Unlimited Minutes
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile (as well as many smaller companies and MVNOs like Helio) are offering “Unlimited Minutes” plans for around $99 a month. Sprint may eventually join the party, but as of right now, they’re offering their “Sprint Unlimited Access” plans only in select test cities.
Most offer unlimited everything (minutes, texts, internet access) for somewhere around $120 – $140 per month. None seem to offer Unlimited Family Plans for anything less than just multiplying the price by the amount of lines. Verizon’s Basic Family Share plan is $199.98 for 2 lines to share Unlimited minutes, exactly the cost of two separate Unlimited plans – and each additional line is $99.99, again, exactly the same price as another separate line. (there is about a $10 discount if you add a line to the higher-end plans.)
So family plans, and shared minutes, start to make very little sense in the “Unlimited Plan” world. (as do “My Faves” and “In-network calling” as well as “Night and Weekend Minutes”)
What are the offers?
Ignoring Family Plans for a moment, let’s look at the cost of unlimited plans across the major carriers offering it:
Verizon
- $99.99 will get you Unlimited Minutes.
- $119.99 gets you Unlimited Minutes and Unlimited Text
- $139.99 gets you Unlimited Everything, meanings Minutes, Text, and Internet (“V CAST VPak, VZNavigator and Mobile Email“)
AT&T
These guys are a little more murky, and i’m basing this information off a press release. Based on the wording, these prices are for customers with “standard phones” …which doesn’t include “smartphones or PDAs or the iPhone.” I don’t think this means the plans are unavailable, possibly just different prices.
- $99.99 will get you Unlimited Minutes.
- $104.99 gets you Unlimited Minutes and 200 Text
- $134.99 gets you Unlimited Everything (“$35 for unlimited messaging and MEdia Net access.“)
T-Mobile
This is also based off a press release, but it does not mention unlimited internet.
- $99.99 will get you Unlimited Minutes and Messaging
Sprint
Sprint’s unlimited plans are currently available in test markets only, and probably subject to change.
- $119.99 will get you Unlimited Everything (Minutes, Texts, Internet)
Results
So they’re all about on par with each other, with Sprint’s coming in as the cheapest “everything” plan but with no “minutes only” option, and only marginally less expensive. Verizon’s looks like the most expensive, which is unsurprising considering they were the first to officially announce it and make it available.
Rumor has it that Sprint is going to undercut the other three by as much as 40%, which might actually make a splash in the mobile market. The current plans are progress, but they’re baby-steps. Most people don’t use enough minutes to justify paying over $100 a month, and many of those that do are on a Family Plan, and these unlimited plans seem to have nothing to offer family-plan-subscribers at all.
What I’d like to see
I’d like to see Sprint come in and undercut the other 3 by a large enough margin to make a difference. Unlimited minutes for $59.99, unlimited minutes and messaging for $69.99 (in line with their current rate of $10 for unlimited text) and unlimited everything for $89.99 (in line with their current $10 for unlimited text and $20 for unlimited EVDO internet.)
What I’d really like to see, though, is a Family Plan, with Unlimited shared minutes for 2 lines, with unlimited text and internet, for $129.99. Additional lines being $19.99 for minutes only, $29.99 with unlimited text, and $39.99 for unlimited everything.
This kind of drastic pricing is what could really start shaking up the mobile industry, and would steal subscribers away from other carriers. If Sprint simply follows the pack and offers similar plans, or even plans that are marginally cheaper, i don’t expect much of anything at all to happen, outside of the people who are already spending well over $100 for 3000+ minutes to “downgrade” their plans to the unlimited package. If the price point is moved as far away from $100 as I am suggesting, I’ll bet we see people with lesser plans upgrade, and people from other carriers switch. (It wouldn’t hurt if Sprint got some attractive handsets while they’re at it.)
Hey! :O)
I have 1350 anytime minutes ($79.99/mo.) with unlimited data, including tethering ($59.99/mo.), from AT&T, for my beloved Tilt, aka HTC Kaiser, but the tethering option does not work with Windows Vista:
It has something to do with a misread between the PDA and Notebook due to ActiveSync and the Windows Mobile Device Center incompatibility, or something like that!
So, anyone wanting to go fully mobile with their laptops, via their smartphone, should take note of this.
I spoke with AT&T and HTC (Tilt makers) support personnel several times and was told that an upgrade was planned.
If this comes to pass, I will inform.
It was so disappointing: I had planned to galavant wherever and whenever while remaining connected, but it has not come to pass.
As for Unlimited Everything via AT&T, the price listed on this post is spot on and includes everything but unlimited tethering: that, by itself, is $59.99 per month, as noted above.
OK, true to form, I have to include some semi-relevant nonsense, and here it is- ;O)
Sprint was originally a long distance phone service competitor with MCI, with Sprint using right-of-way via railroad lines for its microwave towers and fiber-optic lines, and MCI using widely spaced microwave towers for transmission over distances.
Cheers!
Peter J. Lupo Esq. - March 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pm