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Will you really benefit from an unlimited use cell phone plan?

UCAN News

TELECOM: $50 unlimited cell phone plans raise the bar

New fifty dollar bill

Boost, Cricket slug it out for cost-conscious market

By BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | NORTH COUNTY TIMES | Sunday, February 1, 2009 12:10 AM PST 

Talking someone's ear off keeps getting cheaper.

Last February, Verizon Wireless began offering unlimited nationwide cell phone minutes for $100 a month, a deal soon matched by AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.

Now two smaller carriers, Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless, have raised (or lowered) the ante for unlimited talking to just $50 a month, or even slightly lower. Their plans also include nationwide calling with no long distance charges.

Boost and Cricket appear to be competing most intensively against each other. Their $50 unlimited plans include such extras as text and mobile Web use that the major carriers counted on to make up for cheaper voice minutes. So far, none of the major carriers has matched those offers, but as the cell phone industry is constantly changing, they may soon.

As always, comparing cell phone plans from different carriers is tricky, because they have individual strengths and weaknesses. So which plan is best for you depends on how you use your phone.

Try to buy only what you actually use, says Michael Shames, executive director of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a San Diego-based group that has been preparing a report on cell phone pricing trends.

Those who use their cell phones sparingly don't really need unlimited plans, Shames said. Customers often buy more minutes than they need to avoid going over their limit and getting heavy surcharges.

Many also are tempted to upgrade with plans offering lower charges per minute. But that's carried to excess, Shames said.

"Customers are actually paying more for their wireless service on a per-minute basis than they were five years ago," he said, referring to a finding of the report, which will be released in about two weeks.

In addition, customers are buying bundles of services besides voice that they often don't use, Shames said. Cell phone carriers offer such extras as mobile Web browsing, text, picture and video messaging, call forwarding and voice mail.

"We did an analysis of 250 wireless bills, and we found the majority of customers end up not using the minutes they have," Shames said. "They buy these buckets of minutes with lots of bells and whistles in them, and they end up not using them."

Shames recommends you go over your cell phone bills to spot what services you're really using, and adjust the service plan accordingly.

Technologies matter

Hard-core cell phone users who do more than talk must also consider how the technology their carrier uses affects performance, Shames said.

Boost is a subsidiary of Sprint Nextel. It uses the Nextel iDen technology, which includes the well-known Direct Connect push-to-talk service.

Cricket, offered by San Diego-based Leap Wireless. uses the CDMA technology developed by Qualcomm, the local technology giant.

Business customers in particular have been attracted by the Nextel push-to-talk feature, which works like a walkie-talkie. And whether you're a customer for business or pleasure, Boost offers a perk for those who call over the Mexican border into Baja California: They can use push-to-talk at no extra charge to place those calls.

On the minus side, the iDen technology is relatively slow, Shames said. That's bad for mobile Web use and data.

Cricket, however, uses data-friendly CDMA. Cricket offers a flat-rate data plan for computers (accessed with a wireless modem) for just $40 a month, or $35 a month for those who also take a voice plan. Boost does not offer a data plan.

Speedy, but pricey

The North County Times reporter who wrote this article has been testing Cricket's broadband service for the last three months. He also pays for a flat-rate data plan from Verizon Wireless. The Verizon service appears to be slightly faster than Cricket's, although both work fine for mobile computing.

The biggest difference is in the price: Verizon Wireless costs considerably more: $80 a month for its flat-rate plan, or $60 with a two-year contract.

If you're just concerned with voice, the comparison between Cricket and Boost is closer.

Cricket used to offer just local calling in a few markets. But it has steadily expanded its presence and added long distance. The $50 unlimited plan includes domestic long distance. Calls placed from other Cricket markets in the United States are included.

On the negative side for Cricket, its $50 plan provides only 30 roaming minutes a month. If you choose its $45 unlimited plan, there are no roaming minutes. Roaming refers to calls that travel over competitors' cell towers.

Boost doesn't have roaming at all because calls stay on its iDen network. That eliminates extra costs, but means customers won't be able to make calls where there's no Boost network.

For more on Cricket, go to www.mycricket.com or call toll-free (800) 922-5159.

For more on Boost Mobile, go to www.boostmobile.com or call toll-free (877) 855-6673.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes (at) nctimes.com. Read his blogs at bizblogs.nctimes.com

Filed Under
Communications: Wireless - Pre-Paid -

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Prepaid Tracfone is the cheapest option.

I agree that $50 per month is far more than necessary when I can make all the calls I need on my Tracfone for only $12 per month and even if I have a month of calling double my usual it's still half the price of there "call all the time and get bad service with Boost." Tracfone has great reception all over America and I don't have to pay for roaming or long distance, even some international calls are the same price as local calls so they really are cheaper and texts are only 5 cents each. I do not recommend paying $50 per month for unlimited bad service.

Boost Mobile Unlimited is Terrible

I purchased the i335 phone and Boost Mobile unlimited plan at my local Radio Shack on April 20th, primarily for the unlimited text, which I need to use frequently when at work. I also planned to use the phone for occasional long distance phone calls. After purchasing and activating my phone on-line and waiting for 3 days for the phone to activate with no success I called customer care (it should be called customer we don't care) they finally managed to activate my phone. After using it (or attempting to use it) for several days I found that text messaging is a joke. Incoming text often NEVER arrive, the text that do arrive average 47 minutes to several hours to arrive. Long distance service is terrible my calls are always dropped,.Yes calls are "unlimited" but it is extremely annoying to have to call someone 3 or 5 times in an attempt to complete a simple conversation.

I called customer care to complain about the text messaging and the long distance issues and was told they were well aware of both of the issues. I was told that they were sorry, in fact very sorry but the popularity of their unlimited plan had strained their network. The rep informed me that my complaint about texting had been a major issue for 2 months and that they were working on resolving that issue and hoped to have it fixed in May.

I don't think they should have been advertising unlimited text and pushing unlimited text when they knew it wasn't working properly for 2 months prior to my phone purchase. I was then told that the issue with long distance call dropping was an issue they'd began to note in "certain areas" and how sorry they are. I was told that it started as a small problem but that the problem seems to be expanding in "certain areas".

The rep then walked me through various setting resets before sending me a text, which took 6 minutes to arrive to me (only text I ever received in under 40 minutes), he then said my phone was fixed and that they hoped to improve their text service. He said that they had people working on that and I should see improvement by May.

After failing to receive text messages for the following 2 or 3 days, I had 3 friends text me test text, 2 of the text never arrived and the 3rd took 1 hour and 14 minutes to appear in my inbox. I called customer care again and was walked through another series of resets and once again told how very sorry they are and that they understand there is a problem and they know that it is frustrating..etc..

May arrived and texting was still not working in anything close to the expected fashion so I called customer care again to request a refund of the unused portion of my unlimited payment and was told they have a no refunds policy and how sorry they are that I am not happy with my service, they also always make sure to tell me the quick keypresses to use to Reboost my phone, which is very annoying when you are attempting to explain that your phone does not work for what you purchased it for. This time I asked to speak to a supervisor and was evidently transfered not to a supervisor but to another rep who listened to me for awhile and then told me she was not a supervisor. I was told there was no supervisor available,. I asked for the phone number for a supervisor and was told I could leave a message at the Boost website. I said I would stay on the line or call Customer Care back over and over until one could be located, suddenly there was a supervisor available. After explaining the issues to the supervisor I was told again how very sorry they were and that, yes there are text messaging issues and they are working to resolve them. Her excuse for the issues is that Boost had NO idea how popular their unlimited plan would be and that all of the new unlimited users are the reason there are issues. I was told I can not have any portion of my $50 refunded. They have a strict NO refund policy but I was "given" a $15 credit, which really only served to infuriated me. Great I have $15 to use on a phone that I can't use for phone calls or text. Wonderful, great customer care there! At this point all I want to do is to return my phone and get a refund. I don't want to use the phone, I DO NOT want to be a Boost customer.

I attempted to return the phone to Radio Shack and was told I can exchange it for a new same model phone. I generally spend several hundred dollars a year at my local Radio Shack, I will no longer be shopping there. Boost Mobile is still advertising their "wonderful" unlimited plan and signing up more people, so I imagine the problems will get worse and not better. I feel duped and ripped off by both Boost Mobile and by Radio Shack.

Last evening I tried (one last attempt) to use the phone for a long distance call, 10 minute conversation and 3 times I was dropped. I then had 2 friends send me text, neither of which has arrived after 15 hours. I sent myself a text and it arrived after 42 minutes. Today is May 16th and text and the long distance issues have obviously not been resolved.

I would strongly suggest that at this time no one sign up for Boost Mobile Unlimited if you want, need or expect to use your phone for phone calls and/or text messaging.

I don't think my expectations were too high. I wasn't interested in bells and whistles, just wanted a cell phone on which I can make phone calls and send and receive text messages. Text messaging is supposed to be a quick form of communication. A cell service on which text never arrive or take longer than a few minutes to arrive is of no use to me at my job or at home. My initial $50 of unlimited service runs out on May 20th. I will not be Reboosting.

I have purchased a new Virgin Mobile pay as you go phone. Virgin Mobile is the cell carrier I'd used for 2 years before switching to Boost and never had issues with phone calls or text messaging except for a delayed text on the day that Obama was inaugurated which was understandable. I hope that Virgin Mobiles new unlimited plan won't degrade their up to this point very solid and excellent service.

I wish my Boost Motorola i335 had a flashlight feature because at least then I'd have something minimally useful for my over $100 expenditure.

Prepaid will save you money

The unlimited plans are fine for people talking a lot on their cell phones, but most people don't even use the 400 or so minutes that they pay for per month on contracts. I found it is much better to go for a prepaid with low per-minute rates and no extra charges than to pay even $50 for an unlimited plan. I use a NET10 prepaid which usually costs $15 a month. And although I never feel that I want to use the phone more than that, it is a comfort to know that I can just add more minutes at any time without being charged extra for overage use like they do on the contracts.

Better to go prepay, if you don't use it too much

I think the ~$20 per mo deals are better, take advantage of skype, google talk and other voip
cheap calls, then use the cell just when you can not use those other options.

Thanks for your hard work for consumers.

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