Verizon to Join The Unlimited Party!?!

Yes, you heard me right. As a special "thank you" to everyone for FINALLY getting off the company's age-old analog network, or rather to, indirectly, the govermnemt for FINALLY letting them close down what was once the universal network on which all cell phones could fall back (such is not the case anymore; new high-end cell phones are generally digital-only anyway) they're offering, or look to be offering, unlimited access at a sweet price. Well, sort of. I also added the "thank you" reasoning.

Rumor has it over at Engadget that the unlimited anytime, anywhere plans will start at $100 for oice, plus access to the small Verizon Mobile Web portal. FOr $20 more you get messaging in unlimited quantity. $20 on top of that gets you other unlimited services like Navigator (GPS), $10 on top of that gets you unlimited data (and we mean unlimited this time, not the notorious 5GB pe rmonth cap), and finally $170 for unlimited overseas data as well, looks like. Family plans are $200 for the first two lines, $100 per line for the next three. Either Verizon is reacting to Sprint's trial of an unlimited everything" plan for $120 per month, which is actually giving as many features as the $150 plan on VZW but is only available in limited areas, or Verizon wants to edge out Page Plus Cellular's $90-ish-per-month unlimited offering. Probably the former of those two reasons, but it might also be competing with AT&T's iPhone sales, putting up a plan that cannibalizes VZW's three highest price points (at $100/2000, $150/4000 an $200/6000 dollars/minutes per month) to get everyone's attention and lure people away from AT&T because they have no such plan, unless they launch one in competition.

Regardless, I think this peculiar timing, along with uncapping data, is directly related to ditching analog. Verizon likely wants to appear as though the government was extremely slow in letting the company turn its analog system off, the benefit of increased network capacity far outweighing the cost of a few thousand subscribers whose phones won't work anymore. So with analog off, will we see dramatic rises in quality and quantity of service from the "big two" (AT&T and Verizon) now that they can use that formerly-analog spectrum for other goodies? Will that force the big two PCS carriers (Sprint and T-Mobile) to now load services onto their cheaper, digital-from-the-start networks to compete? To both questions my answer is "please do"; the whole wireless landscape will benefit from such a change.

v9m on CricKet

Making its name as the first unlimited US carrier to offer the phone, or at least the first major one, CricKet now has the Motorola Razr1 v9m. The cost? A cool $379.99. Ouch...but it is about the same as the 1-year upgrade price of the phone on other carriers, plus you get a month of service included if you're signing onto CricKet for the first time. THe question isn't really whether the phone is "worth it, just whether it's worth it to you to shell out nearly four hundred bucks for something not quite as capable as the $400 iPhoe. Though the former runs on an unlimited network and the latter runs on...a nationwide network. Take your pick if you have the dough. I for one am glad to see a high-end phone filter down in the ranks of the unlimited's. Look for it on MetroPCS within five minutes ;)

CricKet and the Moto v265

Yes, there's one more refurbished phone in CricKet's unlimited lineup now: the Motorola v265. The price? $59.99. The verdict? Old but decent when you compare it to the other phones at that price, like the newer, junky, Kyocera K132. Plus it has a camera. That's about it.

Unlimited Access? Nevermind...

You thought $120-per-month unlimited access was great, didn't you? Well, it has been re-limited geographically to the following:

Upper\Central CA
Bay Area CA
Philadelphia PA
Mineapolis MN
Tampa FL

For everyone else, sorry.

MetroPCS + ZTE = CricKet + CompCal

Heard of the two first companies in the equations? Of course. Te second guys? Uh...no.

Today CricKet released the EZ, a $49.99 bar phone from the Taiwanese CompCal. The little guy uses a VIA signaling processor. No vibrate alert, no speakerphone, just a color screen and relatively slim (0.63") profile in a bar design that sets a new low on new-phone cost from CricKet. i'd be surprised if the phone actually can't do vibrate alert, as its CricKet website specs say, but considering you can buy the phone for less than the cost of some of the service plans that could come free for a month with purchase, it could happen.

Recently (probably in the last few days) MetroPCS also added a phone to its lineup. I believe ZTE, though, is a Chinese phone maker. The ZTE C88 is also a higher-end phone than the EZ, and sports a higher price, at $139. Its styling is similar, albeit more thickly-set, and with only a VGA camera, versus the Moto's 1.3 megapixel unit. You could say it's basically a Motorola w385, except with a color external screen, a bigger internal screen (or so it appears) and a $10 price cut. That and a name people will never, ever, recognize.

Unlimited By Sprint - $129

Yes, Sprint now has unlimited...everything...for $129 per month. RIght now it's not on their website...it was just introduced today...but it is definitely out. So if you want Sprint phones instead of Helio phones, and want Sprint's flavor of unlimited minutes, messaging and web, you've got it. So you're now no longer limited to a particular area of the U.S. for unlimited service, nor are you limited to a specific section of less-than-great phones. If you're willing to pay $130 a month that is. To compare, this is about the price of other carriers' 2000-minute plans with a similar level of functionality. Well, other carriers might charge $120 per month or $140, but basically you have to use 2000+ minutes per month, on anytime usage, to make this plan worthwhile. Then again, if you use that much, this is just awesom.

I predict T-Mobile to also roll out an unlimited plan in the near future, probably at a similar or maybe lower price, on their network. Verizon and AT&T? I expect them to sit on their laurels until they rot. Seriously.

Helio, Down to $100

phoneScoop just spotted this but it has been up for awhile. The long and short of it is, everything's unlimited for $99 per month. Plus taxes and fees, if I remember correctly, but it's still an aesome deal on Sprint's network. All of Sprint's network. Even other carriers' networks at the same performance level as on a Sprint contract plan. This is, after all, a contract plan. Except a lot sweeter. You get unlimited o all the below:

Voice
Texting
Picture and Video Messaging
Web
GPS\Google Maps

I've said it before and I'll say it again: while I'm perfectly happy with my smartphone on Sprint's $30-a-month SERO plan (plus $7 for insurance, which netted me a fairly new phone for $50), this is an awesome deal. Hope Helio stays around...