Web traffic increasing to prepaid cell sites

As we’ve been talking about for over a year now, the state of the U.S. economy might naturally lead some to prepaid wireless services. They present a viable alternative to expensive contract plans which not only lock you into two-year terms, but also end up forcing you to not use your plan to the fullest (lest you go over your minutes and spend even more money). We know that prepaid wireless played a big part in American mobile services in the first quarter. There are signs, too, that this could continue. Web analysts comScore found that traffic to six prepaid carrier websites was up big time during the first quarter.

The full chart can be seen below:

The only websites to see negative gains were Virgin Mobile, which lost subscribers in the first quarter, and Tracfone, which also owns Net10, which showed a substantial gain.

The gains at MetroPCS, Cricket, and Boost Mobile are understandable. Both Metro and Cricket opened service in a few new markets over the first quarter, meaning their websites will reach more people. Boost, for their part, released their $50 unlimited plan, which surely attracted tons of visitors. In fact, the Web traffic for these sites might have come at the expense of Virgin and Tracfone.

Will this translate into second quarter results? That’ll be an interesting thing to observe. Wireless subscriptions typically fade in the second and third quarters, but given this environment we could see some gains in prepaid over that period. The second quarter is just a couple weeks from closing, so we should have our answer soon enough.

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