|
ABC87243
Anon
2012-Jun-18 8:28 am
Greed!!!Two reasons why users shifting away from Contracts to Prepaid plan 1. Bad economy 2. Greedy CEO and executives. Switching unlimited data plan to Everything Plan.
As you already know, CEO and executives will raise rate on Prepaid plan when more users switch to this plan. We are the looser no matter what |
|
88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness
1 recommendation |
88615298 (banned)
Member
2012-Jun-18 8:41 am
said by ABC87243 :As you already know, CEO and executives will raise rate on Prepaid plan when more users switch to this plan. We are the looser no matter what. While I'm sure that was a typo it does describe what our rectums will be once these cell companies get done with us. |
|
|
|
to ABC87243
I switched because it made a lot of sense and freed me up from contracts. I have both pageplus and straightalk .
I save about $431 over the equivalent 24 month AT&T service. More importantly, I am able to purchase a new iPhone every single year and not be in a contract.
If I did not purchase a new phone every year, I'd save about $1K over 24 months. |
|
88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness |
88615298 (banned)
Member
2012-Jun-18 9:38 am
said by Terabit:I switched because it made a lot of sense and freed me up from contracts. I have both pageplus and straightalk .
I save about $431 over the equivalent 24 month AT&T service. More importantly, I am able to purchase a new iPhone every single year and not be in a contract.
If I did not purchase a new phone every year, I'd save about $1K over 24 months. The problem with Straighttalk and others is they have limited phones. Heck I've got to drive 20 miles to get a Straighttalk phone that will actually work on Verizon's network because all our Wal-Mart will carry is phones that work on at&t and at&t only offers EDGE in my area which makes the unlimited data pretty useless. And they have ONE phone. Overall it's bit better than my LG Ally I have( mostly ) but it's also $179. I can upgrade with Verizon in 2 weeks and get a Droid Bionic which is a 4G phone for $30 which includes the upgrade fee. So that's $149 more plus tax which brings it to $163 difference. So I'm not sure where the savings are. |
|
amungus Premium Member join:2004-11-26 America |
amungus
Premium Member
2012-Jun-18 9:48 am
I find this part of their service (and other prepaid) very curious - how do they decide who gets what type of service??
CDMA has FAR better coverage here, but how would I know what ST uses here without checking each phone etc?
Device compatibility is a huge mess. CDMA phones should work with any compatible carrier - there's no reason Verizon, Sprint, U.S. Cellular can't all "get along" - they already do. GSM is obviously a little different - plop a SIM card in, and you're good. |
|
|
to 88615298
just get a straight talk sim and a AT&T or Tmobile phone and your set. |
|
Frank Premium Member join:2000-11-03 somewhere |
to 88615298
said by 88615298:said by Terabit:I switched because it made a lot of sense and freed me up from contracts. I have both pageplus and straightalk .
I save about $431 over the equivalent 24 month AT&T service. More importantly, I am able to purchase a new iPhone every single year and not be in a contract.
If I did not purchase a new phone every year, I'd save about $1K over 24 months. The problem with Straighttalk and others is they have limited phones. Heck I've got to drive 20 miles to get a Straighttalk phone that will actually work on Verizon's network because all our Wal-Mart will carry is phones that work on at&t and at&t only offers EDGE in my area which makes the unlimited data pretty useless. And they have ONE phone. Overall it's bit better than my LG Ally I have( mostly ) but it's also $179. I can upgrade with Verizon in 2 weeks and get a Droid Bionic which is a 4G phone for $30 which includes the upgrade fee. So that's $149 more plus tax which brings it to $163 difference. So I'm not sure where the savings are. two things 1) you can order the phone from thier website and they'll ship it to you. 2) are you factoring in what you will be saving per month into figuring out where the savings are? for example, you might be paying more for the phone now but in the long run after two years of saving like $20-$30 a month doesnt it work out in your favor? |
|
88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness |
to amungus
said by amungus:I find this part of their service (and other prepaid) very curious - how do they decide who gets what type of service??
CDMA has FAR better coverage here, but how would I know what ST uses here without checking each phone etc?
Device compatibility is a huge mess. CDMA phones should work with any compatible carrier - there's no reason Verizon, Sprint, U.S. Cellular can't all "get along" - they already do. GSM is obviously a little different - plop a SIM card in, and you're good. Verizon and Sprint use difference frequencies. If you look at the name for most basic phones they will end in a -G or -C. The G stand for GSM and the C stands for CDMA. As to which CDMA is uses then you have to delve in a bit deeper. On the smartphones I know they work on Verizon because they have this underneath the phone description |
|
88615298 |
to jchambers28
said by jchambers28:just get a straight talk sim and a AT&T or Tmobile phone and your set. T-Mobile service does not exist in my area and at&t offers only EDGE. So what would be the point? |
|
|
U said straight talk offers a limited amount of phones. I was letting you know about their sim card offering that this in no longer the case. In your area it would be pointless. |
|
88615298 (banned) join:2004-07-28 West Tenness |
to Frank
said by Frank:two things
1) you can order the phone from thier website and they'll ship it to you. I know that but I think it's so stupid that the walmart 2 miles from me only offers at&t straight talk phones and at&t doesn't even have 3G here let alone 4G. What good is unlimited data on EDGE? 2) are you factoring in what you will be saving per month into figuring out where the savings are?
for example, you might be paying more for the phone now but in the long run after two years of saving like $20-$30 a month doesnt it work out in your favor? I'm on a family plan and my portion works out to be only $8 more per month on Verizon. I think $8 is worth the extra features on the phone and the fact I can access 4G speeds. Or will shortly when it gets here. |
|
88615298 |
to jchambers28
said by jchambers28:U said straight talk offers a limited amount of phones. I was letting you know about their sim card offering that this in no longer the case. In your area it would be pointless. I'm know about their sim card thing. Net10 has a bring your phone thing too for GSM phones. If either offered the same thing for CDMA phones I'd might think about switching to them. No reason why they couldn't offer a program on a CDMA phone that is out of contract. |
|
michieru Premium Member join:2009-07-25 Denver, CO |
to ABC87243
Point one is invalid.
If the economy was bad we would see more people flock towards post-paid plans because the cost of paying a phone up front is too steep for those who have cash in the bank.
Point 2 is valid but not quite.
Yes CEO and executives are greedy bastards morally. They own the network and can charge as much as they see fit, so they are not greedy bastards economically. So therefore we are upset morally but in the real world all that matters is gains and losses and so it's business as usual and hence therefore we cannot be mad because it's capitalism....without morals. |
|
Ubee E31U2V1 (Software) pfSense Netgear WNR3500L
|
to 88615298
said by 88615298:I'm know about their sim card thing. Net10 has a bring your phone thing too for GSM phones. If either offered the same thing for CDMA phones I'd might think about switching to them. No reason why they couldn't offer a program on a CDMA phone that is out of contract. But, they do. You just have to go in and activate it on their network if you have an old one laying around... |
|
|
to 88615298
Both TRACFONE and NET10 (and the lifeline partner Safelink Wireless) resell/reuse T-Mobile GSM in this area - and coverage is a definite issue; I have *dead spots* within my own house compared to CDMA (VZW) and W-CDMA (Sprint). It's not a *phone* issue (my current phone is a SAMSUNG *candybar* GSM phone - similar in features to the NOKIA *Shorty* that is still offered by Virgin Mobile USA's prepaid plan); however, it is likely that T-M's non-prepaid/non-reseller phones are *not* GSM-only. I'm hoping to find a T-M phone that someone wants to get rid of (since my Safelink SIM card would indeed fit) so I can do a straight handset switch and compare phones heads-up. |
|
AVDRespice, Adspice, Prospice Premium Member join:2003-02-06 Onion, NJ |
to michieru
said by michieru:So therefore we are upset morally but in the real world all that matters is gains and losses and so it's business as usual and hence therefore we cannot be mad because it's capitalism....without morals. capitalism only works in a free market. The cellphone market is not open. |
|
SimbaSevenI Void Warranties join:2003-03-24 Billings, MT ·StarLink
|
to 88615298
said by 88615298:The problem with Straighttalk and others is they have limited phones. Heck I've got to drive 20 miles to get a Straighttalk phone that will actually work on Verizon's network because all our Wal-Mart will carry is phones that work on at&t and at&t only offers EDGE in my area which makes the unlimited data pretty useless. I grabbed a ST SIM for my Samsung Captivate (running CM9) and it runs great here. I'm seriously thinking of *NOT* renewing my contract with VZ. |
|
SimbaSeven |
to Chubbysumo
How? I'd love to get my Droid 2 Global (or even a D4) onto StraightTalk and have both GSM and CDMA radios work. |
|
|
to 88615298
Yes they do use different frequencies but they do have roaming agreements and the ability to roam on the other carrier if need be especially in Sprint's case. The phone should work on the other carrier because of that fact and the reason why carriers won't allow it is that they want you to buy a new phone with them. Mo' money mo' money...
Case in point, I was with Sprint and have a EVO 3D. Took the EVO 3D to Cricket and they flashed it to their network. It works just fine: 3G, MMS, SMS, so on. Matter of fact, the phone works better than when I was with Sprint! It doesn't randomly reboot or crash anymore and the battery life is worlds better. The only thing that doesn't work is WiMax, which is to be expected.
I get great coverage for my area with Cricket and the 3G speeds have been great, sometimes 2Mbps+. At $55/month for unlimited talk, text, and data, you can't beat it. We have saved ourselves hundreds of dollars a year just going prepaid. Plus it feels good not being tied down to a 2yr. contract with exorbitant ETF's!! |
|
michieru Premium Member join:2009-07-25 Denver, CO |
to AVD
Then what would you call what we have now? Also define open. |
|
25139889 (banned) join:2011-10-25 Toledo, OH |
to 88615298
ST has a sticker also on their packaging that states the network. It reads something like XXXX-A XXXX-V XXXX-S
That is how WM showed me how to read the packages. |
|
25139889 |
to AVD
It is open. You are free to call Sprint Wholesale and purchase access to their network as an MVNO and resell plans just like everyone else. PagePlus Cellular has been doing it for over 10years on CellCO's network. |
|
25139889 |
to Chubbysumo
Not always true. Sprint will NOT activate a used post paid phone on their network unless you find someone in sprint that can add the ESN to their data base. Especially if its a VZW phone. It's been discussed before about VM customers NOT being able to use Sprint branded phones on the VM side- as Sprint maintains 2+ data bases. |
|
25139889 |
to SimbaSeven
It won't happen on the Sprint MVNO side. |
|
25139889 |
to PGHammer
That is hit or miss with Safelink. They have their SIMs locked to the phone it was issued to. I took my Gma's Safeline SIM and put it in another Safelink branded phone and it would NOT work. It said invalid ESN even though the replacement phone worked with its original sim. That was on the T network though.
And you do realize that TracFone, Net10, Straight Talk and Safelink are the same company right? |
|
AVDRespice, Adspice, Prospice Premium Member join:2003-02-06 Onion, NJ |
to michieru
said by michieru:Then what would you call what we have now? Also define open. A duo-poly |
|
Cabal Premium Member join:2007-01-21 |
to 88615298
said by 88615298:T-Mobile service does not exist in my area and at&t offers only EDGE. It sounds like the cell carriers are not your problem. |
|
|
to SimbaSeven
said by SimbaSeven:How? I'd love to get my Droid 2 Global (or even a D4) onto StraightTalk and have both GSM and CDMA radios work. Here you go, for your D4 anyway: » forum.xda-developers.com ··· =1619563 |
|
|
whycontract to Terabit
Anon
2012-Jun-18 3:45 pm
to Terabit
I really don't see an advantage to being in a contract deal. From what I remember, companies used to give you a phone, in order to be sucked into 2 years of RMR for them.
With my prepaid, I bought a phone, just like most contract users do these days, but my monthly cost is much lower. I was paying 82/month for a blackberry from Tmobile - I now have a recent Android device for about 38 a month now.
After using a prepaid service for the last 90 days, and being a contract customer for about 10 years....I think Prepaid is better cause I can quit at any time if they get bought out or change their policy, it's cheaper overall, and I get the same level of service that I did as a contract member with one of the big 4 mobile providers.
Over the course of two years, I am going to save about 900 or so dollars in monthly fee's by being a prepaid customer -- I think that reason alone was enough for me to switch - Im a light user, about 100mb a month in data, 150SMS messages, and about 100-120 minutes of voice, so there is no reason for me to pay almost a hundred dollars a month for such a minimal amount of usage. |
|
Ubee E31U2V1 (Software) pfSense Netgear WNR3500L
1 edit |
to SimbaSeven
said by SimbaSeven:How? I'd love to get my Droid 2 Global (or even a D4) onto StraightTalk and have both GSM and CDMA radios work. Assuming its a CDMA phone? If you look up on google and the XDA forums, there are a few ways to get CDMA phones to work on straighttalk, but its tricky. Depends on whether its worth your time or not. I am lucky, as I simply dumped a sim into my GSM Iphone, but I have to say, im a little depressed about their T&C. It implicitly states in the "prohibited uses" section, and I quote, "(iii) uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games;". Then, it goes on to contradict itself, with this: "This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses may have his/her service terminated without notice or a refund." tell me that makes no sense to you as well. First it says you cannot download or stream anything, then it says you can? what the hell have people been disconnected for. Edit: after doing a little googling, it seems that straighttalk now throttles you instead of cutting you off(on GSM), but they are still shady about the "limit" of the Unlimited* plan. |
|