Prepaid Reviews Blog » MVNO

How are MVNOs affected by the AT&T and T-Mobile merger?

Joe — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:16:27 +0000

One aspect of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger that I hadn’t heard was from MVNOs. While AT&T doesn’t have many MVNO affiliations, T-Mobile does have a few. How will they be affected if this merger receives regulatory approval? At least one T-Mobile MVNO is saying that it would certainly hurt wholesale resellers. IDT, which operates TuYo, has said that “AT&T is not committed to making wholesale spectrum available to MVNOs in its application to acquire T-Mobile, and AT&T does not have a favorable track record in providing wholesale access to its spectrum.” While that is certainly true, we did learn last week that T-Mobile’s third quarter gains were heavily influenced by third party resellers. That could be incentive enough for AT&T to keep them around, at least for a little while.

Via FierceWireless.

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Lightyear to launch MVNO under Sprint

Joe — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 12:30:45 +0000

It seemed as though the days of the MVNO were behind us. That is, there are plenty in existence now, but we haven’t heard of a new one popping up, at least on a major scale, for quite a while. Sprint has always been big on renting its network, though, and it has done it again. They recently signed an MVNO agreement with Lightyear. You might recognize the name, because Lightyear is providing LTE solutions for companies such as Cricket. There’s no solid word on what kind of offering Lightyear will have, but it will be interesting for sure, given the current MVNO landscape.

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Wal-Mart introduces contract-free postpaid plans

Joe — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:30:56 +0000

When we talk about prepaid we normally mean services that require users to pay for service before they use it. This allows the provider to avoid running a credit check, which is a major hindrance for some potential customers. A cell phone contract is in reality a line of credit, since customers use the service before receiving a bill at the end of the month. But Walmart is going to do things differently. Yesterday they announced an unlimited postpaid calling plan that will rival the services it already sells.

The plan, dubbed Walmart Family Mobile, will provide unlimited voice, unlimited text, and 100MB of data per month. It will cost $45 for the first line and $25 for each additional line. Any unused data from the initial 100MB will roll over from month-to-month. Users can also purchase additional data: $10 for 200MB, $25 for 500MB, or $40 for 1GB. Any unused data from an add-on purchase will not roll over. Service will run on the T-Mobile network.

Here’s the strange part: Walmart will collect on the service at the end of the month, but won’t require a contract or credit check to qualify. In other words, they’re essentially extending customers a line of credit without checking on their ability to pay up. That seems like a risky proposal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this changed if Walmart ends up getting stiffed on a number of bills. It almost seems inevitable.

Walmart Family Mobile will compete directly with Straight Talk, a service offered only online and at Walmart stores and which runs on the Verizon network. That also costs $45 and provides unlimited talk and text, but also has unlimited data. There is also a $30 plan, apparently the more popular of the two, that provides 1,000 minutes, 1,000 messages, and 30MB of data.

Starting on September 20 you can try Walmart Family Mobile at one of 2,500 stores, or at Walmart.com.

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Simple Mobile limits unlimited data plan

Joe — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:30:28 +0000

If one things gets my goat, it’s the repurposing of the English language. Sure, there’s room for new words, but we should be exacting when choosing them. After all, we have plenty of words that already mean and describe things. Why add something redundant? For example, I can’t stand it that using the word “literally” to mean “figuratively,” is actually gaining steam, despite the presence of a word with the same definition. It makes no sense. It appears that unlimited has become another one of these words. We’ve heard plenty of stories this year about customers having their accounts terminated because they exceeded a data cap, despite having plans that advertise unlimited data. The latest is Simple Mobile, and the details look worse than the others.

Reports popped up on Howard Forums, and PhoneNews.com and The Consumerist ran with them. Simple Mobile’s plan, which includes unlimited talk, text, and data for $60 per month, has no indication of any kind of data limit. Yet users report receiving text messages when they near the 1GB mark. Once they hit that mark they either have their accounts terminated or have to buy an additional 100MB of data for $10.

This hardly seems fair. Even when the big companies were limited data access while advertising unlimited, their phantom cap was at 5GB. This cap is far lower, and probably for good reason. Simple Mobile works on the T-Mobile network and therefore has to pay T-Mo for network activity. If they allow their customers truly unlimited data as part of a $60 monthly plan they might not be able to make it work. Still, that’s no excuse for advertising unlimited and then imposing a relatively low cap. One gigabyte is in no way unlimited and never should be advertised as such.

We covered Simple Mobile when it first launched and when it improved its plans (twice, even). The first post contains multiple comments, most of them miffed at the service they’ve received. We’ve grown used to this and often disregard overly negative comments. After all, people are more apt to vent if they’ve had a poor experience. After this incident, though, I’m doubting the claims less and less.

PhoneNews.com has a request for comment out to Simple Mobile. I’m not sure if they’ll respond — smaller carriers often stay silent when faced with the hard questions — but I’d be interested to see how they can possibly justify advertising unlimited when they really mean 1GB. Because that seems like a pretty clear cap to me.

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New plans from Simple Mobile

Joe — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:30:10 +0000

When the big companies change their plans, it makes sense that the smaller ones follow. Last month we saw T-Mobile add a few plan, including a $50 unlimited plan. We saw a few other companies tweak their plans after that, the latest of which is Simple Mobile, which is an MVNO of the T-Mobile network. They have announced a new set of unlimited plans. As is the fashion, they’re tiering the plans, so customers can get a good base prices for the essentials, with options to add on for services like data.

The base plan is $40, which includes unlimited talk and text. This seems to be the baseline for MVNOs. While we probably won’t see the major carriers or their direct subsidiaries go this low in price, sometimes we can see MVNOs experiment with this type of pricing. Plenty of people can get by with no data services, and if that’s the case this plan could work out very well.

The next tier is $50. It adds 100MB of data, which doesn’t seem like much. For another $10 customers can upgrade that to unlimited data. Remember, Simple Mobile allows you to take unlocked GSM handsets to their service, so you can use this with a data-intensive smartphone. That raises the biggest question about the new plans. What kind of actual limits will we see?

As other MVNOs have demonstrated, unlimited doesn’t necessarily mean unlimited. At what level will Simple Mobile cap voice minutes for those on the $40 plan? At what level of data consumption will they cut off customers using smartphones? We won’t know until customers start getting kicked off. If those limits are fairly high, Simple Mobile might make a splash with these new service plans.

Via Phone Scoop.

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i wireless adds to the $50 unlimited crew

Joe — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:30:55 +0000

Remember last week, when I asked if there was room for another unlimited MVNO? Apparently, the answer is yes. i wireless, an MVNO of the T-Mobile network, has just introduced a new unlimited talk, text, and web plan for $50. That seems to be the target price range for these MVNOs. The company, which acts as a T-Mobile affiliate in Iowa, sells its MVNO plans to a nationwide audience on its website. Perhaps they can conjure some interest in their newest offering.

PhoneNews.com’s Christopher Price, from whom I found the information on i wireless, thinks that this renders plans from Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile “a bit less breakthrough.” Yet we’ve seen a number of carriers offer $50 unlimited plans, but, because they don’t have nearly the reach of the established brands, have never really taken off.

The offering actually seems similar to that of Simple Mobile, which, like i wireless, allows the use of unlocked AWS phones on its network. That’s the main draw here. Customers looking for a big brand name will still go for Boost or Virgin, because they’re most recognizable. People wanting the best overall coverage will go with Straight Talk because it runs on the Verizon network, which provides more nationwide coverage than T-Mobile or Sprint.

I’m not sure this changes anything, other than adding yet another unlimited provider to an increasingly saturated market. Some of these MVNOs will survive. Perhaps the affiliate status of i wireless will help it succeed where others have failed. After all, even if their own MVNO sales don’t spike they still have the reselling business. As far as a game-changer, though, this is hardly one. That is, unless they home in on the one area where other wireless carriers are deficient: customer service.

You can check out more at iwireless.com.

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Zer01 loses judgement, but it might mean nothing

Joe — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:30:52 +0000

Just a year ago, Zer01 was the talk of the industry. They had picked up the Best of CTIA award from Laptop magazine, and were trucking towards the debut of their $80 unlimited voice, messaging, and data services. There were a few skeptics, but Ben Piilani, chief executive of the venture, continually reassured the public. But then the target July release date came and went, and people wondered. Nancy Gohring did a great job of following the saga, and she now has the latest word. Global Verge, a multilevel marketing firm that had partnered with Zer01, won a $43 million judgment, in no small part because Piilani has dropped off the grid. This has Global Verge wondering if it will ever collect, but the implication is that they will not.

There’s no reason to rehash the whole ordeal. Zer01 claimed it could do what others could not, in a way that seemed too good to be true. We know by now what to think of such claims. After Gohring’s excellent reporting Laptop rescinded the award. I don’t know how they were fooled in the first place.

My tip-off as to Zer01′s nature was when they started making aggressive threats of legal action against writers who criticized them. That’s never a good sign. Sure enough, no legal action resulted, and again the company’s CEO is nowhere to be found.

One day, maybe Piilani will resurface and an intrepid reporter like Gohring can find out exactly he expected to accomplish with this venture.

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Zer01 Mobile’s website no longer online

Joe — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:30:34 +0000

A year ago at this point I was busy making appointments for meetings at CTIA in Las Vegas. Many of the services were only tangentially related to prepaid, but one in particular seemed completely in line with our audience. It was called Zer01 Mobile, and it promised to deliver a new wave of unlimited prepaid service. Once I got to CTIA, they were all the buzz. In fact, they had won the Best in Show from Laptop magazine, the presentation of which conflicted with my meeting. At the time I thought I got shut out of a big story. It turns out I did, but not for the reasons I thought.

Zer01 promised a launch on July 1, but that never happened. Later that month Nancy Gohring of IDG News Services revealed some unsavory information about the carrier. Since then we’ve heard little from them, other than updates about multilevel marketing structures, reselling of Page Plus services, and lawsuits.

In the first development we’ve seen from Zer01 in about six months, we learn that their website is now redirecting to Google.com. It appears the company has disappeared along with it. They’re no longer listed as a client Dennis PR, though its parent company, Unified Technologies Group, is. Their spokesman, Ron Dresner, did not comment to Gohring about the development.

Phrases become cliches not only because they’re overused, but also because they’re often obviously true. The Zer01 saga reinforces the cliche that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

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Simple Mobile improves its unlimited plans

Joe — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:07:28 +0000

Nothing wrong with another unlimited services MVNO, right? In November we were introduced to Simple Mobile, a GSM MVNO that appears to run on the T-Mobile network. The company offered two tiers of unlimited services, $40 for unlimited talk and $50 for messaging and data, plus add-ons for additional data and international calling. Those rates are in line with the higher end of the industry, but a number of regional carriers, plus some CDMA MVNOs, undercut those prices. This week, via FierceWireless, we learn that they have improved their offerings.

The $40 plan now covers unlimited voice and messaging, the $50 plan adds 50MB of data, and the $60 plan triples that data rate and routes it through T-Mobile’s 3G network. The 3G data bit is certainly a plus, though the 150MB seems a bit inadequate. So it’s a step.

The difference between Simple Mobile and other MVNOs is that they try to stay out of the handset market. They encourage customers to bring their unlocked GSM phones, which is good for unlocked phone merchants. For customers who want to purchase a new handset, they have the Alcatel Tribe, a QWERTY phone, available for $129.99.

You can check out Simple Mobile at mysimplemobile.com.

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Former partner sues Zer01, resells Page Plus services

Joe — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:30:37 +0000

Zer01 Mobile is one of the more disappointing wireless stories of 2009. Earlier in the year, the company hyped its services, claiming to provide unlimited voice, data, and messaging on state-of-the-art phones for $80 per month. The service, scheduled to launch in July, won Laptop Magazine’s Best Overall Product award at CTIA 2009. But when the service never took off, the magazine rescinded the award — though Zer01 still boasts the award on its website. The service still hasn’t launched, and some disconcerting information emerged over the summer. The story gets worse for Zer01, as a former partner is suing the company for unpaid debts.

Global Village, the multilevel marketing firm that set up services to sell Zer01, claims that it lent Zer01 $170,500 in late July. The funds have not been repaid, so Global Village now seeks legal action. No party has yet commented on the suit, so we only know that it exists. We do know, by the fine reporting of Nancy Gohring, that both Global Village and Zer01 “are led by executives with previous or current legal problems.”

In a stranger twist, it appears that Global Village is re-selling Page Plus cellular services without the latter company’s knowledge. Page Plus has master agents, who then sell the service to customers. No relationship exists between Global Village and Page Plus, and a Page Plus representative speculates that a master agent is selling the service to Global Village. Apparently, Global Village is selling Page Plus’s $40 unlimited plan for $80.

It’s been a long, strange journey for us as we learn more about Zer01. If nothing else, it has reinforced the cliche, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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