Almost a century ago (when my grandparents were young) land lines were considered to be very advanced technology. Dial tone phones came out when I was a kid. In just a few decades, phones have become so common and mobile that they have become a part of almost everyone’s daily life. Cell phones (or mobile phones) are now so common that everyone and their mother has one. We all know where there is a need, there is someone taking advantage of that need. So, we have carriers like Tmobile, Sprint, Bell, etc. charging their customers based on the minutes used.
The cell phone industry underwent another change (in USA) about a year ago. What was the change? Flat rate plans for cell phones! What was its cause? An unknown company – Metro PCS – that came out of nowhere and took over a chunk of cell phone users with its cheap prices. Their lowest plan goes for $30. It doesn’t have voicemail or anything else. However, you can make as many calls as you want and you can receive them. For about $15 more, you can get voicemail, etc. And, unlimited data, unlimited texts, unlimited calls and unlimited international calls.
Even land lines don’t offer international calls for that price! Metro PCS successfully grabbed customers from various national service providers *cough* like Sprint and Tmobile *cough* .
What did this cause?
This made cell phone carriers (at least some of them) rethink their plans too. Sprint is not offering a $50 plan with unlimited calls, unlimited texts and unlimited data. Tmobile is offering a $50 ($89 for families) plan for unlimited calls to already existing customers. You have to get text and data separately.
What’s the catch?
Metro PCS has great service is metro cities like New York City, Seattle, etc. It’s reception is bad in other areas. However, they are working on increasing their coverage. And, they don’t have a very wide selection of phones. In fact, they have only one smart phone. Since Metro PCS operates on CDMA network, you cannot use their service with your current phone (assuming you have a GSM phone like me).
Sprint did the same thing. For their $50 unlimited everything plan, they have a custom set of phones which are regular phones and they don’t offer this service with smart phones. This means if you want to browse the net, you are stuck with the phone keypad and a small screen which means you won’t be using that unlimited data a lot. I have seen a lot of people text like crazy on regular flip phones so I think people will use that regardless of their phone.
Tmobile’ service is $50 for only calls. If you want unlimited text, it is additional $5 and unlimited internet is $20. The good thing, however, is that it works on a GSM network so you can use it with any GSM phone. The bad thing? Tmobile drops calls very frequently. If your friends text you today, you might get that text tomorrow. Sometimes even voicemail is delayed. The data, on the other hand, is good.
ATT seems to be doing its own thing with iPhones. As far as I know, they charge over a $100 for 400 minutes. However, a lot of people are willing to pay that because of their iPhones.
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