I've been looking to get back onto a plan for my Cell phone, but I have found this to be extremely difficult. I have a Blackberry Curve which I paid for out write and did not need to agree to any two-year contract when I purchased it. I don't need a phone with a two year contract. In fact, I cannot commit to a two year contract right now. There are no such month to month plans available that I can see, unless I subscribe to a "pay-as-you-go" plan, which I could not use with my blackberry as far as I can tell.
From a socializing view - I have realized a few issues with being disconnected. T-Mobile has a Fav-5 calling plan which markets this exact theory.
My transmission failed on my car yesterday and I need to call a mechanic and be available when hearing was wrong. I have borrowed a car and need to be available to this person also.
There are many reasons NOT to have a phone, but the underlying need in today's society requires it for daily communications.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Always spying on the phones - does your phone stop transmitting when you end a call?
You thought so...
What if the microphone does not shut off when you turn off your phone, do you talk outloud, have conversations with your family, hail Mary? What if the phone never stops transmitting? Certainly the privacy policy remains the same, but much could be heard when you forget to lock your keypad and the phone dials the most recent caller.
What if the camera on your phone is always transmitting? Where are you, do you go?
Of course, this could be easily disputed by monitoring the battery consumption and usage. But the "what if" makes for some good thought.
What if the microphone does not shut off when you turn off your phone, do you talk outloud, have conversations with your family, hail Mary? What if the phone never stops transmitting? Certainly the privacy policy remains the same, but much could be heard when you forget to lock your keypad and the phone dials the most recent caller.
What if the camera on your phone is always transmitting? Where are you, do you go?
Of course, this could be easily disputed by monitoring the battery consumption and usage. But the "what if" makes for some good thought.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Spectrum License Increase - New Bailout Bill
On page 132 of Obama’s 2010 proposed budget, a nice little section called the “Spectrum license user fee” addresses the levy upon which mobile network operators are taxed for their leasing of the public airwaves they hold. What this specific section describes is the tax will increase from $50 million in 2009 to $200 million in 2010, eventually hitting $550 million per carrier, per year. This, he says will raise right around $4.8 billion dollars over the next decade. I wonder who will end up footing the end of that bill.
This will be foot onto the customers, who will be paying the increase plus tax on increase prorated monthly (upfront).
This will be foot onto the customers, who will be paying the increase plus tax on increase prorated monthly (upfront).
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Track Phone Opposed to Contract
While there is a credit crisis, telephone providers cannot collect enough upfront from customers to cover cost of these new touch screen phones, smartphones, and intellectual property of the software running on the platform. The evolution of cells is in a real lul.
Because of the cost of new features on the phones, and availability to customers, they don't want the extra features for the price . The bearer of the cost to the networks for the newer technology will be on the phone companies at first. In order for the phone companies to move forward, they must keep on that growth rate.
Competitiveness in technology and alternatives to cell communications some could say that as once wireless HAM radio was the way to go, there are new innovations which are cheaper.
The telephone customers are balking at contracts. This goes directly to marginality, and prices for the new technology are growing through the roof, while pay as you go phones have limited software and can be run with minimal costs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/technology/21prepaid.html?_r=1&src=linkedin
Giving Up the Cellphone Contract
By JENNA WORTHAM
Published: February 20, 2009
Maybe Tony Soprano was onto something. As the lead mobster in the HBO series "The Sopranos," he and his crew often turned to prepaid cellphones, presumably to avoid wiretaps.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Locked, loaded and ready at Champion Wireless in Brooklyn.
.A prepaid phone is purchased at a T-Mobile store in Queens. Prepaid phone sales rose 13 percent in North America last year.
-
But now these pay-as-you-go phones are winning over fans for different reasons — recession-battered consumers are buying them as a way to cut costs and avoid the lengthy contracts and occasional billing surprises that come with traditional cellphone plans.
"Frugal is the new chic," said Joy Miller, 33, a piano teacher in Aubrey, Tex. After almost a decade on contract plans with Verizon Wireless, Mrs. Miller and her husband decided this month to test-drive a few prepaid plans, including MetroPCS. "In today’s economy, it’s not cool to pay $120 a month for a phone. It’s a waste of money."
Although prepaid phones remain a fraction of the overall mobile phone market, sales of the category grew 13 percent in North America last year, nearly three times faster than traditional cellphone plans, according to Pali Research, an investment advisory firm. For the first time in its history, T-Mobile has been signing up more new prepaid customers than traditional ones. And Sprint Nextel is betting that a new flat-rate prepaid plan will help it wring more value from its struggling Nextel unit.
Any stigma attached to the phones — they are a common prop in any show or movie about gangs and spies — is falling away as prices drop and the quality of the phones rises. Prepaid carriers like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile and Sprint’s Boost Mobile division now offer sleeker handsets, better coverage and more options, from 10-cent-a-minute calling cards that customers refill as needed to $50-a-month, flat-rate plans for chatterboxes who want unlimited calling, Web browsing and text messaging.
The savings can be considerable. An AT&T customer with an Apple iPhone on a traditional plan pays at least $130 a month, excluding taxes and fees, for unlimited calls and Web use. Compared with the $50-a-month, all-inclusive prepaid plans, the iPhone owner pays nearly $1,000 more over the course of a year.
Prepaid customers typically have to buy their phones without the subsidies offered with a contract. When Jerry Cruz, a manager at a tanning salon in Manhattan, switched to T-Mobile’s prepaid service, he paid more than $300 apiece for Sidekicks, which feature keyboards and cameras, for himself and his daughter. But, he said, he saves at least $40 a month compared with his previous contract with Sprint. "Every dollar I save goes towards something else."
MetroPCS, a carrier based in Dallas that sells only prepaid plans and just added New York and Boston to its network, said it has seen a lot of interest from people who are "cutting the cord," or abandoning their landlines to use only a mobile phone.
"Over 80 percent of our users use our phone as their primary phone," said Tom Keys, the company’s chief operating officer. MetroPCS added 520,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, the biggest quarterly gain in its six-year history. MetroPCS finished 2008 with more than five million subscribers, a 35 percent increase over 2007.
Charlie Bournis, owner of Champion Wireless in Brooklyn, said his prepaid business doubled in the last year while sales of traditional contract plans plunged.
"In 2001, we would sell upwards of 100 contracts per month," he said. "Now, maybe we do 10." The store sells 100 prepaid refill cards each week, he said.
Boost Mobile’s $50 unlimited-everything prepaid plan, introduced last month, has helped stoke demand, said Mr. Bournis.
"Over the holidays, all of our Boost Mobile handsets were just collecting dirt," he added. "After they announced the $50 plan, they sold out within a week. It doesn’t make any sense to get a contract anymore."
Prepaid plans are generally offered in two flavors. Customers can buy pay-as-you-go cards, with $20 providing 60 to 200 minutes of calling time that must be used within a specified period. Some prepaid companies also offer flat-rate monthly plans that resemble traditional plans except that customers pay upfront and have no continuing commitment. Customers can even switch back and forth between the types of prepaid plans depending on their needs.
Wireless carriers are ambivalent about the growing popularity of prepaid services. They would prefer to sign up customers with good credit to long-term contracts. But as the overall mobile phone market becomes more saturated, they are looking for growth wherever they can.
Sprint and T-Mobile, the No. 3 and No. 4 carriers in the country, are particularly aggressive about courting prepaid customers. In the fourth quarter, 355,000 of the 621,000 customers that T-Mobile added were prepaid users.
Prepaid phones are not for everyone, said Peter Pham, chief executive of BillShrink, which offers free analysis of consumers’ cellphone bills and recommends cheaper plans that match their calling patterns. Some carriers, like MetroPCS or Leap Wireless International’s Cricket, have limited networks or charge extra for roaming outside regional zones.
The trick, he said, is for consumers to figure out their calling needs and pick the plan that make sense. "Saving $15 to $20 a month is a big deal these days," Mr. Pham said
Because of the cost of new features on the phones, and availability to customers, they don't want the extra features for the price . The bearer of the cost to the networks for the newer technology will be on the phone companies at first. In order for the phone companies to move forward, they must keep on that growth rate.
Competitiveness in technology and alternatives to cell communications some could say that as once wireless HAM radio was the way to go, there are new innovations which are cheaper.
The telephone customers are balking at contracts. This goes directly to marginality, and prices for the new technology are growing through the roof, while pay as you go phones have limited software and can be run with minimal costs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/technology/21prepaid.html?_r=1&src=linkedin
Giving Up the Cellphone Contract
By JENNA WORTHAM
Published: February 20, 2009
Maybe Tony Soprano was onto something. As the lead mobster in the HBO series "The Sopranos," he and his crew often turned to prepaid cellphones, presumably to avoid wiretaps.
Damon Winter/The New York Times
Locked, loaded and ready at Champion Wireless in Brooklyn.
.A prepaid phone is purchased at a T-Mobile store in Queens. Prepaid phone sales rose 13 percent in North America last year.
-
But now these pay-as-you-go phones are winning over fans for different reasons — recession-battered consumers are buying them as a way to cut costs and avoid the lengthy contracts and occasional billing surprises that come with traditional cellphone plans.
"Frugal is the new chic," said Joy Miller, 33, a piano teacher in Aubrey, Tex. After almost a decade on contract plans with Verizon Wireless, Mrs. Miller and her husband decided this month to test-drive a few prepaid plans, including MetroPCS. "In today’s economy, it’s not cool to pay $120 a month for a phone. It’s a waste of money."
Although prepaid phones remain a fraction of the overall mobile phone market, sales of the category grew 13 percent in North America last year, nearly three times faster than traditional cellphone plans, according to Pali Research, an investment advisory firm. For the first time in its history, T-Mobile has been signing up more new prepaid customers than traditional ones. And Sprint Nextel is betting that a new flat-rate prepaid plan will help it wring more value from its struggling Nextel unit.
Any stigma attached to the phones — they are a common prop in any show or movie about gangs and spies — is falling away as prices drop and the quality of the phones rises. Prepaid carriers like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile and Sprint’s Boost Mobile division now offer sleeker handsets, better coverage and more options, from 10-cent-a-minute calling cards that customers refill as needed to $50-a-month, flat-rate plans for chatterboxes who want unlimited calling, Web browsing and text messaging.
The savings can be considerable. An AT&T customer with an Apple iPhone on a traditional plan pays at least $130 a month, excluding taxes and fees, for unlimited calls and Web use. Compared with the $50-a-month, all-inclusive prepaid plans, the iPhone owner pays nearly $1,000 more over the course of a year.
Prepaid customers typically have to buy their phones without the subsidies offered with a contract. When Jerry Cruz, a manager at a tanning salon in Manhattan, switched to T-Mobile’s prepaid service, he paid more than $300 apiece for Sidekicks, which feature keyboards and cameras, for himself and his daughter. But, he said, he saves at least $40 a month compared with his previous contract with Sprint. "Every dollar I save goes towards something else."
MetroPCS, a carrier based in Dallas that sells only prepaid plans and just added New York and Boston to its network, said it has seen a lot of interest from people who are "cutting the cord," or abandoning their landlines to use only a mobile phone.
"Over 80 percent of our users use our phone as their primary phone," said Tom Keys, the company’s chief operating officer. MetroPCS added 520,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, the biggest quarterly gain in its six-year history. MetroPCS finished 2008 with more than five million subscribers, a 35 percent increase over 2007.
Charlie Bournis, owner of Champion Wireless in Brooklyn, said his prepaid business doubled in the last year while sales of traditional contract plans plunged.
"In 2001, we would sell upwards of 100 contracts per month," he said. "Now, maybe we do 10." The store sells 100 prepaid refill cards each week, he said.
Boost Mobile’s $50 unlimited-everything prepaid plan, introduced last month, has helped stoke demand, said Mr. Bournis.
"Over the holidays, all of our Boost Mobile handsets were just collecting dirt," he added. "After they announced the $50 plan, they sold out within a week. It doesn’t make any sense to get a contract anymore."
Prepaid plans are generally offered in two flavors. Customers can buy pay-as-you-go cards, with $20 providing 60 to 200 minutes of calling time that must be used within a specified period. Some prepaid companies also offer flat-rate monthly plans that resemble traditional plans except that customers pay upfront and have no continuing commitment. Customers can even switch back and forth between the types of prepaid plans depending on their needs.
Wireless carriers are ambivalent about the growing popularity of prepaid services. They would prefer to sign up customers with good credit to long-term contracts. But as the overall mobile phone market becomes more saturated, they are looking for growth wherever they can.
Sprint and T-Mobile, the No. 3 and No. 4 carriers in the country, are particularly aggressive about courting prepaid customers. In the fourth quarter, 355,000 of the 621,000 customers that T-Mobile added were prepaid users.
Prepaid phones are not for everyone, said Peter Pham, chief executive of BillShrink, which offers free analysis of consumers’ cellphone bills and recommends cheaper plans that match their calling patterns. Some carriers, like MetroPCS or Leap Wireless International’s Cricket, have limited networks or charge extra for roaming outside regional zones.
The trick, he said, is for consumers to figure out their calling needs and pick the plan that make sense. "Saving $15 to $20 a month is a big deal these days," Mr. Pham said
Thursday, February 19, 2009
MagicJack Scam
Magicjack is great... if you don't mind spyware, and them using your call's to modify their marketing and sale of your personal information to marketers. Did you know the first thing that happens when you install the device is that Magicjack replaces your system.dll with a new one? Don't worry; it probably makes your computer work better! Also you get to see all kinds of advertisements... the Prodigy model all over again. Welcome back to 1992. So you purchase the hardware, and a license to use it, and then they say they have to advertise to you to support the product? Oh and if you decide you want to fight them about your information being released, you have also signed away your ability to fight them and all arbitration takes place in South Florida, so at least you can enjoy the sun while you get reamed.
Telephone Companies loosing
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sprint-posts-16-billion-loss/story.aspx?guid=%7B6F2EB7A3-E721-46F9-8ED5-86061029B431%7D
Sprint Nextel posts $1.6 billion loss
Wireless-phone company loses 1.3 million subscribers
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:56 a.m. EST Feb. 19, 2009
Comments: 10
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday posted another quarterly loss after shedding 1.3 million wireless customers, reflecting the company's difficulty in turning its business around, especially in a deep U.S. recession.
In the fourth quarter, Sprint reported a net loss of $1.62 billion, or 57 cents a share, compared with a loss of $29.32 billion, or $10.31 a share, in the year-earlier period. The 2007 quarter included a massive noncash write-down to reflect a decline in value of assets acquired in the 2005 acquisition of Nextel.
Revenue fell 14% to $8.43 billion.
Omitting one-time items, Sprint (S:
Sprint Nextel Corporation
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 2.71-0.05-1.81%4:00pm 02/18/2009Delayed quote data
Add to portfolio Analyst Create alert
Insider Discuss Financials
Sponsored by:
S 2.71, -0.05, -1.8%) said it would have earned a penny a share, compared with income of 23 cents a share in the same quarter of 2007.
Wall Street analysts expected Sprint to lose 6 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $8.55 billion, according to the consensus compiled by FactSet Research.
Sprint has been losing net customers for nearly two years despite a concerted effort to reverse the decline. The faltering U.S. economy has also undercut its effort, forcing Sprint to announce last month that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce.
The company ended 2008 with 49.3 million wireless customers, down from its all-time peak of about 54 million reached in mid-2007.
For 2009, however, Sprint said it expects the loss of customers to decline from 2008 levels, owing to steps it has taken to improve its wireless service.
In premarket trades, shares of Sprint rose slightly. The stock closed Wednesday at $2.71, down 5 cents.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Sprint Nextel posts $1.6 billion loss
Wireless-phone company loses 1.3 million subscribers
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:56 a.m. EST Feb. 19, 2009
Comments: 10
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday posted another quarterly loss after shedding 1.3 million wireless customers, reflecting the company's difficulty in turning its business around, especially in a deep U.S. recession.
In the fourth quarter, Sprint reported a net loss of $1.62 billion, or 57 cents a share, compared with a loss of $29.32 billion, or $10.31 a share, in the year-earlier period. The 2007 quarter included a massive noncash write-down to reflect a decline in value of assets acquired in the 2005 acquisition of Nextel.
Revenue fell 14% to $8.43 billion.
Omitting one-time items, Sprint (S:
Sprint Nextel Corporation
News , chart , profile , more
Last: 2.71-0.05-1.81%4:00pm 02/18/2009Delayed quote data
Add to portfolio Analyst Create alert
Insider Discuss Financials
Sponsored by:
S 2.71, -0.05, -1.8%) said it would have earned a penny a share, compared with income of 23 cents a share in the same quarter of 2007.
Wall Street analysts expected Sprint to lose 6 cents a share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $8.55 billion, according to the consensus compiled by FactSet Research.
Sprint has been losing net customers for nearly two years despite a concerted effort to reverse the decline. The faltering U.S. economy has also undercut its effort, forcing Sprint to announce last month that it will eliminate 8,000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce.
The company ended 2008 with 49.3 million wireless customers, down from its all-time peak of about 54 million reached in mid-2007.
For 2009, however, Sprint said it expects the loss of customers to decline from 2008 levels, owing to steps it has taken to improve its wireless service.
In premarket trades, shares of Sprint rose slightly. The stock closed Wednesday at $2.71, down 5 cents.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Smoke Signals - and Friends Encouragement
> Did you get a phone yet or should i send up some flairs into the sky to confirm? Red Flair is no, Green Flair is i will attend. Look to the north around 430pm.
> This is easier in terms of choosing your communications and disruptions!!
> On a positive note, it sure will cut down on the telemarketing calls.
> did u just read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer?
> Great idea. You are very right in your thoughts. Between the constant flood of emails, half of them garbage, and the cost involved with having a cell phone it is definitely a good idea to take a break from it. There are plenty of low cost pre-paid options out there these days for emergencies, etc. When I was in Sudan I really didn't miss having a cell or watching TV. It sucks to feel tied down or distracted by technology sometimes. WiFi Internet is generally readily available these days for free anyways and there are way to check voicemail through email.
> Feels rightous and good, I know, but I think this decision was not a well-thought out move for the long run, my good man.The bird is not free: It is still caged...
> Or maybe you could send up smoke signals.
> This is easier in terms of choosing your communications and disruptions!!
> On a positive note, it sure will cut down on the telemarketing calls.
> did u just read "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer?
> Great idea. You are very right in your thoughts. Between the constant flood of emails, half of them garbage, and the cost involved with having a cell phone it is definitely a good idea to take a break from it. There are plenty of low cost pre-paid options out there these days for emergencies, etc. When I was in Sudan I really didn't miss having a cell or watching TV. It sucks to feel tied down or distracted by technology sometimes. WiFi Internet is generally readily available these days for free anyways and there are way to check voicemail through email.
> Feels rightous and good, I know, but I think this decision was not a well-thought out move for the long run, my good man.The bird is not free: It is still caged...
> Or maybe you could send up smoke signals.
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