C Spire Launching iPhone on November 11th, 'Unlimited' Non-Streaming Data and 500 Minutes for $50

[rcappo]

Competition is good in the telephone market. We've tried this monopoly thing before with AT&T, and it wasn't very good for the consumers.

I need a plan on Verizon for $25-$30/month for 150 minutes, 0 texts, and 1Gb data (I would live with 500 Mb even).

If I didn't care about my phone number, I would do the pre-paid hack...

 

[KPOM]

£10 get me £30 worth of credit.
£5/month for 5000 text bundle, £2/week for 500mb data and the rest is on minutes at 10p/minute.

Damn you guys over the pond get bad deals. I see why so many of you hate these large corporations.

Where do you find these deals? Whenever I look at the main carriers in the UK (Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, 3), I see things like this:

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-price-plans/all-plans

At $1.60 to £1, those rates don't look much, if any better than AT&T for those buying a phone on contract. That said, I think you can purchase 2GB for £15, and they don't charge extra for tethering.

It seems to me the main advantages of EU-style pricing are lower rates for bringing your own phone (SIM-only plans), and no extra charges for tethering (i.e. more flexibility).

 

[Stridder44]

Unlimited data, messaging, and voice for $70? My God. Is there a catch? That almost seems too good to be true.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

I can see a day when we won't have 'voice' or 'text' plans but instead have it all covered on a single data plan or 'access' plan for a flat fee. Oh.. And unlimited everything of course on a fast cellular connection.

 

[something3153]

I understand that streaming takes up more data but with Hulu, Netflix, HBO and others continue to expand their app presence, it frankly shouldn't surprise people that data usage is increasing tremendously.

If you expect to keep using tremendously more data, you should expect to pay tremendously more. It's quite simple.

 

[Nostromo]

We need a carrier like this in California, the land of the high priced cell phone service even though it's densely populated.

More competition, please.

The different data plans with and without streaming are a great idea. I personally do not need streaming at all, so I could get a cheaper plan and still there was no need to watch the data amount.

 

[TheStonepedo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

No streaming? Isn't the whole "cloud" system based on a reliable server streaming content for which you own a license to any device which requests it? How are they going to draw a line in the sand between downloading a copy of a song and streaming it?

 

[rocknblogger]

Anyone know how they tell the difference between streaming and just downloading a really big file?

Also, why does this regional service get it before T-Mobile, which a lot bigger?



I don't know their internal decision making, but if I were to hazard a guess, I would say telcos use night/day minutes due to usage. Since most people would probably talk more during the night than the day, nights probably use more bandwidth. So telcos probably try to spread the call time evenly over the entire day rather than have huge spikes. That's my theory, feel free to (respectfully) correct me.

It's actually the reverse of what you said. More bandwidth is used during the day that's why they offer free nights and weekends.

 

[pika2000]

I can see a day when we won't have 'voice' or 'text' plans but instead have it all covered on a single data plan or 'access' plan for a flat fee. Oh.. And unlimited everything of course on a fast cellular connection.

No, you won't. The future will be unlimited voice and text, buy they will meter data per KB. And prices will go up because in the near future, you will see even less competition amongst the US carriers.

 

[epictempo]

If I didn't care about my phone number, I would do the pre-paid hack...

Why can't you port it? I just did the Straighttalk hack yesterday with porting my number from Verizon. Riding on ATT's network with avg. DL speeds of 3-4 mbps. True unlimited for $500/yr.

 

[MusicEnthusiast]

That wouldn't be good. They use Sprint's physical network, so the speeds would be horrid.

Well, considering Sprint and Virgin Mobile combined don't have nearly as much data traffic than on ATT and Verizon, I don't see how it would make speeds worse. If anything, it would benefit Apple to sell them the iPhone.

 

[AllieNeko]

This regional carrier uses CDMA, where Apple already have a device for (the CDMA iPhone 4/4s). T-Mobile's 3G uses AWS, a frequency that Apple doesn't support on the GSM iPhones. To support T-Mobile, Apple would have to use a penta-band HSDPA chip, which so far only exists on Nokia phones and the upcoming Galaxy Nexus.

I maybe wrong, but I believe the iPhone 4S does use a pentaband HSPA chip, it's just not implemented on the iPhone. Either in software or in other handware like amplifiers or something.

 

[tigress666]

No streaming???? LOL.

Thats like...."Here, take these keys to a brand new Porsche....its yours. But um....it has no wheels."

DOH!

What a rip off.

Uh, I barely ever stream on my phone. If I lived in the area and wasn't already grandfathered in a plan that is working quite well for me this would be a contender amongst the plans offered. Besides, your analogy is saying that streaming is the only thing you can do with internet access. A better analogy would be like here, take these keys to a brand new Porsche that has a speed limiter on it.

Because, I don't stream. I can do without fine. But I like not having to worry about going over my data limit.

Streaming restrictions? Give me a break. Data should be data.

And while we're on the same topic, minutes should be minutes. None of this daytime/evenings at 6pm garbage. These cell phone companies will do so many dumb things to make an extra buck.

I knew some one would bitch about this.

I think it's perfectly fair if they are going to give you unlimited to say how you can use that unlimited (after all, how you use it will affect how much you use). To me it's like going to an all you can eat buffet where it's perfectly fair they ask you to eat all that you take (so you fill up on less food rather than waste a lot of food).

Now, I do think it's BS that AT&T originally when they did limited plans made you pay 20 dollars extra just to tether using the data you already paid for (and you didn't even get any extra data). At that point you already paid for that data, it wasn't like tethering was going to use any extra data so I do think that was BS they charged you for it. They changed that thankfully and it's less of a rip off (at least now you get extra data with that extra 20 dollars).

 

[DiamondMac]

AT&T needs to kick its top percent of streaming abusers too.

What exactly makes someone a "streaming abuser"?

Can you give me a number? If so, based on what?

Thanks

----------

If you expect to keep using tremendously more data, you should expect to pay tremendously more. It's quite simple.

If it is so simple, lets go into detail about it.

- Explain to me why someone using 4gb should be paying more than 2gb.
- Explain to me why 3-4 years ago the ISP's wanted the 24/7 downloaders to be stopped but now the highest caps are 2gb-5gb?

My questions could go on....and your only answer will be something along the lines of what we hear AT&T, Verizon, and others do in their PR pieces.

If AT&T and Verizon want to issue yearly price increases, I don't have any huge issue with that. Many companies do it. But this idea that these low caps, high overages, and other limits are somehow "helping" the ISP networks? Please spare me from falling on the floor laughing.

The idea that people should be paying more for data usage that costs the ISP's nothing more whatsoever is laughable...and idiotic. But apparently the ISP's have sucked in enough idiots to think that they are 'suffering' from data crunches that can be relieved with several GB caps

 

[theanimala]

Why can't you port it? I just did the Straighttalk hack yesterday with porting my number from Verizon. Riding on ATT's network with avg. DL speeds of 3-4 mbps. True unlimited for $500/yr.

What phone are you using on Straightalk? Can you use an iphone or does it need to be one of their crappy phones?

 

[danimal99]

Because C Spire is not a carrier. (People will try to argue that because they own a few towers, they are a carrier.)

The majority of their customers are getting service off of Verizon's network.

This is just an extension of Verizon's network.

Umm, wrong. Do you even know what C Spire is, or rather what it was until a few weeks ago when they rebranded it?

 

[steve2112]

Umm, wrong. Do you even know what C Spire is, or rather what it was until a few weeks ago when they rebranded it?

Yeah, I guess it was too difficult to use Google or something. From an article concerning their change over to LTE:

In March 2008 Cellular South won a ten-year licence for 2×6MHz of 700MHz A Block spectrum covering 14 Economic Areas and 2×6MHz of 700MHz B Block spectrum covering ten cellular market areas (which lies in Band Class 12). The cellco says that the licences cover ‘virtually all of Mississippi and Tennessee and most of Alabama’. The operator has previously expressed a desire to launch commercial LTE services in its first markets by the end of 2011, with plans to expand availability across its 700MHz footprint during 2012

.


From the wiki on C Spire/Cellular South:

The company also holds 700 MHz and AWS licenses covering most of Tennessee and Alabama, though it has not yet extended service to these areas.

But, yeah, they are just a re-seller of Verizon's services.

 

[something3153]

If it is so simple, lets go into detail about it.

- Explain to me why someone using 4gb should be paying more than 2gb.
- Explain to me why 3-4 years ago the ISP's wanted the 24/7 downloaders to be stopped but now the highest caps are 2gb-5gb?

My questions could go on....and your only answer will be something along the lines of what we hear AT&T, Verizon, and others do in their PR pieces.

If AT&T and Verizon want to issue yearly price increases, I don't have any huge issue with that. Many companies do it. But this idea that these low caps, high overages, and other limits are somehow "helping" the ISP networks? Please spare me from falling on the floor laughing.

The idea that people should be paying more for data usage that costs the ISP's nothing more whatsoever is laughable...and idiotic. But apparently the ISP's have sucked in enough idiots to think that they are 'suffering' from data crunches that can be relieved with several GB caps

You really want me to explain why someone who consumes 4gb should pay more than those using 2gb? If I go into an Apple store and walk out with two iPhones, shouldn't I pay more than if I walk out with two iPhones? I would think this would be fairly obvious.

If I understand your second question correctly, I imagine it's because 3-4 years ago people used less bandwidth on average, so the majority of people would be well under 2-5gb. When people suddenly get to be expecting to stream Netflix for an hour commute each way on the bus, that's not going to be viable without charging for actual usage.

Bandwidth costs ISPs nothing? That's definitely news to me. Towers are free? Tower maintenance is free? Spectrum is free? I think I'll start up my own ISP. Apparently the barriers to entry are quite low.

 

[AllieNeko]

C-Spire is not a Verizon reseller, or a Sprint one. They're a regional CDMA carrier that sells service only in their native, licensed and covered CDMA area.

 

[danimal99]

Yeah, I guess it was too difficult to use Google or something. From an article concerning their change over to LTE: .


From the wiki on C Spire/Cellular South:

But, yeah, they are just a re-seller of Verizon's services.

No, they aren't. They're the largest privately-held carrier in the US. They own their own tower network. Their corporate headquarters are in Mississippi. I didn't have to Google anything, or look on any wiki- a close friend from childhood was a retail manager with CSouth for several years (and I was a customer until the iPhone debuted). I told him about this thread and he said specifically, "That's BS, tell that guy he doesn't know what he's talking about."

So there you go.