Prepaid Wireless Tracker
- August 2013 Issue #62
Hi,
Prepaid
wireless is a growing and truly exciting industry. At
Prepaid-Wireless-Guide.com I try to provide you with in-depth
information that isn't readily available anywhere else. The
content is original, and created from firsthand experience working in
the prepaid wireless industry for over a decade.
This monthly email provides you
with a quick glance at what's trending in the news so that you
can
easily keep
informed. I believe in brief, to-the-point
summaries/commentary
so that you can move onto other tasks in your day. Each
snippet
includes a link to the original story should you be interested in the
full details.
If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me
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Tracker.
AT&T Saves
Leap In $1.2 Billion Deal
USA TODAY
This
acquisition is literally a life-saver for Cricket, which has been
struggling to achieve profitability for years. The fact is
that it's simply to
expensive for Cricket to compete on a national level now that prepaid
competition is so fierce. Struggling to achieve relevance in
the
prepaid market, AT&T plans to use the Cricket brand to expand.
It seems like a great match; whether it ultimately pays off
for AT&T still remains to be seen.
Although some argue that AT&T is
overpaying for
Cricket, the fact
is that the cost is but a rounding error on its balance sheet, and
the spectrum itself that it will be acquiring makes the deal
worthwhile. For a detailed discussion please visit my
complete AT&T Cricket
Takeover
discussion.
Cricket Wireless
Launches New Smartphone
Financing Programs
CNET
As of July 21st, Cricket now offers three phone financing programs that
accommodate customers with good credit, down to those with no credit
that doesn't require a credit check at all. Cricket is
definitely
aggressively targeting customers who are used to getting subsidized
phones on contract, as well as those that can't get
postpaid, but want
the latest and greatest (i.e. expensive) smartphones. How
successful these types of programs will be is still unknown, however,
we've seen a lot of movement and creativity in this space this year as
competition continues to heat up. You can read more of my
thoughts on this
topic in the comments section at the bottom of the article!
T-Mobile Jump Program
Allows Upgrades Every
6 Months
Chicago Tribune
T-Mobile's new Jump program allows you to upgrade your phone every six
months, however, it requires an additional $10 monthly fee to
participate, as well as a down payment on top of the $20 per
month financing fee that continues until the phone is paid off, or you
upgrade to a new phone, whichever comes
first. I don't know
about you, but around the six month point I've got everything setup on
my phone the way I want it, and I'm fully comfortable with all of the
settings and navigation that has taken time to customize and get used
to. At that point I'm happy to cruise along for a least
another 6-12 months before even wanting to deal with the hassle of an
upgrade. Not to mention that replacing a phone usually
requires buying a new screen protector and case. Moreover, it
takes at least a year or more for technology to evolve to the point
where an upgrades feels worthwhile. Although I like the fact
that T-Mobile has unbundled the cost of the phone from the service
plan, I think Jump is more of a hassle than it's worth, and if you
don't time it correctly, you won't benefit from the extra cost to
participate in this upgrade program.
Verizon Seeks
International Opportunities
For Growth
Channel Partners
There's no doubt that Verizon is the most powerful and successful
wireless company in the U.S., and that expanding internationally is a
sound business plan. However, that said, as it relates to
growth
in the U.S., I expect that five years from now Verizon will be showing
a material decline as prepaid continues to dominate sales. As
Verizon's
prepaid programs are essentially uncompetitive, Verizon will be far
behind the curve. If Verizon isn't interested in growing
prepaid
by implementing or acquiring prepaid brands, I predict that it will
ultimately compete by implementing more competitive financing options.
For example, to compete with prepaid, all it needs to do is
decouple its handset subsidies from its service plans, and allow
customers who prefer to avoid contracts
to simply add the financing
cost to their monthly plan. Verizon recently went on record
stating
that it will be
leveraging its own strong brand rather than trying to create a distinct
prepaid brand presence. Verizon's Unleashed prepaid brand
seems to
have
completely disappeared, clearly indicating Verizon's confidence in its
own brand. When the time is right Verizon will seek
to expand its core
brand to
appeal to no contract customers. Arguably, even if it's late
to the
game, turning around its prepaid presence will be quite easy once it
begins offering competitive plans.
Tempo Telecom Launches
Launches Prepaid With
Low-Priced Plans
FierceWireless
Tempo offers monthly, pay-as-you-go, and monthly unlimited plans on the
Sprint network. They convert everything to voice minutes (3
SMS = 1 voice min, 1MB = 2 min), which is unique, and despite an
apparent desire to simplify, seems to make things more complicated to
grasp for end-users. They do, however, have rollover of
minutes, which is a nice feature. Another odd thing I noticed
is that some of the phones on their website have Boost Mobile branding
on them. Even if they were selling off Boost overstock, I
would hope they would reflash them to remove competitor branding.
Only you can decide whether their plans meet your personal
needs, but overall I can't help but question whether or not the country
needs yet another MVNO?!
One Third Of All
Smartphones
Sales Now Prepaid
Dslreports
I always enjoy these
headlines as continued evidence that
prepaid
is growing as I predicted five years ago. Despite wireless
saturation in general (i.e. almost 100% penetration = everyone who
wants a cell phone now has at least one), prepaid penetration continues
to grow, further accelerated by the growth in smartphones on prepaid,
and at the expense of postpaid.
What's
New At Prepaid-Wireless-Guide.com?
- Updated content on 4G Phones & added link to
Cricket Galaxy S4 Review
- Added Cricket Samsung Galaxy Admire 2 to 4G Phones
Comments?
Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this zine and
tell me what you think!
View Prepaid
Wireless Tracker Back Issues.
Cheers!
PrepaidWirelessGuy
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