Prepaid Reviews Blog » Liberty Wireless

Liberty Wireless gets a makeover

Joe — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:30:36 +0000

Last week, I was checking in with our pay-as-you-go phone providers for some routine stuff. You know, updating reviews, getting info for future articles. Things like that. Anyway, much to my dismay, the Liberty website was down. It had a maintenance tag on it, so I knew they weren’t kaput, but it was a bit alarming that their website was nonoperational. They’re back now, though, and it seems they’re eyeing an easier customer experience.

As you can see, the simplicity is quite remarkable. You choose from a drop-down menu of phones — all of which you can view in greater detail if you so wish. Then you select one of their plans from another drop-down. And yes, you can get the details on that if you so wish. And finally you enter in some basic information to get your transaction started. They even accept PayPal!

While this is easy for newcomers, it doesn’t look so hot for existing customers. Then again, I’m not an existing customer, I’m just some blogger who likes to mine their site for information. So maybe it’s just harder on me, especially because when you click on “See plan details,” it comes up with one huge paragraph that I then have to parse for information.

The site is very raw, though, so I’m not sure they’re done with the redesign. There are currently only three phones and two plans listed, so we can expect some further improvements to the site.

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

Liberty Wireless gets a makeover

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

Liberty Wireless gets a makeover

Liberty Wireless files for bankruptcy does nothing

Joe — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:20:03 +0000

Update: There seems to be some confusion on who filed for bankruptcy and who owns what. As was pointed out, Teleplus purchased Liberty Wireless from InPhone Inc. We apologize for the confusion. We received a tip, investigated, and it appeared that it checked out. It did not. Liberty is still listed at the BBB as being under InPhone. That was our mistake. We apologize for the error.

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

Liberty Wireless ~~files for bankruptcy~~ does nothing

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

Liberty Wireless ~~files for bankruptcy~~ does nothing

Gotta spend money to make money: TelePlus, Liberty stumble

Joe — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:00:54 +0000

Those pesky MVNOs. Back a year or so ago, everyone thought they were the next big thing. With Boost, Mobile ESPN, Amp’d, and Disney on the scene, it looked to be a flourishing business model. Of course, that all has come crashing down recently, with Amp’d and ESPN biting the dust, Boost being bought by Sprint and essentially becoming its prepaid provider, and Disney faltering. TelePlus wireless felt the effects of that during the second quarter of 2007, posting losses which were attributed to the acquisition of the MVNO Liberty Wireless, one of the featured providers here at Prepaid Reviews.

Apparently, the transition hasn’t been so smooth for Liberty and TelePlus. We could cite you revenue and profit numbers, but we think that a glance at the Liberty review page is a bit more telling. Scroll down to the user reviews and take a look at the last 10 or so. To wit:

I will never use Liberty Wireless again…nor would I recommend it to anyone…I do mean anyone…The last 2 months they hit my bnankcard without permission…I have tried to cancel my services for 2 months and they refuse to cancel my service…

I have had their service for several months I went online to pay my bill this month and the “manage my account” is being updated! On the phone for hours trying to gey someone so I can pay.Any number you try you either get this extension is busy or get put on hold . Have never actually got to a person. Would NOT reccomend.

Liberty wireless has gone downhill in the last 3 months..i have gone with another provider..they will not return e-mail and you can’t get a rep on the line..plus they cut off my phone while i had 213 min left…then drafted $$ out of my account..i will now report to BBB

Before being acquired by TelePlus, many of the Liberty reviews were positive. However, it seems they were nearly unreachable for the past few months. That surely didn’t sit well with customers, who have the ability to leave penalty-free if they’re being treated unfairly. This apparently occurred, as TelePlus operated in the red last quarter. This was a dramatic dropoff from the $2 million it earned during the second quarter of 2006.

CEO Marius Silvasan said that the results reflected a transition to a new back-office provider to support TelePlusâ€™ wireless operations.
…
Silvasan also said that the decrease in revenue during the second quarter of this year â€œreflects the initial loss of wireless customers post-acquisition of Liberty Wireless and prior to our integration of that business.â€

Most of this is, of course, corporate speak. Mr. Silvasan isn’t going to publicly note that his company is in trouble. However, it does stand to reason that it would take some time to transition to a new back-office provider and to fully integrate Liberty Wireless. This is good, because Liberty has always been one of our favorite prepaid providers.

Thing is, though, that Liberty seemingly made no attempt to keep its customers informed of these proceedings. There is nothing on the website that would indicate that subscribers may experience temporary problems, but that they should be fully operational in X amount of time. In fact, the website doesn’t look as if its been updated in quite a few months.

Time is running short for Liberty and TelePlus, though. With the glut of MVNOs and prepaid regional providers, they can’t afford to lose any more customers. Re-aquiring them could be next to impossible, and finding new subscribers is going to be tougher and tougher, with more and more people signing damning two-year contracts.

[RCR Wireless News]

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

Gotta spend money to make money: TelePlus, Liberty stumble

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

Gotta spend money to make money: TelePlus, Liberty stumble

New in brief: Liberty Wireless expands coverage

Joe — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 17:00:41 +0000

Earlier this week, we reported that Nortel and Cricket will work together to provide better CDMA coverage to Cricket subscribers. Well, Nortel is at it again, agreeing with T-Mobile on a $150 million deal. Nortel plans to upgrade T-Mobile’s GSM equipment so that it is of the highest standard. We still like CDMA a ton better, but at least T-Mobile is working with what it’s got. They’ve been doing business with Nortel since their inception as VoiceStream Wireless back in 1995.

For all the telecom news we receive daily, we’ve found precious few tidbits about Liberty Wireless. We do like the company, and think they serve the prepaid arena well. We got something today, though: They’re expanding coverage areas. Well, their parent company, TelePlus World, plans to do that. Whether that extra coverage will be for Liberty subscribers or those of their other mobile company, MX Mobile, remains to be seen. But you can expect to see coverage in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, and Nevada in the near future. All we have to say to that: One of these things is not like the other; one of these things does not belong.

We get a billiondy press releases daily, and few of them are of interest. We’ve almost grown immune to those from Verizon; they’ve been sending out at least one per day since the week before the iPhone launch. We got one from AT&T today touting their GSM service and how you can reach people worldwide through it. “AT&T makes it easy for customers to stay in touch by using their familiar hand-held devices, which save the time and hassle of finding and deciphering public or hotel phones in foreign places.” It reinforces what we all know: if you’re traveling abroad, a GSM service will work out better for you. Either that, or you could pick up a dirt-cheap prepaid overseas. What? That’s not in the press release? Oh, pardon us for offering an alternative.

Finally, there’s news abound about Megasoft, an Indian telecom software company, buying out BCGI, a Boston-based company that provides outsourced prepaid billing services. They’ve failed to flourish as the wireless industry grew at a rapid rate, and the final blow was struck when Verizon Wireless cancelled an agreement with the company. They also lost a patent case, which means that more money was going out of the company with less coming in. This represents the rapid growth of the Indian telecom industry. They now have over 150 million subscribers, and the capital markets in the country are flourishing, so they actually have use for a company like BCGI. We get news all the time about telecom in India, and it’s definitely looking good.

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

New in brief: Liberty Wireless expands coverage

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

New in brief: Liberty Wireless expands coverage