After becoming fed up for a high cell phone bill, I researched strategies when issuing a Cellular Call for Change in saving on mobile telephony bills. Granted that people have different needs and one plan does not fit all. But while the notion of economizing on cellular charges has an abstract appeal, many are called but few choose to mitigate mobile communication costs.
It was clear that one impediment from consumers heeding a call for cellular change was the US cycle of receiving subsidized handsets in exchange for an iron clad two year contract. Someone was interested in upgrading their i-Phone 4S to an i-Phone 5. The cellular customer would likely stay with Verizon because of their excellent coverage but she is pressed to upgrade as there is only a limited period that the “new every two” is applicable.
Sometimes, the desire for a shiny new techno-toy overrides everything. A nephew got tired of using his feature phone to text so he wanted to splurge on a Google Nexus 4 from T-Mobile. But in order to satisfy this techno sweet tooth for Android Jelly Bean meant walking away from a grandfathered $25 per month pre-paid plan through Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Virgin Mobile. After the sugar rush from Jelly Bean, he may be surprised that not only did his monthly bill double, but he also is responsible for taxes and fees which often add an additional 20%.
Another friend who would be inclined to economize on cellular costs feels that switching cellular providers is impossible because of the family plan. Nights and Weekend and mobile-to-mobile minutes cut down on metered usage. And big buckets of shared data has a mystique. Sprint prides itself on truly unlimited data. But how many cell phone users consistently stream Titanic on a 4" screen? It might well be cheaper to get separate plans with an MVNO but it pays to check your usage yourself first before switching.
There is a strange bias in the cellular industry about prepaid plans, which is epitomized in a mock Apple i-phone ad. Sprint’s Customer Retention Represenatives employed a strange selling point when trying to break up with them as they denigrated Sprint’s own MVNOs of Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile as being “just a prepaid plan” was supposed to be a selling point, when those MVNOs could cut my bill in half. In response to this built up consumer bias, some prepaid cellular providers like Cricket Mobile have migrated away from branding their handsets so that others do not look scornfully at their consumers.
As I was migrating to Virgin Mobile , my beloved wife hesitated because of her love of a sliding keyboard smart-phone. Some MVNOs like Boost Mobile and Ting (both running off of the Sprint network) allow for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) but that “white list” can be short list as new phones are excluded. Alas, sliding keyboard smartphones have gone out of vogue so she will either have to adjust or lovingly cradle her handset for the foreseeable future.
Aside from overcoming the unwarranted bias against prepaid plans, stifling the urge to get new subsidized phones in exchange for a two year contract and feeling that a consumer NEEDS to have unlimited minutes, the wise cell phone shopper should discern what they need based upon experience and inclinations.
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Cellular telephony allows us to always be in touch telephonically, to act as a digital music player, to have a camera and video cam at the ready, as well as potentially carrying around a computer in the deceptive disguise of a smart-phone. Some foolish souls will risk life and limb to keep their cell phones. But these ordinary conveniences come at a cost. Today, a sizable major portion of Americans household budgets are dedicated to communication costs. People become so caught up at the prospect of a shiny new telephonic toy that they lose sight of the monthly costs associated with this privilege.
Recently, I wrote "A Cellular Call for Change” to consider how the mobile telephony industry in America is on the cusp of shifting away from highly subsidized handsets with expensive iron clad two year contracts to more of a BYOD marketplace which offers lower rates if you foot the bill for your phone. The article urged the savvy consumer to know yourself and investigate thoroughly.
Well, I took my own advice. I dug deep into a spreadsheet about my household’s cell-phone usage while doing an intense analysis of cellular providers plans and quirks. The results were somewhat surprising.
My household has been with Sprint for nearly six years. We are well out of contract with our current smart-phones (a HTC Evo and a Samsung Epic) but we have been happy with the service, aside from the cost. Since our handsets are in excellent condition, there is neither a need nor desire to upgrade phones, especially in return for a costly 24 month contract.
Even though we were initially sold on Sprint because of the 7PM Nights and Weekends, a hard nosed analysis of usage showed the most of the minutes used stemmed from free Mobile-to-Mobile calling. Yet including the Anytime, Nights and Weekends as well as Mobile-to-Mobile minutes, we never broke the 1000 minute total threshold (and one of the handsets consistently used most of the minutes). Our texts were under 1000 total. Data was the variable. While it was nice to have the certainty of Unlimited Minutes, my household was not a data hog. There were a few times over the course of the year when we used 3 Gig of data a month between the phones, most months hovered just over 2 Gigs combined. There were few months when mobile data usage was above 3 Gig and one month at 4 Gig.
Most of our time is in the District of Calamity (sic) or Between the Beltways. But much of our travel takes us to southwestern Virginia where cellular service can be persnickety, and 4G coverage is virtually non-existent. Our experience is that Sprint Network voice and data in the destination area is good for us without paying the high fees for Verizon’s stellar coverage.
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My research led me to two potential choices–a sweet young Ting (sic) or a Virgin Mobile. Ting.com is a MVNO owned by Tucows which operates off of the CDMA Sprint Network. While Ting has only been offering prepaid cellular service since February 2012, their parent company Tucows has been around since 1994 which gives it some credence of stability. Ting’s distinctive feature is use what you pay for billing. Ting's pricing is given in tiers from XS to XXL for voice, texting and data and consumers can mix and match on a monthly basis.
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For our household's purposes, the other cellular player is Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile is a quasi-MVNO which is owned by Sprint and is their mid-ranged prepaid cellular service. Virgin Mobile does not have the sexiest and newest smart-phones but their plans are quite attractively priced. Virgin Mobile rates have three tiers.
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Thomas Sowell once opined that “There are no such thing as solutions, but only trade offs.” So to make the right choice, a savvy consumer should run the numbers themselves, determine if their carrier gives good reception where the phone will be used the most and determine how he will use cellular service. If you are just texting, Ting charges $9 a month with 1000 texts or an SMS happy user $17 a month for 4000 texts.
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Virgin Mobile hypnotically suggests that one should "retrain your brain." Some might find all of the choices confusing and headache inducing. But think about all of the aspirin one can easily afford from your monthly cell phone savings!
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