Prepaid Phone News

ZTE Merit - Straight Talk's First Android Phone on AT&T Now Available for $99.99

Tracfone LG 500g With 1200 Minutes and Triple Minutes for Life - $79.99 at HSN

Tags: News , Phone Deals , TracFone

T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Price Reduction

Old Price	Term	Data	New Price	Term	Data
$10	7 days	100 MB	$15	7 days	300 MB
$30	1 Month	1 GB	$25	1 Month	1.5 GB
N/A			$35	1 Month	3.5 GB
$50	1 Month	3 GB	$50	1 Month	5 GB

Tags: News , T-Mobile

Another Nail in the Boost iDEN Coffin - Phone Sales and Activations Ending Soon

Inside Sprint Now, a blog by a Sprint customer care employee, is reporting that as of this Friday, May 18th, iDEN phones will no longer be available from Sprint.com, telesales, customer care and the Sprint Wireless Advantage Club. The article doesn't mention boostmobile.com but it includes the statement that "After Friday, the only place to purchase an iDEN device will be a 3rd Party retail store that carries Boost Mobile devices." which makes it sound like iDEN phones will be gone from boostmobile.com after May 18th too.

The Inside Sprint Now post contains a scan of a frequently asked questions document that's going out to Boost retailers. The document repeats much of what we have already heard about "surplus" iDEN towers being shut down now through early July as well as the total shutdown of the iDEN network midyear 2013. But it also includes several new nuggets of information

After July 10, 2012 Boost will no longer activate new Boost accounts. Existing Boost iDEN subscribers will still be able to switch between iDEN phones until service is shut down in the middle of next year.
Boost dealers selling iDEN phones should warn customers that the iDEN network is projected to be shut down in mid-2013. If the customer is not a "heavy" walkie-talkie user, the dealer should suggest that they switch to a CDMA phone.
There may be offers at a latter date to encourage users to switch to a CDMA phone.
The document acknowledges that there are no Boost CDMA push to talk (PTT - Walkie Talkie) phones and suggest steering PTT users to an Android CDMA phone running one of the "multiple walkie-talkie apps in the Google Play Store".

My take is that it looks like the iDEN shutdown is proceeding on schedule. Boost needs be doing all they can to discourage customers from buying iDEN phones and warn them that iDEN will be shut down in a year. Ceasing sales of iDEN phones on boostmobile.com is a good good. Hopefully dealers, including online sites, that continue to sell iDEN phones will warn customers about the shutdown.

I'm concerned that there are still no Boost CDMA PTT phones available. I'm stating to worry that Boost isn't going to release a CDMA PTT phone at all.

The Android app solution is not a good substitute for dedicated PTT phones. None of the current Android walkie talkie apps can connect with iDEN PTT phones or with the CDMA Direct Connect phones either. Sprint is promising to release an inter-operable Android PTT app soon, but says it will only work on "select" Android phones. How well it will work and if it will work on Boost Android phones is unknown. Plus an Android PTT app does nothing for Boost iDEN pay as you go users as Android phones are not allowed on pay as you go. iDEN's time has passed and it needs to be gone to make room for modern technologies but Boost iDEN users should not lose PTT regardless of whether they are on Unlimited or pay as you go,

Tags: Boost Mobile , News

Updated: Virgin Mobile Confirns that Optimus Elites Activated before May 27th Will Be Grandfathered

Tags: News , Virgin

US Cellular/Alltel U-Prepaid Now Available - Here's What it Costs

Last month US Cellular and Alltel announced a joint venture to relaunch Alltel's U Prepaid brand. The initial press release didn't specify the launch date or include any information about phone or plan pricing. Over the weekend, a new U Prepaid website popped up at uprepaid.net with phone and plan prices, which are pretty compete. There are three feature phones and an Android smartphone. Depending on whether you enter a zip code in Alltel or US Cellular territory, the plans are a little different. Here's what shows up if I use a US Cellular zipcode (53213)

$19.88 Samsung Chrono flip phone with a 2 inch 240x320 px screen, VGA (.3 MP) camera and no music player.

$29.88 LG Saber QWERTY candybar with 2.2 inch 176x220 px screen, VGA (.3 MP) camera and no music player. This appears to be the same phone as TracFone's LG 501c.

$49.99 LG Attune touchscreen with slide out QWERTY keyboard, 2.8 inch 240x400 px screen, 1.3 MP camera, SD card slot supporting up to 16 GB cards and a MP3 music player.

$129.88 Samsung Repp Android 2.3 phone with 3.2 inch 320x480 px screen, 3 MP camera, SD card slot supporting up to 32 GB cards, MP3 music player, WiFi and EVDO Rev0 3G.

There are four feature phone and two smartphone plans:

Feature Phone plans
Pay By The Month Plans
$40/month	Unlimited Talk, Messaging and Mobile Web
$30/month	1500 Minutes & Unlimited Messaging	Overage: 10¢ minute Data: 50¢ MB
Pay By The Day Plans
$2/day	Unlimited Talk, Messaging and 50 MB of data	Overage Data: 50¢/MB
$1/day	Voice 10¢/minute, Unlimited Messaging, Unlimited Nights and Weekends	Data: 50¢/MB
Smart Phone Plans
Pay By The Month Plan
$50/month	Unlimited Talk, Messaging and 2 GB of data	Overage Data: 50¢/MB
Pay By The Day Plan
$2/day	Unlimited Talk, Messaging and 50 MB of data	Overage Data: 50¢/MB

In Alltel areas like zipcode 30286, the phones are the same except for the LG Attune which Alltel calls the LG Exchange but which appears to be the same phone. Alltel users also get a cheaper overage and per use data rate15¢/MB instead of 50¢/MB.

Nowhere on the site does it say if the daily plans are charged every day or only on days that you use the phone. I suspect it's everyday, as the only on days used option would be a selling point that I'd expect U Prepaid to mention.

U Prepaid phones are only available at Walmart stores in Alltel and US Cellular markets, which are mainly located in the Midwest, Southeast, New England ad Pacific Northwest. There's a store locator on the U Prepaid site. Phone's are not currently available on walmart.com.

I'm a little disappointed that there' are no U Prepaid pay as you go plan, but the Monthly plans are quite competitive. If the U Prepaid coverage map is to believed it looks like there is no extra charge roaming just about everywhere, which makes U Prepaid a great deal especially if you travel in remote areas frequently. $50/month with a real 2 GB of data is a much better deal than Verizon's $80 for 1 GB or Straight Talk's $45 plus tax for "unlimited" data that gets arbitrarily cut off if you pass some hidden cap that's probably less than 2GB.

Tags: News , U Prepaid