Prepaid Reviews Blog

Boost Mobile to add Android-powered Motorola i1?

Joe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:30:54 +0000

I was just a guest on a podcast, and one major topic of discussion was prepaid mobile data. We’ve seen a number of companies add WAP browsing, but few have robust data options. Earlier this year, though, we saw Boost Mobile add a a CDMA BlackBerry device. Was that just the start? It appears that could be the case. We learned late last week that Motorola plans to release an iDEN Android handset, and of course Boost is a possible carrier. The handset features a 3.1 inch, 320×480 capacitive touch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, and plenty more. It also features MOTOBLUR, which is just awesome.

No word on availability, but speculative word is that the announcement could come at CTIA later this month.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

Page Plus adds Kyocera Mako S4000

Joe — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:47 +0000

An little over a month ago we noticed that Page Plus appeared to be preparing for new handsets. Over the weekend they made the first such announcement, introducing the Kyocera Mako S4000 to its lineup, the first brand new model the company will offer. It features a VGA camera, Bluetooth, and WAP browsing capabilities. In other words, it fits in well with the entry-level phones we’ve seen carriers introducing lately. It’s available today, so check out Page Plus’s website. It will sell for $99.95.

And, just to whet your appetite, Page Plus has also announced that it will introduce a new QWERTY handset within two months.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

Metro, Leap could try to go it alone

Joe — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:30:17 +0000

We’ve been talking about it for years, and it won’t go away until something definitive happens. For years we’ve heard speculation of a MetroPCS and Leap Wireless merger. Last month we heard even more, as both companies hired strategic advisors. Yet instead of hearing news of talks between the companies, we’ve heard nothing. It turns out there might be a reason for that. Tim Horan, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., predicts that any potential merger could be a year or more off. Instead, they could pursue independent paths, falling back on merger talks if things don’t work out.

“The market is slowly coming to the realization that a merger is not imminent,” wrote Horan, who said he expects the shares to perform in line with the market over the next year. The industry is “still hurting from effects of increased competition, though we believe the industry is nearing the end of this price-war cycle, which would take some pressure off Leap and PCS.”

He further presents the idea that Metro appears to have no competition in a possible acquisition. We’ve heard names of nearly every wireless company mentioned as a potential suitor, but nothing seems to be in the cards.

Things could change within a year, of course. For all we know, we could get news of a merger next week. It’s not probable, but it’s possible. I think, though, that if we’re not going to get movement soon that we could do without news on the matter for a while.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

A newbie’s guide to Page Plus

Joe — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:30:40 +0000

A few months back we published the noob guide to Tracfone, Net10, and Straight Talk. It came from Howard Forums user fonezfonz, and I thought it was quite the excellent resource. Today we have something similar, if not more comprehensive. User Kitty Wireless is all over the Page Plus boards, letting people know what’s going on from a dealer’s standpoint. The latest contribution is a series of four guides that will help out a newbie in need. They go from setting up your voicemail to changing plans, so if you’re a Page Plus user or are thinking about trying them, check out the following guides.

A huge thanks to Kitty Wireless for writing these. Hopefully plenty of people can find answers to their questions within.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

Virgin makes changes to Broadband2Go plan

Joe — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:00:24 +0000

It seems to be Virgin Mobile’s day. The second item of the day from them relates to their Broadband2Go offering, a prepaid high-speed data platform. Virgin has announced new prices, ones that are scaled a bit better to postpaid data rates and usage patterns. A quick table of the new rates after the jump.

Price	Size
$10	100 MB
$20	300 MB
$40	1 GB
$60	5 GB

The $10 plan expires in 10 days, and the rest expire in 30. You can sign up for Broadband2Go at Virgin Mobile’s website.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

Virgin Mobile phasing out contract plans

Joe — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:30:44 +0000

When Virgin Mobile acquired Helio in 2008, they began offering contract plans. It took a while to get the Helio and VM systems to work together, but they finally got it done. Then, just about a year later, Sprint acquired Virgin Mobile, citing its focus on the prepaid sector. It never really crossed my mind to think about the fate of Helio, and I didn’t see much, if any, commentary on the topic. Yesterday we learned that Virgin will phase out its contract plans, with a complete cessation coming May 25. That gives current VM contract customers 12 weeks to find a new service provider. Virgin hopes that carrier will be Sprint.

Current VM postpaid customers who switch to Sprint will get an additional $50 off a new handset — with a new two-year agreement, of course. This is in addition to the normal phone subsidy, plus any applicable rebates. In other words, there will certainly be a cheap phone involved for customers who switch. Any activation fees will also be waived.

Virgin postpaid customers must contact Sprint or Virgin if they want to keep their numbers. A simple port-out request should do fine, though.

Virgin prepaid customers can rest easy, as there are no changes to their service. Just an upgrade to the broadband offerings, which we’ll learn about in the next post.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

MetroPCS releases second Mister Cartoon handset

Joe — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:30:47 +0000

If the above phone looks somewhat familiar, it’s because MetroPCS already has a Mister Cartoon phone in its lineup. The old one, a Samsung Messenger, came out over the summer. This one, a Motorola VE440, is now in stores. It has all the features of the normal VE440, including a 1.3 megapixel camera. In addition to the artwork, the handset also includes a 1GB microSD card that comes with two unlreased Snoop Dogg songs pre-loaded, plus wallpapers and ringtones. You can get the handset in stores for $89 after a $40 mail-in rebate.

Via Phone Scoop

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

New phones headed to Tracfone, Net10

Joe — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:30:14 +0000

Some people have a knack for finding new goodies. Among them is HoFo user The_Sweeper. He always picks up things that I don’t see from other people. Most recently it was the addition of four phones to Tracfone. How did he catch this while no one else did? Instead of finding them on the basic shopping page, he found them on the activation page. Clever. These models, two LG and two Samsung for Tracfone, plus a Samsung QWERTY for Net10, aren’t quite available yet, and we don’t know a whole ton about them. What we do know is that they’re headed for these carriers, and the wait shouldn’t be long.

Judging by the pictures, which you can find in the linked post, the Samsung T155G is a basic flip phone, complemented by the T101G, a candybar model. The LG models, 420G and 320G, appear a bit more advanced, but that’s just from their shells. For all I know, they could be just as basic as the Samsung models.

The interesting phone in the bit is the Samsung R355C. I’m not sure what it will run like, but it features a full QWERTY keyboard and, unsurprisingly, somewhat resembles the Blackjack line Samsung makes. The_Sweeper says it resembles the Samsung Freeform, and a quick look at the phone bears that out. So expect a 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, and expandable memory. I’m sure we’ll learn more soon, too.

Apparently, these phones hit the FCC a week and a half ago, but I don’t remember seeing any reports at the time. I only found this article when searching for these models prior to writing this post. So it looks like we’re not far from seeing these five phones hit Tracfone and Net10.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

Prepaid Podcast, February 2010 — Episode 16

Joe — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:22:00 +0000

Those two crazy companies are back at it. We saw both MetroPCS and Leap Wireless hire strategic advisors in February, which has everyone talking merger again. It won’t be easy this time, just like it wasn’t easy in September 2007. The environment has changed since then, though. So this finally be the time they get together and decide that it’s better to combine forces than to die alone?

So click on over to hear the Prepaid Podcast.

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast so you won’t miss any future episodes. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Highlights include:

Could any other carriers be interested in either Leap or Metro? Chances are it’s either a merger or nothing, but we did see two postpaid subscribers add tons of prepaid customers in the fourth quarter of 2009. T-Mobile has been adding more prepaid than postpaid for some time now, and they continued that trend. Sprint has put a greater emphasis on prepaid, and added plenty of those customers while losing postpaid. Could either of those companies be interested?

Also, another factor for Leap: a new joint venture with Pocket Communications. For now it will help enhance their South Texas network, but given the terms of the joint venture it could also factor prominently into a merger or acquisition.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!

T-Mobile loses postpaid, adds prepaid customers

Joe — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:30:03 +0000

Last year we started to see a strange trend. T-Mobile, primarily a contract carrier, started adding more prepaid subscribers than postpaid. While this kept the carrier’s numbers in the black, many in the industry worried that it would bring down revenues. That seems to be the case, as we can see in T-Mobile’s fourth quarter numbers. Their net income fell to $306 million, from $483 million in Q4 2008. Unsurprisingly, they again added more prepaid customers than postpaid. This time it was a bit different, though. T-Mobile actually lost postpaid customers during the quarter.

Overall T_Mobile added 488,000 prepaid customers to only 117,000 postpaid. This must have come as a huge disappointment, as the company made a big push late in 2009 to beef up its plans and smartphone lineup. Despite adding the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the Motorola Cliq, T-Mobile couldn’t attract more postpaid customers.

On the prepaid side, however, T-Mobile is doing just fine. Both MetroPCS and Cricket made their fourth quarter numbers official (though we learned them back in January), and neither came within 150,000 subscribers of T-Mobile. Yet, as we can see from their net income and their ARPU, down $3 year over year, that might not be the biggest reason for congratulations.

I’ve been wondering for a while now when T-Mobile would recognize its advantage in prepaid and start focussing there. Once they announced Project Dark, though, I thought it would never happen. With the focus on more smartphones and a faster network this year, it doesn’t appear that will change. Still, what are they going to do if they continue to add more prepaid customers throughout 2010?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for Tracfone Prepaid information on the web!