AT&T Plans Better Value

Like T-Mobile and some Prepaid services, AT&T has introduced plans that separates the subsidy for your phone and the price of your plan. AT&T calls them "Mobile Share Value Plans" plans, but they mean better prices, especially for those of us who don't adhere to a 2-year phone replacement schedule.  Whether you want a non-contract plan or a bring-your-own-device offer, you can save a noticeable amount of money compared to the old way of pricing phones.  Unless you replace your phone ever 24 months, you either got a penalty for upgrading early, or keep paying for a phone long after it was paid off.

This puts more pressure on Sprint and even more on Verizon who still tie their plans to the phone purchase.  I will admit, this may mean the end of free or $100 to $200 phones, but most carriers let you pay these off in a more transparent way: when the phone is paid for, your payment drops.

AT&T, who, in our opinion, still needs to make more technical upgrades in their network (and they are making them), moves up one step in the Mountain Wireless Carrier Ratings.  Offering better value helps make up for some of their other shortcomings.  At the same time, Verizon Wireless leaps ahead in their network quality and I'm sure they're thinking if we want the better network, we'll pay for it.  Hey, the other wireless networks are getting better, too. It just may be good enough when it's priced better as well.

Westlink Wireless Gives Up

Instead of complaining about the passing of another wireless operator, we note whether an ownership change is good or bad for the wireless user.  In the case of Westlink Wireless of southeast Kansas, wireless service is about improve significantly.  United Wireless of Dodge City, KS has acquired all of the assets of Westlink.  Westlink was owned by Pioneer Communications and United is operated by the United Telephone Association.  Westlink and United serve approximately the same area with cellular coverage, but the United network is far more advanced.

According to Jeff Renner, Wireless Manger, United Wireless offers 3G and 4G-LTE coverage.  When Westlink customers get a new CDMA phone to replace their old GSM phone, service will improve dramatically.  Westlink decided not to upgrade their wireless network and when all their customers switch over to United phones, they will just turn off the old GSM network.  This could cause a big hole in GSM coverage across the southwest Kansas area which could cause some trouble for GSM roamers caught unaware.  We believe there is, or will be, new GSM coverage in the area, so all should not be lost.

We're happy to hear that United has built such a sophisticated network and hope that local customers will support a homegrown business.  They'll get great local coverage and still be able to roam away from home.  As a result, we also upgraded United's Rating on our Mountain Wireless Ratings.

911: Emergency Services Still Can't Find You!

A recent article about 911 calls not showing location data reveals a disturbing trend.  Location information that is relayed to emergency call centers from wireless phones has been declining over the past few years, instead of increasing.  This report refers specifically to California callers but is technically indicative of what may be happening across the nation.  Generally, AT&T and T-Mobile are reducing the reported location of their customers dramatically, while Verizon and Sprint are increasing theirs slowly.  Combined, the performance of all networks is still somewhere below 50% which is far less than what the FCC hoped would be achieved by now.

This tells us that the first thought that should come into your mind during a 911 call is to tell your location.  You could "register" your cell phone number to a specific address but that has limited usefulness to a mobile society.  The California situation points toward the cellular networks as the weak link in the process.  Government units have been upgrading their call centers, users have been upgrading their phones, and the wireless carriers claim their are upgrading their networks.

The only variable that comes to mind is that users are using more data than making calls.  Are the carriers' abilities to track us slipping by focusing on broadband, or is something else going on?  Don't depend on them to save your life.  Be aware of where you are, even in the city.

AIO Wireless: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

AT&T has decided to discontinue their new AIO (All In One) Wireless if their acquisition of Cricket Wireless is approved by the FCC. We're not certain why AT&T needs 2, let alone 3 Prepaid brands, but there must be some mysterious value.  I know they hope to hold on to the millions of Cricket customers.  Beyond that, we'll guess that Cricket will eventually look like what AIO looks like...which looks like what GoPhone looks like but with plans rearranged to attract a different audience. Yes, much like the re-arranged deck chairs on the Titanic.

In comparison, Sprint has succeeded in maintaining 2 separate Prepaids, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile.  Sprint's new Prepaid entry, Sprint As You Go, is directed to yet another category of Prepaid users, but for the life of me I can't tell who that is.  Could we call it "Sprint Without a Contract?"  T-Mobile jumped in with GoSmart Mobile even though they had their own excellent T-Mobile-branded Prepaid and they also just bought MetroPCS.  The Metro purchase made sense because it came with a batch of well-placed spectrum.  GoSmart, none.  We're not going to mention the half-dozen Prepaid services from America Movil.

When a wireless company buys a chunk of spectrum it makes sense to keep as many of the customers that comes with it as possible.  Creating a new wireless brand, one that will compete with your existing business, makes no sense.  We predict these Prepaids-without-a-purpose are doomed, and AIO is the first to fall. Guess which is next.

PrePaid Moves Closer to Mainstream

A few months ago we noted the transition of Prepaid toward the new normal.  At that time we consolidated all of our Prepaid data to one site, Mountain Prepaid.  We still maintained some reviews for the largest prepaid service like TracFone on the Mountain Wireless Review pages, but now those have been moved to Mountain Prepaid as well.

In expanding the Prepaid site to include a much larger number of prepaid services, we noted that some primary regional and local carriers only offer prepaid plans.  This has the increased effect that soon we may no longer know, or care, about whether a carrier is Prepaid or not.  The top tier carriers are making the difference less clear by introducing their own separate brands of prepaid wireless.  In order to provide a certain level of transparency we divided Prepaid between that offered by the major carriers and that offered by independent companies.

Interestingly, one of those "independent" companies, America Movil, is a "major" carrier in other countries further blurring the line between primary and secondary carriers.  MetroPCS and Cricket have always been "prepaid", but now they are (or soon will be) the Prepaid arm of other major carriers.  Where do they fit now? With each of the largest carriers beginning to disassociate the purchase of the wireless phone from the monthly plan, we feel that postpaid accounts may soon fall into the minority within all US wireless companies.  Then we'll be stuck.  "Prepaid" won't mean anything different and we'll need to put all the carriers back together again. Humpty Dumpty would be proud.

AT&T Hopes to Put Element Out of Its Misery

AT&T has agreed to take control of Element Mobile.  Credit goes to Fierce Wireless who reports that Element will become Lake Mobility which will be mostly owned by AT&T.  This means yet another exchange of handsets for customers in the central Wisconsin area but this time the switchover should be much more friendly.

Element Mobile was created by the owners of the spectrum in this Wisconsin area who refused to sell their license to Verizon as part of its acquisition of Alltel Wireless.  The conversion was a nightmare for former Alltel customers and our Ratings for the network has been among the lowest of all wireless carriers in the US based on how badly they treated their old Alltel customers.

In the meantime, both AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been encroaching into the Element area and their days seemed to be numbered.  This should mean better days for Wisconsin wireless customers and enables us to say this is one small carrier that will be better put to sleep.

US Cellular Drops Customer-Friendly Policies

US Cellular has become less customer-friendly, especially with the quiet end of their "Belief Project".  Credit goes to Engadget for noticing the changes.  US Cellular has long sat at the top of Our Reviews and achieved a perfect "10" in the Mountain Wireless Ratings.  The end of the Belief Project and things like free battery exchanges makes US Cellular more like the major carriers, maybe even a step below until they begin to sell the iPhone.

We thought long and hard about dropping US Cellular's perfect "10" in our Ratings but there are still 2 carriers in that spot.  Being at "9" isn't too shabby and US Cellular could slide back up to a 10 if they make some improvements...or if the other "10's" get worse.  We also looked to see if any of the #9 carriers deserve to move up.  C Spire comes close but their plans are just a little expensive and limited.

We still believe US Cellular provides a great wireless service and selling the iPhone will reduce one of their few negatives. US Cellular also has a cloudy future, especially as they focus more on the bottom line. Even a sale may be difficult now. Their best course of survival would be to become a buyer of other small carriers but that seems unlikely after selling their network and customers in the Chicago to St. Louis areas to Sprint.

Our other remaining "10" rated carriers still offer a superior product but their operations are increasingly affected by outside sources.  Let's hope they can defend the castle for at least a few more years.

Caught With My Numbers Down

Summer travel is over and the kids are back in school.  The family and I had some great experiences "roaming" in different countries.  It was the last trip home where we had our first "hiccup".  In France, I don't use a local SIM, instead I just use my prepaid T-Mobile SIM with my unlocked multi-band GSM phone.  The T-Mobile Wi-fi Calling option works perfectly, completing calls as if I was in the US...when I have wi-fi.

I swear the rest of this is true.  We're on our way back to the airport when we find one of our family has lost his train pass.  What next?.  When we finally got in the train station, and after seeing no trains going to the airport, a kind passerby told us trains to the airport weren't running that day...they were making repairs. What next?

We chose to get on a train that at least got us closer to the airport, hoping for a bus or taxi at the end of the line.  Now this isn't where the fun stopped, but it was where I decided I need to speak with our airline about alternate plans.  Among the scenic fields of rural France I had a generous roaming signal but no broadband and no wi-fi, and no idea of the airline's phone number.  I was prepared for all possibilities...except the airline's non-"800" number.  I could not complete a call to a US "800" number.

After arriving home I added new entries to my travel checklist: phone numbers that you need while traveling, and posted it on our Roaming Zone International Roaming Pages.  Now that I will be traveling with all my necessary phone numbers, you know I'll never need them again.

Oh, and What's Next?  When we finally found a bus and arrived at the airport with almost enough time to check in, our path was blocked by soldiers with machine guns preventing us from using the airport tram because of a bomb scare.  Oh wait, they prefer to call it an "unattended piece of luggage".  Yes, we missed our flight, but once inside the airport, Wi-fi Calling worked again.  The airline, who never heard about the bomb scare, and didn't seem to care, got us on another flight.  Having the right numbers with us would have prevented some sweat-stained clothes...but that's part of the fun of travel.