Unlimited Wireless Service Price War?

[Bulldog]

I don't know if this topic has been discussed before, but it seems that Boost Mobile, is starting a new prepaid plan for unlimited anytime calling, text messaging, wireless web, long distance with nationwide coverage for only $50 a month.

This new plan has no contract, no fees, no activation fees, and it's hard to believe but even no taxes either!

This could start a price war among wireless carriers if it holds true.

I wonder if there will be any fine print?

 

[riffjim4069]

I never heard of Boost Mobile. Currently, my wife and I are paying $30 each for the above package, with the exception of 500 anytime minues (which is fine based on my usage), with Sprint. Althought we would prefer Verizon Wireless, I can't really complaint...expecially since the Verizon plan would cost us more than $200 monthly.

 

[Bulldog]

I never heard of Boost Mobile. Currently, my wife and I are paying $30 each for the above package, with the exception of 500 anytime minues (which is fine based on my usage), with Sprint. Althought we would prefer Verizon Wireless, I can't really complaint...expecially since the Verizon plan would cost us more than $200 monthly.

The company is part of Sprint and has been a no contract prepaid wireless service, just like AT&Ts "GO-Phones"

 

[KE4EST]

I wonder if there will be any fine print?

If you look on their web site there is fine print that I can't read.

 

[Islandguy43]

Boost Mobile is a division of Sprint and they are using the cell frequency from Nextel to provide the service.

 

[snathanb]

At least in my market, Boost Mobile is aggressively marketed to a narrow market segment, specifically African American. For a while, their commercials were bordering on racist.

If anyone has seen the "Where you at?" commercials, you know exactly what I mean.

 

[Stargazer]

Looks like a last ditch effort to get market share when other things didn't work because whatever else they are doing must not be working. Either that or they are having a hard time competing.

 

[Islandguy43]

Looks like a last ditch effort to get market share when other things didn't work because whatever else they are doing must not be working. Either that or they are having a hard time competing.

The need for the walkie talkie phone has been replaced by the free verizon wireless to verizon wireless user, etc.

 

[The Insider]

There are other companies that offer similar plans, such as "MetroPCS" Although their network is greatly limited compared to say BoostMobile who use the Nextel Network..

 

[navychop]

If they are just using the "old" Nextel frequencies, coverage is quite limited, and maybe the fine print is no additional charges for home area only. Fees if you roam? Maybe. Too much history with Sprint & Nextel to ever consider them again.

The walkie-talkie feature became a bust for other companies when they started offering it. Turned out, most boys that wanted to play GI Joe already had the service. Contractors, mostly. Speed dialing, voice dialing and unlimited mobile to mobile killed this, as well as no need to speak, pause, beep, .........

 

[digiblur]

Yep, it's on the Nextel bands. Spotty coverage for Nextel around here. I used to hear the annoying "beep beep" followed by the loud distorted voice of someone yelling with the mic down their throat. I can't remember the last time I heard this. Anytime I saw someone with a Nextel phone on their hip I'd play my little ring tone on my phone of the "beep beep" to mess with them. It was funny...they'd look at their phone each time.

 

[digiblur]

If they are just using the "old" Nextel frequencies, coverage is quite limited, and maybe the fine print is no additional charges for home area only. Fees if you roam? Maybe. Too much history with Sprint & Nextel to ever consider them again.

The walkie-talkie feature became a bust for other companies when they started offering it. Turned out, most boys that wanted to play GI Joe already had the service. Contractors, mostly. Speed dialing, voice dialing and unlimited mobile to mobile killed this, as well as no need to speak, pause, beep, .........

There is nothing to really roam on. I think there is one other iDEN carrier in the south US. I think in Georgia or Alabama. Not sure about the rest of the US.

 

[navychop]

iDEN was pretty much just in a few big metro areas. Not quite good enough around DC. Miserable customer service - and this for a business paying well over a thousand dollars a month. We dumped them. Now with AT&T, greatly expanded, paying around $5,000 per month.

I'd be suspicious, very suspicious.

 

[Bulldog]

If you look on their web site there is fine print that I can't read.

Below is the web site with the info:


Boost Mobile - Community

 

[TechGuyID]

I don't know if this topic has been discussed before, but it seems that Boost Mobile, is starting a new prepaid plan for unlimited anytime calling, text messaging, wireless web, long distance with nationwide coverage for only $50 a month.

This new plan has no contract, no fees, no activation fees, and it's hard to believe but even no taxes either!

This could start a price war among wireless carriers if it holds true.

I wonder if there will be any fine print?

No fine print.

$50 for voice, text, picture messaging, web and walkie-talkie and the telecom taxes are included in the $50. No roaming charges - full access to the entire nationwide network.

And for you Nextel iDEN nay-sayers, the Nextel iDEN network covers 15,800 cities, 274 million people and has the lowest dropped call rate among all of the major competitors.

You're crazy not to try it - I hear a lot of Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon's $99 unlimited subscribers are moving to the Boost $50 plan.

And, Boost's handset lineup now has phones without external antennas and a QWERTY phone coming out soon.

 

[TechGuyID]

There are other companies that offer similar plans, such as "MetroPCS" Although their network is greatly limited compared to say BoostMobile who use the Nextel Network..

MetroPCS has over twice the number of dropped calls than Boost / Nextel.

 

[snathanb]

No fine print.

$50 for voice, text, picture messaging, web and walkie-talkie and the telecom taxes are included in the $50. No roaming charges - full access to the entire nationwide network.

And for you Nextel iDEN nay-sayers, the Nextel iDEN network covers 15,800 cities, 274 million people and has the lowest dropped call rate among all of the major competitors.

You're crazy not to try it - I hear a lot of Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon's $99 unlimited subscribers are moving to the Boost $50 plan.

And, Boost's handset lineup now has phones without external antennas and a QWERTY phone coming out soon.

Do I smell a Boost mobile employee?

Lots of Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon subscribers are just ponying up the ETF and flocking to a Boost Mobile prepaid plan.

Right.

 

[digiblur]

No way would I go to iDEN. There's no roaming for their poor coverage.... it's almost as bad Tmobile's coverage here. I guess the big thing is I need my EvDO broadband too.

 

[navychop]

....And for you Nextel iDEN nay-sayers, the Nextel iDEN network covers 15,800 cities, 274 million people and has the lowest dropped call rate among all of the major competitors. ......

Sorry, I simply don't believe that. Not with iDEN. Not even remotely.

And from our personal experience with Nextel in the DC area, at the end all calls were cut off after a minute. Coverage was very poor. Customer Service consisted of passing us on to concerned person after concerned person, but nothing ever got fixed. And this for a pretty good sized corporate customer. Imagine what they would have been like for an individual. Could they have improved over the years? Maybe. But I certainly don't believe Sprint continued to invest in iDEN when that method was marked for extinction.

And I just went to their fantasy coverage map, and put in our office. Within blocks, zero coverage. VERY SPOTTY, and this, in a major metropolitan area. Huge chunks around the beltway - no coverage. Maybe they're saying 274 million people will pass thru a coverage spot briefly, over a year?

 

[Islandguy43]

No fine print.

$50 for voice, text, picture messaging, web and walkie-talkie and the telecom taxes are included in the $50. No roaming charges - full access to the entire nationwide network.

And for you Nextel iDEN nay-sayers, the Nextel iDEN network covers 15,800 cities, 274 million people and has the lowest dropped call rate among all of the major competitors.

You're crazy not to try it - I hear a lot of Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon's $99 unlimited subscribers are moving to the Boost $50 plan.

And, Boost's handset lineup now has phones without external antennas and a QWERTY phone coming out soon.

I have had both Sprint (5 year customer) and Tmobile (1 year customer) and have been with Verizon since August of last year.

Sprint had decent service (Verizon is better), but their customer service was lousy, which led to a long time sub switching to Tmobile.

Tmobile service is substandard and their coverage is lousy unless you never travel more than 50 miles away from a major city. Their policy of refusing to block text messaging on my daughter's phone ($60-80 monthyly text messaging bills) lead me to dump them when they changed their pricing and allowed me a loophole out my contract.

IMHO Verizon does have the best network for call quality. Now if their pricing would be more competitive, I would be completely satisfied.