Verizon reports strong wireless revenue growth

Think Verizon better get with the program and pay attention to the wireless market, particularly the prepaid market. The latest reports show there's a significant move on the part of cell phone users toward prepaid. I'm among those who have switched, having given up my cell phone contract for Net10. For $25 a month, I get 250 minutes to anywhere in the nation and there are no roaming charges. I add minutes as I need them online. And the reception is far better than what I had with Verizon. In the four months I've had my Net10 phone, I've never had a dropped call or been in an area where there is no service. As for StraightTalk, from all accounts it is an incredible value - $45 a month for unlimited texting and calling. If I need that many minutes, I'd be tempted to switch.

I also think the real growth will be in the prepaid sector in future. The mentioned Straight Talk deal is an example of how prepaid is increasingly marketed with aggressive price-cuts and value-added services.

Companies like Tracfone and NET10 are at the forefront of these initiatives to win customers over from contract plans with the big four carriers.

The problem is that, in this country at least, people are under the impression that prepaid is either more expensive or of lesser quality than post-paid (contracts). The reverse is actually true at the moment, at least with regards to pricing. And there is certainly no difference in quality.

This country has 9 phone lines for every 10 people. The market is rapidly approaching total saturation. The only growth areas left are the poor, prepaid and kids. Kids are getting phones younger and younger, with kid friendly and parent approved brands like Kajeet doing well. Tracfone and other companies are giving away "free" cell phones to the impoverished under their Safelink program with the hope that they will be future regular paying customers, and there is a general trend toward people dumping two year contracts for the freedom of prepaid.

Prepaid is doing great guns in this economy. Unlimited prepaid plans have rapidly caught on with a fifth to a quarter of all US prepaid users on some kind of unlimited plan. Every user on Cricket and Metro are strictly unlimited, 10 million of them.

The Big 4 have a fine line to deal with. They are faced with courting the only major growth area left without sacrificing the value of their traditional postpaid contract brands, which generally make more money per user then prepaid users do.

Asia and the EU are already over two thirds prepaid. Of course , they mostly use gsm technology, so all they have to do is pop a new sim in their unlocked phone and voila, they are good to go. The USA uses a mixture of Cdma, Gsm and iden so that option is not as universal.

And there isn't a single national unlimited everything prepaid gsm carrier. Yet.

Verizon and Att both have to walk that fine line of not letting the market pass them by but not devaluing their core brands. I wish them luck. All I know is that this is the best time to ever be in Prepaid wireless in America. Prices are at an all time low and competition is at an all time high. If you are a consumer, you can't really lose.

This country has 9 phone lines for every 10 people. The market is rapidly approaching total saturation. The only growth areas left are the poor, prepaid and kids. Kids are getting phones younger and younger, with kid friendly and parent approved brands like Kajeet doing well. Tracfone and other companies are giving away "free" cell phones to the impoverished under their Safelink program with the hope that they will be future regular paying customers, and there is a general trend toward people dumping two year contracts for the freedom of prepaid.

Prepaid is doing great guns in this economy. Unlimited prepaid plans have rapidly caught on with a fifth to a quarter of all US prepaid users on some kind of unlimited plan. Every user on Cricket and Metro are strictly unlimited, 10 million of them.

The Big 4 have a fine line to deal with. They are faced with courting the only major growth area left without sacrificing the value of their traditional postpaid contract brands, which generally make more money per user then prepaid users do.

Asia and the EU are already over two thirds prepaid. Of course , they mostly use gsm technology, so all they have to do is pop a new sim in their unlocked phone and voila, they are good to go. The USA uses a mixture of Cdma, Gsm and iden so that option is not as universal.

And there isn't a single national unlimited everything prepaid gsm carrier. Yet.

Verizon and Att both have to walk that fine line of not letting the market pass them by but not devaluing their core brands. I wish them luck. All I know is that this is the best time to ever be in Prepaid wireless in America. Prices are at an all time low and competition is at an all time high. If you are a consumer, you can't really lose.

i just got the new Net 10 EM326G and I got 300 minutes and 60 days of service on activation for only under $60. I'm saving so much money by switching to Net 10, and so far i have amazing service and a great phone to go with it.

Verizon made it's smartest move when it joined with Tracfone in the prepaid market. The new Straight Talk packages on Verizon's network are the best offer on the best network.

Straight Talk has two packages - $30 per month with 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 30Mb of data plus free 411 calls and a $45 per month unlimited talk and text with 30Mb of data.

For those who use their phones a lot, Straight Talk is great.

Prepaid seems to be the way to go these days. Why would anyone want to pay for overages or fees when there's affordable plans like StraightTalk out there? There's so many new comers to this lucrative portion of the cell industry (Boost is the lastes one I can think of). But for me, the Verizon network is the best so I'll stick with StraightTalk which ironically is MUCH cheaper than a regular Verizon plan!!!!