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Sprint and Virgin Mobile announces Beyond Talk $25 prepaid plan, new prepaid brand
Sprint Nextel, through its Virgin Mobile brand, has announced a pretty big shift in its business model by offering new prepaid plans that begin at a mind-blowing $25 a month. Starting on May 12, three new Beyond Talk plans will include unlimited messaging, email, data, and web, as well as 300 minutes ($25), 1,200 minutes ($40), or unlimited minutes ($60) of talk time. And that ain't all -- BlackBerry data service can be added for an additional $10. Of course, you'll be paying full price for your phone, but at least the selection is indeed better than the usual pre-paid fare, including the Blackberry Curve 8530 ($300) and LG Rumor Touch ($150). We don't know how the other carriers are going to respond, but this does prompt the question: would you put up with Sprint's handset selection for a plan this cheap? PR after the break. Update: The Wall Street Journal has it that Sprint is also fixing to launch an entirely new prepaid brand, and while it declined to share a name for the new branch, it did confess that it "will let customers pay upfront for cell service by the minute rather than signing up for a month at a time." As you may expect, it'll be aimed at "middle-aged Americans who only use cellphones occasionally to make calls," and it'll join Boost Mobile, Assurance Wireless and Virgin Mobile in Sprint's rapidly expanding stable of prepaid sub-brands. Is it difficult to tell these guys love the prepaid and can't quite figure out how to make ends meet on the postpaid side? Nah...
Boost Mobile sweetens unlimited plans with free 411, adds Samsung Rant this month
Boost is already known for offering up one of the more aggressive prepaid unlimited plans in the industry, pushing all-you-can-eat voice, messaging, and web for $50 a month -- but it's upping the ante just a tad today on news that customers of both its $50 plan and its $60 BlackBerry plan now have free access to 411 information, instant messaging, and email. Then again, it seems like we're past the point where carriers should be differentiating between types of data, but the fact that Boost offers dumbphones almost exclusively across its range gives it more leeway than most for this sort of stratification. Oh, and to take advantage of the new hotness, Boost would like to cordially invite customers to take a look at the Samsung Rant, a device that actually launched a good long while ago on Sprint but now makes its way over to Boost on May 19 for $149.99 (contract-free, of course). The landscape slider's got full QWERTY, EV-DO, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD support up to 16GB, and an analog of Sprint's own One Click UI. Like red? Good, 'cause it's launching in red. Follow the break for Boost's full press release.
T-Mobile getting new prepaid, hourly data access options next month?
T-Mobile's got a reputation to uphold as the US' value carrier, right? It looks to be doing that come the 16th of next month when it'll apparently be rolling out a $50 monthly prepaid option for unlimited voice and text, beating AT&T's recently-deployed plan by $10. You'll also be able to get unlimited messaging plus 10 cents per minute for voice for $15 a month, an odd combination that might be surprisingly popular considering that text has all but replaced voice as the primary means of communication in some social circles (ours included). Here's where it gets really interesting, though: there'll also be an "Hour Pass" option for prepaid folks that lets them access as much web on their handset as they'd like for 99 cents an hour, a pretty sweet option that should keep overages to a minimum if you need to do a lot of browsing every once in a while. Well played, T-Mobile.
Blyk-powered 'Orange Shots' service coming next month to Monkey customers
Now that Blyk's free-service-for-ads model has officially bitten the dust, we're starting to see new ideas come out of the woodwork from the Dutch company that might (or might not) stand a better chance of striking a survivable balance of value and profitability. Orange UK has announced that it'll be launching Orange Shots as of February 1, a program for advertisers that lets them target subscribers of its Monkey prepaid service in very specific ways. Sound familiar? Yeah, that was pretty much what Blyk had been doing all along -- difference being that they're no longer trading access to that targeted group for free minutes and texts. As far as we can tell, Orange is simply offering its subscribers the hope of getting special offers from advertisers, meaning its margins are probably going to be a lot higher here than Blyk's ever were before -- assuming Monkey customers agree to sign up, of course. For now, it's purely opt-in; let's hope it stays that way.
AT&T's new DataConnect Pass plans serve up data a la carte
AT&T is following Verizon's lead today with the introduction of new prepaid broadband plans targeted directly at netbook and laptop users who find themselves out of WiFi range (and in desperate need of email) every once in a while. The so-called DataConnect Pass plans exactly mirror Verizon's pricing, which means you can get 75MB as a "day pass" for $15, 250MB as a weekly deal for $30, or a half gig per month for $50. Like Verizon, you're far better off getting the 5GB postpaid plan if you're a heavy user here -- but if you find yourself needing wireless once in a blue moon, this may very well be the way to go. The packages are available now; follow the break for the full press release.
Verizon broadband data goes prepaid
Heavy users are still going to need the 5GB monthly postpaid option (and really, let's be honest, a lot of us need well more than 5GB), but the occasional "crap, I really have to grab that spreadsheet off the intranet" moment might be well-served by Verizon's new prepaid data option announced today. "Occasional" really is the key word here, because it's not cheap -- $15 per day for 75MB, $30 per week for 250MB, or $50 per month for 500MB -- but hey, we guess we've gotta get Big Red used to the idea of offering a la carte data for a while before it becomes affordable to the masses. In the meantime, it'll be offered bundled with a USB760 modem (pictured) in Verizon and Best Buy locations starting on November 16.
No-contract $30 / $45 Straight Talk wireless plans storm Walmart
Remember when TracFone horrified the world with its Straight Talk phone selection back in July? Clearly the suits in Bentonville weren't so scared, as now Walmart is latching on to that very plan and claiming it as its own. In over 3,200 of the outfit's retail stores across America, consumers will be able to snag an admittedly pathetic cellie and a rather decent calling plan for just $30 a month. Three Hamiltons gets you 1,000 voice minutes, 1,000 texts and 30MB of mobile web access, not to mention nationwide coverage and free 411 calls. If that's not quite enough, a $45 per month option provides unlimited everything (voice / SMS / mobile web). Of course, the price of using an antediluvian LG 220, LG Slider 290 or Samsung 451 can't be measured in mere dollars, but hey, humiliation's only temporary -- right? %Gallery-75572%
AT&T ponies up $60 unlimited GoPhone plan
It may not be the cheapest unlimited around -- Boost, Cricket, and MetroPCS have all gone lower -- but AT&T figures that it can throw its network and brand recognition around as bargaining chips to get customers to pay $60 a month for pay-as-you-go unlimited voice and messaging through the company's GoPhone prepaid brand. The zinger here is that the plan also includes texting to Canada, Mexico, and 100 other countries, so it's actually a pretty good deal if you've got a lot of buddies chilling in Calgary or Cancun. It'll be available starting October 12, but there's nothing stopping you from lining up now outside your AT&T store -- just be prepared for some odd stares. [Via Phone Scoop]
Sprint's Dan Hesse talks Android, Pre, iPhone, 4G on Charlie Rose
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recently sat down for an interview with the master of one-on-ones and black backdrops, Charlie Rose, and while much of the talk was spent traveling down memory lane and revisiting Hesse's two-decade rise through the ranks at AT&T before fleeing in 2000, there were some great quotes that came out of it: "We're getting ready to launch a couple of new Android devices." We know one's the Hero, and the other -- if we were the betting types -- is the Samsung InstinctQ. Rose: "The merger with Nextel was a bad idea?" Hesse: "In 20 / 20 hindsight, it was, yes... the premium that Sprint paid for Nextel was too much." Sprint's gone back and forth on the idea of spinning off Nextel over the past couple years, so it's not a surprising thing for him to think -- but to hear Sprint's CEO actually say out loud that he thinks a very active part of its network shouldn't have become part of the company is a little bombastic. "Our prepaid brand is Boost." Nothing wild and crazy about that statement, though it does reaffirm that Virgin Mobile is destined for assimilation. The whole thing's kinda funny considering that Boost dabbled in CDMA before reversing course, and once again, Sprint will be dealing with large installed bases of both iDEN and CDMA prepaid customers. On touchscreen smartphones: "Those are the most expensive phones for us to sell, and those are the ones where we need to make sure that the customer stays with us [and] doesn't churn, because we're out a lot of money... those are expensive devices." Theoretically, an aggressively-priced subsidized smartphone could still end up leaving a carrier in the red if you broke your contract early on and paid the ETF, but we doubt that's a huge problem -- especially for a CDMA carrier like Sprint. He goes on to say "I'm already looking at 4G versions of smartphones," so that's really encouraging to hear, particularly if you're into WiMAX. "Customers will pay premium for simplicity. Simplicity is everything... Digital One Rate which we launched back at AT&T, that was all about simplicity... people paid more. It wasn't a price cut." Translation: "Unlimited makes you feel like you're getting a deal, but rest assured, we're banking." In response to Rose asking how Sprint uses the Palm Pre to take on Apple and RIM: "It was really kind of Palm's decision to take on Apple. And Palm has had [a] long standing relationship with Sprint." It's interesting to hear Hesse seemingly back away from a fight with Apple and chalk up the situation to happenstance -- RIM not as much, considering that Sprint carries a number of BlackBerrys in its lineup and will certainly continue to do so. Talking more about pitting the Pre against the iPhone, he goes on to say that Palm's handset is "doing well. But you've got to almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device has done so well. It's like comparing someone to Michael Jordan." If that's not a tactful acknowledgment that the iPhone is a bona fide wireless superstar, we don't know what is. Hesse's giving the iPhone the respect it's rightfully earned -- as any strategically-minded executive would. "The biggest impediment to mobile growth is you got processors are getting a lot faster, screens are getting sharper, they use more and more power, and battery technology is not moving very fast... That's the one breakthrough that the industry needs. It needs battery breakthroughs." It's good to hear that Hesse understands as well as everyone else that the wireless industry needs to be focused on making power draw a non-issue, but he sounds less convinced of the solution: "I don't know. Solar we hope, and renewable energy sources." When Sprint gets some cash socked away, it might consider throwing some R&D money at the problem -- it'll be first to market with something resembling a "national" 4G network, after all, and the situation's only going to get worse. Who knew you'd find out so much about the inner workings of the States' third-largest carrier from watching PBS? [Via Gizmodo]
Pantech C180 for AT&T frugally tiptoes its way through the FCC
If you're looking for the most basic of basic candybars and you happen to be using AT&T service, today is a glorious day, friends, because Pantech's submitted a doozy for the FCC's perusal. The C180 lacks virtually every modern mobile convenience, eschewing even EDGE data -- though they have managed to keep a memory slot and FM radio aboard. Mentions of MEdia Net in the manual and the "C" model name -- historically reserved for Cingular, which is now AT&T -- tell us where this one's going, but we can't imagine that it'll see duty beyond GoPhone. [Via Phone Scoop]
T-Mobile stops offering prepaid Sidekick data service to unlocked iPhone users
Over the past week, some T-Mobile iPhone customers noticed that their data service suddenly stopped working. Users with unlocked iPhones had been paying $1 a day for unlimited data and text messaging using the Sidekick data plan. It was a great value. Customers who contacted T-Mobile support received mixed answers. Representatives stated that service was down in their area or that they needed to upgrade to their normal data plan. Yesterday, T-Mobile sent a tweet on their official Twitter account that they would no longer service iPhone customers using the prepaid Sidekick plan. So just like AT&T cutting off prepaid GoPhone service to iPhone customers, T-Mobile has now eliminated an affordable data option for unlocked iPhones. At this time, it appears that Android-specific data plans remain unaffected. TUAW has contacted T-Mobile for an official statement on the matter but we have not heard anything back yet. Thanks Gabe for the tip!
Best iPhone cellular plan... ever?
I like to joke that "Iowa is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit." Residents often complain that there's nothing to do (other than milk cows and shuck corn). One can only stand so much antiquing. But we do have a few things going for us: clean air, relatively light traffic, lots of space, and perhaps the best cell phone plan for the iPhone. Recently, reader PC Drew, a US Marine living in Japan, sent us a note to let us know about the challenge he had in finding an iPhone plan while visiting his wife's family. A contract plan was out of the question, of course, because of his length of stay and the fact that he's still under a two-year Softbank agreement in Japan. And due to AT&T's, shall we say, "perplexing" lack of a prepaid plan for the iPhone, the official carrier in the States wouldn't help him. He could have stopped by a Best Buy and picked up an O2 Universal SIM Card for less than $10. That would have provided the ironically-named PC with $0.17 per minute calls but that's it -- no data, no included text messages, and no tethering ability. After searching a bit for a prepaid solution, he stumbled across the MEGAtalk Nationwide plan from regional GSM carrier, i wireless. This no-contract, no-credit-check offering gives the customer 30 days of unlimited calling, with roaming and long distance, for $49 plus taxes. But wait, there's more! Not only did PC get unlimited voice minutes, but he also had unlimited SMS texting and, here's the kicker, unlimited data usage. And, with the proper hack, i wireless customers can tether their iPhones for free. Yes, you read that right... free tethering on an unlimited data plan! Of course, getting a service plan from an unofficial carrier (read: non-AT&T, at least in the United States) requires your iPhone to be SIM-unlocked. This has become much easier over the past two years and most cell phone shops can perform the procedure if you're too nervous. PC had already performed the necessary steps, as he often finds himself in areas that aren't exactly covered by his Softbank contract. Okay, now for the downer. Because it's a T-Mobile affiliate, i wireless doesn't offer iPhone-compatible 3G service. In fact, they only offer EDGE speeds in their Iowa-based footprint, unless you're traveling to an area with T-Mobile 3G. As a result, that unlimited data is a bit crippled speed-wise, but it's still a heck of a deal. So, if you're planning on traveling to Iowa -- say, to Fort Madison for the 62nd Annual Tri-State Rodeo in September -- or if you're "lucky" enough to be stuck living here, you might want to take advantage of what's probably the most economical cell phone service plan available for the iPhone anywhere in the USA.UPDATE: Quite a few readers asked if this plan is available outside of Iowa, so I contacted i wireless directly to find out more about its policy. Yes, you can sign up for this plan, even if you don't live in the i wireless footprint area, however, the representative I spoke with pointed out that this plan may expire at any time, which would seriously affect the customer's ability to use his or her phone effectively. If you are interested in further details, please contact i wireless directly. DISCLAIMER: I own a computer and cell phone store that sells this particular prepaid plan. But the above story is absolutely true; PC Drew did contact TUAW to brag about his bargain find, without knowing me or my connection to the product.
TracFone's $45 Straight Talk unlimited plan punishes you with brutal hardware
They say "there's no such thing as a free lunch." They also say "there's no such thing as an unlimited contract-free $45 monthly unlimited plan that offers awesome phones," so we're not terribly surprised to see that TracFone's new blowout offering -- dubbed Straight Talk -- is rife with ancient Motorolas (with a RAZR V3a thrown in for good measure, of course) and an LG flip that we're pretty sure we saw McClane use in the first Die Hard. Then again, the plan becomes the one of the cheapest for unlimited voice and text anywhere -- and if you're less heavy on the minutes you can even step down to 1,000 minutes and 1,000 texts for $30 -- so we'll let it slide. But seriously, TracFone, we expect a V9 by 2012.[Via Phone Scoop]
AT&T trying to force iPhones out of prepaid plans
There have been various ways of getting iPhones onto AT&T's prepaid GoPhone plans pretty much since the beginning, but for some inexplicable reason (hint: contracts are lucrative), the carrier is closing the door on prepaid in concert with the release of OS 3.0 this week. To be clear, we have absolutely no idea how AT&T would reliably detect whether you're running 3.0 on your iPhone -- unless Apple were to report it to AT&T using data culled from iTunes, and we somehow doubt it's happening that way -- so in all likelihood, they're just assuming most folks will move to 3.0 within the next few weeks and are using the release as a convenient line in the sand. New iPhone 3G and 3G S owners will have a hard time signing up for GoPhone altogether, and legacy customers are being told that the upgrade "may impact the data service" unless they move to postpaid. Actually, it's even more stratified than that: only original iPhones are being allowed to stay on Pick Your Plan with the unlimited data add-on, while 3Gs have to move. To be fair, this has been the policy all along -- 2G on Pick Your Plan, 3G not eligible -- and it seems they're just now deciding to lay down the law and bring everyone into compliance, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.[Thanks, Kris]
Virgin Mobile USA launches prepaid Broadband2Go 3G service
Virgin Mobile's just announced a prepaid 3G service under the Broadband2Go moniker, which will offer customers a contract-free internet option. The Novatel MC760 USB dongle -- which will be available exclusively at Best Buy -- will run $150, with fixed data rates of $10 for 100MB, $20 for 250MB, $40 for 600MB and $60 for 1GB. The $10 bundles will expire ten days after purchase, while the rest of them will expire after 30 days. Virgin's Broadband2Go will operate on Sprint's network in conjunction with Novatel Wireless. It's a tiny bit pricey if you ask us, but then -- most things with no strings attached are, right? The new service will be available starting late June.[Via Electronista]
Samsung's a177 is a prepaid texter for AT&T
As you may have gathered from the ultra-low model number, the Samsung a177's coming in as a bargain-basement GoPhone device -- but seeing how carriers are trying to attack every single market segment with messaging capabilities, they've still managed to pack in a full QWERTY keyboard. Conveniently, the device's FCC filing just came off confidentiality, so we have access to all the goods; we know that it'll be EDGE-only, have a camera (likely VGA if we had to guess), and a patterned back, because let's be honest -- a phone is never too cheap to be stylish. We imagine we'll see this one in stores very shortly. [Thanks, Kal]
MetroPCS sees huge influx of customers, intros GroupLINE
We'd already heard that right about now was a great time to be in the prepaid cell business, and that's being proven quite definitively by MetroPCS' Q1 subscriber results. We're told that the firm saw a net addition of 684,000 customers in the first three months of 2009, representing an astounding 51 percent increase year-over-year. While celebrating mightily, the company also saw fit to introduce a "one-call communication solution targeted at families and friends who are trying to save money in today's economy by 'cutting the cord' and replacing their landline telephones with wireless phones." Said "landline replacer" is called GroupLINE, which enables up to five MetroPCS Family Plan subscribers to receive calls on a shared GroupLINE number while still maintaining their individual mobile numbers -- all for just $5 per month. So, anyone looking to tighten the belt by going prepaid? Your options are getting good.[Via GigaOM]Read - MetroPCS resultsRead - GroupLINE launch
Virgin Mobile planning to add a little touch to its lineup
Virgin Mobile's CEO, Dan Schulman, stated while at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations Conference last week that Virgin's planning on adding some more touchscreen to its world. What sets is, of course, your and our first question, but sadly it's one we don't have an answer for, yet. Though whatever it or they end up being, he went on to say that it is part of a move to smarter phones targeted at low to middle-income youth on prepaid. Of course, Virgin's core business is the prepaid world, though contracts are always available if you're inspired to stick about. With CTIA just around the corner, we're thinking we could hear a little more then.[Via Crave]
Verizon prepaid pricing changes coming February 11th
It was bound to happen, and now it is. Slowly, but most certainly. As the Verizatel mishmash gels more solidly into place, Verizon Wireless is making some changes when it comes to prices and features. We already heard about its tweaks to the Test Drive and NE2 programs, and now a few leaked slides are detailing imminent changes in the prepaid pricing structure. While there are far too many details to cover in this space, we will say that there are four new categories from which to choose: Prepaid Unlimited Talk, Prepaid Plus, Prepaid Core and Prepaid Basic, All four are broken down in good fashion right there in the read link, so you might as well check it out now before Big Red shoves it at you when you least expect it.
NTT DoCoMo announces farewell to mova and DoPa 2G services
You've had a nice run, 2G, but the time has come to start looking beyond to bigger, better and (most importantly) faster things. With LTE just over the horizon, NTT DoCoMo is proactively announcing the phase out of its mova and DoPa 2G services. The 2G mova services encompass car phone and Pre-Call prepaid -- which got their roots in March of 1993 -- while the 2G DoPa packet communication service sprouted up four years after that. Both of these longtime favorites will be disconnected at the close of 2012, with the company noting that "associated services and related billing plans will also be terminated at the same time." Anyone still relying on this stuff will be contacted sometime over the next three years to ensure that they aren't shocked and surprised when December 2012 arrives, and they'll be encouraged to make the not-at-all-painful shift to FOMA 3G services. It's better in the fast lane, we promise.
