Prepaid
Wireless Tracker - November 2011
Issue
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T-Mobile
Offers Prepaid Phone Plans at
Walmart; 4G Plans Included
ITProPortal
T-Mobile is really starting to add a lot of value/investment into the
prepaid
wireless space, and is jumping right into no contract 4G data. If the
AT&T-T-Mobile merger falls
through, I suspect that T-Mobile will continue to aggressively address
the
prepaid market. It
seems evident that
they’re going to concede their inability to compete in the contract
space, as
they are just too far behind the leading three telcos, and without the
iPhone
in its lineup, its disadvantage only continues to widen. That said, don’t expect it
to eliminate its
contract business for the foreseeable future.
T-Mobile
Launches Pay-By-The-Day Plans
FierceWireless
With various features bundled within its new $1, $2, and $3 daily
plans,
T-Mobile is hitting the prepaid market with a vengeance by covering all
of the
plan types. You’ll
also notice that the
$2 per day plan offers 2G speeds, which is pretty uninspiring for those
with a
smartphone. Note,
however, that they
charge you only on days that you use the phone, which is a feature not
shared
by all such daily plans. Prospective
consumers of these plans should ensure that you think carefully about
how much
you plan on using your phone, as a daily plan can quickly add up to a
far
higher cost than simply committing to a full 30 days of service (i.e.
$3/day x
30 days = $90!).
Virgin Mobile
Postpones Smartphone Data
Throttling Until 2012
FierceWireless
My initial reaction was “finally, a good decision!”
However, the article is very clear that
Virgin is only delaying due to system limitations.
Rest assured that this delay truly is its
inability to execute this year, and not a strategic decision. Some might venture to say
that if they’re
truly concerned about the customer experience that they would not be
throttling
at all. That said,
I have always
believed (based on first-hand experience with such carrier statistics)
that
controlling their exposure for the 2-5% of “abusers” really
does help
to keep
costs down for everyone else. In
other
words, throttling is a GOOD thing for the vast majority of users as it
helps
keep data pricing as low as possible.
LG Optimus Gets
Slider Keyboard On Virgin Mobile
MarketWatch
(press release)
The launch of this prepaid smartphone is definitely a logical
progression of
the Optimus brand. I’m
one of those
people that simply can’t get used to a virtual keyboard. Though with a screen this
small (3.2”), I’d
prefer to see a BlackBerry style portrait keyboard.
I suppose the opening and turning process for
many isn’t a big deal, however, for me, if I’m going to have to take
that extra
step, I’m going to want a much larger screen to make up for this
inconvenience. Unfortunately,
no such
design currently exists in the prepaid market on Android phones. They’re actually still
quite scarce in the
postpaid market. Maybe
the Droid
Pro/Motorola XPRT will make its way to prepaid at some
point!
Boost Mobile
Launches Android ZTE Warp
Prepaid Smartphone
TMC
Net
With a 4.3” touchscreen, 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, and the latest
Android 2.3
Gingerbread
operating system, I think it’s fair to say that prepaid
smartphone
offerings are on fire this year! So
long
as these types of off-brand manufacturers can hold up to the
appropriate quality,
handsets like these will continue to lessen the gap between prepaid and
postpaid appeal.
Cricket Adds The
ZTE Memo To Its Lineup
CNET
While it’s not a smartphone, the ZTE Memo feature phone offers a
BlackBerry
style candy bar format with a QWERTY keyboard for text hungry customers. While I’m a fan of this
style of handset, at
$99, I think the price is too high; at $49 a handset like this would
fly off
the shelves. I
predict a major price
drop within 4 months of launch!
DataJack
Introduces
Additional Prepaid Broadband Plans
MarketWatch
(press release)
DataJack adds three new no contact broadband plans, now offering four
options
starting at $9.99 per month for 200MB.
As an MVNO on the Sprint nationwide 3G data network, the
available prepaid
broadband options for consumers continues to expand.
Unfortunately, no pay-per-use (i.e.
non-monthly plans) currently exists, which I understand is in high
demand from
the inquiries I’ve been receiving for at least the past year.
Virgin Mobile's
payLo Seeks to Take T-Mobile
Head On
ConnectedPlanet
This article is good to highlight the competition with T-Mobile’s new
Monthly
4G push. However, I
had the site updated
months ago with the 30MB of included data on the $30 PayLo plan, so how
this is
newsworthy is a little
bizarre. I
also
couldn’t find any reference on the Boost website, or any other news
items
regarding a $25 15-day unlimited plan.
If this plan exists, I’ll find it; however, in the
meantime, I’d be wary
of some of the items you read in the news from sites/people that
purport to
understand the prepaid market!
Cricket To Sell
Android Feature Phone
IntoMobile
This is somewhat of a peculiar strategy.
In my mind it can only really make sense if using a
stripped down
version of Android makes the device less expensive and easier to
support. Without
all of the apps, it may not require a
fast processor, resulting in a lower handset costs, but may generally
perform
much better than other OEM feature phone operating systems. When you think of it this
way, this could be
a great way to have a fast, sleek feature phone that users are used to
seeing
(ex. contacts, text messaging), with a lower general cost. I don’t expect these
phones would be able to
run full Android due to the lower specs, though I’m sure some will
attempt to
hack
them. The key
here will be for
Cricket to NOT advertise this as an Android phone as that will cause
tremendous
confusion (and high returns) as customers realize that it’s NOT a
smartphone. It will
be interesting to
see how this plays out.
MetroPCS Offers
$100 Unlimited Family Plan Promo For The Holidays
PC
Magazine
Metro is offering four or five lines at $25 each, discounted from the
regular
$40 per month plan. You
can also get two
lines for $35 each, or three lines for $30 each.
While this is a good deal (available until December
31st), keep in mind that it requires a rebate
process. So you’ll
need to send in a few pieces of
information about your purchase (only non-LTE/4G phones are included in
this
promo), and receive your rebate via a MetroPCS Visa prepaid card. In other words, you’ll
still have to fork
over the regular payment, and then ensure that you use all of the funds
on the
prepaid Visa card to get the advertised value.
What's New at
Prepaid-Wireless-Guide.com?
- Added
CLEAR Broadband Service Refund Policy Issue
to Broadband Internet Review
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PrepaidWirelessGuy
