What's that MetroPCS Store?

Welcome MetroPCS to your neighborhood, who, up until now, has only been in a few large markets.  Now they are opening new stores in cities across the country with little promotion.  MetroPCS is now owned by T-Mobile who has absorbed all of Metro’s wireless spectrum as well expanded the name across the country.

I’m not sure what value the name is outside of their old markets since most of us have never heard of them.  They might as well have named it Pete’s Wireless…it would have had the same recognition value.  You may soon see (or have already seen) the new signs and wonder what do they sell there?  In my brief interviews the top answer is, “Computers”,  as in PC’S.  T-Metro has a lot of work to do in publicizing their brand in these new markets and it needs to be a lot more than sponsoring the latest monster truck jam.

MetroPCS gives users an alternative to the mainstream carriers’ deals by offering a good amount of “Unlimited” data in some simple plans AND a store to back up what they sell, even if it’s just a SIM.  So, even though MetroPCS doesn’t really offer the BEST Smart phone deals, they DO offer a way for us to improve our wireless costs (and maybe our phones) and a place to hang out until the rest of the world figures out what these stores are selling.

The New Year Shuffle

One of the things we do at Mountain Wireless is Rate each cellular carrier based on how they perform compared to the others.  As some carriers slip to a lower position, others move up, even if they haven't made any improvements.  Lately, there has been a shakeup among the Top 5 carriers which has resulted in a shakeup in their Ratings at our site.  The actual Rating number isn't that important, but the changes might cause you to reconsider which of the top tier carriers you want to use:

• AT&T has been raised 2 whole places in their ratings over the past 3 months after they have chosen to compete, mostly against the recent moves of T-Mobile, which has resulted in several consumer-friendly features and plans.  They changed the no-contract pricing so you really aren't charged for your phone after you pay it off.  Also, they have some new, lower-priced plans that  appeal to a more modest user.
• Sprint has been dropped one rating point even though they have made significant improvements in their network coverage.  What has given them a lesser rank is their lack of really competitive plans and, for some reason, a whole bunch of consumer complaints.  We can't point to any one factor.  We're guessing they are either having a difficult time finding properly trained help, or  just not enough of them.
• T-Mobile moved up 2 notches over the past 6 months for several reasons.  They made some significant technical changes, part of which was re-aligning their coverage bands to support the iPhone.  A year ago they were slacking off, now, under an aggressive CEO, they have become the wireless "disrupter". Not only do they offer a wide variety of competitive prices, they have made the huge move of allowing their customers to roam internationally, either Free or at a reasonable rate.  Remember when free nationwide roaming across the US was a big deal?
• Verizon has lost one position in the Ratings mainly because they have chosen to the be "premium" carrier, and with their superior coverage across the US, especially at 4G, they have earned that higher value.  But the price-sensitive customer has much better places to go.
• US Cellular keeps moving forward even though we reduced them from the lofty Top position in the Ratings earlier last year.  We were ready to drop them again but finally offering the iPhone brought them back into keeping their lofty position by giving something that keeps customers from escaping.

We expect these competitive positions to change over the next year as pricing becomes more important than coverage. What great times we live in!

Revol Wireless Pulls the Plug

Another small wireless carrier, Revol Wireless has thrown in the towel. Based in Cleveland. their own network served several cities around the Great Lakes (but not Chicago).  Sprint has come in to grab a few customers (or all of them?) by converting several of the Revol stores into Boost Wireless outlets.  Boost has extended an offer of a free phone and a free month of service to Revol users, but they need to move fast.  The deadline for switching to Boost is Christmas Eve.  Long lines are forming at the Boost stores...just what we need in the busy holiday season.

Even if you can't wait in line or if you miss the deadline, you have until January 16th to switch to any carrier and keep your current number.  After that, it's all gone.  We're betting every carrier in town will welcome Revol users but they won't have the prices Revol users were enjoying.  Don't expect to be able to use your old phone, so get ready to start with a new phone and a new carrier.  Call it it a forced Christmas present to yourself.

"Revol" was supposed to introduce a "Revolution" in the wireless industry, but other carriers revolved as well. The loss of another carrier is a sad thing but what's even sadder is that when a company like Revol goes away it usually means users will be absorbed into one of the major carriers.  At least you can keep away from the contracts with the low-priced carriers listed at Mountain Unlimited.

How Much Data Do You Need?

It wasn't long ago that most wireless carriers offered Unlimited Data plans.  Then they found out just how much we would use if given free access to the Data buffet.  Since then there have been caps put on Data usage which should give us reason to at least think about how much Data we need.  It was during the Unlimited Data revolution we created the Mountain Unlimited web site to capitalize on what was then the novelty of Unlimited data plans.

Now with almost every carrier offering some kind of "Unlimited" Data, we decided instead to help you find the cheapest Data plans.  We arranged them by price.  Yes, you can get Unlimited Data for $25 (or less!) as long as you're willing to make some tradeoffs.  We searched for the best plan at each price point.  For example, at $40 per month MetroPCS offers 500 Mb of Data before getting "throttled" down to 2G speeds.  But we link to SIMple Mobile who offers 2.5GB before getting the throttle.  None of these plans don't require a contract.

The average wireless smart phone user gobbles up just less than 2GB of data per month and, of course, we expect that to increase, especially with the wider availability of 4G service. The bigger the plate and the bigger the buffet table, the more we can consume.  We'll help you find the best buffet price.

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.