What a difference a half year can make. MetroPCS blew up in the first quarter, adding 684,000 subscribers thanks to new markets in New York and Boston. Since then they’ve predictably leveled off, adding just 206,000 in the second quarter. They added far fewer in the third, just 66,000, down from 249,000 in the year-ago quarter. As with Cricket, churn was the problem for Metro. Theirs was at a staggering 5.8 percent, up a full percentage point from the third quarter 2008, though it was even with the second quarter of this year. Unlike Cricket, however, Metro saw a small uptick in ARPU. Still, that’s the average revenue per subscriber, and Metro didn’t add a lot of those in the third quarter.

Last week we learned that MetroPCS was offering a $30 unlimited plan that included unlimited long distance and unlimited text messaging. They say it’s available for a limited time, and for new customers only, but it’s still a great deal for those who just use the phone’s basic functions. Cricket is trying to keep up, offering a $25 deal that would seem to undercut Metro’s plan, though it has a major shortcoming.

Prepaid wireless covers about 17 percent of U.S. wireless subscribers, and that number continues to grow. Carriers are adding more prepaid customers than ever, and unlimited services like Boost Mobile and MetroPCS are giving customers robust service plans for a fraction of what they’d pay for similar plans on contracts. Consumers will continue to help prepaid grow, but a new development could take it even further. A recent survey by Compass Intelligence suggest that more small businesses could use prepaid wireless services for employee usage.

Earlier this year, Tracfone introduced its first Samsung handsets. Among them was the T301g, pictured to the left. The lightly featured phone originally went for $50, but it appears that Sears will discount it for Black Friday to $24.99, so half off. If you were thinking about this phone, or any Tracfone, it might be best to wait until the day after Thanksgiving.

The problem with wireless service is that if you don’t like it for whatever reason, you’re basically stuck. With postpaid you’re tied down to a contract of either two or three years. Even with prepaid, unless you paid $30 for your handset and are willing to swallow the cost, the cost of the phone can tie you to the carrier. We’ve seen some carriers implement 30-day trials in the past, but they’re either nonexistent or not hyped as they once were. Virgin Mobile Canada is trying to bring back the 30-day trial with their “You’ll Love Us Guarantee,” which officially launches today.

The Motorola i410 is late in coming to Boost Mobile. Originally scheduled for a September release, it’s now November and we’ve yet to see it on Boost shelves or at the website. We haven’t heard many complaints about the delay, though, because the phone is nothing to get excited about. It’s a basic flip phone that doesn’t even include a camera. It does have Boost’s standard push to talk, plus Bluetooth, but that’s about it. It recently passed through the FCC, so it should be coming soon. Then again, with the rumored price of $80, I’m not sure there will be many takers.

MetroPCS has a pretty well-defined coverage area. They’re a regional carrier, and because spectrum isn’t readily available they’re limited in how they can expand. They added some markets with the 700 MHz auction, but other than that all they can do is continue expansion of their existing networks. They announced one such expansion today, moving into areas of northern Floriday> These markets include Gainesville, Ocala, Starke, Waldo, and Hawthorne. You can check out all of MetroPCS’s coverage area on their coverage map.

Cricket wireless tried something new when they released their PAYGo plans. Instead of offering flat-rate, unlimited calling plans only on a monthly basis, PAYGo offers them daily. Their $1/day plan offers unlimited local calling and 10 cents per minute for long distance, but no text messaging. That changed over the weekend. Cricket will now offer an unlimited incoming text message plan for $1/day customers. Sent messages will cost 10 cents each. This is effective now, so $1/day customers should already have the option to begin text messaging.

Both Cricket and MetroPCS have been working to give their customers more. Instead of reducing the prices of their prepaid unlimited plans, over the summer they both added more features to their existing price points. This made their $40 offerings almost as attractive as the Boost Mobile unlimited plan. I got a heads up from Howard Forums that MetroPCS has improved their $30 prepaid plan, and upon visiting the site I see that’s the case. It’s $30 per month, and it offers an attractive package compared to other prepaid unlimited plans.

Sprint was the latest to announce their quarterly numbers, and again they weren’t very good. The company lost fewer postpaid subscribers than they have in earlier quarters this year, but they were still on the losing end nonetheless. Their saving grace, as it has been for years now, was Boost Mobile, which fueled the company’s prepaid growth. Overall, Sprint added 666,000 prepaid customers in the third quarter, mostly on the Boost end. That’s down from the second quarter, though, when the company added 777,000 subscribers.