Launched in 2013, Brightspot Mobile was a prepaid MVNO available exclusively from Target. The company didn’t really get a whole lot of press or fanfare and its plan offerings were mediocre at best. The company hung on for a couple of years, but now it looks like it, too, might go the way of the dinosaur.
According to an
article from Prepaid Phone News and posts from
The Breakroom forums and
Howard Forums, the service will begin scaling down soon. The first step will likely be to stop selling devices and then to stop providing airtime all together. As a side note, I haven’t seen anything official from Brightspot or Target, so this is little more than a plausible rumor at this point.
Still, with all of the issues around Brightspot including
incorrect throttling and customers not receiving rewards cards as promised, it was really only a matter of time. I personally haven’t tried Brightspot, but I haven’t heard all that many good things about them and prepaid customers are fickle and rightfully so. I mean, if a company has bad service and you could easily switch to someone else with the same network and better service, why wouldn’t you?
As further evidence to support this rumor, several sites have reported that Target stores have slashed prices on Brightspot phones in-store only. Brightspot Mobile uses T-Mobile’s network, so if you are a fan of that network, now would be a great time to get a nicer phone for almost half off. The sales don’t seem to be listed on the website just yet, but I have seen them at my local Target.
If Brightspot Mobile really does shut down, I expect that customers will be offered some sort of incentive to switch back to T-Mobile to keep service. The coverage should be pretty much the same and the prices might actually be a little better. I’ll keep an eye out for further developments though, so check back!]]>
This is true. No other info has been confirmed, other then service will end.