Expo Mobile, one of the many smaller Sprint MVNOs that we don’t talk about all that much has made some unexplained and abrupt changes to their plan lineup, most notably increasing the price of their Unlimited Talk and Text plan by $5, effective immediately.
The unlimited talk and text plan formerly cost $25 a month, but is now $30. No features have been added, and no other plan prices have been changed that I’m aware of. Here is what Expo Mobile’s monthly plan lineup looks like:
- $19 – 500 minutes, unlimited text
- $30 – unlimited talk and text
- $35 – unlimited talk and text, 500 MB high speed data
- $40 – unlimited talk and text, unlimited data for feature phones, $10 anywhere international minutes
- $50 – unlimited talk and text, unlimited 3G smartphone data, $10 anywhere international minutes
- $60 – unlimited talk and text, unlimited 4G smartphone data, $10 anywhere international minutes
As suggested in the
article by Prepaid Phone News, I suspect that this move is only the first in a series of moves that Sprint MVNOs will have to make in order to keep their businesses viable. You might recall a few weeks ago
Sprint introduced a new Financial Eligibility Check (FEC) test that all phones must pass in order to be activated on Sprint networks. The idea was that Sprint would prevent customers who owed them money from activating phones, which makes perfect sense. However, in spectacular Sprint-style failure, the FEC test is horribly glitchy and has been bringing back false negatives on a number of devices, including brand-new unlocked phones never used on Sprint.
The FEC has put quite a bit of strain on Sprint MVNOs who suddenly find themselves beset with angry customers who don’t understand why perfectly functional phones suddenly don’t work. And that’s not even mentioning the inventories of unusable phones that some companies likely have sitting around now. It’s quite a mess.
I won’t be surrprised to see other MVNOs forced to make changes like this or to attempt to jump a sinking ship unless Sprint somehow fixes things–which isn’t looking too promising.]]>
