- prepaid cell phones can be cost competitive
- prepaid service has no contracts, credit checks, or bills
- prepaid cell rates vary widely
Historical Perspective
The Cell Phone is one of the most innovative inventions of the twentieth century. Callers can rep an individual anywhere in the country through calls, text messaging, and the mobile Internet. When the cell phone first came on the scene it was targeted to doctors and other professionals. Those in this league paid around $1 per minute, so the number was not on business cards or anywhere else that someone could call without a real good reason.
Cell Phones companies then revamped their target audience to the mother with children who might need to make an emergency call for help, such as a car breaking down on a snowy night. The rate was $19.95 per month for 30 minutes.
Finally, someone realized that people wanted to be cut from their home phone cord, and made the cell phone available to the average person. The problem came with the deposits that some companies required. Some went as high $1200. Further, per minute charges was still high since block plans had not approach out in full force yet. Therefore people who could not afford to pay these astronomical deposits and monthly bills were forced to be left behind technologically.
Those with abominable or no credit had no available options until cell phone companies came up with the prepaid understanding. Consumers paid a higher rate than the average consumer, but at least they could have a phone. Cell phone companies began to target college students with the conception, since most did not have the credit to put normal monthly service. Since this innovation, companies also started using this option for their sales reps out on the field, and as a benefit to their employees.
The prepaid cell phone is great for those who want to keep their phone bill at a specific amount per month. With the advent of the free nights and weekends, users are hard-pressed to find a disagreement in the prepaid vs. normal cell phone service.
In 1987, the monthly average of a U.S. cell phone bill was $96.85; in 1998, it was $39.43. A friend may say to you “Call me on my cell.”
Definitions
Prepaid: Consumer pays monthly charge in arrive by credit card, EFT, or through refill cards.
Refill Cards: Cards of various amounts available for purchase from cell phone stores to gas stations.
Deposit: A Credit company who considers a person a risk will require them to put a clear amount down in order to get service. The amount of the deposit is according to the credit score obtained by the company. The average is $150.
Credit Limit: The amount a customer can charge up to. The customer cannot go over this amount without making a payment or losing service.
Comparing Prepaid Cellular Providers
T-Mobile to Go: They seem to utilize the refill card. The cards range from $10 to $100 which gives the user anywhere from 30 minutes to 1000 minutes. A special benefit is that when the customer has purchased over $100 in refills they receive another 15% added. The exception is the $100 card, which does not add any minutes. The higher the card amount the longer the expiration date. The average is 90 days.
Internet access is free on this plan. It includes basic news sites, games, and other things. Text messaging is $.10 to send and free to receive.
Refill cards can be picked up at over 10,000 locations or purchased online.
Virgin Mobile: The target audience for this product is the college student, as evidenced by the services they provide. Users have three plan options.
1. $0.25 cpm/first ten minutes of the day then $.10 cpm thereafter.
2. $0.35 per day/$.10 cpm thereafter.
3. Monthly Plans start at $29.99 for 150 anytime minutes and 150 nights/weekends.
Internet access is $.20 per day and does not count against minutes. Chargeable downloads will be deducted from the narrative balance.
Refills can be done online, by telephone, on the cell phone, or at stores.
Liberty Wireless: This is a no frills cell phone with nothing, but minutes. There is no text messaging or Internet access. The phones are all refurbished and generally two or three years old. Hurry is the network that they use. Their strongest sale is the $0.10 flat fee.
TracFone: This is one of the oldest prepaid cell phone plans. It is also one of the most expensive. Users purchase phones starting at $34.99 then purchase cards from $19.99 to $79.99. These cards only sustain the number for 60 days. Customers are charged higher rates for yearlong access. In addition, customers pay $14.95 per month for double itsy-bitsy plans. Customers are always aware of how much time they have left on their phone. There are no activation fees. They can be purchased at over 60,000 retail locations and online. In the event you do not add a TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime card every 60 or 365 days, service will be suspended until you add a TracFone Prepaid Wireless Airtime card, at which time they will reactivate your service and assign you another wireless phone number.
Sprint: This prepaid is as close to the normal one as can be found. Users pay a deposit up to $150, which is their credit line. Users then get the same plans available to other customers. The differences run in that if the consumer goes over their limit without making a payment or are tedious making a payment; their service is turned off until the bill is clear. Users have access to the Internet and text messaging, if the phone is equipped for them. The drawback to sprint is that the plan can become expensive very easily. Unlimited Internet, text messaging and pictures run around $20 per month. Unlimited nights/weekends cost $5 per month. The first 500 minutes runs around $35. If the phone is purchased online, they usually can be obtained free with a new contract. They do charge a termination fee charged if the service is interrupted for any length of time.
US Cellular: This is one of the best plans on the marker. The costumer buys a kit for around $125, which includes a phone, charger, and minutes. The benefit of US Cellular is the free call me minutes. This means a customer can receive calls for free. All the minutes outgoing are included on their notion. The option is available to add nights/weekends for $5 per month. There is not an option for Internet access or text messaging. Another plan they offer is the $0.10 flat rate plan. The cost comes out about the same except the expiration is 60 days instead of 30.
Cingular/ATT: This thought is similar to the US Cellular plan except they offer a $0.10 rate plan with a $1 per day access charge. They also offer a $.25 per minute plan with no access charge. The monthly concept must be linked to a credit card or checking account.
Boost Mobile: This plan is for the person who wants all the benefits of a phone including a walkie talkie. To have the walkie talkie feature runs $1.50 per day. Calls speed $0.20 cpm during the day and $0.10 cpm nights/weekend. Test messaging is $0.10 to send, Internet is $0.20 per day and does not affect minutes. Voice mail runs the same rate as phone calls, with the exception being calls made from a landline. The target audience for this is urban youth.
Where to purchase Prepaid Cell Phones/Supplies
Some of the best offers for cellular phones and supplies happens online at the real cell phone company. Some offer free phones or discounted phones that are not available in stores. Refill cards are usually the least expensive at outlets such as Wal-mart. The good thing is that supplies are available 24/7 since they can be purchased at a local gas station. Phones can be picked up at any space and activated within an hour. Consumers should have an idea of what plan they are looking for and what they want to pay monthly.
Benefits of Prepaid Cellular
The main serve of a prepaid cell phone is no bill at the demolish of the month. For people with no credit or bad credit, the prepaid cell phone allows a user to have a cell phone without a credit check.
The lack of contract is also a pleasant serve for many users. If a person finds a better phone service they do not have to pay the average $200 termination fee that most cell phone companies require.
Though the targeted audience for most prepaid cell phone service is the minority and the college student, mainstream America is catching on to the conception. It helps with budgeting concerns, can be cheaper in some respects if the company has children they want to have a phone. Little Johnnie can’t run up the bill with $5.95 downloads or staying on the phone all day.
Drawbacks to Prepaid Cell Phones
Until recently, most of the cell phone companies seemed to be punishing people who could not afford to have their service by charging them worthy higher rates for their lack of a contract. The main drawback is the lack of incentives companies give to the prepaid customer. They are not offered free phones, for example. Another thing is that some plans can become expensive if the costumer has to pay daily access fees, or are allowed to go over their minutes.
Do the Math
When doing a comparison it would be wise to have a calculator to figure out which company is the best for the intended user. Some clients may only want a cell phone for emergencies, which might make TracFone the most reasonable, but for Johnny at college who has friends around the world that would be an expensive venture.
US Cellular $40
Cingular $49.99
TracFone $99.98 (2 cards)
Boost $80
Virgin Mobile $50.50
T-Mobile $50
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Dec 13th, 2010. 
With cell phones being so popular among teenagers and adults now and days, you may find that your children want one too. But of course, what would a child need a cell phone for? How about for emergencies? This can include getting separated at the mall, school letting out early, or their car pool being late after school. Is your child riding the school bus this year? They can use their cell phone to call you when they come, so that you know they got to school safely. In addition to having the phone for safety reasons and almost always being able to get ahold of your child, they can feel like a grown up with their very own cell phone. This way, everyone can be happy.
You do not have to go with any cell phone for your child. You can actually find cell phones for kids! That’s right, cellular phones that are designed just for children to employ. This will make the phones gracious and easy for kids to exercise. You can also find cell phone plans that can be good for children, which will work if the phone itself is not quite designed for kids. If you are looking to get your child their own cell phone, then here are a few cell phone plans and cell phones for kids for you to reflect.
FireFly Mobile.
FireFly Mobile is a cell phone company that specializes in cell phones for kids. They only offer one type of cell phone right now, which is the glowPhone. The glowPhone comes in pink or black and has easy to use buttons. This phone has features that will help parents to monitor the use of this cell phone by their children. In addition, it has games, a colored screen, and more. The glowPhone also has five large buttons for calling and navigating through the phone, which makes easy for microscopic kids to consume. You can put your child on three different plans ranging from $0.14 cents per minute to $65.00 a month.
The KidConnect Plan With T-Mobile.
This is actually a cell phone plan for children, rather than actual cell phones for children. With this plan, your child will get 100 minutes that do not roll over. When the minutes are up, they can still call you and receive calls, but you will need to refill their minutes in order for them to use the other features of the phone, such as texting. To send a regular text or describe message, you can trade in some “Whenever Minutes” for texting and picture messages.
Tracfone.
Tracfone does not offer cell phones or cell phone plans for children. However, this could be a good choice for children who are a little older. Tracfone is an affordable prepaid cell phone company. For example, you can purchase 30 minutes and 30 days for $10.00 right online at Tracfone’s website, or 60 minutes and 90 days of service for $20.00 on Tracfone’s website or in retail stores. This will help you to control the minutes your child uses. You can also enroll them in automatic monthly payment plans for as little as $10.00 a month. They have a variety of phones to choose from, starting at $10.00. Depending on your child’s age and what you would prefer, you can find Tracfone cell phones that only allow talking and texting, while others include a camera and are Bluetooth enabled. Which phone, minute cards, and plans you decide will depend on what you want for your child, but Tracfone can be a good prepaid choice for older children.
So as you can see, there are a few choices on cell phones for kids. Whether it be cell phones and plans designed for children, only cell phone plans designed for children, or prepaid cell phones and plans that could work for older children, there is a bit to choose from. Which one you choose will depend on you, your child, and how much parental control you want over your child’s cell phone use. But whichever you go with, be clear it is the best suited plan, phone, and service, so that way your child and yourself will not have any problems trying to contact each other via cell phone.
Sources and more information:
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Dec 11th, 2010.
Most cell phone carriers now have networks that allow for free calls to anyone using the same carrier. These networks are a great for the cell phone companies to keep unique customers and have these customers encourage their friends to join into their network. That helps in sales and retention. The only problem is that a person’s personal friendships are being based on cell phone networks and this is having unintended consequences.
Imagine yourself as a person with a exiguous budget. Your account has 400 peak time minutes and you don’t get any unlimited calls until around 9:00 PM. Therefore, who you call and text message during the day will be defined by who you can call for free. These are the people within your network because you don’t have to burn any minutes to stay in touch with them.
Imagine that half of your friends are outside your network. There is a good chance that half of your friends will receive fewer phone calls than the other half. They are simply more expensive to contact and due to economics they won’t be contacted as much. This is leaving some people out of each other’s social circle. There is definitely an “in crowd” and an “out crowd”.
According to Rich Ling, a sociologist at Telenor’s communication research institute in Norway, cell phones blur the lines of when a conversation starts and when it finishes. Mr. Ling states, “Young people are not just talking for two hours, but they are continually connecting through the day.” The conversations between young people and cell phones are always progressing with multiple messages.
In other words it isn’t impartial one message that is being sent it is multiple messages being sent throughout the day. Therefore, the conversation is continually roving, growing and progressing over longer periods. There is not one initial point of contact and then a definite ruin. The lines of start and finish become blurred and this helps younger people feel connected to each other.
The problem is that those outside the network can’t engage in this ongoing conversation because it costs too much. Therefore they are being excommunicated from their friends. The only time their non-network friends are being contact is just before social events and on the rare occasion someone calls after 9:00 P.M.
Cell phone carriers have not intended to create such ill side effects from their networks. They are unprejudiced trying to increase business. However, all of the country’s largest carriers such as Sprint, Verizon and AT&T utilize such networks which mean that almost all of the cell phone users are being split. The business decisions are having profound effects on how we do business. We as a society have to settle if we are going to let them.
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Dec 1st, 2010.
After graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia and setting up a company to sell used cell phones, Brian Laoruangroch wanted to find minority partners and workers he could trust.
Laoruangroch didn’t have to look far to staff Green Mobile. He picked five members of his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, who also earned their business degrees earlier this year, and he discovered that a brotherhood can create a booming business.
Laoruangroch and his partners found out in June that the Small Business Administration had agreed to relieve a $250,000 loan that will allow the company to expand and originate a similar operation in Champaign, Ill.
“Most people graduate from college and take a nap; these guys opened up a business,” said Jay Edwards, the SBA’s senior area manager.
Edwards and Jim Gann of the University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship helped guide the graduates.
“We gave them their options for funding, watched them practice their presentation and told them to dress for success,” Edwards said.
“They have played a very large role for us,” Laoruangroch said, “including advice before we presented our business notion to banks, counseling about business help in general, helping to prod the SBA to approve our loan guarantee, and letting us do practice business-plan presentations before them and many different members of faculty from the university.”
Laoruangroch, the president and chief operating officer for Green Mobile, said the conception for the business stemmed from a series of mishaps.
“I had broken five or six cell phones, and it was starting to cost a lot of money. I did some research and realized that pre-owned phones on eBay were going for a fraction of the cost” of new replacement phones, Laoruangroch, 23, said. “Being a business student at the time, I made the connection that there’s a need for these pre-owned phones, so I started selling them on eBay myself.”
Last summer Laoruangroch decided to broaden his eBay business and created a Web region. Shortly thereafter he moved into an office at 816 Broadway, above American Shoe, were he brought in 20 of his fraternity brothers as employees.
The company generated more than half a million dollars in total sales over the next six months, he said.
To increase its exposure, Green Mobile opened a kiosk in the Columbia Mall the day after final exams wrapped up at the university in May.
Brandon Scott is vice president of sales and marketing, Davie Holt is general manager of the kiosk, Stephen Sedlak is vice president of Web spot development and chief operating officer, Josh Roberts is the chief financial officer, and Spencer Oberg is the director of purchasing.
“I already had a job lined up after a successful internship and was planning on going help to Kansas City when Brian and Josh convinced me to keep the six of us guys together and make this happen,” Scott said. “I agreed because I wanted to stay young, stay in Columbia, not have a 9-to-5 job, travel and work with my best friends.”
The phones re-sold by Green Mobile are collected from other companies and from drives at churches, schools and corporations. They’re then refurbished with new parts. This blueprint helps keep lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium from leaking out of improperly disposed cells and into the environment.
Green Mobile says all refurbished phones near with free 30-day warranties and are sold at a fraction of the retailer’s price, making Green Mobile the perfect option for people who have lost their phones or just wants upgrades. The cheapest models go for $49.99, and the most expensive, the LG Chocolate, is $249.99.
“Let’s say you break or lose your phone after six months of insurance,” Laoruangroch said. “You would have paid $36 for the six months of insurance, plus a $50 deductible. That’s $86 for a replacement you had insurance on, whereas we sell a lot of phones for under $50. Plus, not everyone has insurance, and even with insurance your phone can only be replaced twice.”
Laoruangroch may be the brainchild behind the business, but he credits many people in his life for his success.
“I’ve had a lot of help along the way to get where I am now,” said Laoruangroch, who served as the MU student body president in 2004. “My parents, the guys I work with … these guys were the most active guys on campus, and each of them brings something to the table. They’re all business savvy, and I trust them.”
The Green Mobile guys all had a surreal moment recently when they all went out to dinner together and saw their commercial on a nearby television. The ad features “Green Mobile Man,” Laoruangroch in a green-and-white superhero suit, venturing out to solve the world’s cell phone troubles.
“We were trying to generate as much attention as possible, and it worked,” Laoruangroch said. “I’ve done commercial acting for about five years, and it was really just one of those things where somebody had to do something ridiculous to get people’s attention. My grandma actually made the spandex superhero outfit.”
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Nov 22nd, 2010.
If you look around you on an everyday street, more and more people are using cell phones. In fact it is extremely rare for someone not to have a cell phone.
New cell phone technology is approaching and in some places has already arrived. Recent technology includes the new cell phone service underground and in subways.
In New York City, one of the biggest complaints about cell phones was that people did not get reception down underground in the subways. Subways are the biggest form of transportation for most of the people in Original York City because they travel from each of the borough to Manhattan where millions of people work everyday. Important business or house calls could not be made and people would not be able to reach each other until they got out of the subway which could be an hour and a half later. There are telephones underground but most of the time they would be out of service.
The cell phone companies are headed by Verizon which leads the pack of cell phone giants in making cell phone reception in the subway systems available to people. In the heart of Manhattan around 5th avenue, cell phone companies have save up reception devices which hold up cell phone calls. The devices bounce the message off of the satellites and to the cell phone receiver.
There are many areas of the subways where service is not reached but pretty soon cell phone companies will make cell phone reception achievable anywhere.
Still the expect is, has American society and culture become too reliant on cell phones? In the dilapidated days as older generations call it, there were no cell phones. There was no email and computers were relatively new and not massed produced. So you ask, how did people communicate with each other? The answer is through the home telephone and letters. People waited until they got home to speak to someone. The word “urgent” when old-fashioned to relate a phone call has been used way too remarkable and its definition has definitely been skewed. Most of the time phone calls are not urgent because they are not a matter of life or death.
American society is becoming scheme too dependent on cell phones. That is not to say that cell phones aren’t important, because they are. However at times they have become downright annoying because people are not accustomed to leaving home without it. In college during a big exam where concentration and silence are a must, a student’s cell phone will go off because they didn’t turn it off. During a professor’s lecture in one of my classes, I counted 5 times that a cell phone rudely went off. Needless to say, the professor got quite annoyed.
In other classes and even in real jobs I see people text messaging their friends instead of paying attention. This is really rude and disrespectful to the person talking. The text message can wait. There is simply no need for it. Earlier this week in May there was a titanic controversy over a school prohibiting students from having cell phones. I think it is a great idea because cell phones are really disruptive and prevent students from learning. If a call is really urgent or a parent needs to relay a really important message to their child, call the school office and they can give the message to the child in one of the classes they are in.
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Filed under Small Business Cell Phone by on Nov 21st, 2010.