DailyTech - Boost Mobile Introduces $50 Unlimited Voice, Data Plans

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Gadgets Boost Mobile Introduces $50 Unlimited Voice, Data Plans
Michael Barkoviak - January 16, 2009 7:46 AM

26 comment(s) - last by PrepaidWireles.. on Jan 20 at 5:41 PM

Boost Mobile offers a new voice and data plan for a mere $50 per month

Sprint Nextel's Boost Mobile will launch a new unlimited nationwide calling plan for just $50, in the company's effort to undercut competing services.

"Wireless consumers know there's a lot of wrong out there -- activation fees, overage charges and extra costs for services like voicemail and roaming," Boost Mobile Matt Carter said in a statement. "Unlike some other prepaid services, our new flat-rate plan will not include any of those charges."

The Boost Mobile $50 unlimited plan includes unlimited text messages and mobile Web access, and will begin on Thursday, January 22.

Boost Mobile is more geared towards younger phone owners, but the company believes its $50 unlimited plan will help convince older users to sign up for the plan. Sprint has consistently lost subscribers who have switched to AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.

"The Boost Mobile Monthly Unlimited plan offers consumers straightforward pricing and predictable payments on a true nationwide network with no restrictions of a local calling area," continued Carter.

The company already offered an unlimited service plan, but it was restricted to certain geographic locations in the United States. Leap Wireless's Cricket and the MetroPCS Wireless services have services that are limited to geographic location for prices around $60.

Boost had 3.9 million customers prior to Q4, and Sprint plans to attract more users with the low price, but didn't announce how many customers it plans to add.

T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless have launched similar unlimited calling plans, though the price is usually near $100. Even the Sprint "Simply Everything" plan for $100 includes unlimited calling, internet data plan, and unlimited text messaging. Phone service providers are instead focusing on convincing subscribers to sign up for data and text messaging plans.

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the catch is...

By Screwballl on 1/16/2009 9:57:29 AM , Rating: 2

This $50 plan is for the text and web access, I suspect you will have something like 250 or 500 minutes monthly of talk time before they nail you with overage fees. The $100 plans usually include unlimited talk time, plus unlimited texts and web access.

RE: the catch is...

By FITCamaro on 1/16/2009 10:08:26 AM , Rating: 2

500 minutes is more than enough if you have unlimited in network calling and all your friends use the service. Granted most people aren't on Boost.

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RE: the catch is...

By Archane on 1/16/2009 12:42:55 PM , Rating: 2

The catch is actually more on the lines of "Unlimited phone calls from your local home calling area."

Lets ponder this for a second. So you can make free nationwide calls. But only from a 25-mile radius of your house (gues-timate).

Straight from Boost's site: "What is your home calling area?" - "This is the geographic area that you have chosen at activation and where you can make and receive unlimited calls. Check out the coverage maps on our plans section. Click on your plan and then the 'coverage map' button. Your home calling area is the dark orange shaded area. So, when we say you can make Unlimited Local and Long Distance calls from within your Home Calling Area, we mean that you can call anyone, anytime of day or night, for as long as you want when you are in this area. If you make or receive calls when you are located outside of your home calling area you will be charged 15¢ traveling rate per minute."

Nice, so if you make calls from Florida even though you live in Maine, your screwed. Have fun getting charged a boatload on your vacation.

So, obviously, they offered a service for that - You can add a calling area for an extra 5 bucks a month. I mean its not too bad of a catch, but they are trying to advertise their service as a "no extra hidden fee" kinda thing, even though they are managing to sneak a bunch of stuff in there.

Just my two cents.

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RE: the catch is...

By wmstein on 1/16/2009 2:24:49 PM , Rating: 3

If you read the press release it says "no local calling area restriction".

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RE: the catch is...

By Spivonious on 1/16/2009 10:54:05 AM , Rating: 1

I don't have a cell phone, but on my home phone my wife and I use on average 120 minutes a month. Unless you're doing business on the phone, why do you need more?

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RE: the catch is...

By Alphafox78 on 1/16/2009 11:16:36 AM , Rating: 2

you need more if you make more than 2 calls a month.

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RE: the catch is...

By Hieyeck on 1/16/2009 11:28:34 AM , Rating: 5

^ must be a girl

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RE: the catch is...

By Samus on 1/16/2009 4:00:41 PM , Rating: 2

haha, so true!

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RE: the catch is...

By wmstein on 1/16/2009 2:26:32 PM , Rating: 2

Read the press release.. "unlimited voice, text, web access"

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RE: the catch is...

By Hyraxxx on 1/19/2009 11:42:51 AM , Rating: 2

The catch is, you are limited to a calling area, no free picture or video messaging. other minutes are 15 cents.

I looked at it, and this would be perfect for the east coast, like NJ NY or Boston. But when i move hundreds of miles every few months... it's not an option for me.

I am unclear if you would be charged for receiving calls out of your local calling area.

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RE: the catch is...

By PrepaidWirelessGuy on 1/20/2009 5:41:33 PM , Rating: 2

How about this...no catch! Unlimited voice, web, text, picture messaging (i.e. MMS), no home calling area, no reload fees, no telco taxes added....Not sure where people are getting these other stats from...? ;-). I've tried to summarize the details here:

http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com/compare-unli...

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Quality?

By Oobu on 1/16/2009 8:09:38 AM , Rating: 1

So the price is $50, which is more than enough to make most people paying current rates for unlimited calling eyes pop out of their head. So what's the CALL QUALITY like though, and signal reception? Anyone have them? Of course location is the major factor here.

RE: Quality?

By ice456789 on 1/16/2009 8:13:10 AM , Rating: 2

It would be the same as Sprint. Much of the call quality and reception has to do with the phones though, and Boost doesn't have the greatest phones.

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RE: Quality?

By Souka on 1/16/2009 2:27:30 PM , Rating: 1

"Boost"... not "Sprint Boost"... sprint has been rated a poor carrier overall, many many people are leaving and sales are dropping.... no wonder they're just calling it "Boost"

In a month it'll be called "Bailout" or "Bankrupt"

I deal with Sprint a few times a week as part of my job... GOOD GOD THEY SUCK! T-Mobile and AT&T I work with too.. soo much easier to work with...Verizon is fine too, but I only work on their stuff ocassionaly.

My $.02 of several years experience with these companies...

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RE: Quality?

By wmstein on 1/16/2009 3:05:36 PM , Rating: 2

It never was Sprint Boost, it is a company that uses the legacy Nextel network. The main cellular companies never associate their name with the prepaid services that use their network.

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RE: Quality?

By therealnickdanger on 1/16/2009 8:25:26 AM , Rating: 2

I've been a Sprint customer since 1997 or so, quality and reception have never been a problem for me (no dead zones where I live/travel, no dropped calls). I've lived in urban and rural areas without issue. Sometimes I lose EVDO service in the boonies, but 1X-mode never fails. At one point I threatened to go to Verizon in order to get the black RAZR (back then it was the sh*t), but Sprint countered with an offer I couldn't refuse:

Free Samsung A900
1000 anytime
unlimited Sprint-to-Sprint
unlimited n/w @ 7pm
unlimited text
unlimited (limited) Internet
$45/month
PLUS a $100 service credit (they had some trouble shipping the phone to me because it wasn't even available in stores yet)

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RE: Quality?

By FITCamaro on 1/16/2009 9:02:46 AM , Rating: 2

Nice plan. I used to work for Sprint and we had them too. But for some reason we could just not get reception in my parents house even with good phones. We switched to Verizon and that problem went away. Now my whole family and most of my friends are on Verizon. So I just have 450 minutes and I barely use minutes.

I'd like to get a data plan but I just don't want to pay $75 for a phone each month.

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RE: Quality?

By Spivonious on 1/16/2009 10:52:31 AM , Rating: 2

My plan has

500 minutes a month to anyone
freedom from being connected at all times

$14.99 a month.

www.vonage.com

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RE: Quality?

By Alphafox78 on 1/16/2009 11:15:37 AM , Rating: 4

vonage has cell phones now? who knew...

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RE: Quality?

By xii on 1/16/2009 11:19:42 AM , Rating: 2

Yeah, well in that case Skype is $10/month for unlimited calls to landlines in 36 countries. This works with compatible wifi mobiles

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Reality Check

By Archane on 1/16/2009 12:35:12 PM , Rating: 2

Well, I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but Boost Mobile does not use the same network as Sprint does.

Back in the day, Sprint used to use to use the PCS network, otherwise known as the 1900Mhz band. They sold that network off to Omnipoint, which is now known as T-Mobile. Now, they actually use a simple CDMA setup, using the 1xRTT 2g network, and the EV-DO network for 3g data transmissions.

Boost Mobile actually functions off of the OLD iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) that was released in 1994 by Motorola. Not only is the network old, but no other provider offers it, which pretty much means that the towers you can roam off of Sprint, are unavailable with Nextel/Boost Mobile. The network is slower than its 3g counterparts in terms of data transmission, so don't expect blazing speeds either - in the areas where you can actually get a connection.

For instance, take a look at this coverage chart.

http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?language=EN

Compare the Nextel and the Sprint charts. Tell me which one would you prefer?

RE: Reality Check

By wmstein on 1/16/2009 2:18:11 PM , Rating: 2

Sprint still uses 850 and 1900 bands.

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RE: Reality Check

By StevoLincolnite on 1/17/2009 3:42:40 AM , Rating: 2

"At the end of 2006 Boost launched its Boost Unlimited Service. The service offers unlimiting calling for $50 to $70 a month, depending on whether the customer chooses to add unlimited texting and unlimited web. Generally, Boost Unlimited usage is limited to the local geographic region where the account holder resides, and national roaming charges apply outside this area."

- Taken from wikipedia, so am I missing something in the Article or is Dailytech slow? o.0

I live in Australia, and Boost basically resells the Optus Network, which up until a month or 2 ago has been working amazingly well, now call quality and signal loss is the norm, hopefully Optus fixes the issues, otherwise Telstra might be the savior of the day with it's high prices...

My First Mobile Phone was with Boost Mobile, but that would have been a good many many years ago now.

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$50

By TheSpaniard on 1/16/2009 7:59:43 AM , Rating: 2

see thats what the unlimited plans should have been from the get go

$99 was way more than any bill Ive ever had for 4 people

The phones though...

By nvalhalla on 1/16/2009 8:59:39 AM , Rating: 2

I'm a long time Sprint customer with a grandfathered SERO plan and even I am tempted by this deal. The only problem I see is the phones. I went to their website and saw 3 phones under the unlimited area and all were old flip phones. I have a PDA phone and would not be able to go back to such an old style. My wife likes the keyboard on her phone too much to switch too. Get some better phones and I'm sold!