The official VM Defectors thread

[cookedgoose]

I've been with Sprint (in one form or another) since 1998. They have been trying to catch up since then.

Let it stay that way so they have to offer something better than the competition.

I sure hope so. VZW's and AT&T's duopoly position mixed with a variety of other competitive factors makes it difficult for Sprint to escape its rut.

If T-Mobile wasn't circling the toilet bowl that 30.00 a month plan would have never been born.

I didn't mention T-Mobile, but now that you bring it up, T-Mobile has historically always been a fringe player. Hardly comparable to Sprint even though one can easily point to the bare fact that T-Mobile is actually profitable. With respect to postpaid customers, they've always been marginalized.


The $30/month plan had to come about one way or another. T-Mobile had to distinguish themselves from the big 3 one way or another. The $30/month plan was their hand to play. And from what we can see, it's working and it's paying off. Not having an iPhone or the requisite higher-priced plans to subsidize it will be a constant for long while--there's no need to raise that point as it's been discussed to death. But as far as the $30/mo plan is concerned, I can see the logic behind it. No need to deal with the administrative costs of subsidizing a phone, just let the informed customer shoulder that aspect of "control" away and pocket the profits. A good businessman knows how to play the cards he's dealt and improvise in response to difficult circumstances. The $30/month plan is exactly what the market has needed for a long while: broadband mobile internet with flexibility. Tack on access to a mix of not-half-bad devices, and you have a recipe for satisfied consumers like me.


So really: It's not T-Mobile that's in the spinning toilet bowl. T-Mobile didn't get a degraded stock rating or several recommendations to sell their stock. They didn't make any short-sighted expensive acquisitions within the past decade that later proved to be pointless. And you know sh-- has hit the fan when a major financial institution notes a risk of bankruptcy. No one denies things aren't looking rosy for T-Mobile. But they're refarming spectrum and cutting deals for more spectrum. As long as they keep making the right plays, they should be able to continue surviving and possibly even thriving going into 2013.

[billm261]

Virgin Mobile once prided themselves on comparing themselves to the "competition" and showing how much money you saved by switching to them.

Heck, a Motorola Triumph costs $280, new. A dual-core 4.7" NFC-enabled Galaxy Nexus costs $400, no contract.

Is Virgin Mobile terrible? No. It's borderline. Terror would have me without a phone, period.

Sprint blew the doors wide open in 01/2009 with Boost IDEN and Virgin Mobile and like in any other market competition caught up. What should their encore be?

You don't price a product on what it's worth but what the market will allow. Apple is the prime example.

Same goes for the Triumph that was never worth 299.99 and is still priced 81.00 too high IMO. The Nexus looks awesome and priced fairly but then again, the bean counters must think it's all the market will bear. There could also be an Apple factor too.

Your carrier choices according to you are limited so maybe you don't have much of a choice. If your in a small rural town what choices (other than having no phone) do you have?


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[503ducati]

Sprint blew the doors wide open in 01/2009 with Boost IDEN and Virgin Mobile and like in any other market competition caught up. What should their encore be?

You don't price a product on what it's worth but what the market will allow. Apple is the prime example.

Same goes for the Triumph that was never worth 299.99 and is still priced 81.00 too high IMO. The Nexus looks awesome and priced fairly but then again, the bean counters must think it's all the market will bear. There could also be an Apple factor too.

Your carrier choices according to you are limited so maybe you don't have much of a choice. If your in a small rural town what choices (other than having no phone) do you have?


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True, Sprint continues to add more prepaid subscribers than anyone. If a rival offers something more competitive, then based on previous actions, I'd suspect Sprint would at least match it. As of the 1st quarter that hasn't happened though, only T-Mobile has yet to release their quarterly metrics(May 10th).

[AndroidFoneFan]

I know providers post paid customers are their priorities, but I wonder if priorities would change if their prepaid numbers passed their post paid.
If that were to happen and they had more prepaid customers, would the PreP customers start getting the better or at least equal quality service or would the PreP customers still have to scrounge from the bottom of the barrel like they have to now?

A what if from the unknown future.

[wolfboyz]

I just switched to T-Mobile's $30 plan and all I have to say is, holy-moly!

[cookedgoose]

I just switched to T-Mobile's $30 plan and all I have to say is, holy-moly!

Yep. I faced similar improvements when I switched.

The nice part? That's not even the fastest it'll go in specific cities. I've seen HSPA+ 42mbps phones go as fast as 25mbps in SF!

[JDubTrey]

TM needs to come out with a $30 plan that's more of a balance between data and voice. In fact, if TM had the VM $35 plan, I'd consider jumping.

If TM had a $30, 300 minute, 1GB plan, I'd be ecstatic.

If TM had VM's $45 plan, I'd be gone yesterday.

[kpw]

I just switched to T-Mobile's $30 plan and all I have to say is, holy-moly!

Very impressive! Based on the respective coverage maps, would you expect that big a difference for your area?

[TheCellphoneGuy]

I just switched to T-Mobile's $30 plan and all I have to say is, holy-moly!

Nice. This is the fastest I got so far.

http://www.speedtest.net/android/178458468.png

Oddly enough, the cellphone tower, that I ran this test on, broke the next day and wasn't fixed until Friday. A friend of mine was laughing that I broke it using these kinds of speeds

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[kinzue]

"wolfboyz" I just switched to T-Mobile's $30 plan and all I have to say is, holy-moly!

Which phone did you get ?

[jkool]

Yea, TM's $30 plan does not have near enough minutes for me and that squashes the deal. Looked into the $50 plan but to get throttled to 100kbs after 100mb is so lame. I came from a premium TM plan to VM and it was painful. I am 4 days away from finishing up my first month of ST service and the speeds are great and service is to, although I had a few times when texts never went/came through unless it was not on my end?. Funny though, I used watch dog and I wifi when I heavy use which truthfully is not that much and in 1 months time I only used 550mb of data. I use data quite a bit imo and I was floored to see how actually little I really use. I can't imagine how people can use 5gb and over.....wow.

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[wolfboyz]

Which phone did you get ?

Galaxy Nexus. Battery life is superior to the Triumph so far too despite the larger screen

[corrupt81]

Yea, TM's $30 plan does not have near enough minutes for me and that squashes the deal. Looked into the $50 plan but to get throttled to 100kbs after 100mb is so lame. I came from a premium TM plan to VM and it was painful. I am 4 days away from finishing up my first month of ST service and the speeds are great and service is to, although I had a few times when texts never went/came through unless it was not on my end?. Funny though, I used watch dog and I wifi when I heavy use which truthfully is not that much and in 1 months time I only used 550mb of data. I use data quite a bit imo and I was floored to see how actually little I really use. I can't imagine how people can use 5gb and over.....wow.

Sent from my T01A using Tapatalk

Can't imagine how people use 5GB in a month? Really?

I started with the TMO 2GB data plan and after working just TWO days a week and streaming Pandora at work for 8 hours (times 8 days a month) I was finding myself hitting the 2GB cap.
I had to upgrade to the 5GB cap, which I'm hitting now as I also stream Netflix at work.

Between my online gaming, streaming music and movies, and of course regular web browsing, it's not hard at all to hit 5GB.. and that's not even including tethering. If you tether a couple windows, WOW, or PS3 updates alone will cost you your allotted monthly 5GB!

[cookedgoose]

Can't imagine how people use 5GB in a month? Really?

I started with the TMO 2GB data plan and after working just TWO days a week and streaming Pandora at work for 8 hours (times 8 days a month) I was finding myself hitting the 2GB cap.
I had to upgrade to the 5GB cap, which I'm hitting now as I also stream Netflix at work.

Between my online gaming, streaming music and movies, and of course regular web browsing, it's not hard at all to hit 5GB.. and that's not even including tethering. If you tether a couple windows, WOW, or PS3 updates alone will cost you your allotted monthly 5GB!

It's sad that the industry duopoly created by VZW and AT&T and their data caps have indoctrinated us to believe 5gb is a lot. Let me tell you guys something: It's not.


With the way smartphones today are becoming more and more powerful and speedier, 5gb before we know it will become not enough for a good chunk of smartphone users. Even people ST are reportedly finding that the de facto 2gb monthly is stupidly insufficient.

[GloryImSaved]

All I know is, I'm not paying $55/mo for prepaid.