RadioShack (RSH) announced that it will begin selling its own brand of wireless phones and service in its retail stores nationwide, using Leap Wireless’ (LEAP) Cricket network.
Starting tomorrow, RadioShack No-Contract Wireless powered by Cricket will offer a line of devices and services to RadioShack customers.
The initial two devices are the Huawei Mercury Ice smartphone, priced at $150; and the Huawei Pillar feature phone, priced at $40. The Mercury Ice is exclusive to RadioShack for the next 30 days. Two more phones are expected to be added by the end of this month, according to the companies.
RadioShack will offer four plans: two for feature phones, and two for smartphones. For feature phones, customers can choose to pay either $25 or $35 per month. The plans limit talk-time to 300 or 1,000 minutes, but include unlimited messaging and unlimited data access.
The smartphone plans include unlimited data as well, but clearly indicate that users should expect their network speeds to be throttled after a specified amount of usage. Customers are offered the chance to pay more for additional high-speed access. Those plans are $50 or $60 a month and include unlimited talk, messaging, plus access to Cricket’s Muve music service. The $50 per month plan specifies that 1 GB of data use is full-speed 3G, and the $60 plan allows 2.5 GB of full-speed 3G access.
RadioShack’s retail network includes more than 4,300 company-operated stores in the United States, and 1,500 wireless phone centers across the country. The retailer also offers service from most of the national wireless operators.
