Common Cents Mobile becomes Sprint's latest prepaid brand, exclusive to Walmart
By Chris Ziegler 
posted May 13th 2010 12:00AM
posted May 13th 2010 12:00AM
NEW COMMON CENTS MOBILE ANSWERS THE CALL FOR PAY-AS-YOU-GO INNOVATION WITH UNIQUE ROUND DOWN™ MINUTES
Sprint and Walmart launch no nonsense prepaid service with industry-leading 7-cent minutes and 7-cent text messages ideal for budget-conscious, no-frills customers
WARREN, N.J. (May [13], 2010) – Now more than ever, Americans are searching for smart and simple ways to cut unnecessary costs. Sprint (NYSE:S) and Walmart [NASDAQ:WMT] today announced the launch of Common Cents Mobile, the newest member of Sprint's powerhouse prepaid portfolio with 7-cent minutes that Round Down and 7-cent text messages to provide the greatest value for budget-conscious consumers. The new brand, part of Sprint's prepaid multi-brand strategy, debuts May 15 exclusively in more than 700 Walmart stores in markets such as Birmingham, Ala., Detroit, Houston, Orlando, Fla., and more.
"In recent months, consumers seeking no-frills, pay-by-the-minute plans have been somewhat overlooked with the popularity of unlimited plans in the market," said Dan Schulman, president of Sprint's prepaid group. "These customers want to stay connected -- to a point -- but don't want to waste time or money on services they don't use. The addition of Common Cents combines easy-to-use handsets with a simple pay-by-the-minute service that can save them money."
Unlimited monthly plans without contracts helped re-energize the prepaid business last year but pay-by-the-minute customers still represent the majority [63 percent] of prepaid market share, and almost half [49 percent] of prepaid gross adds.
Unique new features
Round Down – Exclusive to Common Cents Mobile, Round Down minutes offer straight-forward pricing as consumers pay only for what they use – or less. The concept is simple: other carriers round up to the nearest whole minute; if you talk, for example, for 1 minute and 46 seconds, you will pay for 2 minutes for the call.
But Common Cents will "Round Down" your call of 1:46 minutes to 1 minute, allowing consumers to pay for less than what they actually use. With minutes that Round Down after the first minute, not up, consumers get more minutes for their money.
Handsets - Common Cents Mobile offers handsets with simple, basic functions – voicemail, text messaging, caller ID – that appeal to cost-conscious consumers. The easy-to-use, affordable and stylish units are priced to highlight the 7-cent-minute pricing and include the LG101® priced at just $19.77, the Samsung® M340 at $39.77, and the Kyocera® S2300 for $69.77.
Offers – Developed for consumers who seek ease and simplicity, Common Cents Mobile lets customers activate and add money to their account with two service options:
• $20 Refill card = 30 days of service, up to 565 minutes of talk
• $30 Refill card = 60 days of service, up to 848 minutes of talk
Consumers may also add unlimited messaging for $20 per month and data access for $1/megabyte per day. Adding to monthly balances is accomplished by buying Refill cards or by registering a credit or debit card or PayPal account online at CommonCentsMobile.com. With Common Cents Mobile, there are no activation or termination fees and no long-term contracts.
As part of the launch, Common Cents Mobile will introduce a new regional ad campaign and "jingle" that speaks to turning back to a simpler time, like the Common Cents Mobile plans.
Handsets and Refill cards will be available beginning May 15 at select Walmart locations. For more information or to locate a Walmart store that carries Common Cents Mobile, please visit the store locator.
Wall mart is gonna rule the world.
@Krekiere
Sprint is gonna rule the world.
FIFY
What the hell is wrong with Sprint lately? They seem to be awesome.
@jamesrdorn
Instead of fixing a riff-raff-infested customer service, they decided that straight-up penny pimping is the way to go.
Pimps up, Dan!
@F C
Their customer service has been fixed 10x's over my friend!
Sounds Great! Way to go Sprint! You seem to be the only carrier left who actually cares about the little guys! Im all for more options!!!
Sprint is not playing! They want to be #1. Dont worry, we got you in the hood.
@Mike Vick
If you mention 'da hood' in one more of your posts...
@F C
Haha sorry im from the hood and im typing this from the hood. Engadget also gets love in the hood... Nerds do exist in nYC ghettos.
@Mike Vick
If I wear a hoodie and I put my hood up, am I in the hood?
@Mike Vick Yeah but LA ghettos better. Always sunny so no black ice to slip on (:
South Central .:LA:. (you're hood if you know why the .: is there)
Does this mean that people won't be charged for a 59 sec call?
@mominshahab
Thats the plan;D
It says it only rounds down after the first minute, so all my 30 second phone calls are still going to rack the same bill. Per second billing is still the best option for me.
@TyKen how would per second billing be better? with this ud be getting like 46 seconds free that u would be billed with if u had per second billing uote on quote
@emopoops
Not if all your conversations are less than a minute.
Corporations are the true evil!!!
@orien2v2 Unlike governments which are always soft and cuddly.
I don't know what's going on with these people over at Sprint but I wish whatever it is that's causing them to be so full of win would make its way over to the other carriers, too.
@whySoSerious If this is even remotely successful and starts to draw customers you can guarantee they'll all follow suit. Look for a Verizon - Target pairing followed by AT&T and JC Penney's or K-Mart/Sears. Originality from the purveyors of dumb pipes? I don't think so.
Is this available in Canada?
@geegee
I wish...the best prepaid you can get still charges you 20 cents per minute, and rounds UP...and charges you 15 cents per message sent AND RECEIVED...unless you have a messaging bundle...then receiving is at least free...and we get THREE YEAR CONTRACTS...WTF are you Americans complaining about your two year contracts...
@Darkroom If it rounds down, they blew it!
This plan sounds good at first glance, but Virgin just announced a new pre-paid plan of their own, and theirs sounds much better in my book:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/05/12/virgin-mobiles-beyond-talk-plans-now-available/
For $25 you get 300 minutes of talk and unlimited text, email, data and web.
With this Walmart plan, 300 minutes of talk is going to cost you $21 and no txt or anything else.
@Hazdaz Doesn't Sprint own Virgin too??
either way, it's still Sprint.
@desmo Just Virgin Mobile USA, but I was just about to make that same point.
@desmo
So then it if it's still on the Sprint network, why would anyone go with the more expensive Walmart plan?? Unless you do very little talking, and basically no texting or surfing, it would seem that the Virgin plan is much better.
Also what's the deal with the data... couldn't you theoretically buy something like a nice Android phone and use that with one of these pre-paid plans, or is that just too much wishful thinking?? Clearly there's gotta be some "gotcha", but not sure where it's at.
@Hazdaz
Because if you market it, people will buy it.
Case in point: Apple.
@Hazdaz not bad. the basic verizon contract is $45 for 450 minutes with 15(or 20)cents/text messages sent or received, no data, and a broke wallet.
Send to Canada with moto razr2 or evo 4g, good quality
@zonkie If it blends, that's what she said
Sent from my iPod.
P.s. Not a big deal, get something that can run crisis.
Im be looking forward to the first unboxing, hands on, full review, and "How would you change Sprint's Common Cent. prepaid ? "
@ComeShot
Tell me about it, why do they rape so fucking hard on prepaid data, it's obscene. If I could get 1GB for like 15 bucks a month and still use my iPhone I'd be sold, I'd ditch the contract in a heartbeat
Sprint is simply killing it!
Sadly Sprint is CDMA
If the everyone in the States use GSM (or WCDMA for that matter),
we could use whatever phone we like, be it an iPhone or Milestone or Desire or HD 2 with some reasonable priced networks.
CDMA 2000 -> No future
WCDMA @ 1700Mhz (T-mobile USA) -> Sigh...
@(Unverified) yeah too bad Sprint and Verizon aren't upgrading to WiMAX and LTE, it'd be great if they did.
@HurricaneDC
The point here is the SIM card
I can use my same piece of iPhone on the 150+ 3G Networks in 70+ different countries / region, but NOT on any other 3G networks here in the US of A other than AT&T?
Why can't I just buy a Motorola Milestone or Desire or the EVO and just swap in my SIM card on any network (be it the premium national wide network or the local cheapo prepay network) and I am good to go?
This is great... I've been using T-Mobile prepaid for the last few years (that seemed like the best value) and this blows their prepaid out of the water. Sprint's plan is great in two areas- first off, the rounding down of minutes will definitely help out... But the $20 unlimited messaging is what will benefit me most over the long run, because T-Mobile charges $.10 per text (and half of that to receive).
@MrFairladyz
according to T-MoNews, T-Mobile is about to drop a $15 unlimited text option with $0.10 call rate
http://www.tmonews.com/2010/05/t-mobile-gets-their-prepaid-on/
@pjs
This is so great...
@MrFairladyz I was thinking about going to a pre-paid phone, then I realized I still had a job, I have a house, a car, more than $100 in my checking account...whew! Forget that! I'm not that down on my luck that I can't afford the luxuries of my cell phone and worry about counting seconds on my plan.
@Darkroom If I disconnect at 59 seconds and call again (and keep doing that) will I not be charged at all?
This was actually done way back in the day... by Sprint!
Sprint's first entry in to cell phones (after being primarily a long distance provider) was Sprint PCS in the washington-baltimore area, around 1995. Because it had limited coverage (you could roam in about a dozen big cities & pay extra), it was pretty cheap. I think I had the $20/200 minute plan.
One feature was first-minute-is-free, which is basically the same as round-down-minutes. Any call under 60 seconds was free.
I always wanted to get two phones, tape them back-to-back, flipping phones every 45 seconds so that I'd get free calls.
Eventually they transferred everyone from PCS (GSM) to the CDMA Sprint had built out in the rest of the country.
Do I miss something? The clock shows me 1 hour and 46 minutes call.
:)
@Waroxy that's because you can't tell time using their fancy clocks. One hand is the minute hand, the other hand is the second hand. Let's see if you can tell which is which.
@Waroxy
Anyone who wants a good deal should check out PagePlus who resell Verizon. My rates are 4 cents per minute.
@zonkie I'm sorry, but if you have to stretch that far to blow a "they blew it" then you blew it.
Straight Talk in my opinion is still better. Of course, the perfect plan for someone really depends on the number of minutes you use on it in a month and the amount of web usage you use on it, if any.
With Straight Talk it's $30 plus tax for 1,000 minutes, 1000 text messages, and 30 MB of web usage for 30 days and it runs on Verizon's towers.
The other plan that they have is an unlimited plan of $45 for 30 days: unlimited minutes, text, and web.
The downside to Straight Talk over this plan is the the cheapest plan you are starting at is $30 plus tax. Also, their phones only work in the US. This I am sure can be overcome by purchasing a calling card and using that. With this Sprint service you get to use the phone internationally at different rates per country.
I use roughly about 600 minutes per month, though lately it has been a low 500 something per month, so this plan would not be good for me.
Also, when I am stuck in line at Walmart (which is usually anywhere from 15 min to 30 min, especially close to midnight) I use the web the entire time, and shop there often, so the data rate would be too expensive for me.
Regarding that, can someone please offer some clarification? It says $1 per MB per day. Why the per day part? Is it not simply $1 per MB and so if I use 3 MB today I will be charged $3.00 and if I use that same amount tomorrow, I will also be charged $3.00, or if in the entire month I use 30MB (different amounts per day), I will be charged $30. If yes to all these, which I do believe is the answer, why the per day part?
Well, I think I might be able to answer my own question. It says on the website "Unused data expires 24 hours after purchase.", which then after looking at the $1 charge, leads me to believe that if I wanted to use the web, I would be charged in $1 increments for each MB, and if I use only 550 Kb, I better make sure I use the remaining 474 Kb (1024 - 550) before 24 hours to get the full use of my 1 MB purchase. If I don't do this, well, too bad, I am still charged the $1.00. I don't like this.
Above and beyond sensible relative to the current trend. Thumbs-up Sprint and Walmart!
I love it when a telco waves something like "You only pay for a minute" in your face, and then rape you with crap like "data for $1 per megabyte per day".
What an absolute scam! I can't believe the journalist didn't slaughter them for that. "All totally contract free, of course". Yipee!