T-Mobile Still Struggling to Retain Postpaid Customers > Structural Issues

Structural Issues

pre-paid phones suck ass and cost a ton. Straight Talk has the Galaxy S II which is a decent phone, especially for prepaid but it's $350. Where is the savings when you have to cough up $350 up front? I can get a Galaxy S III for $230 from Verizon and I'm including the upgrade fee in that. Besides the fact Straight Talk uses at&t network which only recently added 3g to my area. Maybe when at&t adds 4G or even just fake 4G I would consider pre-paid.

The value is Straight Talk is a flat $45 per month before taxes- about $50 with taxes. Also ST uses more than just AT&T. You can find the carrier that the phone uses by looking at the model sticker on the side of the packing.

T= T-Mobile
A= AT&T
S= Sprint
V= Verizon

And Metro has even shown that prepaid customers tend to upgrade MORE often than post paid customers at the rate of every 6 months.

reply to BF69
do the math prepaid vs post paid over 24 month with initial phone purchase

I'll pay $1205 over the course of 2 years if I keep the same phone. Compared to $2000+ on post paid. Especially since postpaid unlimited normally starts at about 100$.

reply to elefante72
The problem with tmobile is that their plans are not competitive and their network is stuck on frequencies used by nobody but themselves. This enormous limitation has prevented a lot of people from switching.

TMobile's PAYG
$100 10¢/min 1 year
$50 13¢/min 90 days
$30 19¢/min 90 days
$10 33¢/min 90 days

10¢ texts, 25¢ MMS

PagePlus (Verizon)
$80 4¢/min 1 year
$50 5¢/min 120 days
$25 6¢/min 120 days
$10 10¢/min 120 days

5¢ texts, 25¢ MMS

--------------

TMobile's $30
Talk or Text: 1500
Data: 30mb

PagePlus (Verizon) $29.95
Talk: 1200
Text: 3000
Data: 250mb

reply to BF69
Except you're not stuck with using the phones provided by the carriers for prepaid...not in the slightest. With AT&T and T-Mobile you have GSM...same with their MVNOs. You can use any phone that uses a GSM Sim and supports that carrier's frequencies. Just get a sim from the carrier and setup and account with the carrier and you're good to go. I should know....I switched from Sprint post-paid to T-Mobile prepaid.

I'm using my Galaxy Nexus bought direct from Google in the summer. I'm on the $30/100 minute/unlimited text/5GB data plan. I don't go over the 100 minutes as I use VOIP at home and at work when on Wifi.

With that plan I save about $60 per month over what I was paying with Sprint (450 minute plan). In December I will have saved enough to offset the cost of the ETF. By June I will have saved enough to offset the cost of my GNex as well.

With Sprint, had I stuck with them, I wouldn't have been able to upgrade my phone until February...and that's with a new 2 year contract. Now I'm seriously considering upgrading for a second time to get Nexus 4.

Just depends on what you use with Prepaid...I'm saving tons.

Used this guide more or less..
»forum.xda-developers.com/showthr···=1646755

reply to Telco
Look into their Monthly4G plans
Two I know of:
$30, 100 minutes, Unlimited Texts, 5GB Data (what I use)
$70, Unlimited minutes, Unlimited Texts, 5GB Data

I use VOIP with the $30 plan when on wifi at work and at home to stay under the 100 minute cap. Even after that it's only 10 cents per minute...which means I can use up 400 more minutes before it reaches the unlimited plan. If I were to reach that regularly , I would switch...but I don't exceed it at all thanks to VOIP. I have never exceeded the 5GB cap...most of the time I stay under 2GB...and that's with tethering my tablet via wifi.

And use a phone like the Galaxy Nexus which is a pentaband phone built to support both T-Mobile and AT&T.

»prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

reply to elefante72
It's tough to make that case though when StraightTalk offers real AT&T service for $45/mo, unlimited (at least for voice, text, and web).

Unlimited might help a little, and T-Mobile's network is very fast in the few places it covers... and therein lies the problem...

reply to Telco
I would semi agree with you however as other users have stated look at there monthly plans vs other monthly prepaid plans and not by the min plans, TMOs majority prepaid client el are on monthly plans. And even though TMO has exclusivity to 1700 aws band as long as there phones are multi-band/quad band and can roam there would be no problem ( If there was a real nationwide roaming agreement in place).

That is the major hurdle that holds TMO back. TMO does not have to fully cater to rural areas as there main goal is major metro areas. However the need to have basic service in these rural areas is a major drawback. One even straight talk knew and made sure not to ignore with there agreement with ATT. Anyone who has ever had straight talk knows there is no data coverage nationwide but access to talk/txt is. TMO You may not be able to have data access everywhere but you should be able to access talk and txt everywhere and thats the bottom line in claiming nationwide service.

With there prepaid rate plans I do believe they need to be more competitive. Similar to there plans on Walmart mobile, TMO very own prepaid 4G plans should have a add a line feature. $50 unlimited should be( or similar) add line 2 for $40, line 3 for $30, and line 4 for $20. An entire family of 4 could have unlimited everything for $140 a month and since that includes taxes it would even undercut all the big 3s offers. That would woo a lot of postpaid family plan customers of the big 3 to TMO. I previously had a family plan on sprint for 4 and it was not even unlimited and it was costing me $225 a mth for 4.

Im just waiting on the bump in data usage the 100mb has to go! It was talked about last yr before the buyout that they would raise that to a full 1GB of 4G before throttling and that still has not happened ( the pricier plans would be raise respectively as well). Well come on TMO time to shake up the prepaid world again.

With ST, if you have an AT&T SIM, you will get data everywhere the AT&T network is, including roaming partners.

reply to BF69
I got my Virgin Mobile LG Optimus V for $49. I pay $35 a month for 10 times as minutes as I ever use, unlimited text and data. My Optimus rocks (especially after I rooted it).

Why are you just looking at Straight Talk? Quoting only ST when looking at prepaid options is like using the Jacksonville Jaguars as an example for the NFL.

Straight Talk uses major networks' towers. Depends where you are in the country, you could be on ATT or Verizon's towers. Also, you can purchase just the SIM and use it in your own unlocked phone, ATT or Verizon's phone as well without having to root your smartphone to custom ROM like some of the other prepaid carriers will make you do if you are using your own smart phones. Really, no comparison IMHO..

my straight talk phone uses Sprint. As I noted above, they use all carriers that own their own networks, TMO, ATT, VZ and Sprint. It just depends on the area you purchase your phone and the phone.

reply to EasyBob
There is one phone that will work on Verizon. And obviously, a given phone can't switch back and forth, but they have SIM cards and several phones that run on AT&T. AT&T includes roaming partners, Verizon doesn't. They seem to default to Sprint, probably because Sprint is very MVNO-friendly, and charges cheaper rates for their crappy network.

reply to Telco

US prepaid data is competitive only with T-Mobile

As long as you're under 2GB/mo and 100MB/day, they won't bother you.