The T-Mobile Lies Continue, With The Help Of A Complicit Media
Happy New Year and welcome to another year of “unlimited everything” with limits! In the Fiercewireless.com story below, you can see with your own eyes the headline, “Walmart, T-Mobile to offer unlimited data, voice and text for $45/month,” which is repeated in the first paragraph of the story, and then it shares the limits of the “unlimited” plan in the next paragraph: “Customers who activate the plan between now and March 16 will get 5 GB of data per month per line with 3G speeds until March 31. Those who activate after March 16 will get the first 250 MB of data per month with 3G speeds.“ The third paragraph reveals the exact “catch” of the deal: “… once a customer surpasses the 5 GB limit, they will be throttled back to 2G speeds. However, there is no limit to the amount of data a customer can use.“ So technically there’s no limit, but you’ll be miserable with the 2G speeds if you exceed 5GB of data.
Walmart’s site promoting this “bargain” is equally slimy. I don’t know how they sleep at night.
JC
www.fiercewireless.com/story/walmart-t-mobile-offer-unlimited-data-voice-and-text-45month/2012-01-18
Walmart, T-Mobile to offer unlimited data, voice and text for $45/month
January 18, 2012 — 10:44am ET | By Sue Marek
Walmart is adding unlimited Web access to its T-Mobile family plan that it sells nationwide via Walmart stores and online. The company is selling unlimited talk, text and Web access for $45 per month for the first line and $35 per month for additional lines.
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| Walmart is pushing the new plan on its website. |
Customers who activate the plan between now and March 16 will get 5 GB of data per month per line with 3G speeds until March 31. Those who activate after March 16 will get the first 250 MB of data per month with 3G speeds.
According to a T-Mobile spokeswoman, once a customer surpasses the 5 GB limit, they will be throttled back to 2G speeds. However, there is no limit to the amount of data a customer can use. The company is running the promotion as a way to encourage customers to sign up for the new plan and use their new Web-capable phones. There are a range of phones available with the plan, including the Android-powered LG Optimus phone.
T-Mobile has been pushing hard for prepaid customers, and in October the company teamed with Walmart to offer a $30 no-contract plan that provided unlimited Web, unlimited text and 100 minutes of talk.
When T-Mobile reported its third quarter earnings in November, the company noted that it was seeing a lot of success with its prepaid plans. In addition, T-Mobile USA CEO Phillip Humm said last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the company is open to MVNO businesses.
For more:
- see this web site
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New Lightyear Wireless Commercial
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Our team added another 5 reps yesterday. We’re at nearly 400 now.
Big news coming next week …
JC
Bolding is mine.
JC
http://newmillenniumresearch.org/news/072811_nmrc_prepaid_trends_news_release.pdf
MAJOR MILESTONE FOR U.S. CELL PHONE CONSUMERS:
PREPAID TO ACCOUNT FOR 1 OUT OF 4 WIRELESS SUBSCRIPTIONS BY END OF 2011
NMRC: Fueled in Part by Popularity of No-Contract Unlimited Plans, Three Out of Five New Wireless Subscriptions in 2010 Were Prepaid
WASHINGTON, D.C.///July 28, 2011///By the end of 2011, total prepaid/no-contract wireless subscriptions in the U.S. will represent for one out of four such accounts, a new high-water mark reflecting the recent and rapid erosion of consumer reliance on more expensive contract-based cell phone plans.
According to new data released today by the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC) think tank:
About three out of five new wireless subscriptions in 2010 were for prepaid cell phone service versus contract-based “postpaid” service – a margin of more than eight million new no-contract prepaid subscriptions versus just under new 4.8 million postpaid subscriptions. (Source: J.P. Morgan, May 2011, covering the period from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2010.)
While traditional prepaid service subscriptions lost ground from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2010, unlimited prepaid posted strong gains with 7.4 million new subscribers, up 45 percent over that one-year period. (Source: J.P. Morgan.)
Based on current growth trends, the total non-wholesale wireless market in the U.S. will reach about 290 million by the end of calendar year 2011. For the first time, non-contract prepaid subscriptions will account for roughly 25 percent of the total wireless picture, moving the U.S. more in line with wider use of prepaid in other nations. (Source: Mobile Ecosystem.)
The new prepaid trends are very much in keeping with previous forecasts by the New Millennium Research Council:
In March 2009, NMRC was the first to correctly forecast an imminent shift by cell phone consumers from more expensive contract-based cell phone service with often hefty cancellation penalties to less expensive no-contract prepaid service.
In March 2010, NMRC reported that – for the first quarter ever — the number of new prepaid wireless phone customers in U.S. eclipsed the number of new contract-based phone customers during the final three months of 2009.
Last November, NMRC released survey data showing that one in five U.S. cell phone consumers with contract-based service – an estimated 24.6 million American adults – could switch in 2011 to less expensive unlimited prepaid wireless service with no early-cancellation penalty.
Sam Simon, senior fellow, New Millennium Research Council, said: “NMRC was 100 percent on the money in forecasting that 2010 would be the year of prepaid wireless service. It now looks like 2011 will be an even bigger year for no-contract wireless as more and more consumers realize the extent to which they can save hundreds of dollars each year with unlimited prepaid service while also avoiding the needless entanglements of restrictive contract-based cell phone service. This penny pinching will go on even as others are attracted to prepaid by unlimited plans and for connected devices.”
Telecommunications analyst Mark Lowenstein, managing director, Mobile Ecosystem, said: “Prepaid services continue to become more mainstream, as attractive devices such as smartphones are offered by the leading prepaid operators. Also, we are seeing the market for additional connected devices such as iPads becoming a key part of prepaid subscriber growth.”
ABOUT NMRC
Created in 1999, the New Millennium Research Council is a Washington, D.C. think tank. The work of NMRC focuses primarily on the fields of telecommunications and technology. The contributors to NMRC reports develop workable, real-world solutions to the issues and challenges confronting policymakers. For more information, please visit http://www.thenmrc.org on the Web.
CONTACT: Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio recording of the news event will be available on the Web as of 5 p.m. EDT on July 28, 2011 at http://www.thenmrc.org.
Another One Bites The Dust: “Virgin Mobile bids farewell to unlimited data” and Raises Rates
Update one hour later: Cricket increases their rates, too.
Did you see the Virgin Mobile rate hike and data limit? CNET reported today, “Virgin Mobile bids farewell to unlimited data too.”
The key quote from the CNET story is this:
“Virgin has been a major factor for much of Sprint’s turnaround with its customer base. While winning back contract customers has been difficult, the carrier has seen explosive growth in the prepaid segment, where customers pay on a month-to-month basis and can leave at any time.”
The story begins by saying Virgin Mobile “will begin to slow the connection speed of its more excessive bandwidth-hogging customers in October,” but VM has been throttling for 2 years, so I’m not sure what’s changing in Oct. Maybe now it’s officially out there as a “limit.”
The need for speed limits on those who exceed is apparent: “Virgin said that customers who exceed 2.5 gigabytes of data in a month will see reduced speeds, a practice known as throttling. The company said less than 3 percent of its customer base go over that mark. The policy will affect all customers.” You read that and maybe say, “Only 3%? That’s tiny – what’s the big deal?“ The big deal is the looming tidal wave, as 3% becomes 30%. We all know it’s coming …
CNET’s story says, “Virgin is the latest carrier to acknowledge the pressures that heavy data usage by its customers have placed on it. Last week, Verizon Wireless switched to a tiered data plan, following AT&T’s move last year. T-Mobile also throttles its customers’ connection speeds.“ Omitted from the story are the limits for each of those companies. Most are capping their “unlimited” (snicker) data plans at 2GB, including T-Mobile’s “TRULY UNLIMITED” joke of a plan. (I’m not objecting to the limits – I’m offended by the brazen lying that’s repeated over and over, calling a plan “unlimited” when there’s a clear limit.)
One other bit of blockbuster news from the story: on July 20, Virgin is hiking its two lowest-priced plans: “Its 300-minute plan, which includes unlimited messaging and data, costs $35 [per month], $10 more than before. Its 1,200-minute plan goes from $40 to $45.“ But VM is lowering its unlimited plan from $60 down to $55/month.
Virgin Mobile bids farewell to unlimited data too
by Roger Cheng
July 13, 2011 8:00 AM PDT
This story is more evidence of what I’ve been saying for a while, that EVERY store should offer a unique service like Lightyear Wireless to attract more revenue! We can help all the smaller stores share the Android Smartphone brilliance while saving them money on a bill they already pay (by helping them switch from contract to prepaid wireless).
JC
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/07/11/analyst-even-dollar-stores-struggling-in-obama-depression/.
Analyst: Even Dollar Stores Struggling In ‘Obama Depression’
July 11, 2011 9:19 AM
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — More stores across the U.S. that offer deeply-discounted products are seeing their sales decline after years of growth amid America’s “Great Recession” — and one analyst said on Monday it’s another sign of even deeper downturn.
While the demand at stores like the 99-Cent Store or Dollar Tree is still relatively high, the biggest chains in the nation have fallen short of Wall Street’s expectations for several months, a trend that may prove even more ominous for the economy at large.
“I think what’s going on in those stores is that we are in a depression for 80 percent of Americans,” top retail analyst Howard Davidowitz told KNX 1070.
America’s three largest discount chains — Dollar General Corp., Family Dollar Stores Inc. and Dollar Tree Inc. — all recently missed their quarterly earnings targets.
Davidowitz pointed to the weakness of the dollar and a gloomy consumer outlook as some of the factors behind the stores’ slump.
“In those stores, somebody comes in with $12 to do all their shopping,” said Davidowitz. “The person who used to come in with $12 now comes in with $8.”
“In other words, the economy is continuing to be worse, the Obama depression continues to explode,” he added.
Analysts say rising food and transportation prices are likely eating into the profit margins of discount stores, which risk driving away price-sensitive customers with any potential price hikes.
Core customers at most U.S. discount chains typically have a household income of $40,000 or less.
Comscore: Over The Last Year, “Android Pummels Apple and Blackberry in Smartphone Supremacy Race”
If you glance at this chart, I don’t think any commentary is necessary. But it’s fun, so I put the related PCWorld story below. 
If you’re an unbiased observer, I think you HAVE to marvel at the one-year time span on the chart. Google’s Android has seen meteoric success.
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-smartphone-platforms-2011-7
CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is Blowing Everyone Away
PCWorld magazine reported that Comscore’s market analysis shows, “In the race for smartphone dominance the Android OS reigns supreme with the once leading Blackberry OS drifting rapidly to the bottom of the heap.“
“Google Android devices lead the smartphone pack with 38.1 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers, a 5.1 percentage point increase compared to the three months previous. Apple followed a distant second with 26.6 percent rising by 1.4 points, and Research In Motion came in third with 24.7 percent, a loss of 4.2 percentage points.“
PCW exposed Blackberry’s numbered days:
“RIM is still a major player in the U.S. smartphone market but the company is steadily losing market share. Blackberry was the second largest mobile platform as early as three months ago when comScore last released its previous usage data. If you go back even further comScore’s numbers tell a darker tale for RIM. In May 2010, for example, comScore pegged RIM as the dominant smartphone force in the U.S. with 41.7 percent of the market. Meaning the company has lost 17 percentage points in the past 12 months, based on comScore numbers.“
The PCW story about Comscore’s shocking data also reveals Microsoft’s similar ineptness:
“Despite critical acclaim for its Windows Phone 7 platform, Microsoft continues to disappear into irrelevance among U.S. smartphone users. Over the past 12 months, Microsoft has lost 7.4 percentage points dropping from 13.2 percent of the U.S. smartphone market to just 5.8 percent, according to comScore.“
At the end of the article, PCW summarizes the very-near future:
“As Android’s lead steadily increases, the U.S. smartphone market is quickly turning into a two-horse race between Google and Apple. And it’s not just comScore’s numbers either; other metrics firms such as Nielsen are finding similar results. The fact is, if RIM, Microsoft and WebOS keep slipping who knows if there will be a credible third place challenger to Android and the iPhone by the end of the year?“
Just as RIM is “steadily losing market share,” Microsoft is also gradually losing its grip as the OS king. My prediction, which I think is obvious, is that MSFT will soon realize that its computer OS dominance has evaporated in an Android tidal wave, as people shift from cumbersome Windows computers to free-wheeling, breezy Android-driven devices. This is a welcome change, one that many of us have waited decades for, as we tolerated Windows lack of innovation and overall PITA for 3+ decades now …
Android Pummels Apple and Blackberry in Smartphone Supremacy Race
New Comscore data reveals Android is winning the U.S. smartphone horse race robbing a disproportionate amount of market share from RIM’s Blackberry mobile operating system.
By Ian Paul, PCWorld Jul 6, 2011 9:35 am
Yesterday the site AndroidTapp.com (AT) ran an amazing story that illustrates dramatically how much more value an Android fone has because of free apps. The AT story says “consumers save nearly $900 on Android apps annually.” The story assesses the value in another way:
“Even if customers only downloaded the free apps every day, it would be equivalent to what some pay annually to their wireless carrier …”
The significance of this is much more pronounced when you consider the tremendous value everyone receives from the free apps in the Android Market. I couldn’t put a dollar figure on the value, but my best guess would make it equal to the price of an Android fone. With Lightyear Wireless’ low-cost Androids, unlimited data, affordable unlimited plan, and potential to get free service, the value of free apps is icing on the cake!
Some of the stats from the AT report:
- “Amazon gave away more than 100 Android apps between 3/22/11 – 6/30/11, with retail value at $238.31.”
- “Even though many users come only for the free app of the day, 72.2% of consumers surveyed spend between $1-$10/month on Android apps.“
The AndroidTapp.com site says their “Android app review service is committed to thoroughly evaluating Amazon’s free app of the day, to help consumers confidently know of the pros and cons of Android apps before downloading.”
http://www.androidtapp.com/exclusive-amazon-app-store-free-android-apps-saves-consumers-900yr-chart/
EXCLUSIVE: Amazon App Store Free Android Apps Saves Consumers $900/yr [Chart]
Posted Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 at 6:00 am by Antonio Wells
BusinessInsider.com: “Google Android Activations Hit Spectacular 500,000 A Day, Leaving Apple In Dust”
This is a continuation of my previous post, with more specific numbers about what’s happening in the Android-Apple battle. The Business Insider (BI) article also identifies the significance of why the winner of the OS battle will reap the rewards for years to come.
BI says Android’s 500,000 new weekly activations, giving it a growth rate of “an astounding … 4% per week, … leaves Apple in the dust.” BI shares Apple’s numbers: “Last quarter, Apple sold about 19 million iPhones, for a daily activation rate of about 210,000.“ It’s revealed that including iPads and iPod touches, the 210,000 number jumps to 325,000, and BI predicts that “Apple’s activation rate has probably gone up significantly since then, especially with the company having stronger iPad sales, but it’s likely nowhere close to 500,000 a day.” What is not mentioned is that the tablet market is just recently began rolling out Android-driven models to compete with iPads, so the numbers for those are lagging, just as Android lagged Apple when it first launched two years ago. Wait two more years and watch the separation increase even more dramatically …
Here’s the bottom line, which the BI story nails perfectly:
“If Android grabs a dominant share of the market, as Microsoft’s Windows did in the 1990s, Apple will get increasingly marginalized, and eventually iOS’s value as a platform will plummet.“
I’ve talked over and over on this blog (and linked to others who also do) about the critical importance of the wireless operating system platform (Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile), since the dominant one at the end of the battle will be the Microsoft of the next two decades. The company that controls the OS then controls the “screen real estate,” what users’ eyeballs see on their fone screen, and that’s where the advertising dollars and software (app) makers will focus.
At the BI article’s end, it mentions that “Apple plans to sell a ‘cheap’ iPhone to better compete against the Android threat,” omitting the rumored “$349” price that is supposed to be “cheap.” IMO (in my opinion), an outdated fone at that price is DOA (dead on arrival), meaning even more market share for Android. Who would buy an older, limited feature iPhone for $349, when you can get the most popular, highest-rated, current Android for one-third the price, $139.99, from Lightyear Wireless? Only someone with money to burn.
JC
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-activations-a-day-2011-6
Google Android Activations Hit Spectacular 500,000 A Day, Leaving Apple In Dust
Henry Blodget | Jun. 28, 2011, 8:42 AM
See Also: Android Is Destroying Everyone, iPhone Dead In Water
