Cricket, MetroPCS face big challenge

The big news in the cellular world is that Verizon and Sprint are offering flat-rate, unlimited calling plans. Verizon’s start at $99.99 per month, and range up to $139.99, with a $119.99 intermediary that covers unlimited calling and unlimited messaging. Sprint just has the $119.99 plan, and it does include the unlimited messaging. So what are Cricket and Metro going to do now that they have competition from the No. 2 and 3 carriers in the nation?

This is a trade-off of sorts for consumers. See, Metro and Cricket are far cheaper than Verizon and Sprint. In fact, you can get pretty much the same plan from either for half of what you’d pay with the two big guys. Seriously.

MetroPCS actually doesn’t offer a plan over $50 per month. You get basically unlimited everything: Voice, text, MMS, Mobile Web, instant messaging, email…the list goes on. Same deal with Cricket: $50 per month for unlimited everything.

So what are you paying $70 extra for with Verizon and Sprint? Nationwide coverage to start. See, both Metro and Cricket are regional carriers, and they don’t cover a whole lot of ground. This means that when you leave their coverage area, you’re roaming. And roaming ain’t cheap: roughly 59 cents a minute.

With Cricket, you can opt to pay $60 and get 200 roaming minutes included in your plan. That might be something that works…though not everyone lives within a Cricket coverage area. Still, it’s half the price of Verizon and Sprint, and that has to be of some solace to people.

But in the end, Sprint and Verizon are charging you a $70 vagabond fee. Either that, or a $70 “Metro and Cricket aren’t available in your area” fee. I’m not complaining; they can charge whatever they want. What I’m saying is that neither plan really seems economically smart.

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