$25 plan toast?

[tgp]

Other wise, I'll probably jump ship to tmobile for 30 and have my pick of just about any phone on the market.

That's exactly what I'm doing. I already have a Google Nexus and have it activated. I'll port my VM number over when the VM month is up.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[atrain2324]

I won't mind paying $35 if Sprint would boot up LTE for Virgin and maybe even make it worth my while to do so with some sort of discount on an LTE handset. With Softbank about to get their chunk of Sprint combined with Sprint's move to majority stake in Clearwire, I doubt WiMAX will be around any longer beyond this year maybe? $35 a month for no-contract LTE (provided Sprint can get it working in at least major cities, read somewhere it'll be end of year before San Fran, LA, Boston and NYC get it?) probably would make AT&T and Verizon shake a little?

 

[koopakid08]

I won't mind paying $35 if Sprint would boot up LTE for Virgin and maybe even make it worth my while to do so with some sort of discount on an LTE handset. With Softbank about to get their chunk of Sprint combined with Sprint's move to majority stake in Clearwire, I doubt WiMAX will be around any longer beyond this year maybe? $35 a month for no-contract LTE (provided Sprint can get it working in at least major cities, read somewhere it'll be end of year before San Fran, LA, Boston and NYC get it?) probably would make AT&T and Verizon shake a little?

Why would they give you their 4g network for $35? Discount on a phone are you kidding me?

Prepaid doesn't get subsidized phones or the latest technology, that's why it's cheap.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

And fyi:
WiMAX will definitely not be gone in a year especially with Sprint buying a majority stake in Clearwire. 4 to 5 more years at least.



Sent from my HTC Evo V 4G

 

[ryanr509]

Why don't ppl get GSM straight talk? U can have the latest tech if u want and their 3g hspa+ speeds are more than fast enough. I'm in a small town about 40,000 ppl and with the straight talk att sim I average 3-5mbps download. When I visit Seattle I get 6-10mbps down load which is more than enough. And $30 is a lot cheaper than paying $100+ a month for AT&T or Verizon so quit ur complaining about a $5 bump in price

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums

 

[ryanr509]

I won't mind paying $35 if Sprint would boot up LTE for Virgin and maybe even make it worth my while to do so with some sort of discount on an LTE handset. With Softbank about to get their chunk of Sprint combined with Sprint's move to majority stake in Clearwire, I doubt WiMAX will be around any longer beyond this year maybe? $35 a month for no-contract LTE (provided Sprint can get it working in at least major cities, read somewhere it'll be end of year before San Fran, LA, Boston and NYC get it?) probably would make AT&T and Verizon shake a little?

Really u think the $35 a Month compared to the $100+ u pay on any other carrier isn't already a deal? There's a reason all the prepaids are half or a third the price of Verizon att etc. They don't have all the amenities. I'll take the saving of about $1000 a year over having LTE.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums

 

[mlewis76]

Wow, my phone plan is 174 bucks a month!

sent from my UNROOTED but still totally frikkin awesomely customized Galaxy S3

 

[anthonycr]

Wow, my phone plan is 174 bucks a month!

sent from my UNROOTED but still totally frikkin awesomely customized Galaxy S3

Get off a plan and save some money. You have to give up LTE but seriously how often are you not within range of wifi.

 

[AQAA]

Just saw the mention of the Tmobile $30 prepaid plan, thanks for the heads up.

It is sold at Walmart using Samsung 4g phones retails about $190.
The plan list Unlimited 4g, but caps 4g at 5Gb then goes to 2g for the rest of the month. Includes 100 min. voice.

So why would anyone stay with Vm?
Btw I like the idea of having cake and eating it too.

 

[tgp]

Just saw the mention of the Tmobile $30 prepaid plan, thanks for the heads up.

It is sold at Walmart using Samsung 4g phones retails about $190.
The plan list Unlimited 4g, but caps 4g at 5Gb then goes to 2g for the rest of the month. Includes 100 min. voice.

So why would anyone stay with Vm?
Btw I like the idea of having cake and eating it too.

You got it! The T-Mobile $30 plan is hard to beat if the service is good in your area, and you don't talk much. Who talks on a cell phone nowadays anyway?

I would recommend that you consider getting an unlocked phone such as the Google Nexus. It's currently $349 on the play store (Galaxy Nexus HSPA+), or you can try to find a used one. I was fortunate to find a slightly used one on Craiglist for much cheaper. The 4G Samsung Galaxy Exhibit that Walmart sells isn't the greatest, but if price is a big issue for you it will definitely do the job. I like the pure Android experience of the Nexus. Updates come straight from Google, and much sooner than waiting on the carriers to push them out.

 

[AQAA]

Just checking XDA for rooting on the Samsung and it looks pretty straight forward so all the bloat can be removed. They have a nice page with all the steps.
My only concern is the Tm coverage it looks pretty poor in general as soon as you get out of nearby cities here in upstate NY.
Not that Vm is much better, it may be a toss.

Walmart is good for returns, so guess i'll give it a try, 4g could be nice to have for hotspot on the rooted Samsung

 

[atrain2324]

Really u think the $35 a Month compared to the $100+ u pay on any other carrier isn't already a deal? There's a reason all the prepaids are half or a third the price of Verizon att etc. They don't have all the amenities. I'll take the saving of about $1000 a year over having LTE.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums

The first thing Softbank is going to do when they take their stake into Sprint is to do exactly what they are promising to do when they take over: shake-up the US mobile market. They see a massive duopoly in AT&T and Verizon with no price relief in sight for theit customers, especially Verizon.

I think the shake-up begins probably with Softbank convincing Sprint to roll Boost and Virgin into one no-contract unit, combine the best VM and Boost has to offer as far as phone selection, especially smartphones and use VM's price structure (hey, $35 a month for 300, unlimited text and LTE is a STEAL). Then while letting the WiMax contracts expire (actually, Sprint can end it next year, 2014 and 2015 are actually options Sprint is under no obligation to pick up), Sprint would roll in no-contract LTE handsets like the Viper, Mach (rumored to get on Boost anyways) and Galaxy Victory.

I did my research on Softbank. The shake-up they promise starts with getting AT&T and Verizon into a piss war over pricing on services (both post-paid and pre-paid) just like they did in Japan, of course they're not gonna send Sprint's Everything Unlimited down to $13 a month like they did in Japan (about 400 yen?)...although that would really be a shake-up haha!

 

[economichitman]

Whatever softbank accomplished in Japan wont be very relevant to the US market, the economics and logistics of rolling out a LTE network across the united states is far more complex than japan. Japan has dense urban centers crammed into small places all over an island. The US has urban sprawl over huge areas, each tower deployed reaches far fewer customers and you have to construct backbone infrastructure (Surely LTE backbone requires fiber optics) which is expensive and complicated to run over long distances. Especially with the complicated and lengthy permit process to tear up city streets to bury cable. Verizon has already spent billions of dollars on their LTE network, money softbank doesnt have. They can maybe deploy LTE in dense metro areas, where fiber to the backbone is already close by, but not nearly on the scale of AT&T and Verizon. Japan also has a much more developed fiber backbone, So setting up LTE there is only as complicated as installing a router on top of an apartment, as that building probably is already connected to fiber optics. Verizon stopped deploying FIOS because fiber to the home is not realistic to deploy across the US. Instead theyre betting on last mile LTE, but they have the capacity to build the underlying infrastructure.

 

[atrain2324]

Whatever softbank accomplished in Japan wont be very relevant to the US market, the economics and logistics of rolling out a LTE network across the united states is far more complex than japan. Japan has dense urban centers crammed into small places all over an island. The US has urban sprawl over huge areas, each tower deployed reaches far fewer customers and you have to construct backbone infrastructure (Surely LTE backbone requires fiber optics) which is expensive and complicated to run over long distances. Especially with the complicated and lengthy permit process to tear up city streets to bury cable. Verizon has already spent billions of dollars on their LTE network, money softbank doesnt have. They can maybe deploy LTE in dense metro areas, where fiber to the backbone is already close by, but not nearly on the scale of AT&T and Verizon.

They had already stated they won't do much hardware-side (although Son has already contended that network speeds, hardware and infrastructure are woeful in the US compared to other countries in Asia and Europe), but that won't stop them from giving Sprint the financial backing necessary to do so...Son is a very results-oriented guy, which is why the purchase is risky in the first place because if the infusion fails along with everything that comes with it, right down to the leverage Softbank has over its vendors, on both its network and handset sides, this is it for Sprint. If Sprint doesn't shake up the US like Son thinks he can with them in say...five years...Sprint is done.

 

[AZImmortal]

(hey, $35 a month for 300, unlimited text and LTE is a STEAL)

Yes, it's so much of a steal that there's literally no way that this is going to happen. If this actually became an option, then why on Earth would anyone pay $80/month for Sprint's 450 min unlimited text/data plan? Sprint isn't going to completely cannibalize their higher-margin postpaid plans just to race to the bottom. There's a reason why as it stands now, Virgin Mobile's data speeds are very poor compared to Sprint's even on the same 3G network. The likely scenario is that the prepaid carriers will continue to use WiMax while Sprint moves to LTE.

 

[roblox84]

If this actually became an option, then why on Earth would anyone pay $80/month for Sprint's 450 min unlimited text/data plan?

People are stupid and they would rather shell out the money so that they wouldn't have to tell people that they use a prepaid network.

You'd be surprised how many people kind of snicker when i tell them i use virgin mobile. They tell me i should shell out hundreds of dollars to go with a real provider such as Verizon.

I guess spending a hundred a month on a cell phone is a status symbol.



Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

 

[AZImmortal]

People are stupid and they would rather shell out the money so that they wouldn't have to tell people that they use a prepaid network.

You'd be surprised how many people kind of snicker when i tell them i use virgin mobile. They tell me i should shell out hundreds of dollars to go with a real provider such as Verizon.

I guess spending a hundred a month on a cell phone is a status symbol.



Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

Although I agree with you that the masses are mostly ignorant about how good of a value some of these prepaid plans are, the point I was trying to make was that for the most part, postpaid plans (by design) trump prepaid plans in either quality of service or services offered, such as my example of data speeds between Virgin Mobile and Sprint. As it stands now, Sprint purposely cripples Virgin Mobile's data speed to make it less attractive compared to the postpaid Sprint plans. Any time anyone asks me if they should switch to Virgin Mobile, I tell them only if they're willing to put up with ridiculously slow data speeds. If Virgin Mobile were to offer the same level of service for $35 that Sprint users get now for $80, then I can guarantee that Sprint users would switch to Virgin Mobile in droves, but this would have the negative effect (for Sprint) of turning $80 users into $35 users.

 

[adamhos]

Well i just topped off for November,
$25 and im good till the end of the month

Sent from my LG-VM670 using Android Central Forums

 

[ebrown761]

People are stupid and they would rather shell out the money so that they wouldn't have to tell people that they use a prepaid network.

You'd be surprised how many people kind of snicker when i tell them i use virgin mobile. They tell me i should shell out hundreds of dollars to go with a real provider such as Verizon.

I guess spending a hundred a month on a cell phone is a status symbol.



Sent from my LG-VM670 using Tapatalk 2

I completely agree, though this true for almost everything i pay 25 for virgin others pay nearly a hundred or more for the other guys, at my house for cable i use a streaming video box called "roku" to stream netflix to my tv for 7.99 a month others have cable watch no more that 5 channels but pay almost $100 or more a month for 2 or 3 hundred channels, and i drive a Prius but i wont go there, I'm just saying people overall tend to think if you pay more it's better

 

[Phatninja55]

I drive a $500 dollar truck and people say it's crap because it's got some paint missing, but they pay $$$$ for their nice looking cars... Off topic! xD

 

[dfrandin]

Lovely.. I bought my LG Optimus about two months before they upped it to $35 for new accounts. I'd been using a VM "dumb-phone" since 2003, and finally decided to get "smart".. Last I heard, you could keep the $25/mo as long as you didn't change phones etc.. Guess thats out now..