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Amazon is reportedly trying to offer Prime subscribers free cell phone service

anonymouskimmer 3y ago
I would think this would have to be a free tier with discounts on higher-tier cell service. Anything else would be too much of a loss-leader for Amazon or a bad deal for the cell companies.
PaulHoule 3y ago
Prime is getting too complicated. If you've got a Cheesecake Factory in your town you probably get one day delivery, otherwise you might get five day delivery. (It might not be quite the right independent variable but it's a tracer for the competitiveness of bricks-and-mortar retail in your area.) They are talking about adding an ad-supported tier to Prime Video. I'm wary of any kind of MVNO. I've frequently had a phone on a prepaid MVNO and had much worse coverage than other people got with full-priced phone plans in both rural and urban areas. See https://www.androidauthority.com/mvno-service-comparison-917354/ https://www.androidauthority.com/mvno-service-comparison-917...
rektide 3y ago
In the US, there's a lot of "unlimited" options with then absolutely brutal throttling after. Comcast is 2x anyone else's speed with 1.5Mbit down. I think maybe there's some new plans that just say "depriorotize" and users might see better but I don't have good data on that, but would love to know. Pay per use has been 10$/GB for well over a decade & no one's budging. I'd love to see Amazon cook up a 5GB free then a much more reasonable pay per use rate. Give us like $3/GB and many users should probably consider it. Also, no funny games with special rates or restrictions for hotspot/tethering. And if you could be as awesome as GoogleFi and make data only devices basically free, that would be a good indicator of your honesty & agreeableness.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  I had an AT&T prepaid phone that had WiFi calling that "just worked" which was a big plus for me because I live in a cell phone dead spot. It's a killer feature for me and it can be a money saver for the carrier/MVNO as they don't have to build out or pay for infrastructure.

I would think this would have to be a free tier with discounts on higher-tier cell service. Anything else would be too much of a loss-leader for Amazon or a bad deal for the cell companies.

PaulHoule 3y ago

Prime is getting too complicated. If you've got a Cheesecake Factory in your town you probably get one day delivery, otherwise you might get five day delivery. (It might not be quite the right independent variable but it's a tracer for the competitiveness of bricks-and-mortar retail in your area.) They are talking about adding an ad-supported tier to Prime Video. I'm wary of any kind of MVNO. I've frequently had a phone on a prepaid MVNO and had much worse coverage than other people got with full-priced phone plans in both rural and urban areas. See https://www.androidauthority.com/mvno-service-comparison-917354/ https://www.androidauthority.com/mvno-service-comparison-917...

rektide 3y ago

In the US, there's a lot of "unlimited" options with then absolutely brutal throttling after. Comcast is 2x anyone else's speed with 1.5Mbit down. I think maybe there's some new plans that just say "depriorotize" and users might see better but I don't have good data on that, but would love to know. Pay per use has been 10$/GB for well over a decade & no one's budging. I'd love to see Amazon cook up a 5GB free then a much more reasonable pay per use rate. Give us like $3/GB and many users should probably consider it. Also, no funny games with special rates or restrictions for hotspot/tethering. And if you could be as awesome as GoogleFi and make data only devices basically free, that would be a good indicator of your honesty & agreeableness.

PaulHoule 3y ago
I had an AT&T prepaid phone that had WiFi calling that "just worked" which was a big plus for me because I live in a cell phone dead spot. It's a killer feature for me and it can be a money saver for the carrier/MVNO as they don't have to build out or pay for infrastructure.