Simple Mobile offers unlimited plans on three simple tiers. First is unlimited talk, which costs $40 per month. Adding text messaging, both domestic and international, is another $5. Finally, for those using data-heavy devices, the $50 plan adds 20MB Web, IM, MMS, email, and social networking. Customers can also add unlimited international long distance for $10 per month, and for $5 can add another 20MB of data.

One advantage of Simple Mobile is that it allows customers to activate their own approved GSM handsets. They keep a list of approved devices, which features many advanced models. The only drawback is that the customer must unlock the phone. This is in contrast to some CDMA carriers, which will flash the phone on the spot. Simple Mobile also has six phones of its own: The Alcaltel Tribe OT-800, the Alcatel OT-363, the Alcatel OT-303, the Nokia 6030, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, and the Motorola RAZR. Those appear on the website, but there is no purchasing method at the moment.

For more information on the availability of Simple Mobile, check out their website.

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New MVNO Simple Mobile offers unlimited plans

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

New MVNO Simple Mobile offers unlimited plans

A recent TeleGeography post pits MVNO usage and Western Europe and North America against the rest of the world. They might have done even better to separate Western Europe and North America, because the use in the former is more widespread than in the latter. This would change the chart, allowing for an uptick in North American MVNO usage without a proportionate increase in Western Europe.

MVNO patronage in the U.S. isn’t particularly high, and it’s about to fall further with Sprint’s acquisition of Virgin Mobile. Yet MVNO usage could be on the rise in the next few years, or so says Paris Holt of TelSpace. This is because, as Alex Besen said last year, the US wireless penetration rate isn’t quite at 100 percent yet. Once it hits that we should see MVNOs become more prevalent. Maybe not the kinds that we saw mid-decade, but probably ones that focus on a particular niche.

What does this mean for world MVNO growth? From the TeleGeography article:

‘As markets approach maturity and as regulatory regimes look to increase competition and to better serve diverse populations, MVNOs will be allowed to launch services in many new countries,’ said TeleGeography senior research analyst David Leach.

If the number of MVNO users increases like Holt thinks it will in the US and it increases in other countries like TeleGeography thinks, we could see a real growth in MVNO usage worldwide.

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More signs of future MVNO growth

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More signs of future MVNO growth

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Could Japan’s NTT DoCoMo be headed stateside?

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Could Japan’s NTT DoCoMo be headed stateside?

The top-tier plan is $50, and it provides customers with unlimited voice minutes and text messages for 30 days. That’s about on par with other industry offerings, though a few recent ones have undercut that price point. The $50 card comes with 100MB of 3G Web data, which can be used for picture messaging.

There are two other options to go along with this. For $10 customers can get unlimited services for five days, and for $30 it lasts for 15 days. So essentially it’s $2 per day. This includes text messaging, but I’m fairly certain that each top-up does not come with the 100MB of data. Data charges are $0.0005 per KB.

Even better, PlatinumTel actually has some decent phones to use with this service, at least compared to other prepaid carriers. These include the Sanyo Katana II and the Motorola Q. They’re not the most up-to-date phones, but they handle 3G data, and the Q has a full QWERTY keyboard. Best yet, the handsets are under $100, so it won’t cost you a ton to try out the service.

The plan is available now at PlatinumTel’s website.

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Prepaid carrier PlatinumTel introduces unlimited plan

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Prepaid carrier PlatinumTel introduces unlimited plan

Red Pocket is not for everyone, and it’s not designed to be. Their cheapest refill, $10, provides only 67 minutes, meaning a rate of 15 cents per minute. In fact, you can’t get a 10 cents per minute rate unless you buy a $100 refill. That might seem like a lot, but when you factor in the free long distance to international destinations, it all the sudden becomes a bit more attractive.

You might not have seen Red Pocket Mobile in retail stores around you. That’s because they’re not going with a general marketing plan. Instead they’re focusing the product on their particular niche. In this case it’s in Chinatowns across the US. This focus enables them to keep marketing costs relatively low. Since they don’t have to reach everyone, they can spend less money to reach only those who will benefit from Red Pocket’s service.

As Paris Holt of TelSpace noted in his presentation, we could be seeing an uptick in MVNO usage. But it won’t be the general service MVNOs. It will be these niche services which serve a particular sliver of the market. MVNOs don’t scale well, at least the ones we’re most familiar with, so keeping this intense focus will be the way they reach their target customers. It will be interesting to see how MVNOs take to this tack in the coming years.

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Check out Red Pocket Mobile for cheap calls to Asia

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Check out Red Pocket Mobile for cheap calls to Asia

There aren’t many Qwest wireless customers left — just 185,000 according to its latest earnings report. The rest have already ported to Verizon, a process which began last year and was offered to customers free of an early termination charge. Customers can now port out to any carrier and avoid any kind of charge.

What’s in the future for Qwest? They plan to focus on their landline business, which is odd, because landlines are an industry on the decline. They also resell phone, cable, and Internet bundles for other companies, including Verizon. In addition, they resell DirecTV services.

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MVNO Qwest officially done with wireless

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MVNO Qwest officially done with wireless

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Ad-funded MVNO Blyk ends services

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Ad-funded MVNO Blyk ends services

As Gohring notes, there has been some connection between the two prior to Zer01:

Several Global Verge marketers have Web sites that include links to a Global Verge program for selling PC equipment. Prior to Wednesday, the URL for that program, nextdaypc.com, opened a Web site for Piilani Computers, described as a division of UTG. One of the marketer’s Web sites includes that link on a page dated Dec. 17, 2008. Piilani’s biography said that one of his former companies, I-Net, also sold the Piilani Computers line.

But by Wednesday, the “Piilani Computers” headline on the top of the nextdaypc.com page was replaced by the words “Your Smart Choice.” In some areas of the country, the Piilani Computers banner is still visible.

The report goes on to note that the website of Unified Technology Group, the parent company of Zer01 and of which Piilani is also chairman and CEO, has stripped its website of much information since the initial report. “The Web site for UTG no longer features executive bios, company addresses, some previously provided telephone numbers or links to related companies such as Yorkshire Investments or the Yorkshire Foundation.” UTG also stripped physical addresses from the site. Those had caused some controversy in the original report as well.

Then there’s the issue of the patent. Zer01 is said to have patent-pending technology which enables them to run their network. No such patent was found under Zer01 or UTG. Gohring reports that Ron Dresner, UTG spokesperson, said he would provide a patent number. To this point he has not done so.

So far nothing but the offering — $80 per month for unlimited everything, prepaid — seems good right now. And when the offering doesn’t seem quite right, there’s usually something afoot. Many thanks to Gohring for uncovering this relevant information about Zer01.

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More truth on Zer01

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

More truth on Zer01

Gohring uncovers a lot of dirt, and many inconsistencies, with Zer01’s parent company, Unified Technologies Group. This includes multiple corporate registrations, failure to file reports, and shady partnerships (more on that in a minute). It’s a bit of personal muckraking. As far as actual phone-related issues go, Gohring does bring one important point to light.

But both T-Mobile and AT&T say they don’t have relationships with Zer01. Without those operators, Zer01 is unlikely to be able to offer nationwide coverage, [analyst Jack] Gold said. If Zer01 had deals with all the other regional GSM operators, it still couldn’t piece together a nationwide service.

Beyond that, Gohring notes that there is no evidence that Zero01 owns any 2100 MHz spectrum, as some Buzzirk (more later) sales associates claim, but an FCC search shows that they’re also not leasing the spectrum.

This doesn’t even address the mutli-level marketing tactic that Zer01 employs. It’s run through Global Verge. Associates sign up, paying $70 up front and $40 per month for support. They then sell Zer01 under the Buzzirk brand. It works like any other MLM program. Associates sign up other associates, and those higher on higher rungs get a cut of those they signed up. Apparently, Global Verge has signed up 50,000 associates so far. That’s a lot of people selling a service that’s not really available right now.

Global Verge is run by Mark Petschel, who doesn’t have the most glowing legal record. He pleaded guilty to securities fraud, and has lost three contract disputes. He was also part of a company, Everge, which was to sell mobile services under the brand BizzBuzz (see the trend?). According to Gohring: “No such launch appears to have occurred.”

I recommend reading the entire article if you’re at all interested in Zer01’s service. But let me put it in the most succinct terms.

We have a decently large audience at Prepaid Reviews. I could easily leverage that audience by signing up to be an associate of Global Verge and then start selling Zer01 services to you, the readers. But I won’t. There’s no way I’d trust this operation enough to do it. I won’t go so far as to accuse them of anything. It’s just not a company I’d put my personal trust in.

We’ll wait for more to emerge on this. It surely will.

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Truth starting to come out about Zer01

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Truth starting to come out about Zer01

The marketing plan right now is to call this the equivalent of 5G. Yes, 5G.

Over the past several years, Unified Technologies Group, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, has been quietly buying up an unused section of the telecom spectrum which allows for very fast cellular transmission of data packets that will be routed through the internet, bringing the world the first ever cellular-over-IP network.

So, “5G compared to anything else available.” This sounds awfully suspicious, in the too-good-to-be-true kind of way. We’re less than a week out from launch, so the reality of this service will be known soon enough. Still, it’s tough to imagine something faster than WiMax/LTE for $80 per month. That $80, by the way, includes taxes and fees.

Anyone else excited/suspicious of this launch?

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Zero1 starting its marketing blitz for July 1 launch

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Zero1 starting its marketing blitz for July 1 launch