New MVNO Simple Mobile offers unlimited plans
The competition among prepaid carriers has increased sharply in 2009. Before, there were only a few companies offering flat-rate, unlimited services. But since Boost Mobile introduced its $50 unlimited talk, text, and Web plan, a number of prepaid companies have switched to a similar offering. We’ve even seen a number of new carriers pop up with a similar offer. The latest, as we learned yesterday, is Simple Mobile. It’s an MVNO, and judging by the coverage map, it operates on the T-Mobile network. This is a rarity — I can’t recall any other MVNOs using T-Mobile.
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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Keep a close eye on these guys. They have been linked to failed Verizon mvno and scam gsm unlimited carrier Zebra Gsm.
One Master Agent on the West Coast said they are not going to be really till Nov. 27. Another dealer in Florida just received his first sims, which prove that they are real. But no activated phones as of yet. Stay tuned.
They are offering a good deal, if they stay around for more then a few months. Right now, there are three other prepaid unlimited gsm carriers and none of them 1) are as cheap overall as a cdma carrier. 2) offer as much for the dollar as a cdma carrier.
We will see how simple it is for Simple.
Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 6:03 am
They got my e-mail from being signed up to ZebraGSM and I cannot trust anything coming from them. A company which send my store their promotions is pushing this Simple Mobile pretty hard. And they say they have a demo line which pushes them towards the possibility of it being real. I still have my doubts.
Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Guys, I just switched from tmobile to simple mobile. And i gotta say they are pretty good, and yes its 3G
. As of right now they only offers 20mb of data and another 20mb for $5.00. They have told me that unlimited data will be coming soon, hopefully by the end of the month.
anyways, i’ve been using the service all day and not 1 drop call, and the quality is very clear, on a scale from 1-10, +10 . i love it. its simple and i got it .. no tax or fees. oh yeah love the world calling thats a plus.
Posted on January 20th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
sorry i ment to say world texting…
Posted on January 20th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
This company is a SCAM, I ordered a card on their website and they will not give me my money back. I never received what i ordered and they just keep giving my the run around. Do your self a favor and go with another company.
Posted on February 4th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
well I have oredered 2 sim cards and recieved them within 2 days, the service is great but I dont recommend it for the internet. I have a iphone and hate the 20 mb, but i guess thats what you get for such a cheap plan. hopefully they come with unlimited internet really soon or i would have to drop them like a bad habit. other than the internet all is well excellent service, there is a wait time about 5 min to talk to customer service
Posted on February 5th, 2010 at 11:02 am
I have signed on to Simple Mobile and love them. I can text my family in the UK as well as friends around the US. The lines are crystal clear and the texts are sent/received without issue. They are a new company but working on the simplified model that the rest of the world has. I have dealt with their customer service reps twice and both times I have been helped out brilliantly. I did not ever want to sign a contract again and am so happy to have a company with great prices that makes this possible.
Posted on February 7th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
does simple mobile work on an unlocked 2g iphone? i’m debating to cancel tmobile, but want to make sure this works. i have to cancel my contract w/ tmobile and dont want to be out anymore money. please, i need some feedback.
thx
Posted on February 8th, 2010 at 12:31 am
your iphone will work.
Posted on February 16th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Im a dealer in South Florida, i recieved my shipment of sims about three days ago I activated 5 accounts all work perfectly, no dropped calls. iPhone 3G is having some problems but over all great.
Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
I am a dealer in north texas and I just received my shipment of sims, I have activated a few and it works great, I have also activated a Blackberry Storm 1 with a simple mobile sims and everything works great, even the internet you just have to download the Mini Opera Browser, but I can’st seem to be able to activate my personal email Yahoo. I guess that is the only draw back. I do use my email on my phone so I am going to have to cancel and go back to Sprint with the simply everything plan since I do use my email on my smartphone alot. But other than that Simple Mobile is great if you just want to do the unlimited talk, text & web.
Posted on March 14th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Do not waste your money with simple mobile. I purchased my simple mobile Sim card from a dealership and it worked fine, until about 21 hours later. It was terminated the next day due to “excessive and/or burdensome usage.” So unless I became a telemarketer overnight, I obviously called customer support. And it will take a while because they loop the options with you every time. When I finally reached an agent at night, she told me it was going to work the next day and with the hint from my first sentence you can guess it didn’t. I was patient and called everyday but its continues to loop me, and then when I reached an agent I received the same answer of sending tickets.
Whats funny is that when I call my simple number, someone who has a plan with T-mobile answers, and apparently its been his number for a while.
But the worst part of simple mobile is CORPORATE, because they do not care about what their customers service is like, or the inconvenience they impose on them. They act the same way a scam does, with absence when things go wrong.
I recommend to NOT PURCHASE a simple mobile plan and just go to a real phone company that cares. T-mobile has a pretty good no contract plan.
Posted on March 27th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I had for few days now. It works great, even better than my ATT plan. I intend to cancel my ATT account and add buy another sim card for my daughter with simple mobile.
Posted on March 29th, 2010 at 12:32 am
The only thing so far I like is the unlimited minutes. The reception is not always good and when you check your voicemail if your phone is off you do not have a prompt that can tell you where the call came from. If you travel have a back up phone because of the reception. I fairly recommend simple mobile .
Posted on April 4th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Recently, Apple made a huge error in a patch on their software and it unfortenately has disabled service providers to use their iPhones and what not. Customers are mad at Apple and if Apple does not fix this error they’ll loose a lot of their customers.
Posted on April 8th, 2010 at 10:10 am
I bought 3 sim cards with internet service and havent been able 2 use the internet on it. The unlimited talk and text and great but the unterent is awful I mean awful as hell!!! and customer service act as if they dont know a damn thing. I have a G1 and 2 samsurg gravity and we cant use the internet @ all on the G1 and the other 2 cant check emails and cant go 2 a lot of web sites which is bullshit. Like I said the talk and text is great but when it comes 2 using the internet its awful. They are cheaper then Tmoblie but Im paying 4 something im not using..Help!
Posted on April 13th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
this service is being used through t mobile’s old GSM server. So all new phones run on 3G. hence the problem with cell service! And for the record T mobile has ok service Att is the best no dropped calls in 6 years.
Posted on May 14th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
this will be my second month with simple mobile. i don’t use their current data package as i feel 50-150mb’s wouldn’t do justice for my android phone. for those that can’t use the internet, you need “opera mini”. its basically a secondary browser, after all you can’t expect your net to work through tmobile2go can you? i don’t have anything to complain about them. i havn’t had dropped calls but some of my friends say they recieve my text late but that could be due to the high volumes of messages. overall they seem to be a solid company and if they do happen to fail i won’t be out anything much. i only pay 40 a month for talk/text, lower than any other carrier. and for the people that read the bad comments, its natural for every company to have its fair share of bad feedback. those comments were probabaly put up because of human emotion where the tech or the customer did not agree with each other. i am enjoying contract free unlimited.
Posted on May 17th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Can I ask those who are using the service a quick question?I’m in Ireland and have bought a sim card and unlimited talk and text plan (in the US) for one month.Have received the sim card in the post.Will the plan I bought be automatically activated when I activate the line?
I know it’s a stupid question and I’ve tried emailing them to make sure but haven’t gotten a response.
Posted on May 19th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
This service is great! Excellent coverage, fast 3G network. I ordered it through a T-Mobile guy so that might be the way to go rather than do it yourself from their website. Can’t wait for the unlimited web…
Posted on May 26th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
You will not be able to make the website work. None of the forms will work, and you’ll go mad trying.
Next, you’ll try customer service. I spent an hour last night trying to contact a human, with no luck. Then, 3 different tech support people, who don’t understand how their website works (or doesn’t), will give you conflicting information (the server is down, try again in 1hr/3hr/24hrs). I want to support Simple Mobile for their low prices and unlimited options, but they barely seem able to function on the business end. My first month (once I got a manager to manipulate the website for me) tells me the service works, so I hope they pull it together….soon.
Posted on June 27th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
So far I’ve been using this phone for 6 weeks and it’s crap service. The sales rep ripped me off and sold me a phone that is not even used in the US, it’s for Australia. It took them a week to port my old number over from US Cellular to My Simple Mobile. The first week I missed an important call for a job opportunity; I got the persons voice mail but the phone never rang and her number never showed up. Then a few days later my cousin told me she left me a vm that I never got! This past week I’ve been having issues not being able to send texts, and when I recieve a text from someone it repeats about 5 times. Another issue – when you’re talking ot someone you hear this weird beep, like your conversation is being recorded.
Posted on July 4th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Just switched from Sprint to Simplemobile on my unlocked iphone and it’s awesome. It’s Edge only which is 2G but it’s great to get unlimited everything for $60 with no contracts. 3G on other phones is available though.
Posted on July 14th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
SIMPLE MOBILE SUCKS EVERYTIME I TRY TO CALL SOMEONE IT SAYS PHONE NETWORK BUSY IT HAS BEEN DOING THAT FOR 2 DYAS NOW I CANT EVEN SEE GET MY VOICEMAIL
Posted on July 19th, 2010 at 8:09 am
..I think its not bad at all, I switch from t mobil 2 wks ago, everything fine, but they only give you 100MB for internet use, I got a textthat I need to buy more DATA.
Posted on July 19th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
you guys need to tell us what city you’re from. i’m curious to know more about simple mobile but want to know what cities have good and which ones have bad reception.
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 2:17 am
I’ve using Simple Mobile on my iphone over a week and it’s great!!!! works so much better for me than my co-worker who has an iphone with tmobile service… I recommend this company to anyone!!! really it’s awesome!!! no problems with calls, text, and the internet it’s really fast, i’m able to use every aplcation from app store and itunes!!!
Posted on July 20th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
worst customer service you can imagine would not recommend simplemobile to my worst enemy.
Posted on July 21st, 2010 at 8:17 pm
SIMPLE MOBILE SUCKS , DO YOURSELVES A FAVOR STAY AWAY FROM THE DATA SERVICE. DO NOT PURCHASE THE DATA PLAN AT ALL IT IS NOT UNLIMITED YOU ARE GIVEN A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF DATA ,IF YOU THE INTERNET EXCESSIVELY BY THEIR TERMS AND PERCEPTION THEY CUT YOU OFF. HOW CAN YOU OVER USE SOMETHING THAT IS UNLIMITED??? DROP CALLS AS WELL NOT THE GREATEST CHEAP SERVICE
Posted on July 22nd, 2010 at 12:52 am
I am the happiest man to use My simple mobile…its an awesome service…extremely cheap…..no other networks offers this much in this price…I enjoy unlimited calls, ans sms both domestically and internationally..the free international sms is a blessing for those who need to stay in touch with friends and family in other countries…I would recommend this service to every one..
Posted on July 23rd, 2010 at 1:56 am
The data plan cap is 1GB per month–NOT UNLIMITED. It is very very hard to get through to customer service.
Posted on July 23rd, 2010 at 6:17 am
Prepaid is a case of ‘you get what you pay for’; sure it’s good for those few folks who use very few minutes, but for anyone who needs a decent amount of talk time/texts, etc… prepaid isn’t the answer.
Posted on July 24th, 2010 at 12:37 am
THIS MOBILE NETWORK SUCKS………………DONT SWITCH TO THEM BECAUSE YOU WILL BE GREATLY MISTAKEN. tHEY DONT SUPPORT MMS FOR MOST PHONES. THE APPS ON BB WONT WORK AND YOU WILL BE STUCK WITH A 500 DOLLAR PHONE THAT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
Posted on July 25th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
i have a $40 plan…and my last month usage was..
minutes:1355
texts: 540(including international)
compare this with the amount ul have to pay for the same usage with at&t and t-mobile and u wil understand the difference
Posted on July 26th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
[...] covered Simple Mobile when it first launched and when it improved its plans (twice, even). The first post contains multiple comments, most of [...]
Posted on July 27th, 2010 at 7:32 am
will i be able to get the web on my G1 with the mini Opera Browser??? and how does this UNLIMITED WEB work because i live on the web threw my phone =)
Posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 7:17 pm
email me your responses please @ joelinehernandez@yahoo.com thax
Posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 7:18 pm
i just installed mine into my iphone. my net doesnt work at all. comes up with “the connection to the server “pop3.live.com” failed” do i just need to change a setting or is it simple mobile as ive neva had data on this phone unless it came from my wireless at home
Posted on August 4th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
1. There is no costumer support. Period.
2. Data plan is LIMITED.
3. Headache to setup MMS, e-mail, etc.
4. Calls droped.
5. Internet sporadic, slow.
Simple mobile = SUCKS!
Posted on August 9th, 2010 at 10:47 am
had service for two months, generally happy with it. Apps on black berry dont work and customer service sucks, particularly paying the bill. Reception is way better for me then att and still worth saving 50 dollars a month. i Recommend if you are willing to put up with some crap
Posted on August 10th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
pss i was able to use my att blackberry and unlock it, rather then buy a new phone like i would if i used metro pcs. Unfortunatley not fully synced with blackberry and cant use bbm or other apps.
Posted on August 10th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Anyone recommend this new GSM unlimited plan for $60.00 a month
Posted on August 12th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
I have had simple mobile for 2 days now and i do not like it. The Internet is very slow!!! I switched to this bs company from t-mobile. I will be going back to t- mobile next month. Simple mobile simply sucks!!! I can’t wait until next month to cancel this terrible service.
Posted on August 13th, 2010 at 7:36 am
I live in Ny and I got simple for my iPhone 3GS. Not that happy that the mms was hard to set up but the $50 plan works. I’m usually close to a wifi hot spot. So I don’t freak out over data. I’m very good. You usually have the same coverage as t-mobile customers. Only down size is data but calls and text is great.
Posted on August 15th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
It is a scam .. they dont tell u that your phone will or will not work .. They will tell u it will work .. Then take your money and when it doesnt work .. they will refuse a refund of your money …Bottom line they are the worst and u will lose your numbers.. your contacts out of your phone and You will have to choose another provbider .. they are horrible ….
Posted on August 18th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
It is what it is. Prepaid phone service. I’m in California and travel throughout the state for work. Reception has been comparable to other contract carriers, not really better or worse. It has worked better than other pre-paid providers. It has come up short on the data plan though. I use an iPhone 4 and could’t get the data plan to work. I checked on you tube and found the needed link. The phone immediately worked! It was a little slower than the BlackBerry I was used to using but it still worked. unfortunately, two days later, data has stopped functioning all together and I haven’t been able to get it back on. The website has been useless and customer
service has been non-existent. At least I still have wi-fi. If your expectations are low, this would be the way to go. If you expect over-reaching things like your phone and all apps to actually work or that you will get any helpful assistance through customer service just remember, you get what you pay for
Posted on August 22nd, 2010 at 3:17 am
Im thinkiong about joing simple wireless. Im a business guy and I need web on my phone to check and send emails from anywhere. Do you think simple wireless is the answer?
Posted on August 25th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Their customer service SUCKS! Worst service I have EVER dealt with. They DON’T answer the phones, but have no problem shutting your service off an HOUR after your bills due. CAN’T get into my account on the website. Apparently their retailers don’t know how to follow simple password instructions. Good coverage. TERRIBLE service. I would NOT recommend it. Stick with cricket. At least THEY answer the phone.
Posted on August 27th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
I have been selling simple mobile for 2 months and all my customers are happy, and simple mobile gives you instructions on applying apps and the web to your phone, just read. I switched over from tmobile and saving $30 a month from the flex plan.I have been very happy with the plan.
Posted on August 28th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I live in Brooklyn N.Y. and i am using simple mobile for almost a month.I have the $40 plan (Talk n text) and so far its pretty good,i noticed the signal is strong but sometime i hear static.I use the phone a lot and text a little i never dropped a call, my friend has verizon and he drops calls more than me.I used 1600 minutes so far and not cut off yet(I hope there is no cap on voice calls)Ive been reading that the unlimited data has a cap of 1000 MB, thats not unlimited.another thing is that i am using a t-mobile phone thats not unlocked so i think that any t-moble phone will work and i call a friend that uses t-mobile pre paid and he says that when we talk his minutes does not get deducted from his plan(makes me wonder if t-mobile owns simple mobile).
Posted on August 28th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
well for those of you that have complaints, I say look into straight talk from walmart, it runs on verizon’s network which I dont need to mention is the best! and they have a $30 plan which gives 1000 talk and 1000 txt and 30mb of web. they also have unlimited plan that is just $45 and you can have it on “auto refil” so no headaches with forgetting to buy time! check them out, Im loving it and Im picky p.s.they have cool phones on the website
Posted on August 29th, 2010 at 12:44 am
i have unlimited plan $60, very similar to t mobile, i have unlimited internet, sms picture not working, the coustumer service its really bad!!!! they have all to be a good company but the coustumer service its really bad
Posted on August 29th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I’ve been using Simple Mobile for almost a week and their customer service is the shittiest I ever seen. If you guys are complaining about it’s poor serice try going to the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. This company is the worst I ever seen. You’re better off going with other major companies like Verison, Sprint, T-mobile, or even AT&T.
Posted on August 30th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I shopping around for cell phone plan and notice that it is very difficult to contact simple mobile over the phone. Today i look at their website again to see if they change their plans and no information is post on website about the plans. The unlimitied talk/text plan looks ok,and only complaints are about data,MMS set up and customer service.
Mopogirl, Straight talk texting does not include international texting. They charge extra for international text. Plus, there phones are outdated. Cricket and Straight talk plans doesn’t include international text not even to Canada and couple with there outdated phones make many folks bypass their cheap plans.
Posted on August 30th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
this is true?
I was suckered into a new mobile phone plan with a new company called Simple Mobile. They are a T-mobile MVNO (essentially a reseller) claiming to offer UNLIMITED talk, text, and data for $60/mo.
The reality is… Their $60 plan is NOT unlimited. When you hit 1000MB in one month your data service is simply terminated without warning.
They will offer to sell you an additional 100MB for $10. This policy is not stated anywhere on their website. If you call or write and complain, they will simply tell you to go elsewhere and will not provide any refund.
”
I can already imagine some readers will say “Too bad Eric, you were trying to game the system by overusing an unlimited plan when we all know there is no such thing.” But that’s what makes this annoying: we all know there’s no such thing, yet here is a carrier still advertising as much, which seems like a textbook example of false advertising.
Besides, readers here and on Howard Forums tend to know a little more about the details of cellular agreements. That doesn’t mean everyone does, and you shouldn’t have to possess hidden knowledge of how cellphone plans work when the point of fine print is to disclose everything before signing up.
The fine print on the bottom of the “Plans” page says that the plan can be terminated for “abusive conduct or abnormal call pattern(s),” but I couldn’t find any other fine print that defines abusive or abnormal behavior as “heavy data usage,” nor could I find mention of a maximum usage cap of 1000 MB or any other amount.
Here’s what I found on the Terms & Conditions page (emphasis mine):
“
8. Charges and Call Details. You may review your call and charge details on our website at http://www.mysimplemobile.com/myaccount. Domestic and Puerto Rico data usage is billed in full-kilobyte increments and is rounded up to the next full-kilobyte increment at the end of each data session. If you are on a metered data plan, and exceed your data limit, you may purchase an additional data plan to resume data usage. [This is what happened to Eric, although he was not on a metered plan. -Ed.] We do not guarantee that you will not receive spam or other unsolicited messages, and you agree that we are not liable for such messages.
[...]
15. Misuse of Service or Device. You agree not to misuse the Service or any Device, including: (a) reselling or rebilling our Service; (b) using the Service or Device to engage in unlawful activity, or engaging in conduct that adversely affects our customers, employees, business, or any other person(s), or that interferes with our operations, network, reputation, or ability to provide quality service; (c) tampering with or modifying your Device; (d) “spamming” or engaging in other abusive or unsolicited communications; (e) reselling Simple Mobile Devices for profit, or tampering with, reprogramming or altering Devices for the purpose of reselling the Device; or (f) assisting or facilitating anyone else in any of the above activities. You agree that you won’t install, deploy, or use any regeneration equipment or similar mechanism (for example, a repeater) to originate, amplify, enhance, retransmit or regenerate a transmitted RF signal. You agree that a violation of this section harms Simple Mobile, which cannot be fully redressed by money damages, and that Simple Mobile shall be entitled to immediate injunctive relief in addition to all other remedies available.
”
More About:
DATA PLANS, UNLIMITED, SIMPLE MOBILE, FALSE
Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 6:00 pm
some areas in Broklyn N.Y. dont have service, one i noticed today was the PARK SLOPE area. i would recomend if interested in getting this service find out from a simple mobile retailer if your area is covered.Dont check the website or call they will only tell you about your zip code, go to a retailer,so just in case you can get what ever you paid back if you cant get service.
Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 7:46 pm
I have Simple mobile. Its been almost a month. Im using the Iphone 3Gs. It only runs on EDGE because this is an ATT phone so its not built to pick up ATT’s 3G signal. However the reception and call quality is the same as T-mobile. I live in Los Angeles, CA . I have pretty good reception and my texts are not delayed. My calls are going through pretty well.
Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 11:45 pm
I recently swithced from T-Mobile to Simple Mobile. I have a Motorola CLIQ and all the apps work just like they were working with T-Mobile. I was paying over $100 a month for 1500 minutes, 400 text messages & unlimited data. Well I now pay only $60 for UNLIMITED EVERYTHING!!!
I am saving a lot of money for the same great service. I was with T-Mobile for over five years and I was happy but I am glad I don’t have to pay anymore taxes & fees. Whoever wrote the review on this page is way off SIMPLE MOBILE has new plans and great customer service. I wouldn’t go anywhere else.
Posted on September 2nd, 2010 at 10:43 pm
I love it ,I’m using simple mobile for 5 month no prob at all.I know it works on t-mobile network , so if you don’t simple don’t go to t-mobile they have the same network.for sure better than mero pcs.
blackberry will be working 100% on sep 6 for $65 not bad.
At the end of the day it’s perpaid Service you will save $$$$.
simple mobile ben around for less than 2 years.i know the will be the best prepaid company US.
Posted on September 5th, 2010 at 5:07 pm