Prepaid Mobile Phones
If you read this site for any amount of time. You probably know that I’m a pretty big fan of prepaid mobile phones. That is simply because I think that it’s just a really great way to not only save money but have freedom in how you are using your phone. I really absolutely despise phone contracts, and I think that they’re completely unnecessary from a business perspective. I still hold to the fact that if businesses do a good job keeping their customers happy. They will not have a problem having plenty of customers.
Look at a product like the iPhone or just about any product that Apple creates. They have fiercely loyal customers who are really really happy with their products. Even though at times, you could argue that their competitors offer a better product or more features or things that people ought to like more. In some ways, the Google android should be considered a better phone platform in the iPhone is and yet, quarter after quarter, year after year more people are willing to buy the iPhone. Apple doesn’t have a contract with those customers. They just deliver such a great experience, that people want to buy their product people want to use their services. People keep buying their songs with iTunes and people keep listening to music on iPods. It’s simply because Apple delivers a quality product and callee services. So much so that people want to keep buying them and using them.
Now, if you look at a company like AT&T or Verizon, people don’t keep using them because they’re so overwhelmingly happy with them. They keep using them because their family members use them because they’re stuck in a contract. Or maybe just because that’s all they think is out there. I would bet that in the last few years, if AT&T didn’t have so many customers under contract. That 10 or 20% of their customers would’ve been selling her that they would lose those customers to a different network. Perhaps they would’ve lost him to Verizon. Perhaps they would’ve lost them to Sprint. Perhaps they may have even lost them to Boost Mobile.
I say this because I’ve talked to plenty of people who aren’t terribly happy with their phone service at any time. But they say oh well I’m stuck under a contract, so I’ve got to stick with it until the contract is up and then once that contract is up while they decide that it is not really worth the hassle to switch. In fact, most of the time it isn’t because most phone companies are terrible.
If you want to regain your power as a consumer of phone service. The only way to do that is to switch to a prepay phone plan. A few years ago with these phone plans were terribly appealing because it was just a way for these companies to get lower income people to actually end up spending more money on phone service than they ought to. In fact, if you go to a place like Verizon Wireles they will try and talk you into the idea that paying them a dollar a day or whatever they’re prepaid phone rate is is actually more expensive in the long run than having a contract plan.
I don’t buy that and neither should you.
There are actually quite a few options for prepaid phone service to the point that now even all of the major carriers seem to want to offer their own version of prepaid phone service. Of course, they don’t want to promote that too heavily before those people that really want to not have a contract or just pay for the few minutes that they use each month, they will of course offer them that option. Also, as it turns out, prepaid phone service can be extremely lucrative, because even though they make a lot of steady money off of their set strivers who have contracts, a lot of their usage-based customers can be way more profitable per usage.
Phone companies like Boost Mobile offer prepaid mobile phone service at rates that meet or exceed any kind of rate deal you could get from a much bigger company like Verizon or AT&T. In fact, recently both Verizon and AT&T have lowered their unlimited phone service to about $60 or $70 per month in large part to be able to compete with these prepaid phone companies who are offering even more service for even less of a price.
That should be just one more indication that the future of phone services not in a long contract, but rather it is in the ability to switch to whatever company is going to offer you the best service. I’m not sure if you realize this, but even T-Mobile now offers a bring your own phone plan without a contract. And it’s actually a little bit cheaper each month. These little baby steps are the first steps to getting our customer power back.
Years ago, AT&T actually got broken up by the government, and over a period of 20 or 30 years. The government allowed a series of mergers to take place such that it ate tea and he is no longer monopoly that rather has more of an oligopoly situation with Verizon. I would bet that if we waited a little bit longer. At some point, AT&T and Verizon will balance 60 or 70 or 80 or 90% of the market such that the only real phone service you can get is from one of those two companies. There’s nothing saying that these prepaid phone companies will last forever, but if people stand up and they say that they’re not going to listen to what AT&T and Verizon want you to think and switch to a more prepaid contract free option. There is some real hope that we can have better phone service, where the customers are actually treated like customers.
Prepaid mobile phones are just the first step in a much bigger opportunity for people to finally once and for all have American phone companies act like they care. If you’re looking for phone service. I highly suggest that you go ahead and take a look at a company like Boost Mobile, Tracphone, Straight Talk, or any number of other prepaid phone providers. At least you won’t be stuck with a contract for the next two years of your life.