Some days the news brings one item remotely related to prepaid wireless. Other days we’re flooded with news. That has been the case lately. Here’s a rundown of all the stuff we haven’t yet covered today.
That’s the Samsung Seek (PLS-350), the newest handset from PlatinumTel. It’s a touchscreen device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a popular combination these days. It can access the web, has a memory card slot for multimedia storage, and features a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is available for $159.99.
PlatinumTel is also running a promotion which provides customers with a free Bluetooth headset if they purchase select phones online. These include the Seek, plus the LG Rumor2, Sanyo SCP-2700, Samsung M620, Sanyo Katana, LG LX150, and Sanyo Pro200. You can find this deal on PlatinumTel’s website.
We know that Verizon Wireless is going to offer a prepaid BlackBerry plan. We heard murmurs earlier in the year, and the signal seems to be getting stronger. Yesterday those rumors got a bit more concrete. The blog Android Does got their hands on some Verizon marketing material that reveals not only a prepaid BlackBerry, but a prepaid lineup that contains many of Verizon’s most popular smartphones and multimedia handsets. It does look like Big Red is getting serious about prepaid.
We knew that Cricket would launch the follow-up to the popular Samsung Messager II sometime this year. That sometime happens to be today. The 2.6-inch touchscreen device features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 2MP camera with video capability, a media player, and voice recognition. Its release continues the trend of the regional carriers picking up mid-range smartphones to help attract a wider range of subscribers. The Messager Touch is compatible with the $45 plan, which provides unlimited voice, messaging, and web browsing. You can get the Messager Touch for $159.99 at Cricket’s website.
Going into yesterday we knew that Clearwire would announced a prepaid 4G broadband plan. The details of the plan, announced yesterday, look pretty enticing. The service, branded Rover, costs $5 per day, $20 per week, or $50 per month, and provides unlimited service in any of Clearwire’s 4G markets. Unfortunately, this does not include a hybrid 3G option, so if you’re not in a 4G market or you frequently travel to places without Clearwire 4G coverage, you’re out of luck.
You can get more information about Clearwire coverage at http://www.rover.com/coverage.
When it comes to 4G mobile technology it seems like we’re all caught up in LTE. MetroPCS will launch the nation’s first LTE network, and that could be within the next month. But there’s another 4G technology, WiMax, that has actually been around for a bit. Sprint and Clearwire have teamed up to build out the nationwide WiMax network, and as expected it’s not easy to pick up subscribers. But now, according to mocoNews.net, Clearwire will on Monday announce a pay-as-you-go WiMax service that will combine with Sprint’s 3G network to create a powerful prepaid broadband offering.
I don’t know how I missed this, but last week Rogers announced prepaid BlackBerry plans. They run $40 to $55 per month and include BIS services, unlimited messaging, and certain unlimited voice minutes (though there are times you will have to pay for voice minutes). The problem was that Rogers had no prepaid BlackBerry. This week they remedied that by making the Curve 8520 available for $349.99. That is, unsurprisingly, the same as the no-term price. The 8520 is a logical choice for prepaid, because Rogers recently got the Curve 9300, which runs on 3G. You can get the 8520 and a prepaid BlackBerry plan at the Rogers Wireless website.
Remember last week when we heard that Cricket would launch the Kyocera Zio on August 21? Turns out that got pushed back a few days. It’s available now, for $249.99. If you buy it from Cricket’s website you get an additional $20 discount, so the prepaid Android device can be yours for just $229.99 plus tax.
September is just a few days away, and that’s good news for folks in Las Vegas and Dallas who want to experience the world’s first LTE network. We know that MetroPCS will roll it out sometime this year, and according to this rumor passed along by Phone Arena, we could see that sometime within the next 35 or so days. The rumor posits that Samsung will release the Craft, pictured above, in September, which means MetroPCS will have the LTE network to back it up. It’s still a rumor right now, but considering what we’ve seen so far it sounds like a credible one.
During the past year Boost Mobile has made many improvements to its International Connect plan. While it included just a few destinations at the beginning it now reaches far. Yesterday, Boost announced that customers could make calls and send text messages to these destinations for just $5 per month, down from their normal $10 price. This includes unlimited calls to landlines in over 150 cities in Mexico and Asia, plus unlimited text messaging to Canada. Customers who have iDEN handsets can also take advantage of unlimited walkie talkie services to Mexico and select South American countries. You can find out more information about the plan, and sign up, at Boost Mobile’s website.
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