boom! Mobile

[NathanA]

I'm also assuming no credit for unused months.

Oh, well, sure: you can always *abandon* your existing plan. I mean, even if their system won't let you activate a new plan in its place, you could always port out before the plan is set to expire, and port back in...

I figured my question had "credit for unused months" implied in it.

I certainly wouldn't expect them to refund me for unused months...after all, that's the whole point of asking you to pay up-front for a year. But applying them as credit (in a $-for-$ way) towards a new plan (even if it means resetting my annual start date, so that I'm locked in for another year) doesn't seem like too much to ask...so, that's the real question!

[kevink1]

I'm just used to the prepaid model that a new plan ends your current plan. Some places may allow you to extend the existing plan when you pay for the exact same plan for another 12 months. Since the 12 month 5gb/month plan is less than 1/2 the monthly price on average, I'm assuming that there are no credits. It would be nice if there was.

I had another carrier where I was on a yearly plan and I switched between their GSM and CDMA coverage within a year and I lost the rest of the year. I probably could have escalated it but I was out only about $35. The switch from Red to Blue here only lost the rest of the month (and recurring issues with the billing system. It still thinks I'm on Red on the online page, though I'm actually on Blue. At least through mid November).

I'm also don't think I'm in a 5G area yet, so can wait until February to get new plan.

[NathanA]

I'm just used to the prepaid model that a new plan ends your current plan.

I have never had any experience with annual prepaid, only monthly prepaid, so I'll have to take your word for it. (Not that none of the providers I've used offered annual prepaid, but it's never been attractive enough for me to bite / offset the inconvenience of being tied up for a year.)

To your point, it's true that most providers I've dealt with (mostly America Movil brands) will let you EITHER activate a new plan immediately (thus causing you to forfeit the remainder of the month), OR put the new plan into some kind of "reserve", where the new plan takes over the very instant your previous one ends.

To me, this makes perfect sense in a monthly context: if you only paid for X data in a given month, and you end up using it all and can't wait for the end of the month for more data, you can just give up the rest of your month (you're only getting voice and texts at this point anyway, so why not) and start the new one immediately.

But in an annual context, where you are getting a data bucket topped up every month that you WOULD be abandoning if you completely left the plan in the middle of it, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable ask to be able to go to the provider and say: "Hey, this plan I committed to for a year isn't working out for me. I thought it would, but it's not...my usage is different now than it was 6 months ago, and it's only continuing to grow. So what I'd like to do is offer to give you MORE money, and pay the difference between the time I haven't used yet and the total cost of this bigger, more expensive annual plan. I'm not asking for a refund, and I even expect you to push my term out for another whole year starting from today."

Not to mention that most prepaid services, in addition to letting you end your current plan prematurely if you wish, almost always ALSO give you the option to buy additional top-up data for the month. Which Boom! BLUE (in any incarnation, not just Xtreme) apparently does NOT. And I've never run into that kind of restriction before, so it's blowing my mind a little bit.

[cnypackerfan]

We will release 3 new unlimited plans within 2 weeks on the AT&T network.

Were these ever released? The plans I see seem to be the ones that have been there, although I may be mistaken. It's been known to happen. (Don't tell my wife I said that!)

[NathanA]

[...]

So, after a couple of back-and-forths with support, it sounds like annual plan upgrading is actually possible. At first, it didn't sound like it was, based on how this first response I got was phrased:

You are always more then welcome to purchase any plan you want at anytime you please however, if you purchase a different plan in the middle of your Xtreme plan you will be forfeiting the remainder of your plan and you will not be eligible for a refund.

...but after I tried to make it clear that I wouldn't be seeking a refund in such a scenario, and was just hoping that I could have my annual start date reset and pay the difference, I was told this:

If you end up upgrading in the middle of a cycle you can apply the remainder and you would just pay the difference in costs.

I don't think the two statements are actually contradictory, when I read them back-to-back: if you do such an "upgrade", you won't get the $ back (fine by me), and you will be forfeiting the remainder of the plan (insofar as your annual start date will be reset and the new plan will take over from that day forward). So there you go! That definitely makes this whole annual plan system *much* more attractive if true. I think I'm going to take them at their word and go for it.

I should also mention, for the benefit of anybody following my initial foray into Boom, that I have had my trial BLUE SIM in a not-whitelisted-by-ATT-for-VoLTE model of phone for almost 3 weeks now, and both VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling continue to work, even though the Boom web site has updated the IMEI to reflect the phone that the SIM is currently in (which means ATT surely also knows the SIM is currently in an "unsupported" model)...so big thumbs-up there.

EDIT: ...oh, and also, another thing I'll note here for the benefit of anybody who might care: MMS-over-WiFi works great with Boom BLUE, whereas I never managed to get this to work on ANY phone -- officially-supported by ATT for Wi-Fi Calling or no -- on any America Movil AT&T SIM.

[bennor]

An FYI for those Boom Red users who might have missed the email. Got the following notice from Boom yesterday evening (EST).

"Enhanced System Migration"

We value you and your choice to be a boom! MOBILE customer. We continually strive to improve our users’ experience and offer competitive products. Beginning Tuesday, October 27th, 2020, we will migrate to an enhanced service delivery system which will give our customers the added feature of WiFi Calling, allow the future use of eSIM’s, and 5G capability.

The entire process could take up to 5 days to complete. You should not experience any service interruptions to most primary features. However, one feature will require attention: Your new Voice Mailbox

The information below provides instructions to set up your new Voice Mailbox and related services:

All boom RED customers, here is how to Set Up Your New Voicemail Service:

1. Call *86 from your mobile phone.

2. Press # to interrupt the greeting.

3. Follow the setup prompts to create a new password and greeting.

You've successfully set up your new Voicemail service!

*Visual Voice Mail Users will need to follow your on screen instructions.

Please perform a permanent back up for any current voice messages prior to the migration. Access to the former system will not be possible. We are here to assist you with the process. If you have any issues, please Live Chat or process a Ticket using the form at https://myaccount.boom.us

Thanks allowing us the opportunity to earn your business,
boom! Mobile Support Team

Visit boom.us Support Email us

Copyright © www.boom.us, All rights reserved.

Our Email address is: support @ boom.us

[Steve Sr.]

An FYI for those Boom Red users who might have missed the email. Got the following notice from Boom yesterday evening (EST).

Interesting to know but... WHEN are we supposed to update our VM? How do we know that the VM upgrade is complete? Sort of a USELESS announcement with out this CRITICAL information!

[bennor]

Interesting to know but... WHEN are we supposed to update our VM? How do we know that the VM upgrade is complete? Sort of a USELESS announcement with out this CRITICAL information!

The email does indicate they will start the migration on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020 and that it will take up to five days. But yeah some additional specifics on when exactly people should perform the update would have helped. Probably going to be a lot of people contacting support to clarify certain questions left unsaid by the email.

But the good news is Boom Red is finally getting WiFi Calling. Now of course comes the issue of supported phones. How does one determine if their phone will be supported by VZW?

Post edited to make question more clear.

[october262]

The email does indicate they will start the migration on Tuesday, October 27th, 2020 and that it will take up to five days. But yeah some additional specifics on when exactly people should perform the update would have helped. Probably going to be a lot of people contacting support to clarify certain questions left unsaid by the email. But the good news is Boom Red is finally getting WiFi Calling. Now of course comes the issue of supported phones. How does one determine if their phone is WiFi calling capabable?

try dialing *#*#4636#*#* a secret menu should show, select phone information (may have to scroll down a bit) and you should see some provisioning switches for wifi calling VoLTE ect. this works on most phones but not all

[bennor]

try dialing *#*#4636#*#* a secret menu should show, select phone information (may have to scroll down a bit) and you should see some provisioning switches for wifi calling VoLTE ect. this works on most phones but not all

Probably should have been a bit more clear with my earlier post. It's not so much as if the phone itself will support WiFi calling, rather will VZW support WiFi calling on the phone. It was one of the issues that came up when I was on Verizon in the past. VZW was a bit picky on which phones they would allow to use the WiFi calling or certain other features. They initially limited it to the upper tier phones and left us mid and lower tiered phones folks out in the cold. It was their wink and nudge way of trying to get people to pay or lock in to a higher priced VZW phone.

[kevink1]

Will a customer be able to upgrade to the new 12 pro eSIM from an 11 eSIM for blue without having to contact customer service?

[advcomp2019]

I am wondering if other MVNO's is going to do the same or is it only with Boom Red.

[NathanA]

Will a customer be able to upgrade to the new 12 pro eSIM from an 11 eSIM for blue without having to contact customer service?

I doubt it. How would that even work?

This is one of the reasons why I dislike eSIMs, and will always opt for a real, physical SIM card. The whole point of the physical SIM in the first place was to decouple the handset from the service/account on the mobile network, and provide the subscriber with at least some amount of control. Being able to switch phones at a moment's notice by moving a SIM from one phone to another at any time of day, and without being required to call customer service and/or be dependent on a back-end computer provisioning system that may or may not be up (and may or may not grant your request even if it is up) is an underrated benefit, and eSIM is a regression.

If the whole industry eventually trends towards eSIM exclusively and eliminates the physical SIM as an option, then at that point why are we even making the embedded "SIM" a discrete component of the phone? Might as well go back to activating phones by ESN/MEID.

( ...rant complete... )

[kevink1]

I doubt it. How would that even work?

This is one of the reasons why I dislike eSIMs, and will always opt for a real, physical SIM card. The whole point of the physical SIM in the first place was to decouple the handset from the service/account on the mobile network, and provide the subscriber with at least some amount of control. Being able to switch phones at a moment's notice by moving a SIM from one phone to another at any time of day, and without being required to call customer service and/or be dependent on a back-end computer provisioning system that may or may not be up (and may or may not grant your request even if it is up) is an underrated benefit, and eSIM is a regression.

If the whole industry eventually trends towards eSIM exclusively and eliminates the physical SIM as an option, then at that point why are we even making the embedded "SIM" a discrete component of the phone? Might as well go back to activating phones by ESN/MEID.

( ...rant complete... )

There is an option in the iPhones (possibly fairly recent) where, if you go to the Add Cellular Plan, there is an option to transfer the cellular plan to this device. So Apple is storing some information needed somewhere, possibly in iCloud. Whether this works when having a Blue account, but not directly with the postpaid carrier is unknown to me.

And yes, I agree. I would prefer to have support for 2 physical SIMs rather than 1 eSIM, and 1 regular SIM. But this is still better than just 1 regular SIM, which is better than just 1 eSIM.

Would have been useful a couple years ago when I had a vacation over in the UK/France. I wouldn't have had to remove my SIM on arrival and worry that I would lose that little SIM while on the trip, then put it back in on my return to the US. Just get a local SIM and put it in on arrival or even before I left.

[NathanA]

[...]

Hey Charles,

I just sent you a PM about a problem I'm having porting in to BLUE after initially being advised by CS that my number was eligible. Now I'm being told both by activation and CS that it isn't. Any help would be much appreciated!!