
being
shared!). I suspect
existing customers
will simply migrate to a Sprint branded product with no contract.
AT&T Prepaid
Fight vs. Verizon Wireless
Unleashed Plan
Phones
Review
It’s amusing to see AT&T and Verizon continue to attempt to
make people,
and the industry feel as though they’re still interested in the prepaid
space. Their
pricing has come way down,
however, still lacks true data (i.e. don’t be deceived by the pricing). At some point they’ll need
to either jump
into prepaid wholeheartedly, or decide that their core prepaid business
will
remain in the MVNO space.
Verizon Adds $50 Unlimited Prepaid Plan
CNET
(blog)
I’m really liking the Unleashed plans, however, excluding smartphones
from this
offer again speaks a “one-foot-in” mentality.
I’m still a large proponent of having ALL phones available
on ALL plans,
where only the price of the phone changes depending on whether it’s
postpaid
(i.e. subsidized) or prepaid. I
suppose
only time will tell.
MetroPCS Worried Over
T-Mobile Merger
Wall
Street
Journal
I suppose it goes without saying that MetroPCS (along with Cricket,
Sprint, and
a host of others) are concerned over the proposed AT&T,
T-Mobile
merger. Despite
AT&T’s arguments to
the contrary, my gut tells me that such a merger would not be good for
consumers in the long run. It
will be
interesting to see how the case unfolds.
Sprint's Likely Buyer May
Be CenturyLink After AT&T
Deal
Bloomberg
The most interesting aspect of this article is the comment regarding
Sprint
buying MetroPCS or Leap (i.e. Cricket) as a means of growing its
business to
avoid a sale of the company. Cricket
is
the obvious candidate as it has not shown the same strong performance
as has
Metro, and it already has roaming and MVNO agreements in place with
Cricket. That said,
I
really can’t
believe that a purchase of either of these carriers (or even both of
them)
would do anything for Sprint’s position in the marketplace, other than
to
solidify its fate as a prepaid wireless carrier as its postpaid
business
continues to struggle.
Leap $400M Debt Offering
May Spur LTE Deployment
Wireless
Week
Cricket clearly needs to prove itself in 2011 in order to remain off of
the
chopping block. While
I’m not sure
whether a $400 investment in 4G is going to keep them competitive, it
appears
to have all of the right pieces in place.
The big question is whether they lagged too far behind to
jump back into
the game. No doubt
that brilliant
execution will have a lot to do with the future health of the company.
What's New at
Prepaid-Wireless-Guide.com?
- Added
new page Samsung Galaxy S 4G review
- Posted
C2 page Samsung Galaxy S linking to full review
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PrepaidWirelessGuy
