Heelsonwheels

Verizon, Tmobile and ATT are all quietly advertising $99 unlimited cell service.
That's cheap. Makes one wonder if something is in the wind. With WIFI connections etc. is cell service becoming obsolete?
Any thoughts?

providenceleaf

I think it will be a long time before "cell service" will be done with. We will always need voice service and until there is something better to replace it then it will be around forever. The main reason that the unlimited $99 packages have happened is because of Verizon doing so about 3 weeks ago. As a counter AT&T did the same then followed by T-Mobile, and now Sprint. This is all to try to keep market share. Most people don't realize that AT&T is actually the largest wireless carrier in the US followed by Verizon. Verizon, T-Moblie, and Sprint lost millions of customers just because of the IPHONE which is exclusive to AT&T. AT&T is the fastest growing carrier in the last year. This was Verizons way of waving to the public hey remember us!

So now US wireless companies all have similar plans again. This is great for the customer since voice service is the cheapest ever, and now your decision will be based on who has the best coverage and devices. Here is the catch...you won't see too many of those cheap free or $19.99 phones anymore. (I'm glad because most of them were crap anyway)

If you've noticed over the last year you can't watch much TV without seeing some sort of AT&T ad. In the past the only wireless company you really saw on TV was Verizon. Sprint in my opinion will be going away soon. They are in the process of laying off thousands of workers. Anyway, the competition is good for the customer.

MidnightRider

I just made that switch on Verizon. I was on a higher cost plan and they very politely switched me to the $99 plan without any penalty, contract extension, or other fuss. Saved me $40+ per month. Anyone on a higher cost plan should switch immediately.

The thoughts here are interesting. My unlimited wireless broadband costs $60/month. How long until an aspiring entrepreneur figures out how to build a modem into a cell phone and craft a Vonage-like service? Cisco already uses an IPT service over broadband that works just fine.

Ah - the world keeps turning!

JSpira

I'm not sure what a modem would do, as a modem modulats and demodulates from an analog to a digital signal or vice versa.

There are already mobile phones with WiFi which can work directly with a WLAN and there are services such as T-Mobile @Home which allows calling via WLAN when you are in range and calling via the mobile phone network when not.

JSpira

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all announced their plans on 19. February. Verizon was indeed first and AT&T and T-Mobile made the announcement a few hours later.

Sprint followed the week after.

JeffNNJ

Hey Heelsonwheels XXOO. I had no idea. I had a 5000 minute a month plan for $99 and $15 a month for texting. You just saved me some money. Thank you, my friend.

JSpira

Were you with T-Mobile? I have the same 5000 min. plan with them plus BlackBerry but since I never hit 5000 minutes, there's no reason to get a new contract (which T-Mobile seems to require - Verizon doesn't btw).

JeffNNJ

The plan includes texting which I was paying an extra $15/mo for. They did not require me to take a new contract but I have been with them since they were Voice Stream so I would not have hesitated to if they had asked.

Heelsonwheels

No problem, I used to pay more than 2x that....figures that i don't need it anymore, but thought i'd pass it along

JSpira

I was with them before Voicestream - Omnipoint actually. According to their PR person, a new contract is required so you may have one (reps don't always ask). I'm not planning to switch right now either but there would be no real savings for me either since I would have to pay the $99 plus BlackBerry fee regardless.