Americans Ditching Contracts as Prepaid Wireless Surges

Don't think the carriers actually care because you are still using their towers and this way they don't have to subsidize the cost of a phone.
 
I've been using T-mobiles pre paid for about 2.5 years now.
I just bought 1000 more minutes for $100, but prior to that I had only spent $120 for minutes.
Spend $100 and get 1000 minutes, good for 1 year, then I would buy the $10 pack and get another year of activation.
Pre paid is plenty for me, I don't use the phone that much.
And $120 for minutes for the phone being active for that long is a good deal.
 
I run my Epic 4g Touch (Galaxy SII) on virgin mobile $25 plan (now the $35 plan). Yes the data sucks almost everywhere but I have no problmes with talk and text. I have never once gone over my 300 mins, got close a few times but you just can't compete for $25 bucks. I mainly just text so I am perfectly fine.
 
I've been using T-mobiles pre paid for about 2.5 years now.
I just bought 1000 more minutes for $100, but prior to that I had only spent $120 for minutes.
Spend $100 and get 1000 minutes, good for 1 year, then I would buy the $10 pack and get another year of activation.
Pre paid is plenty for me, I don't use the phone that much.
And $120 for minutes for the phone being active for that long is a good deal.

On PagePlus you can get 2,000 minutes that are valid for one year for $80. Strikes me as a better deal, and PagePlus uses Verizon's network so the coverage and reception are superb.
 
Given that most contracts make you pay out more than the already inflated unlocked retail price of the phone I'm not surprised. I switched to prepaid a while back and will never go back on a contract. With more prepaid carriers starting to stock genuine smartphones and more on the way the contract providers are going to loose gobs of money.
 
I'd love to use T-Mobile again, but their frequency band limits the phone selection too much.
 
Prepaid here aswell.
€15:
-60min of calling
-2000 texts
-2gb to download.

Had a contract once, that's why I'm prepaid now.
 
I would be on prepaid if it weren't for Verizon's much better coverage where I live and the fact that I want a smartphone with 4G. Even on StraightTalk with an AT&T phone, I would drop calls regularly. Sprint service is a joke where I live, and T-mobile? What's that? But for whatever reason, I get Verizon LTE service at my house.
 
I would love to see the demographics of people who are switching. I bet all the enthusiasts have and will continue with ATT here in the US.
 
I don't have a cell phone, but if I ever needed to get one I would like one that doesn't have any sort of monthly fee... it's funny the story is about prepaid phones, yet everyone is still talking about monthly fees.
 
I don't really need or want a smartphone. Been on a plain old Nokia flip-phone, prepaid through T-Mobile 2 Go, costs me $100 for a year of time (1000 minutes total.)

To each their own, I've never quite 'gotten' the smart phone revolution.
 
Virgin is what I use, which works well in my case since I rarely use voice (prefer people to text or e-mail me instead). The only time I seem to use voice at all is ordering food at mom-and-pop places that don't have online orders.

I kind of wish I had gone for one of their nicer phone options though, like the Motorola Triumph. I'll probably stick it out with my LG Optimus for a couple more years until a really appealing non-Apple major upgrade comes along.
 
I use virgin moble will not go back to crap contract services and there over price crap and data limts if they paid me money I dont care what sweet ass android phone they got.

Oh and I will never be get any of the crap apple products either.
 
OH and i have used the Motorola Triumph for 1 year and hacked the hell out if it it is fan fucking tastic.

I am happy pre paid are geting more powerful phones though I want a tegra 3 based phone.
 
Virgin is what I use, which works well in my case since I rarely use voice (prefer people to text or e-mail me instead). The only time I seem to use voice at all is ordering food at mom-and-pop places that don't have online orders.

I kind of wish I had gone for one of their nicer phone options though, like the Motorola Triumph. I'll probably stick it out with my LG Optimus for a couple more years until a really appealing non-Apple major upgrade comes along.

The LG Optimus is basically a clone of the LG Vortex I had on contract with Verizon for a little while. Sure it's an entry level smartphone, but it's not all that bad. There were minor things that bugged me about it. The camera's lack of flash and having to flip flop between landscape and portrait modes all the time because the keyboard was either too small to easily text or so big that there wasn't a lot of space on the screen left to see what I was entering.
 
Been with Virgin for 2 or 3 years now on the 55 dollar unlimited plan. Their Android phones have stepped up recently. I've had 3 of them, the Intercept was horrible, but the Optimus I was happy with, and I have a Triumph now and very happy with it. I'll prolly get an Evo when the price drops. They can keep the iPhone though.
 
Verizon wanted over $60 a month for one line with data.

I went to Ting.com, got 500 mins, 2000 texts, 100 MB (mainly use wifi), and 2 lines for $32 a month.

Verizon can go DIAF.
 
Don't think the carriers actually care because you are still using their towers and this way they don't have to subsidize the cost of a phone.

you think wrong. they make a fraction of the money from prepaid people. contracts stifle competition and keep prices high.
 
Pre-paid seems like win to me only because I do not use more than 100 ot 200 hundred minutes a month and i don't text at all. I barely use a few hundred megs of data.
 
you think wrong. they make a fraction of the money from prepaid people. contracts stifle competition and keep prices high.

The reason prices for non-contract phones have been so high is BECAUSE of contracts, not in spite of them.

This can be looked at in a similar vein to cost-obfuscation that takes place in the health care insurance industry. People have no clue what an item actually COSTS because they've been conditioned to look at the contract instead of the phone, specifically the low monthly cost. Once you disconnect the two, true competition in phone pricing can and WILL take place.

There is always going to be at least one company that will drop the price in order to grab customers from another. Without tying a phone's price to a carrier's contract offering, the playing field gets leveled. Once the field is level and open, phone prices will drop.

This whole concept can be summed up in what are three curse-words to certain people around here: Free Market Capitalism.

You're welcome.
 
I don't really need or want a smartphone. Been on a plain old Nokia flip-phone, prepaid through T-Mobile 2 Go, costs me $100 for a year of time (1000 minutes total.)

To each their own, I've never quite 'gotten' the smart phone revolution.

To be entirely fair, I would say that most people with a smart phone don't actually need one. To most it is nothing more than a vanity device and I would also wager that includes the overwhelming majority of the iPhone crowd.

Myself, I have one because frankly work requires it. I don't always have my laptop on and I need access to my email and texts at all times due to the nature of my job. I go with the larger screen smart phones because my vision has always been terrible and as I get older it certainly isn't getting better. I simply can't read text and emails on a sub 4" screen. I don't particularly enjoy paying $200/mo, but I don't have any other option. There is just flat out no other carrier that has coverage in the area's that I am in.
 
I would love to see the demographics of people who are switching. I bet all the enthusiasts have and will continue with ATT here in the US.

Que?

AT&T's network is terrible. It may be second to Verizon, but it is a distant, distant secono.

I've had Cingular pretty much since the company was founded and then transitioned to AT&T with the merger in 2004. Back in the pre-smartphone days their subpar network didn't bother me much, but in the last 5 years I've grown increasingly weary of poor speeds and frequent disconnects. I was eligible for an upgrade in December, but I didn't take it as I want out. Can't wait to get a Galaxy S3 with Verizon. Maybe I'll even be able to take calls at my house again!

Given how shitty AT&T's network is, I don't understand why any "enthusiast" would pick them...
 
I've thought about doing pay as you go for some time now, nut I've come to the conclusion that Verizon is the only company with acceptable wireless coverage in the U.S. and every way I crunch the numbers, their pay as you go plan actually winds up being MORE expensive for me, not less.
 
The reason prices for non-contract phones have been so high is BECAUSE of contracts

that is what I just said

also, dont talk about free market capitalism like it is a real thing. the free market is winner takes all, which is monarchy, which has been regulated out of every civilized country
 
I like using Tracfone for years I can get double/triple minutes on a 60 minute w/promo codes for $20 that has 3 months of service and the minutes and day rolls over which is perfect because I rarely talk. I want to get smartphone w/ wifi but they don't have any, that and you can't use unlocked phones on their service so I have to look for another prepay w/ similar pricing.
 
I called t mobile earlier in the week and they got me both lines,2, for $45 each with everything unlimited. if you speak with customer loyalty with them they will match smart talk and even possibly give you more. They also issued me 100 credit for not canceling.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038843995 said:
Que?

AT&T's network is terrible. It may be second to Verizon, but it is a distant, distant secono.

I've had Cingular pretty much since the company was founded and then transitioned to AT&T with the merger in 2004. Back in the pre-smartphone days their subpar network didn't bother me much, but in the last 5 years I've grown increasingly weary of poor speeds and frequent disconnects. I was eligible for an upgrade in December, but I didn't take it as I want out. Can't wait to get a Galaxy S3 with Verizon. Maybe I'll even be able to take calls at my house again!

Given how shitty AT&T's network is, I don't understand why any "enthusiast" would pick them...

Where I live, Sprint's network works fine (Las Vegas). I never use the 4G part because it drains my battery, but 3G has been more than enough for most of what I do (sometimes tethering). Plus, it's "real" unlimited. Not the throttle/cap bs everyone switched to.

For those looking to go prepaid, remember that most "new" phones get refreshed every 6 months or 12 months. So a lot of people dump those on Ebay for really cheap. If you don't have a need for a "must have" at release (which tends to have QC issues), you can save a chunk of change by just getting it off EBay. Keep an eye out for private sellers, often get a great deal that way This is also why I won't do insurance anymore. You can always sell a broken phone if you don't fix it yourself. You'll get close to 50% of value. The higher deductibles they have now are outrageous (see blow).

My dad broke his Epic 4G a few months back. He got it fixed on insurance for $100 (deductible .. pretty high) and they sent him an Evo 4G Design. He hated it. So I sold it for $250 on Ebay and got him another Epic 4G for $100/shipped. Thing was hardly used.
 
Where I live, Sprint's network works fine (Las Vegas). I never use the 4G part because it drains my battery, but 3G has been more than enough for most of what I do (sometimes tethering). Plus, it's "real" unlimited. Not the throttle/cap bs everyone switched to.

For those looking to go prepaid, remember that most "new" phones get refreshed every 6 months or 12 months. So a lot of people dump those on Ebay for really cheap. If you don't have a need for a "must have" at release (which tends to have QC issues), you can save a chunk of change by just getting it off EBay. Keep an eye out for private sellers, often get a great deal that way This is also why I won't do insurance anymore. You can always sell a broken phone if you don't fix it yourself. You'll get close to 50% of value. The higher deductibles they have now are outrageous (see blow).

My dad broke his Epic 4G a few months back. He got it fixed on insurance for $100 (deductible .. pretty high) and they sent him an Evo 4G Design. He hated it. So I sold it for $250 on Ebay and got him another Epic 4G for $100/shipped. Thing was hardly used.

+1 this is grade-A advice, like a lot of the phones you will find on eBay.

I just got a Droid X2 with a 16GB microSD card in excellent condition (no scratches on the screen, minor scratches on the body) for $105 shipped. Since I'm on PagePlus and I don't have/need a data plan, the lack of 4G fits me and my usage perfectly. I can still hardly believe that Tegra 2 + qHD is so cheap. The DX2 has only been out for 13 months so even if someone owned this phone on launch day it's still about one year old.

My DX2 should be arriving tomorrow, can't wait! :D
 
Where I live, Sprint's network works fine (Las Vegas). I never use the 4G part because it drains my battery, but 3G has been more than enough for most of what I do (sometimes tethering). Plus, it's "real" unlimited. Not the throttle/cap bs everyone switched to.

That's exactly the problem though.

You can find areas, or subsets of areas where non-Verizon carriers do well, but just go on not that long of a drive, and your results may be completely different.

Verizon is the only carrier that has reliable coverage pretty much anywhere you'd go.

AT&T (well, Cingular at the time) had fantastic coverage in Western Massachusetts when I went to school there back in the pre-GSM, TDMA days. The switch to GSM was - however - a downgrade in that area, and I have had worse coverage other places I've gone. In and around Boston it's usually pretty good, except for a few small areas which just happen to be where I work, where I live and multiple spots in between. I love streaming Spotify from my phone in the car, but there are a couple of spots along the way where it just dies due to not getting any reception.

Before the days of smartphones and streaming, I would have been OK with putting up with this. I'd drop a voice call every now and then, but no biggie.

These days, I am not willing to put up with anything but fast coverage everywhere, andf no one can offer this but Verizon, it seems.

I looked at Verizon's pay as you go plans, but they just didn't work for me.

I currently am on an AT&T plan that works pretty well for me (except for coverage and network speed) with the following particulars:
  • 450 Anytime minutes (I never go over, but its the lowest plan)
  • 1500 text messages. I use about 400 text messages a month on average. My max ever was 800. Enough that it would cost more with the 200 message plan an overages than it costs with the 1500 message plan. Unlimited is not worth it.
  • Unlimited data (or, well, as unlimited as AT&T gets) I average about 600-700MB per month, occasionally getting close to (but never going over) the 1gig mark.

    So with the above in mind, I compared Verizon's contract and pay as you go options.

    I priced out plans similar to the above, with 450 minutes, 1000 text messages, and 2GB data.

    To my surprise, the pay as you go plans actually wound up being more expensive per month than the plan rates of $79.99 per month for my needs, and that's even before you factor in the handset discount in the contract that you don't get with pay as you go.

    My conclusion? As much as I'd love to not have to get into the contract nonsense, if you want a reliable network wherever you go, and not just in a small area, then no pay as you go plans except Verizon's will do, and Verizon's is just priced too high.

    I would happily pay the full price for a phone, and do a pay as you go plan instead, but if I do, the numbers have to make sense. If you discount the cost of the handset discount at the federal funds rate, it winds up being worth ~$25 per month, so for me to go pay as you go, the pay as you go plan would have to cost me at least $25 less per month. Currently it costs more, not less, so I'll pass.
 
I have a Nexus S, My Wife has a Vibrant & My Mother in law has a G1 on my Walmart Family Mobile plan.. I pay 105 a month for unlimited everything on all 3 lines.. The service isnt quite as good as when paying for a "real" carrier, but the 100+ a month savings is certainly worth the small hit I take in service.
 
I know that if I weren't on a family plan and only paying 45 a month for unlimited text and data I would never sign another contract with a wireless provider.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038844833 said:
That's exactly the problem though.

You can find areas, or subsets of areas where non-Verizon carriers do well, but just go on not that long of a drive, and your results may be completely different.

Verizon is the only carrier that has reliable coverage pretty much anywhere you'd go.

AT&T (well, Cingular at the time) had fantastic coverage in Western Massachusetts when I went to school there back in the pre-GSM, TDMA days. The switch to GSM was - however - a downgrade in that area, and I have had worse coverage other places I've gone. In and around Boston it's usually pretty good, except for a few small areas which just happen to be where I work, where I live and multiple spots in between. I love streaming Spotify from my phone in the car, but there are a couple of spots along the way where it just dies due to not getting any reception.

Before the days of smartphones and streaming, I would have been OK with putting up with this. I'd drop a voice call every now and then, but no biggie.

These days, I am not willing to put up with anything but fast coverage everywhere, andf no one can offer this but Verizon, it seems.

I looked at Verizon's pay as you go plans, but they just didn't work for me.

I currently am on an AT&T plan that works pretty well for me (except for coverage and network speed) with the following particulars:
  • 450 Anytime minutes (I never go over, but its the lowest plan)
  • 1500 text messages. I use about 400 text messages a month on average. My max ever was 800. Enough that it would cost more with the 200 message plan an overages than it costs with the 1500 message plan. Unlimited is not worth it.
  • Unlimited data (or, well, as unlimited as AT&T gets) I average about 600-700MB per month, occasionally getting close to (but never going over) the 1gig mark.

    So with the above in mind, I compared Verizon's contract and pay as you go options.

    I priced out plans similar to the above, with 450 minutes, 1000 text messages, and 2GB data.

    To my surprise, the pay as you go plans actually wound up being more expensive per month than the plan rates of $79.99 per month for my needs, and that's even before you factor in the handset discount in the contract that you don't get with pay as you go.

    My conclusion? As much as I'd love to not have to get into the contract nonsense, if you want a reliable network wherever you go, and not just in a small area, then no pay as you go plans except Verizon's will do, and Verizon's is just priced too high.

    I would happily pay the full price for a phone, and do a pay as you go plan instead, but if I do, the numbers have to make sense. If you discount the cost of the handset discount at the federal funds rate, it winds up being worth ~$25 per month, so for me to go pay as you go, the pay as you go plan would have to cost me at least $25 less per month. Currently it costs more, not less, so I'll pass.
 
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