Prepaid
Wireless Tracker - October 2010
Issue
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Verizon
Announces Prepaid Plans with Smartphone Data
Verizon makes a slew of its smartphones available on a prepaid basis. You’ll pay a pretty penny
for the
non-subsidized cost, and the plans aren’t super competitive, however,
it’s a
positive step in the direction of bringing prepaid to the masses.
Verizon
Announces Prepaid Data Plan
By
Arthur
Some good details on Verizon’s new prepaid data plans to support their
aggressive entry into the prepaid
smartphone game.
MetroPCS and
Leap Take Prepaid Calling
Upmarket
NewsFactor
Network
There’s no doubt that MetroPCS and Leap
are vigorously working to expand their target demographic to include
the higher
end market. Many
analysts criticize the
wisdom of losing their brand appeal by becoming too mainstream. While I do predict some
consumer confusion as
these brands evolve, I anticipate that when all is said and done,
they’ll be
just fine, with a materially larger customer base, and greater customer
acceptance of prepaid. It
will be
interesting to see what the landscape looks like a year from now!
Fido Set to
Release the Android-Powered Acer
Liquid e
MobileSyrup.com
It’s great to see prepaid Android
phones gaining momentum in Canada.
Hopefully we’ll see some better selection available before
the end of
the year.
Gogo Inflight
Internet Reaches 1000
Aircraft
It’s great to see inflight WiFi continue to grow.
Though as previously discussed, I don’t
believe passengers will be willing to pay a lot for this service once
the free
trials end. Rather,
it will become a
point of differentiation, and eventually it will become part expected
services. We’ll see
if profitable
business models can be implemented and sustained.
Rover:
Clearwire's New Prepaid
Broadband Brand
BroadbandReports.com
While I noted Clear’s new prepaid Rover brand last month, for those
that missed
that edition, I thought it would be worthwhile to make a quick mention
of it
again. Recall,
however, that Rover’s
current equipment is 4G only, without the ability to support nationwide
3G
roaming. Personally,
I’d wait for a dual
mode modem and plan to become available, but that’s just me.
PlatinumTel Wireless Introduces the Samsung Seek
and Offers Free Bluetooth
Marketwire
(press release)
Although it’s not a smartphone, it’s great to see feature rich
touchscreen
QWERTY devices launching not only on the major prepaid carrier
networks, but
also MVNOs.
Only
time will tell, but it
seems inevitable that PlatinumTel and other growing MVNOs will add
prepaid
smartphones to their arsenal before too long.
Sprint Expands
Common Cents Mobile at Wal-Mart
FierceWireless
Here’s some news that’s
actually not
about prepaid unlimited plans, demonstrating that there’s still a
healthy
market for the classic pay-as-you-go market.
Walmart Debuts
Its Own Wireless Plans
Helium
Walmart launches Family Mobile on the T-Mobile network, which allows
for the
addition of up to five lines of service.
You know when Walmart puts its brand on something that it
means
business! While the
plan itself isn’t
all the inspiring in light of what else is currently available in the
prepaid
market, it may be a good fit for many, and the attention this will draw
to the
prepaid wireless market in general is really what I find exciting. I look forward to seeing
their activation
results over the next 6-12 months.
Pre-Paid Carrier MetroPCS Beats
Verizon and
AT&T to 4G LTE
Brighthand
Well what do we have here! With
all of
the hype about the big carriers launching 4G networks, MetroPCS is the
first to
market (Sprint’s Clear offering notwithstanding).
Though keep in mind that Metro notes that for
them it’s more about leveraging the capacity that 4G brings to help
them manage
operational expenses, rather than raw data speeds.
In fact, the available handset isn’t a
smartphone, but rather a supped up feature phone, and no
prepaid
broadband
service will be available, at least not for the time being. Verizon’s 4G LTE network
is expected to be in
a whole different ball game (i.e. MUCH faster).
That said, it’s exciting to see prepaid carriers making
investments in
next generation technologies, and keeping up with the big boys.
What's New at
Prepaid-Wireless-Guide.com?
- Added
C2 Question to Wireless Quesitons page: Do you ever
replace a lost phone?
Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from
you. Just reply to
this zine and tell me what you think!
Cheers!
PrepaidWirelessGuy
