Boost Mobile, Cricket simplify rate plans

With the economy in the tank, consumers may be looking for a cheap and easy wireless deal, and prepaid providers Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless are looking to capitalize on that trend. Last week Leap Wireless announced that its Cricket service [1]would offer new daily rate plans called PayGo that provide customers with unlimited service for $1, $2 or $3 per day. The $1 plan includes unlimited local calling and voicemail, caller ID and three-way calling. The $2 plan offers the same as the $1 plan plus unlimited text and picture messaging. And the $3 plan adds unlimited U.S. long distance, international texting, mobile Web and directory assistance.

Now comes word from Boost Mobile that it is launching a new flat-rate of 10 cents per minute for all calls, no matter what time of day. The Boost Mobile plan, called Pay As You Go, lets customers pay by the minute without a long-term commitment. Plus they already can get unlimited nationwide push-to-talk service from Boost for a flat-fee of $1 per day.

J.D. Power and Associates' says that subscribers prefer flat-rate plans with unlimited minutes. In the company's annual prepaid wireless customers satisfaction study, the overall satisfaction among U.S. prepaid users is higher among those who subscribe to flat-rate plans with unlimited minutes vs. those who have per-minute pricing plans because of the cost advantages associated with the flat-rate plans.

For more:
- see this release [2]

Related articles:
Leap [3] promotes unlimited, prepaid wireless broadband
J.D. Power: Flat-rate prepaid [4] pricing plans a hit