The Prepaid Press - February 2009 - (Page 15)

PREPAID TELECOM February 15 · 2009 - 15 Prepaid Wireless Roundup by Joe Pawlikowski look[ing] for value and flexibility during uncertain economic times,” according to CEO Dan Schulman. They picked up a net 216,000 subscribers, which might look low compared to their rivals, but is quite a good showing for the company. Their churn decreased from 5.5 percent in the third quarter to 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter, which helped their gains. Virgin ended the year with 5.38 million subscribers. Finally, with the best showing in the fourth quarter, MetroPCS recorded 520,000 net additions. They surprisingly had the highest churn among them, Virgin, and Leap, at 5.1 percent. They now have 5.4 million subscribers and should continue to see gains as they expand into New York in the first half of 2009. [Virgin Mobile] picked up a net 216,000 subscribers, which might look low compared to their rivals, but is quite a good showing for the company. their prepaid customers. In January we got the first wind of this plan. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear this plan will attract people like the old one did. The company will offer a Data Pay per Use plan and a GoPhone Data of 1MB. According to the flier announcing the new plans and prices, these appear to be the only options that do not require a two-year contract. This is a shame, considering what AT&T data once was. Joe Pawlikowski is a Senior Editor for Prepaid Reviews, an independent website that reviews prepaid cell phone providers and reports on the prepaid wireless industry. He can be reached at info@prepaidreviews.com. Boost Mobile introduces $50 unlimited plan In the annals of wireless industry history, 2009 might go down as the year of unlimited. Major carriers Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile all added $99 unlimited calling plans, though the latter two offer more value than just calling. Virgin Mobile rolled out their own plan, and were followed by Net10. However, what might be the best unlimited calling plan in the nation didn’t roll out until January 2009. Boost Mobile had an unlimited calling plan available in select areas, much like Cricket and MetroPCS. This ran on Sprint’s CDMA network, and did not provide roaming to all areas covered by the network. That all changed in January, as Boost moved its entire operation to Nextel’s iDEN network and completely overhauled their unlimited plan. For $50 per month, after all fees and taxes, customers can enjoy unlimited calling, text messaging, multimedia messaging, walkie-talkie, and mobile Web. This provides all of the services that Sprint’s Simply Everything plan does, but for half the price. Of course, the mobile Web doesn’t run nearly as well, considering CDMA’s superiority over iDEN. However, the plan still represents one of the best values in the prepaid or postpaid sector. Boost plans to introduce a new line of phones throughout 2009 for use with their unlimited plan. To make room for the new plan, Boost has cut out its Premium plans. They now offer unlimited service, the $1/Day Chat plan, and their normal 10 cents per minute service. Boost also cut their international rates to Mexico and Puerto Rico in January. Calls to Puerto Rico now count as normal calls made to U.S. phones, and calls to Mexico cost just 2 cents per minute more than normal domestic calls. T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile, Leap Wireless, MetroPCS have strong showings Something strange happened to T-Mobile in the third quarter of 2008: they added more prepaid customers than postpaid. This is quite odd for the carrier, which is the fourth largest in the nation. Even with good showings in the prepaid sector, T-Mobile’s competition -- Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon -- have still added far more postpaid subscribers than prepaid. This trend continued through the fourth quarter of 2008, as 57 percent of T-Mobile’s 621,000 net additions were of the prepaid variety. This amounts to 354,000, a number that rivals carriers service, which delivers EV-DO service to laptop cards. Churn was low, quite lower than normal, and very much lower than the competition, at 3.8 percent. Virgin Mobile has benefitted from “consumers AT&T hints at new prepaid data plans Many mourned the demise of AT&T’s $20 unlimited prepaid data plan in late October of 2008. It was by far the best value on the market, giving customers unlimited Web access for just $20 per month with no long-term commitment. AT&T discontinued it, however, saying that they would try to come up with a new way to deliver data to Is this what you want your children to inherit? Or this? STANDARD PLASTIC PENTAGONE GREEN CARDS PVC Plastic Card 1234 5678 9012 3456 01/10 GOOD FROM The truly biodegradable card Boost plans to introduce a new line of phones throughout 2009 for use with their unlimited plan. To make room for the new plan, Boost has cut out its Premium plans. like Virgin Mobile, Leap Wireless, and MetroPCS, which deal strictly with prepaid customers. Leap Wireless picked up a net 385,000 subscribers to their prepaid service, bringing their total number to 3.84 million. This includes 79,000 customers who subscribed to Cricket’s broadband 01/12 VALID THRU JOHN DOE www.pentagon.ca gogreen@pentagon.ca 1-877-339-5995 http://www.pentagon.ca http://www.pentagon.ca

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Prepaid Press - February 2009

Payments & Processing: Prepaid Debit Card Trends Contents The Retske Report: A Courthouse Divided Regulatory Rundown Prepaid Business: 5 Minutes With Darren Dat Lu, CEO of Lunex Group Prepaid Telecom: International Mobile Top-Up Virgin Mobile USA Compliance Plan Accepted by NYSE Tata Communications Launches One IP World KIT Communications Selects PhoenixSoft Sprint Nextel Increases Payments to Virgin Mobile Motorola, Sprint and Boost Mobile Welcome iDEN Flip PhoenixSoft Announces New Program Virgin Mobile Partners with Susan G. Komen The State of Prepaid Technology: Prepaid Virtual Operators Emerge Prepaid Wireless Roundup Boost Launches ‘Monthly Unlimited’ in More Cities Cricket Selects Callidus On-Demand Solution ICC Worldwide Expands Prepaid Products IPsmarx Launches SIP Based Card Platform The Legal Line Prepaid Telecom in Brief Pinnacle Rolls Out Ingenico’s Payment Terminals TransCard Makes Staff Announcements H&R Block Bank Selects MasterCard Avangate Pays Vendors and Affiliates with Prepaid MC TIO Networks Announces Grant of Stock Options TSYS Offers Enhanced Loyalty Solution First American Payment Systems Inks Deal with RDM Hypercom Introduces HyperSafe Remote Key System i2c Expands Team iPayStation Integrates with Movistar Payments & Processing in Brief New Javelin Report on Evolving Prepaid Card Market TransCard, Socialwise Plan to Revolutionize Prepaid Congresswoman Introduces Financial Literacy Act Industry Analysis on Mobile Banking Available Gift Cards & Promotions: Seven Cost-Conscious Marketing Strategies for 2009 Ntreev USA Announces PvP Tournament hhgregg to Help Circuit City Customers NRF Releases December Industry Sales Cellfire Expands Kroger Mobile Coupon Program Petrofix.com Offers a New Fuel Solution Gift Cards & Promotions in Brief Our Advertisers Contact Us

The Prepaid Press - February 2009

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