Prepaid Wireless

Verizon Wireless expands prepaid options

Phil Goldstein — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:09:36 -0500

Verizon Wireless has expanded its prepaid service options, giving customers greater flexibility by letting them pay a per day access fee.

The carrier has three different plans that it has started offering:

The "Core" plan has a daily access fee of $0.99 and offers unlimited in-network calling. All other calls are $0.10 per minute.
The "Plus" plan has a daily access fee of $1.99 and offers free night calling.
The "Power" plan has a daily access fee of $2.99 and offers free night and weekend calling. Out-of-network weekday calling is $0.10 per minute. Text messages for all plans are $0.10 each and multimedia messages are $0.25 each.

Prepaid users can also use their accounts to access Verizon media services like VCast and VZ Navigator. Prepaid service has been growing in the second half of 2008 as the economy has worsened and credit has tightened up.

For more:
- see this article

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WSJ: Prepaid appeals to budget conscious

Phil Goldstein — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:10:35 -0500

As budgets grow tighter in the economic downturn, prepaid wireless service is a more appealing option for consumers who want to keep cellular service but think they can no longer afford high monthly phone bills tied to voice and data plans. Article (sub. req.)

Prepaid service growth to continue into 2009

Phil Goldstein — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:01:46 -0500

Prepaid wireless service, which has been gaining steam over the past year, will continue to outpace contract-based growth going into 2009, according to third party research from Boost Mobile, Sprint Nextel's prepaid unit.

The data shows a growth rate of 14 percent for 2009 in the prepaid market, compared with 4 percent for postpaid. The carriers are also seeing some returns in the market; T-Mobile USA had 370,000 prepaid subscribers in the third quarter, up from 143,000 in the year-ago period. As credit has tightened up, prepaid may look like a more attractive option to customers that still allows them to keep their wireless phone, according to Boost.

The trend also fits with research done by Informa Telecoms & Media that found prepaid growth outstripping postpaid in both 2007 and into 2008.

For more:
- see this article

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Prepaid service growth outpaces contracts

Phil Goldstein — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:43:39 -0400

Prepaid cell phone growth has outstripped contract-based service two to one in 2007 and into 2008, a new study has found.

The research, by Informa Telecoms & Media found that at the end of 2007 there were 2.33 billion prepaid subscribers worldwide, and that prepaid service produced $241.9 billion in revenue in 2007 for mobile operators, with the Asia Pacific market being the largest prepaid market.

The report also found that at the end of the year about 28.9 percent of reported subscriptions worldwide will be from people who have second or third SIM cards.

For more:
- see this article

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Boost Mobile, Cricket simplify rate plans

Sue Marek — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:51:08 -0400

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 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

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J.D. Power: Flat-rate prepaid pricing plans a hit

Lynnette Luna — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:37:30 -0400

According to J.D. Power and Associates' 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 versus those who have per-minute pricing plans because of the cost advantages associated with the flat-rate plans.

"Prepaid customers are clearly responding favorably to these unique service plan options, as they provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional price-per-minute plans that are typically offered and allow customers freedom from worrying about being charged extra fees for making too many calls within a given time period," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "Although plans with unlimited minutes typically have geographic restrictions for placing and receiving wireless calls, they still fulfill customer expectations and tend to meet a specific service need better than other wireless plans. In fact, 46 percent of unlimited plan customers have completely replaced their traditional landline phone with wireless service, compared with only 13 percent of traditional pay-as-you-go customers."

MetroPCS ranks highest in prepaid wireless satisfaction for the first time since the inception of J.D. Power's study that began measuring prepaid user satisfaction three years ago. Virgin Mobile was at the top in 2007.

For more:
- check out Cellular-News

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Report: Virgin Mobile best prepaid customer service. Virgin Mobile story