I received a dealer email from PagePlus today- the $39.95/month unlimited
Talk/Text plan will be increasing to $44.95 next month (May 18th.) As a
consolation prize, it'll now include "unlimited" MMS (data transfer isn't
included and will presumably come out of the 20MB then become overages.)
There will be no pro-rating- unlimited customers will pay $44.95 on
their first billing cycle that starts on or after May 18th.
Now for the weird loophole- I'll quote the email directly so I don't
misinterpret it:
"All Unlimited Talk n Text hard cards and PINs currently in the
distribution channel will automatically convert to a $44.95 value the
evening of May 18th. After this time they will carry the value of $44.95
when they are replenished, regardless of when they were purchased..."
Unless I'm misreading this, it sounds like you can stall the rate hike by
stocking up on $39.95 Unlimited cards and applying them after 5/18, when
they'll magically increase in value..
On 20/04/10 9:04 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:
> I received a dealer email from PagePlus today- the $39.95/month unlimited
> Talk/Text plan will be increasing to $44.95 next month (May 18th.) As a
> consolation prize, it'll now include "unlimited" MMS (data transfer isn't
> included and will presumably come out of the 20MB then become overages.)
>
> There will be no pro-rating- unlimited customers will pay $44.95 on
> their first billing cycle that starts on or after May 18th.
>
> Now for the weird loophole- I'll quote the email directly so I don't
> misinterpret it:
>
> "All Unlimited Talk n Text hard cards and PINs currently in the
> distribution channel will automatically convert to a $44.95 value the
> evening of May 18th. After this time they will carry the value of $44.95
> when they are replenished, regardless of when they were purchased..."
>
> Unless I'm misreading this, it sounds like you can stall the rate hike by
> stocking up on $39.95 Unlimited cards and applying them after 5/18, when
> they'll magically increase in value..
Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
Todd Allcock wrote:
> I received a dealer email from PagePlus today- the $39.95/month unlimited
> Talk/Text plan will be increasing to $44.95 next month (May 18th.) As a
> consolation prize, it'll now include "unlimited" MMS (data transfer isn't
> included and will presumably come out of the 20MB then become overages.)
>
> There will be no pro-rating- unlimited customers will pay $44.95 on
> their first billing cycle that starts on or after May 18th.
>
> Now for the weird loophole- I'll quote the email directly so I don't
> misinterpret it:
>
> "All Unlimited Talk n Text hard cards and PINs currently in the
> distribution channel will automatically convert to a $44.95 value the
> evening of May 18th. After this time they will carry the value of $44.95
> when they are replenished, regardless of when they were purchased..."
>
> Unless I'm misreading this, it sounds like you can stall the rate hike by
> stocking up on $39.95 Unlimited cards and applying them after 5/18, when
> they'll magically increase in value..
>
Brilliant strategy actually tp create a current revenue bulge! People
run out and stock up on $39 cards...then not use them for months to
come. Kind of like the Post Office encouraging stamp collectors. They
buy lots of stamps they never use...
"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:4bce8839$0$1585$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
> On 20/04/10 9:04 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:
>> I received a dealer email from PagePlus today- the $39.95/month unlimited
>> Talk/Text plan will be increasing to $44.95 next month (May 18th.) As a
>> consolation prize, it'll now include "unlimited" MMS (data transfer isn't
>> included and will presumably come out of the 20MB then become overages.)
>>
>> There will be no pro-rating- unlimited customers will pay $44.95 on
>> their first billing cycle that starts on or after May 18th.
>>
>> Now for the weird loophole- I'll quote the email directly so I don't
>> misinterpret it:
>>
>> "All Unlimited Talk n Text hard cards and PINs currently in the
>> distribution channel will automatically convert to a $44.95 value the
>> evening of May 18th. After this time they will carry the value of $44.95
>> when they are replenished, regardless of when they were purchased..."
>>
>> Unless I'm misreading this, it sounds like you can stall the rate hike by
>> stocking up on $39.95 Unlimited cards and applying them after 5/18, when
>> they'll magically increase in value..
>
> Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
> carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
I doubt it's pressure- Verizon holds all the cards in the MVNO relationship-
if they wanted PP out of the way, they could make it happen. I suspect PP
simply underestimated how much airtime people would actually use if you let
them use all they want.
It's not like PP is buying "unlimited" lines from Verizon and reselling
them- they're buying minutes in bulk. Pulling numbers firmly from my
nether-regions, lets say for sake of example that PP is paying $0.01 for
each minute or text at their bulk rate. If the average unlimited customer
is using 2000 or maybe even 2500 minutes/texts PP is doing ok selling it for
$40. But if that average jumps to 3000 or 3500 PP is in trouble and has to
adjust.
They're probably just a victim of their own success- by offering the 1200
T&T plan for $29.95 (which isn't going up since that has a fixed maximum
cost to PP unlike an unlimited plan) PP has effectively cannibalized their
own customer base by giving lower volume users who might otherwise have paid
$40 for "unlimited" they didn't really need, a lower cost option that fit
their usage better. Those customers might have brought the averages down if
they'd have taken the unlimited plan.
On 4/21/2010 1:08 AM, SMS wrote:
> On 20/04/10 9:04 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:
>> I received a dealer email from PagePlus today- the $39.95/month unlimited
>> Talk/Text plan will be increasing to $44.95 next month (May 18th.) As a
>> consolation prize, it'll now include "unlimited" MMS (data transfer isn't
>> included and will presumably come out of the 20MB then become overages.)
>>
>> There will be no pro-rating- unlimited customers will pay $44.95 on
>> their first billing cycle that starts on or after May 18th.
>>
>> Now for the weird loophole- I'll quote the email directly so I don't
>> misinterpret it:
>>
>> "All Unlimited Talk n Text hard cards and PINs currently in the
>> distribution channel will automatically convert to a $44.95 value the
>> evening of May 18th. After this time they will carry the value of $44.95
>> when they are replenished, regardless of when they were purchased..."
>>
>> Unless I'm misreading this, it sounds like you can stall the rate hike by
>> stocking up on $39.95 Unlimited cards and applying them after 5/18, when
>> they'll magically increase in value..
>
> Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
> carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
>
>
But maybe you aren't aware of the various considerations. Pageplus is
not buying unlimited lines from VZW. They buy time at some bulk
discounted rate and then they resell it as "unlimited". They have to
hope that they guessed right about the total amount of time their
unlimited users would use.
On 22/04/10 4:30 AM, George wrote:
> On 4/21/2010 1:08 AM, SMS wrote:
<snip>
>> Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
>> carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
>>
>>
> But maybe you aren't aware of the various considerations. Pageplus is
> not buying unlimited lines from VZW. They buy time at some bulk
> discounted rate and then they resell it as "unlimited". They have to
> hope that they guessed right about the total amount of time their
> unlimited users would use.
It's not just the upping of the unlimited rates, it's what's happened
with feature phones, smart phones, and InPulse phones. Again, I'm sure
it's not PagePlus that has been the impetus behind all these changes,
but they still are negative changes to what was a service that had very
few negatives.
"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:4bd056cb$0$1614$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
> On 22/04/10 4:30 AM, George wrote:
>> On 4/21/2010 1:08 AM, SMS wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>>> Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
>>> carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
>>>
>>>
>> But maybe you aren't aware of the various considerations. Pageplus is
>> not buying unlimited lines from VZW. They buy time at some bulk
>> discounted rate and then they resell it as "unlimited". They have to
>> hope that they guessed right about the total amount of time their
>> unlimited users would use.
>
> It's not just the upping of the unlimited rates, it's what's happened with
> feature phones, smart phones, and InPulse phones. Again, I'm sure it's not
> PagePlus that has been the impetus behind all these changes, but they
> still are negative changes to what was a service that had very few
> negatives.
Yeah, but that again is an example of being a victim of one's success-
Verizon may have turned a blind eye in the past when people occasionally
bought an Inpulse phone at Walmart and slipped it on PagePlus service, (or,
more likely, had no system in place to prevent it, and didn't consider it
"worth" implementing for such limited abuse) but when PP dealers started
cleaning out the local Walmarts en masse to use Inpulse phines as "Page Plus
phones," Verizon probably got off their butts and made whatever systemic
changes they had to in order to ensure that you can't activate them on
PagePlus.
Probably, the smartphone ban was similar- something always not allowed, but
not worth actively stopping systemically until it was a "problem."
I suspect the free QNC data is also a lot like that- my PagePlus smartphones
get unlimited free 14.4k Quick2Net data, apparently because there's no
existing method in Verizon's systems to "trap" those calls and either block
them or count them against the MVNO (the other Verizon MVNOs seem to share
the same free QNC loophole.) It's been publicized enough on the web that
Verizon has to be aware of it, but it's probably something else not "worth"
bothering with due to low abuse (how many people, other than perhaps me,
would be excited enough by 14.4k data, even if "free" to exploit the
loophole by buying a phone old enough to use it?) Thankfully, given the low
potential for abuse I doubt it'll end anytime before Verizon finally
obsoletes and abandons QNC support entirely.
(In my case, the free QNC is what makes PP so attractive to me as a backup
phone. In addition to the excellent coverage, the free data keeps my email
and Outlook Calendar/Contacts data up to date, so switching between my
"usual" T-Mo smartphone and the PP smartphone is virtually seamless. Even
if I need higher speed data occasionally for whatever reason, I can pay for
that as I go, but leave the email and sync on slower speed, but free, QNC.
Without that, I doubt I'd refill my PP phones. I rarely need them for
voice, even in rural areas. T-Mo coverage and roaming coverage has expanded
so much in the last few years that carrying a backup glovebox phone on
another network just isn't as necessary as it was four or five years ago.)
SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in news:4bd056cb$0$1614
$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net:
> On 22/04/10 4:30 AM, George wrote:
>> On 4/21/2010 1:08 AM, SMS wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>>> Sad to see PagePlus going down the same road as the old TDMA prepaid
>>> carriers like Beyond Wireless. Must be pressure from Verizon.
>>>
>>>
>> But maybe you aren't aware of the various considerations. Pageplus is
>> not buying unlimited lines from VZW. They buy time at some bulk
>> discounted rate and then they resell it as "unlimited". They have to
>> hope that they guessed right about the total amount of time their
>> unlimited users would use.
>
> It's not just the upping of the unlimited rates, it's what's happened
> with feature phones, smart phones, and InPulse phones. Again, I'm sure
> it's not PagePlus that has been the impetus behind all these changes,
> but they still are negative changes to what was a service that had
very
> few negatives.
>
At this new price point, they have considerably more competition in many
areas. In my area, that would be Cricket from Leap Communications,
which is expanding their system at an incredible rate. I don't buy
sellphone service from them, only aircard internet at $40/mo for
unlimited, 600Kbps capped, aircard service on EVDO Rev A. Their phone
service is very competitive with this new rate: http://www.mycricket.com/ http://www.mycricket.com/coverage/maps/wireless
$40/mo gives you:
unlimited
nationwide talk
long distance
plus nationwide text
plus caller ID
plus picture messaging
plus video messaging
plus voicemail
plus call waiting
plus 3-way calling
plus call forwarding
plus 411
plus mobile web
.....lots of things PP doesn't for now LESS money. If you haven't
checked the Cricket maps, lately, take a look as they get wider every
month. Cricket's on its own system. It's 3G footprint is BIGGER than
ATT! Very aggressive....and all unlimited, no funny business!
I'm still on PP because of their really cheap prepaid-as-you-go, but not
very loyal to any company. They still eat Cricket on coverage, of
course, if you travel a lot. They roam on the CDMA carriers off their
system.
--
Creationism is to science what storks are to obstetrics.
PagePlus raises unlimited plan next month. 
Linear Mode
