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Ask Engadget: what's the best deal in prepaid wireless?
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Alejandro, who's looking to cash in on the sudden glut of absolutely respectable prepaid smartphones. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. "I'm looking to grab a new phone using a prepaid service. What's the best prepaid phone service in terms of overall price, phone selection and other bells / whistles. Thanks!" We're guessing he's looking for a smartphone here, so before you yell "Cricket!" and run for the hills, give a bit of consideration to folks like Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, amongst others. Any of you had a particularly charming experience with a prepaid provider? Speak up in comments below!
Sprint's Common Cents brand falls into the sofa cushions, replaced by Virgin Mobile Beyond Talk
It was some... curious timing. On May 6th of last year Sprint's new boy toy Virgin Mobile announced the Beyond Talk prepaid plan. Then, just a week later, Sprint launched its own, separate prepaid plan, Common Cents. Beyond Talk started at $25 a month for 300 minutes while Common Cents was $.07 per minute, all contact free. The latter of those two is now dying away, never catching on despite what must be said is a rather catchy name. Its users are being lumped into the Virgin payLo scheme, while Beyond Talk will take over the kiosks and marketing avenues currently occupied by Common Cents. There, with its rag-tag group of featurephones and data plans, it will continue the fight against the evil TracFone empire.
Walmart Family Mobile enters the postpaid war, reselling service from T-Mobile
Walmart's already firmly entrenched in the prepaid cellular business, offering handsets and service via Common Cents (Sprint) and Straight Talk (Verizon Wireless), but according to Greg Hall, vice president of merchandising at Walmart US, there's a "perception among customers that prepaid service doesn't offer access to the best phones or the best network quality." In order to combat that, the outfit will be launching a new postpaid service today dubbed Walmart Family Mobile. The actual fine print is somewhat confusing, as it offers the best of both the pre- and postpaid worlds; users will still pay their monthly bill at the end of the month, but no subsidization will take place on the phones themselves due to this being a no-contract ordeal. It'll cost $45 per month for unlimited calling and texting for the first line, and $25 per month for every extra line; unfortunately, data will be a pricey addition at $40 per month for 1GB... but at least that rolls over each month in case you don't use it all. Initially, Wally World will offer five handsets, with the flagship phone being Motorola's Cliq XT at $249. Frankly, we aren't too impressed at what's on offer here -- get unlimited data bundled with calling and texting for the same $45 / month, then we'll talk. Update: Official PR is now after the break, and that's a September 20th launch date, so next Monday. Update 2: So, Walmart's PR team contacted us to flesh out the data plan details that the AP sort of glossed over. Thankfully, the full skinny is far more attractive than what we were led to believe. In short, each line comes with 100MB of data (one-time); after you use that up, you've got a trio of prepaid 'WebPak' options to keep you going. $10 buys you an extra 200MB, $25 gets you 500MB and $40 gets you 1GB. Good stuff! [Thanks, Ksadd]
