Many will, with their wallets-
Free at last comes to mind
That may be, but for $30/ month, it is a very competitive (small) price to pay I dare say.
Hat's off to Virgin, and . I see a hidden agenda in all of this.
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Virgin Mobile USA Launching iPhone on June 29 with Plans Starting at $30
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Many will, with their wallets-
Free at last comes to mind
That may be, but for $30/ month, it is a very competitive (small) price to pay I dare say.
Hat's off to Virgin, and . I see a hidden agenda in all of this.
For what you will pay at Virgin Moble for the iPhone you can just get two new ipads.
Huh? $650 for a 16GB iPhone 5 versus $630 for a 16GB iPad 3 with cell/GPS.
OK. I admit that I've never used these pre-paid plans ... nor have I really ever looked into them. VM's plan sounds intriguing ... which leads to a few questions.
1. The $30 sounds good right now, but without a contract, what's the likelihood that $30 turns into $40 after a few months? Is VM free to increase the price whenever they feel like it? Then I'd be stuck with a phone that I paid full price for ... which would suck.
2. Are there any limitations on a pre-paid plan? I saw the part about not being allowed to roam off of Sprint's network. I'm assuming that if you were on a Sprint post-paid plan, you'd be able to roam on VZ's network when needed.
Thanks. I'm really hoping that this type of plan becomes more popular. We should really have a model where if you pay full price for the phone, the monthly rate is lower. Yeah, it's probably bad for the carriers and the OEMs, but it's better for the consumers.
1. The $30 sounds good right now, but without a contract, what's the likelihood that $30 turns into $40 after a few months? Is VM free to increase the price whenever they feel like it? Then I'd be stuck with a phone that I paid full price for ... which would suck.
2. Are there any limitations on a pre-paid plan? I saw the part about not being allowed to roam off of Sprint's network. I'm assuming that if you were on a Sprint post-paid plan, you'd be able to roam on VZ's network when needed.
Thanks. I'm really hoping that this type of plan becomes more popular. We should really have a model where if you pay full price for the phone, the monthly rate is lower. Yeah, it's probably bad for the carriers and the OEMs, but it's better for the consumers.
Why is there this notion going around that you have to be poor to be on pre-paid? I could afford any carrier, but I have VM, as they not only are the cheapest, but auctally provide more. Why would anyone want to waste money on post paid? From what I have seen, in many cases, people would still save over AT&T or Verizon over 2 years, even if they outright bought this for $650.
Anybody know if it'll be possible to mosey on over to Sprint with your own iPhone and slip into the $30 plan (without having to buy one through them)? Also, mine's a 3S w/ATT (long out of contract period); do those two companies work the same network?
EDIT: found the answer (no)
EDIT: found the answer (no)
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Indeed, and technically it's a risk, but they've had these plans for quite a while, and I think they're actually better than their last plans. I think it's safe to say that at least they're not going to double the price or something during the coming two year period.
Yeah, I really hate how we do it in the U.S. I wish everything used the same technology, you bought the phone, and could move around to whatever carrier offered you the best price and/or reception.
Yeah, I've long been annoyed by that. In the first place, there's nothing wrong with someone just because they don't have a bunch of money, but in the second-yeah...wanting to save money doesn't mean you're poor.
Why would anyone do that? Because some people can actually do basic arithmetic (as in elementary school).
Here we go again.
AT&T and Verizon: $199 subsidized iPhone 4S, $36 activation fee, $120 per month ($70 unlimited talk, $20 unlimited text, $30 cellular data 3GB with AT&T at HSPA+ speed, 2GB with Verizon at EV-DO speed). Total cost of ownership over two years: $3115
Virgin Mobile: $649 retail iPhone 4S, $50 per month (unlimited talk/text/cellular data 2.5GB at EV-DO speed, throttled after 2.5GB). Total cost of ownership over two years: $1849
Cricket Wireless: $499 partially subsidized iPhone 4S, $55 per month (unlimited talk/text, cellular data 2.3GB soft cap at EV-DO speed). Total cost of ownership over two years: $1819
Straight Talk: $649 retail iPhone 4S, $15 SIM (one-time charge), $45 per month (unlimited talk/text, cellular data 2GB soft cap at HSPA+ speed). Total cost of ownership over two years: $1744
Monthly cost of ownership over two-year period:
AT&T/Verizon: $129.79
Virgin Mobile: $77.04
Cricket Wireless: $75.79
Straight Talk: $72.67
Straight Talk service is bare bones, but they are using AT&T's cellular towers. They don't tell you who you called, who sent you texts, how much data you've used, and you can't block numbers. But if you want HSPA+ speeds, they are a cheap dumb pipe.
And to the guys who say, "most people get corporate discounts of 10-25% from the big carriers", well, you still can't do math, can you? Even if you slash 25% off AT&T/Verizon's unlimited rate, that's still $97.34 per month.
If you opt for Straight Talk over a comparable plan from AT&T or Verizon, your break-even point is month six. If you were on AT&T or Verizon and wanted to walk away from the carrier at that point, you'd have to shell out an additional $260 or so in early termination costs.
People who can't do math are throwing hundreds of dollars away each year to the big carriers. AT&T stock dividend yields 8%. Thanks for putting money into my pocket, guys! You are partially paying for my Straight Talk cellular service!
Worse, if you have a postpaid plan, you are almost certainly paying a bunch of taxes that are added to the rates quoted by the carrier. The prepaid Straight Talk plan has a few mandated FCC charges, but no local sales tax. So someone using a postpaid AT&T/Verizon plan as quoted above is likely paying an additional $8-10 more in taxes than their next door neighbor on Straight Talk.
I can't do pricing analyses for every household's situation, but clearly, if you care about your money, you might spend a few minutes doing your own analysis to see if you can save hundreds a year.
I will point out that in most countries, people buy handsets at full retail prices and pay much less for monthly service (which is not locked to a long-term contract). Only the United States and a handful of other countries have popular subsidized/long-term contract cellular sales model. The rest of the world is smarter than that.
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Maybe. I'd check on howardforums.com. OF course they probably won't REALLY know until a few months after Virgin gets this, but it seems like at least unofficially there have been some people getting Sprint phones on Sprint's prepaid brands at some points, so...maybe. But if they don't want that, they'll probably be vigilant about making sure that doesn't happen.
No, AT&T uses UMTS and GSM, Sprint uses Qualcom's version of CDMA (like Verizon and US Cellular). They're all migrating eventually to LTE, but even then I don't know that you'll be able to switch phones between them.
Heehee, thanks for doing the math!
I was on Sprint from 2005 til late 2010 and I could count on one hand the number of times I've roamed on Verizon, and that was in remote areas where even the Verizon signal was too weak to really be usable.
So yeah, not a big deal. Sprint's coverage is actually better than T-Mobile in my experience.
That's kind of what I was getting at. If I'm going to spend that much. I may as well buy the new one and go StraightTalk. Atleast I'd have a few options and also should have good resell value if I decided to do so.
Since the phone will be full price with Virgin, will the GSM side be completely unlocked?
It'd be nice to have an out and be able to return to AT&T if the coverage sucks or the data is too slow.
It'd be nice to have an out and be able to return to AT&T if the coverage sucks or the data is too slow.
great post, btw.
What do you mean in the above quote? How can they not tell you who's calling and who's sending you texts? They don't have CallerID?
Where are you located? I live in the suburbs, and frequently travel to the west side of the city, and have never had any problems.
Overall, I am very happy with Virgin Mobile. I have never had any major service problems, and the cost has been great. I can really only remember a few dropped calls, and they were when I was out in rural farm towns. As for the 3G (CDMA Rev A) speeds, that is perhaps the only con of VM. I would say on average I get about 750kbps down, and 600kbps up. Sometimes that goes up to around 1.25mbps, though that is somewhat rare. For what I do though, it is fine, and the speeds should go up, as Sprint and Virgin Mobile are pushing people over to LTE and WiMax, freeing up 3G resources.
No, you cant. Forget it.
There is no catch. Really, none. The only cons are perhaps slower data speeds in your area, and the lack of being able to roam. I have extensively driven through Wisconsin and Illinois, and on highways in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, and never had any major reception problems with VM though. Honestly the Sprint network alone is big enough that you really don't even need to roam.
Over here in Chicago, we get around 750kbps down, and 600kbps up on average. I guess it really depends on where you live. Also, read above about roaming. Really you don't need it.
You can't bring anything over to VM. They have never allowed it before, and they wont now. In addition, the 3GS is GSM only, so even if they did allow it, it wouldn't work.
VM used to charge $25 a month for their entry service, before they raised it to $35 last year. Anyone still on the $25 plan though has been grandfathered in, so I wouldn't worry to much. They seem to take care of their customers, which is very rare these days for a telco.
Read the article. Of course it won't be 299.... full retail price
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It's still VERY worth it compared to Verizon or AT&T's prices.
Most people never consider the total cost of ownership.... part of why the average American is a slave to credit card companies and only negiotiate buying a car by what they can afford to pay per month.
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Yes they are.
Sorry, but in 2012 going prepaid doesn't equate to bad credit like it used to. I think it equates more to wanting to pay less and not wanting to be roped into a 2-yr contract where a carrier has you by the balls.
There is no prestige in being tied into a contract where you're getting bent over by your service provider. Sadly, it is the people with your frame of mind that allow the major mobile companies to do just that.
Technically, yes. Historically, VM has NEVER done this. They have changed their plan structure many times (especially when they only had feature phones), but they let you be grandfathered into whatever plan you had, even if you switched phones. If you wanted to change plans, then you could only choose from the plans available then, but they never forced you to.
Recently, they changed the prices from $25/40/55 for the three Beyond Talk plans to what they are now, $35/45/55. If you were on the old Beyond Talk plans they let you stay on them, but they are now forcing any customer switching to phones released after the Evo V (and including it) to switch to the new prices.
A lot of prepaids do seem to try to a little harder to please, in my experience. You don't have a contract and there is no ETF, so there isn't a whole lot stopping a prepaid customer from going to somebody else. Cingular and Verizon only seemed to care about my wife's opinion when her contract was up for renewal.
Pretty much every major carriers' relationship with the contract customer are almost completely one-sided. It's not like you're giving up a lot of rights buy not signing a cell phone contract. Most of the time the carrier is.
I was in Chicago recently with my friend who's on Virgin and I could not believe how useless his phone was. After the second day, he literally shut it off since it was only getting a signal about 10% of the time and the only calls/texts that were going through were people complaining about how they couldn't reach him. It was some Android something or other, if that makes a difference, but the same phone works great all over CA and OR. And we were mostly in the South side, but did venture as far north as Wrigley.
Meanwhile, my T-Mobile phone was usually full bars, and never less than 2.
But I remember how shocked I was because I have never seen a phone behave so badly, especially in a metro area, and he was cursing it out the whole time.
Patronize a little harder.
It's not just people who can't do math. Some people still want a physical location to visit for various reasons. They also offer amenities like micro-cells, for instance.
So it's subject to Use Tax, which you are technically in violation of state law if you don't pay.
And most countries don't have the geography of the US to cover with wide swaths of uninhabited areas and a larger geographic area to cover. That doesn't justify their much higher costs, but you can't compare it to a small European country with a tight geographic area, higher population density and 3+ other GSM carriers as competition.
It may be cheaper to go pre-paid, but that doesn't mean you should treat people who don't like idiots.
Seems great but for for the money i think getting a used att iphone and straight talk is the way to go. That way you dont play the full price for an iphone and still reap the rewards of just playing 45 dollars a month. Remember its going to be easier to find people selling Att iphones than Sprint iphones just because of the numbers
It's still VERY worth it compared to Verizon or AT&T's prices.
To you yes maybe! Not to me! I get to switch brand new iphone every year! You know how? Because I can still always sale my factory unlocked iPhone for about 450-500.
Then with that money I add a bit more to get a factory unlocked at retail price which will always have a better value!
So to me I ain't gonna paid retail just to have a $25-30 plan a month aka save me money in the states then when I travel (which I always do) I can't use it!