The legislation appears to extend beyond mass traffickers. In other words, while one clause of the legislation would make expressly illegal the purchase of prepaid handsets with the intent to resell or redistribute, another would likely bar any kind of unlocking. Per the bill, it would be illegal for someone who

knowingly purchases and/or handles one or more wireless prepaid access devices for the purpose of, or as part of a scheme involving, modifying, removing, avoiding or overwriting installed software which is designed to cause any such device to operate as a wireless prepaid access device on the wireless network or networks for which such device was sold, unless such purchase or handling is authorized by the wireless service provider or device manufacturer

That describes the process of unlocking. I understand why carriers would want this. While they’re not losing tons of money like they are on mass unlockers, they’re still losing money when someone buys a single handset and then unlocks the phone. For instance, someone can purchase a Virgin Mobile phone from Target for far less than retail value. Virgin expects the customer to make up for the phone subsidy by purchasing minutes, but the customer can instantly go flash the phone to MetroPCS. Virgin is then out the difference between the purchase price and the cost of the phone.

Because the bill would make the act of unlocking a prepaid phone expressly illegal, that would foist the investigation and prosecution costs on government entities (police, FBI, Justice Department). That means a heavier burden on taxpayers. That burden will no longer fall on the shoulders of the prepaid companies. That does seem like one of the less fair aspects of this bill. If companies want to protect their interests, it should be on their dime, not on the taxpayers’.

It would seem that this bill, then would doubly burden American citizens. It would not only prohibit them from unlocking handsets if they are unhappy with a provider’s service, but it would also move the costs of prosecuting these newly defined crimes from the companies to the taxpayers. There might be balance somewhere in this issue, but it appears that it will not be found in the current legislative proposal.

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How far should Congress go in stopping prepaid phone traffickers?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

How far should Congress go in stopping prepaid phone traffickers?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Refill your prepaid account before the expiration date

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Refill your prepaid account before the expiration date

To file your complaint, go to the FCC Consumer Complaints page. There you’ll select the wireless phone option. The billing, service, privacy, number portability and other issues option is probably what you’re looking for here, but this is a clearinghouse for all types of complaints.

The final step is to decide how to file your complaint. The easiest way is an online form, which you can access after you choose your complaint category. Just fill out the information and hit Submit. Otherwise, you can file by phone by calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (225-5322), or snail mail or fax the form, which you can print out from the website.

Again, this is a bit more efficient a process than complaining to the BBB. I’ve rarely seen anything come of a BBB complaint, but I’ve had many a friend get a response from an FCC complaint.

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What to do if a prepaid carrier owes you money

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What to do if a prepaid carrier owes you money

From the Consumer Reports blog post:

Conspicuously missing are four national prepaid carriers—Boost Mobile, Net10, Tracfone, and Virgin Mobile—which together serve some 22 million price-conscious U.S. customers.

That’s an important omission, because we found that Boost and Virgin typically had the lowest-priced deals when we compared 152 national plans, as we reported in the September issue of Consumer Reports in “Prepaid pays off.” We searched through national plans offered by eight big contract and prepaid carriers for a range of sample cellular consumers using various amounts of voice, text messaging, and mobile Internet services. Prepaid plans from Boost or Virgin were the least expensive in nine of 11 comparisons.

The only two which Boost or Virgin didn’t lead were for family plans, long the strong suit of the major carriers. Other than that, it’s prepaid on top.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Consumer Reports says prepaid has better deals

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Consumer Reports says prepaid has better deals

The only problem left, then, is the consortium of rogue operations which continue to autodial cell phones. We’ve seen a number of telecom companies crack down on this practice. The fight even continues today, with those pesky car warranty autodialers.

Now, if I could just get my bank to stop calling me offering me a high-interest savings account if I deposit $25,000.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Don’t expect (legal) telemarketing calls on your cell phone

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Don’t expect (legal) telemarketing calls on your cell phone

Mark Barfield, a VP at Radio Shack, has his doubts about the plan:

“There are tens of thousands of mom-and-pop stores that sell these things and many won’t comply. Small businesses will think that no one will catch them if they don’t charge the fee.”

That is certainly a concern. So while Robertson says that a “point-of-sale model is the best way to go,” it might not be true. If there’s no way to enforce it, after all, what good will it do?

Perhaps one way to accomplish this is to force carriers to charge users a fee every 30 days, right from their account balance. Some people have odd prepaid phone usage behaviors, so carriers couldn’t charge it on the same date every month. Instead, they’d have to charge it for every 30 active days of use. That would require a new system, though, which could render the idea moot.

Will they go with a POS system? It looks like this is the case. If you’re going to be charged for 911 services, would you rather it be done when you buy top-up cards (presumably this would work with Internet sales as well)? Or would you rather it be deducted from your account balance?

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Could a surtax be headed for your prepaid calling card?

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Could a surtax be headed for your prepaid calling card?

VoIP, as we know, can provide low-cost or even no-cost calling. This is going to attract many customers, and the analysis’s author believe that it will be at the expense of prepaid. As he says:

within 18-30 months the pressure will be on carriers to position “carrier voice” as a premium convenience “dialable” service as compared to free VoIP services. As this evolution begins to take hold, prepaid services will begin to look less attractive versus a low-cost post-paid plan with data.

Under that scenario, prepaid would return to being a haven for the credit-challenged. While it’s almost impossible to accurately predict how VoIP will change wireless, it’s safe to say that prepaid will still have its niche. After all, as the AP notes, prepaid is growing extraordinarily. In fact, we should see more prepaid customers added this year than postpaid customers.

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Will VoIP spell the end of prepaid?

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Will VoIP spell the end of prepaid?

Take the basic Verizon postpaid package for instance, which provides 450 minutes for $40 per month. To get to $3 per minute, you’d need to talk just 13 minutes during the month. Chances are, though, that people are paying for more expensive plans and then using a lesser proportion of the minutes. Still, the above example shows how difficult it is to get to $3 per minute.

This data seems skewed, and in all likelihood it is. If the average is $3 per minute, then there are people bringing up that average. If it’s so hard to get to $3 per minute, think about how few minutes you’d have to use and how much money you’d have to spend to get to $4 per minute. While many postpaid customers pay more per minute than prepaid customers, it’s likely not this drastic.

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Study: $3 per minute average for cell phone users

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Study: $3 per minute average for cell phone users

The man’s phone was through Cricket wireless, so they were immediately blamed for the incident. Sheriff’s deputies tested 911 calls throughout the county and came across the same problem throughout. A subsequent report noted that Cricket is in the process of fixing the problem, which they note was isolated.

This story perfectly displays why e911 services are so important. We’ve been programmed since a young age to call 911 for emergencies, and the victim did just that. Only with full e911 compliance can we ensure that calls get routed to the proper centers, and that first responders get the information they need.

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Ohio story shows why e911 is important

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Ohio story shows why e911 is important

It would have helped had I found this first: the author, Samual Greenholtz, published another article on the same day, refuting the findings of the New Millennium Research Council. Specifically, he questioned their methodology in extrapolating numbers. So perhaps 17 percent of postpaid users have not, in fact, switched to prepaid.

Per Greenholtz:

While possible that some people may switch from post-paid to prepaid plans as a means of saving money due to additional fees for the former, it is not likely that there will be a big shift. The rationale is that the wireless carriers are getting smarter about how to price to consumers so that its more of a hassle to switch to prepaid than it’s worth.

Is this true, though? Has there been any indication that wireless carriers are improving postpaid plans? Perhaps Sprint, with their all-inclusive Simply Everything plan, but even then it is geared towards the high-end user. When was the last time the lowest-end offering ($40 per month for 450 minutes on Verizon and others) has improved? These are the customers that wireless carriers risk losing to prepaid.

If carriers do improve their low-end offerings, then perhaps Greenholtz’s analysis will hold true. However, with few noticeable changes recently, and having heard no rumors of such changes, it seems doubtful that this will ring true. Customers will continue to switch to prepaid. At this point, would it be a surprise to see the total prepaid subscribers jump to 20 percent after the first quarter?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Are people really switching to prepaid?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Are people really switching to prepaid?