BoostMobileMan

Mar 16, 2009
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Unlimited Competition is Heating Up!
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

It's great to see the prepaid market heating up these days. Unlimited appears to be more and more the plan of choice. It will be interesting to see if $50 becomes the new baseline price point, or if that price simply won't be sustainable across all of the players.

I truly believe that unlimited plans (whether voice or data) aren't sustainable. It really comes down to a very small percentage of users who essentially ruin it for everyone else. While I'm not sure what the number is, I would expect that even 1% or 5% of customers who truly use a lot of minutes for voice calls (or MB/GB for data) ruin the financial model for carriers.

Most carriers have already started implementing "reasonable use" clauses that allow them to shut off customers who abuse the "spirit" of the unlimited service. However, the negative press, and the bad taste it leaves in customers' mouths doesn't seem worthwhile. If something isn't unlimited, simply don't state that it is. I expect unlimited to mean unlimited...is that so unreasonable?!

It's interesting, because carriers often won't say what these limits actually are; they leave it to their sole discretion. Except for data where some outright state that the limit is 5GB/month for example. If carriers know how many minutes (or GB) are sustainable for them to run healthy businesses, why not just simple state it as such? For example, instead of an unlimited plan, why not just say that the plan is 3,000 min, 5,000 min, or whatever?

I expect that in the long run, when people express their frustration over the false advertising(?), carriers will all move towards just telling it like it is. The reality is that most customers won't ever get shut off at the limits that carriers set, so why alienate people by telling them something is unlimited when it really isn't? It would be rare for people to use 5,000 minutes, so it's essentially unlimited. Sure, marketing "unlimited" sounds better, but it just doesn't seem right.

In this economic climate, we need full disclosure and honesty. Just tell it like it is. Don't spin it, or put in small print or clauses.

Anyway, perhaps a little off topic on this post ;-). I'm happy that BoostMobileMan is getting great value; sweet deal!

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Mar 16, 2009
Rating

Submitted by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

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It's great to see the prepaid market heating up these days. Unlimited appears to be more and more the plan of choice. It will be interesting to see if $50 becomes the new baseline price point, or if that price simply won't be sustainable across all of the players. I truly believe that unlimited plans (whether voice or data) aren't sustainable. It really comes down to a very small percentage of users who essentially ruin it for everyone else. While I'm not sure what the number is, I would expect that even 1% or 5% of customers who truly use a lot of minutes for voice calls (or MB/GB for data) ruin the financial model for carriers. Most carriers have already started implementing "reasonable use" clauses that allow them to shut off customers who abuse the "spirit" of the unlimited service. However, the negative press, and the bad taste it leaves in customers' mouths doesn't seem worthwhile. If something isn't unlimited, simply don't state that it is. I expect unlimited to mean unlimited...is that so unreasonable?! It's interesting, because carriers often won't say what these limits actually are; they leave it to their sole discretion. Except for data where some outright state that the limit is 5GB/month for example. If carriers know how many minutes (or GB) are sustainable for them to run healthy businesses, why not just simple state it as such? For example, instead of an unlimited plan, why not just say that the plan is 3,000 min, 5,000 min, or whatever? I expect that in the long run, when people express their frustration over the false advertising(?), carriers will all move towards just telling it like it is. The reality is that most customers won't ever get shut off at the limits that carriers set, so why alienate people by telling them something is unlimited when it really isn't? It would be rare for people to use 5,000 minutes, so it's essentially unlimited. Sure, marketing "unlimited" sounds better, but it just doesn't seem right. In this economic climate, we need full disclosure and honesty. Just tell it like it is. Don't spin it, or put in small print or clauses. Anyway, perhaps a little off topic on this post ;-). I'm happy that BoostMobileMan is getting great value; sweet deal!

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