BROWSING: prepaid

Pakistan war on terror; 100M mobile customers may lose service On Dec. 16, terror struck in Peshawar, Pakistan, when the Taliban targeted an army school. The terrorists massacred 145 people, most of them children. It was revealed that the terrorists communicated through prepaid subscriber identification modules....

T-Mobile US has laid claim to being the domestic market’s largest prepaid wireless provider, stating that during the second quarter it surpassed the prepaid customer bases of its larger rival Sprint. At the end of the second quarter, T-Mobile US said it had 15.64 million...

Following up on its announcement earlier this month, Sprint today said it will tap into an agreement with ItsOn to offer “personalized services” through its Virgin Mobile USA prepaid division. The offering, dubbed Virgin Mobile Custom, is a no-contact rate plan that allows customers to...

Verizon Wireless has finally thrown its prepaid customers a bone, announcing that it would begin offering access to its LTE network for those subscribers not willing to sign a contract. The carrier said that beginning July 17, customers can use LTE-equipped smartphones on Verizon Wireless’...

AT&T solidified its no-contract ambitions, announcing the combination of its recently acquired Leap Wireless business with its Aio Wireless platform that will operate under the Cricket Wireless brand. The new offering will take advantage of AT&T Mobility’s nationwide network, which the carrier claims offers LTE...

Highlighting the increasingly competitive nature of the prepaid market, Sprint’s Boost Mobile division unveiled new rate plans dubbed “Monthly Unlimited Select” that do away with different pricing levels depending on the device selected. The new plans are priced at $40, $50 and $60 per month...

Many Latin American operators have recently started offering free access or access without using data allowance for selected applications, generally to

In a move to bolster its presence in the white-hot prepaid space, Sprint today revamped its branded no-contract service with flat-rate plans that could step on the toes of its other offerings. The offering, dubbed Sprint Prepaid, will replace its previously offered “As You...

Perhaps sensing increased competition in a segment it has yet to aggressively target, Verizon Wireless bolstered its prepaid smartphone offering with more data capabilities, though the service remains 3G-only. Verizon Wireless noted that for a limited time, its AllSet Plans would provide smartphone users unlimited...

AT&T Mobility’s Aio Wireless brand modified its offerings, providing more separation between recent changes to the mother ship’s rate plans and that of the prepaid-focused Aio plans. The new plans include lower prices and increased data buckets and follow up on comments made last...

Regional wireless operator U.S. Cellular announced that online retail giant Amazon.com would begin carrying prepaid devices compatible with the carrier’s network. The move comes just ahead of increasingly important holiday shopping season. The U.S. Cellular devices that will be available through Amazon.com include the...

LTE control signalling vendor Diametriq announced today that its Diameter Interworking System now supports the ability for prepaid subscribers to roam between 3G and LTE networks. The addition of a newly developed CAMEL/WIN spec that translates to diameter in LTE networks is being touted by...

Leap Wireless (LEAP) says its Cricket prepaid service lost 140,000 customers during the most recent quarter, while the company lost $83.4 million on revenue of $694 million. Average revenue per user was the one bright spot for Leap, increasing $3.51 year-over-year to $45.45. The...

The vast majority of this growth and revenue has been, and will continue to be, concentrated among the big four mobile operators – AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile US.

This week I felt it was necessary to look at the other extreme of this mimicking, specifically the way the nation’s two largest wireless operators – Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility – tackle the prepaid space.

AT&T Mobility is set to further enhance its Mobile Share plans, announcing it was set to unveil a 300 megabyte and two gigabyte option later this week. The carrier’s Mobile Share plans, which allow up to 10 devices to share a bucket of data,...

AT&T Mobility is set to join the growing move towards offering LTE services to no-contract customers, announcing that beginning June 21 it will open its growing next-generation network to its GoPhone platform. The offering will include a single LTE-equipped device provided by the carrier in...

Republic Wireless has cut the price of its sole device offering designed to run across its flat-rate, unlimited plan, ratcheting up the competitive pressure in the no-contract wireless space. Customers can pay $199 for the Motorola Defy XT smartphone, which is $50 less than...

Verizon Wireless continued to sweeten its prepaid offerings, announcing this week that it would double the amount of data available to customers selecting its $70 per month plan and quadruple the data bucket for customers selecting its $60 per month plan. The enhancement will see...

Despite those hefty carrier subsidies that keep the iPhone affordable for smartphone buyers, many of those buyers are now choosing to pay full price for the iPhone and other top smartphones. NPD Group says that according to its latest Mobile Phone Track report, the...

AT&T Mobility updated its dated approach to the no-contract market with the rollout of its Aio Wireless service to do battle against growing competition. The offering, which was hinted at last month by Retail Results, is set to initially launch in Houston, Orlando and...

I don’t need to tell any of you, but dang, if that prepaid space is not getting more exciting by the day. I know carriers have been instigating pricing and marketing wars in the no-contract arena for years now,

Not wanting to let rivals get all the prepaid attention, Verizon Wireless this week launched a lower-priced offering designed to tempt those looking for a basic device that they do not plan on talking on very much. The new plan is priced at $35 per...

Just ahead of the launch of its iPhone 5, T-Mobile USA is sweetening the pot by offering a trade-in credit for customers turning in legacy iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models. Those devices would also be presumably coming from a rival carrier as T-Mobile...