6 ms·

Prepaid is an interesting beast. In most of the rest of the world, telcos regard prepaid as a plague and only really offer it as a goteway to "postpay". Postpai

by cletus 14y ago

Prepaid is an interesting beast. In most of the rest of the world, telcos regard prepaid as a plague and only really offer it as a goteway to "postpay". Postpaid customers are predictable future revenue. In Australia, I was with Telstra, which has by far the best coverage. I was on cotnract. The reason? For $50 a month I basically got (for me) unlimited voice, text and Internet (2-3GB/month). but the 32GB iPhone 4 only cost me $300 with $100 rebate. The handset outright cost $950 IIRC so for $1400 I got the handset and 2 years of service. I don't think I could've gotten two years of service for $450. In the US I originally went with AT&T as they were the only GSM network that supported the iPhone (T-Mobile could support it on Edge; Verizon and other models came later). Coverage kinda sucks in NYC, really sucks in the Bay Area but in most of the rest of the country is fine. This was originally month-to-month but ultimately I figured I may as well get the 4S on contract (the discounted price plus the ETF worked out to be no more than the outright price anyway if I cancelled early). But prepaid? That tends to relegate you to "inferior" networks in the US. T-Mobile and Sprint can give good deals but have really patchy coverage. MetroPCS, as far as I can tell, exists solely for drug dealers and pimps. One difference is that in most of the rest of the world you don't pay to receive calls. This makes having a phone and not using it much (to make calls) much more viable. Also texting rates in the US are essentially extortionate. Other countries (Australia and IIRC the UK at least) seem to more heavily discount handsets. It seems like people most often buy the phone that is $0 upfront on whatever plan they want (or they bump their plan up to where it is $0 upfront). The iPhone changed this dynamic somewhat whereas most people seemed to view phones as interchangeable previously. This article is right about one thing: people do seem to put too much importance on the upfront cost. I see things like the latest gen iPhone is $99 upfront and the previous generation is $49. For $50 you get older hardware that will be obsolete a year earlier... for something that'll probably cost you up to $2000 (or more) over 2 years anyway.

jmduke 14y ago
This article is right about one thing: people do seem to put too much importance on the upfront cost. I see things like the latest gen iPhone is $99 upfront and the previous generation is $49. For $50 you get older hardware that will be obsolete a year earlier... for something that'll probably cost you up to $2000 (or more) over 2 years anyway. I think your conclusion is valid but that particular anecdote is pointless. If a customer is willing to pay $50 less up front for a cell phone, then chances are any hardware obsolescence isn't going to be particularly noticable.
- kalininalex 14y ago
  I think the issue is people think they pay $50 for an older version instead of $300 for the latest, thus saving massive 80% or so. In reality, it's $1,970 vs. $2,220 (assuming $80/mo for two years). The difference is only 11%. If people realized that, many could reconsider accepting significantly outdated hardware for 11% savings over 2-year period.
  - jmduke 14y ago
    I understand your point, but I think 'significant outdated hardware' is a misnomer; with the exception of things like Retina Display breaking backwards compatability, its pretty rare that the difference between two phone generations is that important for non-power users.
colanderman 14y ago
But prepaid? That tends to relegate you to "inferior" networks in the US. Both AT&T and Verizon have competitive prepaid plans, roaming included.
- blario 14y ago
  With extortion rates on SMS and data. For something far more competitive, you have to go with a little known company (Straight Talk for example).
  - colanderman 14y ago
    I get unlimited SMS and 200 minutes voice for $25 a month through AT&T. The cheapest plan Straight Talk shows on their web site is $30 a month. Am I missing something?
Bamafan 14y ago
"This article is right about one thing: people do seem to put too much importance on the upfront cost. I see things like the latest gen iPhone is $99 upfront and the previous generation is $49. For $50 you get older hardware that will be obsolete a year earlier... for something that'll probably cost you up to $2000 (or more) over 2 years anyway" I think it's more of a cash flow thing than anything else. People buy the best thing they can afford based on the cash they have available at that very moment.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  I don't doubt that you're right about that, but if 50 additional dollars in upfront costs is the deciding factor for someone then getting a high-end smartphone with a ~$80+ per month plan is probably a bad financial move for them in the first place.
  - hnwh 14y ago
    this. Yet its amazing how many people seem to get this calculation wrong, or just flat out not care
andrewfelix 14y ago
I'm in Australia too and use Soul/TPG(runs on the Optus network). I pay $15 a month for 1gb data and $40 worth of calls. While I'm not a super heavy user, I never go over my cap. This is what has always kept me from buying a contract subsidised phone...my no-phone contract is just too damn good. Would love an iPhone, but the only 2 options I have are a 24month contract at around $50/month or lay down around $900AUD for the phone. Instead I picked up an ex AT&T WP7 phone for $US160 :)
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
elithrar 14y ago
> In Australia, I was with Telstra, which has by far the best coverage. I was on cotnract. The reason? For $50 a month I basically got (for me) unlimited voice, text and Internet (2-3GB/month). but the 32GB iPhone 4 only cost me $300 with $100 rebate. The handset outright cost $950 IIRC so for $1400 I got the handset and 2 years of service. I don't think I could've gotten two years of service for $450. This is similar to my situation. I pay $79/month and pay $4 per month (or thereabouts) for a 32GB iPhone 4S. $0 upfront. I'm a relatively heavy user, and therefore the $1992 over 24 months that I pay seems the better deal (for me) than buying it outright for $999 and then only having $40/month to spend on pre-paid credit, which would not be enough for my usage. I also get (slightly) cheaper call and text rates, AFAIK.
chaud 14y ago
"T-Mobile and Sprint can give good deals but have really patchy coverage" I am using Boost (Sprint network) and it doesn't seem to roam. Using only Sprint towers, I get one or two bars in most places and drop off of 3G along one segment of my commute. Well worth it though for how little I use it outside of areas with Wifi.
cageface 14y ago
Here in Vietnam I can get 500MB for $2/month and 3GB for $10/month. No contract, no questions asked. If I don't like my carrier I walk across the street to their competitor, buy a new SIM card, and I'm good to go. This ostensibly communist country is way more free market than the U.S. in many ways.
- megablast 14y ago
  Who is that with? I was in Vietnam earlier this year, and had real trouble getting the road sellers to understand that I wanted some data. Can you give me a clue what to get next time. I am £15 prepaid with 3 here in the UK, i get 2,000 texts, 600 minutes and UNLIMITED data. I think this is the best deal I have ever heard of.
  - cageface 14y ago
    I'm currently using Viettel. At least in their main shop here in Nha Trang the staff spoke good enough English that they were able to understand what I wanted. Just tell them you want the 3g plan with the monthly fee. You may have to go into an actual shop to get this set up. The people selling sims on the side of the road aren't very tech savvy in my experience.
  - kalleboo 14y ago
    When I was in Vietnam I just bought whatever SIM off someone on the road and then went back to my hotel room and googled up the activation instructions. Usually you just text the name of the plan you want to a special shortcode (same as most UK prepaid)
    - megablast 14y ago
      So all the sims on the street come with data?
      - breakall 14y ago
        If it's like the Philippines, all the SIM does is get you on the network, but with only a SIM card you can't call, text, or anything. Then you purchase a prepaid card from a convenience store or anywhere with call minutes, text messages, and/or data -- the card has a long code that you plug in to the phone to activate it and associate the minutes etc with your SIM.
Vivtek 14y ago
1. Prepaid is common here in Hungary. 2. Net10 in the States normally runs on AT&T infrastructure.
megablast 14y ago
I looked at buying a phone upfront, but it was better to get it from Optus, and go on a 12 month plan. I ended up paying $1200, when the phone was $1000, and I got 12 months of calls and data.
joeguilmette 14y ago
I use an iPhone with a prepaid SIM with AT&T. I pay 10¢ a minute for calls and texts in addition to a $25/1gb data plan. I make my calls over VOIP with Talkatone and use the Google Voice app for texting. I pay $25 a month. It was really hard to get this set up. I had to literally fight with AT&T, cut my own SIM, manually enter APN settings. When I have to purchase a new AT&T SIM after traveling they tell me it's not possible, that I can't do it. I explain that it is and I can, tell them how to set it up on their end. Ridiculous. They tell me the iPhone can't do prepaid (it can), that it isn't unlocked (it is), that it won't work if it's jailbroken (it's not) and that all of my data will magically disappear (it will if you don't configure up the APN settings). They will say anything to steer you from prepaid. Overseas in Southeast Asia you just walk in to a corner store, pay $2 for a SIM, give him a few dollars to load it up and send a text to buy a data plan. Vietnam was the cheapest, a couple bucks for gigs and gigs of mobile broadband. I will never buy a phone on contract. AT&T is a nightmare and the fact that we're no longer married helps me rest easy.
- newobj 14y ago
  Soooo.. Can you possibly write up how to do this??
  - joeguilmette 14y ago
    Buy a prepaid SIM and tell them you want $25/1gb of data. They might force you to buy a $25 rate plan that goces you some minutes and texts. Dont turn on celluar data. Connect to wifi and go to APNChanger.com Use the wiki to look up your GSM carrier's APN settings. Using APNChanger's manual entry option, enter the correct settings and install the APN. You may now turn on cellular data. If it says you're not subscribed to a plan when you try to load a website, turn off data, uninstall the APN and repeat, paying careful attention to the APN settings - you typed them in wrong. At the end of the month, set your data plan to auto renew and make sure you have enough money in your prepaid account so that it does. You'll be charged a few cents for texts and calls if you make them. You also may have to cut the SIM down to fit in your iPhone.
- merrick 14y ago
lsh 14y ago
I'm not sure about urban areas, but the further out you go, the worse Telstra (3G coverage) gets. I live about 100k's outside of Adelaide and Optus is superior by far to Telstra and Vodafone (3). All their prices and plans for mobile data are atrocious, so we go with Internode, who lease from Optus and whose prices, while still atrocious, are overall better. And everything about Internode, especially their customer service, is better. My two cents.

by cletus 14y ago

jmduke 14y ago

This article is right about one thing: people do seem to put too much importance on the upfront cost. I see things like the latest gen iPhone is $99 upfront and the previous generation is $49. For $50 you get older hardware that will be obsolete a year earlier... for something that'll probably cost you up to $2000 (or more) over 2 years anyway. I think your conclusion is valid but that particular anecdote is pointless. If a customer is willing to pay $50 less up front for a cell phone, then chances are any hardware obsolescence isn't going to be particularly noticable.

kalininalex 14y ago
I think the issue is people think they pay $50 for an older version instead of $300 for the latest, thus saving massive 80% or so. In reality, it's $1,970 vs. $2,220 (assuming $80/mo for two years). The difference is only 11%. If people realized that, many could reconsider accepting significantly outdated hardware for 11% savings over 2-year period.
- jmduke 14y ago
  I understand your point, but I think 'significant outdated hardware' is a misnomer; with the exception of things like Retina Display breaking backwards compatability, its pretty rare that the difference between two phone generations is that important for non-power users.

colanderman 14y ago

But prepaid? That tends to relegate you to "inferior" networks in the US. Both AT&T and Verizon have competitive prepaid plans, roaming included.

blario 14y ago
With extortion rates on SMS and data. For something far more competitive, you have to go with a little known company (Straight Talk for example).
- colanderman 14y ago
  I get unlimited SMS and 200 minutes voice for $25 a month through AT&T. The cheapest plan Straight Talk shows on their web site is $30 a month. Am I missing something?

Bamafan 14y ago

"This article is right about one thing: people do seem to put too much importance on the upfront cost. I see things like the latest gen iPhone is $99 upfront and the previous generation is $49. For $50 you get older hardware that will be obsolete a year earlier... for something that'll probably cost you up to $2000 (or more) over 2 years anyway" I think it's more of a cash flow thing than anything else. People buy the best thing they can afford based on the cash they have available at that very moment.

georgemcbay 14y ago
I don't doubt that you're right about that, but if 50 additional dollars in upfront costs is the deciding factor for someone then getting a high-end smartphone with a ~$80+ per month plan is probably a bad financial move for them in the first place.
- hnwh 14y ago
  this. Yet its amazing how many people seem to get this calculation wrong, or just flat out not care

andrewfelix 14y ago

I'm in Australia too and use Soul/TPG(runs on the Optus network). I pay $15 a month for 1gb data and $40 worth of calls. While I'm not a super heavy user, I never go over my cap. This is what has always kept me from buying a contract subsidised phone...my no-phone contract is just too damn good. Would love an iPhone, but the only 2 options I have are a 24month contract at around $50/month or lay down around $900AUD for the phone. Instead I picked up an ex AT&T WP7 phone for $US160 :)

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

elithrar 14y ago

> In Australia, I was with Telstra, which has by far the best coverage. I was on cotnract. The reason? For $50 a month I basically got (for me) unlimited voice, text and Internet (2-3GB/month). but the 32GB iPhone 4 only cost me $300 with $100 rebate. The handset outright cost $950 IIRC so for $1400 I got the handset and 2 years of service. I don't think I could've gotten two years of service for $450. This is similar to my situation. I pay $79/month and pay $4 per month (or thereabouts) for a 32GB iPhone 4S. $0 upfront. I'm a relatively heavy user, and therefore the $1992 over 24 months that I pay seems the better deal (for me) than buying it outright for $999 and then only having $40/month to spend on pre-paid credit, which would not be enough for my usage. I also get (slightly) cheaper call and text rates, AFAIK.

chaud 14y ago

"T-Mobile and Sprint can give good deals but have really patchy coverage" I am using Boost (Sprint network) and it doesn't seem to roam. Using only Sprint towers, I get one or two bars in most places and drop off of 3G along one segment of my commute. Well worth it though for how little I use it outside of areas with Wifi.

cageface 14y ago

Here in Vietnam I can get 500MB for $2/month and 3GB for $10/month. No contract, no questions asked. If I don't like my carrier I walk across the street to their competitor, buy a new SIM card, and I'm good to go. This ostensibly communist country is way more free market than the U.S. in many ways.

megablast 14y ago
Who is that with? I was in Vietnam earlier this year, and had real trouble getting the road sellers to understand that I wanted some data. Can you give me a clue what to get next time. I am £15 prepaid with 3 here in the UK, i get 2,000 texts, 600 minutes and UNLIMITED data. I think this is the best deal I have ever heard of.
- cageface 14y ago
  I'm currently using Viettel. At least in their main shop here in Nha Trang the staff spoke good enough English that they were able to understand what I wanted. Just tell them you want the 3g plan with the monthly fee. You may have to go into an actual shop to get this set up. The people selling sims on the side of the road aren't very tech savvy in my experience.
- kalleboo 14y ago
  When I was in Vietnam I just bought whatever SIM off someone on the road and then went back to my hotel room and googled up the activation instructions. Usually you just text the name of the plan you want to a special shortcode (same as most UK prepaid)
  - megablast 14y ago
    So all the sims on the street come with data?
    - breakall 14y ago
      If it's like the Philippines, all the SIM does is get you on the network, but with only a SIM card you can't call, text, or anything. Then you purchase a prepaid card from a convenience store or anywhere with call minutes, text messages, and/or data -- the card has a long code that you plug in to the phone to activate it and associate the minutes etc with your SIM.

Vivtek 14y ago

1. Prepaid is common here in Hungary. 2. Net10 in the States normally runs on AT&T infrastructure.

megablast 14y ago

I looked at buying a phone upfront, but it was better to get it from Optus, and go on a 12 month plan. I ended up paying $1200, when the phone was $1000, and I got 12 months of calls and data.

joeguilmette 14y ago

I use an iPhone with a prepaid SIM with AT&T. I pay 10¢ a minute for calls and texts in addition to a $25/1gb data plan. I make my calls over VOIP with Talkatone and use the Google Voice app for texting. I pay $25 a month. It was really hard to get this set up. I had to literally fight with AT&T, cut my own SIM, manually enter APN settings. When I have to purchase a new AT&T SIM after traveling they tell me it's not possible, that I can't do it. I explain that it is and I can, tell them how to set it up on their end. Ridiculous. They tell me the iPhone can't do prepaid (it can), that it isn't unlocked (it is), that it won't work if it's jailbroken (it's not) and that all of my data will magically disappear (it will if you don't configure up the APN settings). They will say anything to steer you from prepaid. Overseas in Southeast Asia you just walk in to a corner store, pay $2 for a SIM, give him a few dollars to load it up and send a text to buy a data plan. Vietnam was the cheapest, a couple bucks for gigs and gigs of mobile broadband. I will never buy a phone on contract. AT&T is a nightmare and the fact that we're no longer married helps me rest easy.

newobj 14y ago
Soooo.. Can you possibly write up how to do this??
- joeguilmette 14y ago
  Buy a prepaid SIM and tell them you want $25/1gb of data. They might force you to buy a $25 rate plan that goces you some minutes and texts. Dont turn on celluar data. Connect to wifi and go to APNChanger.com Use the wiki to look up your GSM carrier's APN settings. Using APNChanger's manual entry option, enter the correct settings and install the APN. You may now turn on cellular data. If it says you're not subscribed to a plan when you try to load a website, turn off data, uninstall the APN and repeat, paying careful attention to the APN settings - you typed them in wrong. At the end of the month, set your data plan to auto renew and make sure you have enough money in your prepaid account so that it does. You'll be charged a few cents for texts and calls if you make them. You also may have to cut the SIM down to fit in your iPhone.
merrick 14y ago

lsh 14y ago

I'm not sure about urban areas, but the further out you go, the worse Telstra (3G coverage) gets. I live about 100k's outside of Adelaide and Optus is superior by far to Telstra and Vodafone (3). All their prices and plans for mobile data are atrocious, so we go with Internode, who lease from Optus and whose prices, while still atrocious, are overall better. And everything about Internode, especially their customer service, is better. My two cents.