Zero1 starting its marketing blitz for July 1 launch

AT&T network. Of course, when we first heard of Zer01, the advertised price was $70. Now it’s $80. It looks like you might get something extra for that $10, if we’re to believe their most recent press release. Details after the jump. 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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8 Comments

  1. Bob on June 25, 2009 at 9:09 am

    5G! Yes, but is it a million G???



  2. Si on June 26, 2009 at 4:20 pm

    What a load of crap



  3. Peter Kent on June 26, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    The truth about this “5G” bulloney is that a bunch of “cowboys” from the Global Verge direct sellers camp got carried away with too much enthusiasm and hype and not enough technical hard facts.
    Claims of AWS as a new NON CELLULAR technology and 180 mbps downloads also belong to the ridiculous claim club. 4G is barely out as Clearwire/Sprint Wimax broadband demonstrates in a few select markets like Atlanta, Vegas, Oregon and Indianapolis. But NO cellular phone system uses 4G let alone so called 5G yet because it simply doesn’t exist. Zer01 was actually voicing concerns to their berzerk allies that they didn’t want to get sued over some of these claims (none of which Zer01 themselves have made any assertions on.). About the only that that Zer01 really made an assertion on was their proprietary Voip/cellular hybrid technology called
    VMC (Veritable Mobile Convergence), which, while not as exciting (or just plain wrong like 5G), is something that appears to be a real product/service.



  4. Peter Kent on June 26, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    Joe, I read the article. The part about buying up spectrum is straight up lies. UTG/Buzzirk/Zer01, whatever you want to call them is NOT using their own spectrum at all. They are merely leasing the networks of various gsm carriers like Att and Tmobile to provide a network backbone from which to use their VMC /Voip technology to bypass the underlying cellular carrier’s data caps (typically 5 gigs a month). The whole story about buying spectrum should be lumped in with the 5G, AWS not being cellular and 180mbps download speed fairy tales.
    These hucksters will hurt Zer01 more then help with their inflated and outright false claims. Ignore everything but the Voip over cellular part/VMC. The rest is pure bull hockey.



  5. Jack R. on July 1, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    Zer01 is not an MVNO of AT&T. They own dark fiber and do not resell any other carriers data or voice services. Zer01 has never claimed 5G only Buzzirk and the uneducated e-associates they have are claiming that. I have also heard crap that they are an MVNO of T-mobile. thsi is also not true.



  6. Peter Kent on July 5, 2009 at 11:44 pm

    Dark Fiber? Lmao. Zer01 and Buzzirk are both quickly becoming the clown princes of the prepaid wireless world.
    PT Barnum would’ve been proud.
    Zer01 never claimed to be an mvno for Att or Tmobile. But whatever. Till they get real phones and sims out there, it’s all pure bull.



  7. Joe on July 6, 2009 at 9:37 am

    According to a PC Mag article from May, they’ll be using the AT&T network. Perhaps not in a traditional MVNO manner, but it does appear that’s the network they use.



  8. Dan on July 9, 2009 at 11:20 am

    This is MLM Marketing- they are selling the selling, not selling the product.
    The product may actually be a cell phone, but the way they descibe it is as fantasyware- forget vaporware- the string of technologies they describe are technobabble double talk.