H20 vs. PlatinumTel ? Which is better?

[T2GWireless]

Hello everyone!

I've been selling H20 for about 6 months now, and I love their service. their coverage is outstanding in areas that even PagePlus struggles with, and the wide variety of compatible devices is rivaled by none (except PagePlus).

Recently, I have been looking for other carriers, because I am about to oust Simple Mobile and Air Voice from my stores. I realize Air Voice is a Michigan company and my stores are in Michigan, but they don't offer unlimited, which is a major issue, compared to my other carriers such as Boost, Virgin, Page Plus, H20, etc.

I stumbled upon PlatinumTel recently, and while data is not unlimited, the plans are very similar to H2O. I thought that PlatinumTel might be a good alternative to keep around because of their "Hybrid" plans. I like how they have these "Hybrids" as a sort of inbetween for someone who needs more than Pay by the Minute/megayte, but doesnt need or want unlimited. I also like how you can buy "add-ons" if you wanted a bit more with your hybrid plan.

Do you think I should add platinum tel to my stores? Do you guys have any experiences with them?

[fv22652]

Mitchell,

I just switched from Virgin Mobile PayLo to PlatinumTel PayGo. The rates are great for the service I need. I wish I would have found them sooner. I did post over in the Virgin Mobile forum about moving to PlatinumTel.

Fort

[fonezfonz]

Hello everyone!

I've been selling H20 for about 6 months now, and I love their service. their coverage is outstanding in areas that even PagePlus struggles with, and the wide variety of compatible devices is rivaled by none (except PagePlus).

Recently, I have been looking for other carriers, because I am about to oust Simple Mobile and Air Voice from my stores. I realize Air Voice is a Michigan company and my stores are in Michigan, but they don't offer unlimited, which is a major issue, compared to my other carriers such as Boost, Virgin, Page Plus, H20, etc.

I stumbled upon PlatinumTel recently, and while data is not unlimited, the plans are very similar to H2O. I thought that PlatinumTel might be a good alternative to keep around because of their "Hybrid" plans. I like how they have these "Hybrids" as a sort of inbetween for someone who needs more than Pay by the Minute/megayte, but doesnt need or want unlimited. I also like how you can buy "add-ons" if you wanted a bit more with your hybrid plan.

Do you think I should add platinum tel to my stores? Do you guys have any experiences with them?

Air Voice is now offering "unlimited" again. Their brief foray into the being honest about unlimited on mvnos thing probably didn't work out marketing wise. If a plan is over 1500 minutes, it has to be unlimited in this day and age or people won't bite it seems...even if it really isn't. Air Voice kills most of the other mvnos on CS though...I'd rather use them then H20 for most of their plans though H20 's $25 plan and year plan are okay .

Ptel has good CS I understand but nowhere near a gsm carrier or Page Plus's byod. A deal breaker for me...

[T2GWireless]

I just saw that Air Voice is unlimited again. But I still am ousting it.

Comparing the plans between Air Voice and H20, theres very little difference in the areas that matter among my customers.

H20 offers 2 gig on their 60, while AV only offers 1.
They both offer the same data on the 50.
H20 offers 20 mb and AV 25mb on the 40. Not much of a difference.

As far as switching from Virgin Pay Lo, as commented about above, no offense, but ANYTHING is better than Pay Lo in my opinion. Usually by the time a customer expresses needs similar to PAy Lo plans, I direct them to Page Plus.

Is there any real other advantage to PlatinumTel? They operate on sprint, like Boost and Virigin, and PagePlus which is on verizon, has better coverage, as well as H20's coverage on at&t.
The only advantage is the closest competition carrying PlatinumTel is an hour and a half away.

[fonezfonz]

[QUOTE=T2GWireless;14863601]I just saw that Air Voice is unlimited again. But I still am ousting it.

Comparing the plans between Air Voice and H20, theres very little difference in the areas that matter among my customers.

H20 offers 2 gig on their 60, while AV only offers 1.
They both offer the same data on the 50.
H20 offers 20 mb and AV 25mb on the 40. Not much of a difference.

As far as switching from Virgin Pay Lo, as commented about above, no offense, but ANYTHING is better than Pay Lo in my opinion. Usually by the time a customer expresses needs similar to PAy Lo plans, I direct them to Page Plus.

Is there any real other advantage to PlatinumTel? They operate on sprint, like Boost and Virigin, and PagePlus which is on verizon, has better coverage, as well as H20's coverage on at&t.
The only advantage is the closest competition carrying PlatinumTel is an hour and a half away.[/QUOTI'


I'd say that a dealer has lower cost wholesale on per H20 sims vs Air Voice but Air Voice kills H20's lousy CS.
Their $10 plan and $35 plan are great values for paygo people and talker/texters who don't need data.

H20's 2 gig plan is hard to pinpoint. There is a lot of speculation that it is capped to full speed at half a gig then throttled to 2g speeds the rest. They are always changing their plans and their CS is crummy so I choose AV over H20 . I'd rather have a gig at full speed (maybe on Red Pocket) then half a gig then the rest on EDGE.) Idk what your customers would think. To each their own...

If I were a dealer, I'd say EVERY Att mvno and if something goes wrong with one of them , migrate them to a better one on short notice. It's always better to have more choices then less, dealer, consumer or otherwise...

[Tjabah]

Try Red Pocket Mobile. Similar to H2O except they don't throttle their data.

[NC_curious]

Well, I had both, and now I have Platinumtel.

The reason I have is cheap data rate, available as paygo. Monthly plans are not that attractive, compare to other companies, but paygo plans with data is really attractive. I bought Samsung Intercept for $59, with $50 airtime credit...

To me, Platinumtel's strength is in low rate calls/texts/data on paygo, and most at&t MVNO's look quite similar to each other. The hardware, is sort of lacking, but for low budget customers, it may not be that bad..

As a consumer, I do like to see meaningful alternatives in one store.. Businesswise, I believe there are more factors you need to consider..

[fonezfonz]

Ptel has good cs and low priced phones /large selection. They lack byod at a Verizon/Att mvno level though and
unlike their prepaid division cousins Boost/Virgin Mobile, no 4G yet either.

[fv22652]

T2GWireless,

No offense taken. If I hadn't stumbled on the spreadsheet comparing Pay-as-you-go plans under the General Prepaid forum, I never would have found out about PlatinumTel. The only cell coverage we have in my area is Sprint, so PlatinumTel is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm on their PayGo plan. If i wanted unlimited text and "unlimited" data I would have stuck with my $25/month Beyond Talk at Virgin Mobile.

I don't need the latest/greatest phone, just one that works well. Same with the plan: I'd rather pay for what I use, rather than a monthly rate. It works for me. I asked my daughter how many texts she sends in a month: 6,000 or so. Obviously the PayGo plan won't work for her. That's why she's on the Beyond Talk plan with Virgin Mobile.

Fort

[gestaltent]

With Platinum Tel getting BYOSD/Bring Your Own Sprint Device, combined with their incredibly low paygo and new upcoming $40 unlimited everything plan, you can't lose. All in December, just in time for Christmas.