Sprint introduces Common Cents plans with round down minutes
announced big changes for Virgin Mobile, they eliminated Virgin’s pay-as-you-go plans. They wouldn’t go away entirely, though. Instead, the company announced that it would add a fourth brand — in addition to Virgin, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless — to cover pay-as-you-go. This morning they made the official announcement. The new brand, Common Cents, will launch at 700 Wal-Mart stores on Saturday, May 15. Sprint has actually taken a decent angle on this one. With almost every pay-as-you-go provider, you pay full price for a fraction of a minute. That is, if you talk for one minute and one second, it gets rounded up to two minutes. Common Cents takes the opposite tack, rounding down all minutes after the first. So, for instance, if you talk for 1 minute and 59 seconds, it gets rounded down to 1 minute. That will certainly please many people. As for rates, Common Cents will undercut a number of providers by offering seven-cent minutes and seven-cent text messages. Customers can refill with either a $20 card, which expires in 30 days, or a $30 dollar card, which expires in 60 days. Unlimited text messaging is available for $20 per month, and data is available for a dollar per day. The service will launch with three low-end handsets. The LG101 will cost $19.77, the Samsung M340 will cost $39.77, and the Kyocera S2300 will cost $69.77. Clever clever with the pricing. ]]>
Actually Joe, VM got rid of their monthly plans and their Texter’s Delight plans. The Beyond Talk 300 minute plan at 25 dollars is a far better value then Unlimited Texter’s delight with 300 minutes and unlimited data for only five bucks more.
VM’s paygo programs continue essentially untouched except for a renaming to “Basic Talk and text” plans.
Their basic non plan rates are all still the same too.
Virgin Mobile still suffers from lack of bring your own phone BUT compensate for it partially with a large range of handsets with some of the lowest new phone prices in the country aside from Tracfone (which doesn’t have a qwerty, doesn’t have easy to understand minute/text rates, doesn’t have unlimited texting , etc but does have other strengths…).
I’m on day 8 now and Common Cents still cannot get my ported # to work. “will have fixed on Monday (that will be day 11) Almost sorry I left Verizon
I must say that this Common Cents program seems like a scheme to get customer’s well earned money. The rates and rounding DOWN of minutes alone should spark some attention on this Sprint prepaid plan. I use Net 10, which is considerably cheaper than Sprint, and they have amazing nationwide coverage and have even won the JD Power Award for the best no-contract experience. Now that’s a deal!
Platinum Tel has a 5 cents a minute plan with 2 cents texts and 10 cents a meg for data. It is the best prepaid paygo deal in the country right now and it runs on the same network as Common Cents. Plus you can switch to monthly or unlimited plan options if you want.
Common Cents is a Walmart exclusive. Not small business friendly at all. Independent dealers who want it can’t get it. Platinum Tel allows indie dealers to sell it.
Platinum Tel is a way better alternative to Common Cents. Especially for phone choice, text and data pricing. The round down is a novel gimmick though…
I’m still not sure how I feel about their Common Cents program. I’m so angry with Sprint. I use the unlimited $99/month plan and found out Boost has the same plan for just $50/month. Thats a $50 difference! So I complained in an email to Mr. Hesse, the President, and explained how I deserve equal treatment as these Boost customers. Total rip off. If anyone has the same problem, here’s his email address if you want to complain and save a significant amount a month: http://sites.google.com/site/sprintcustomersunite/
Platinum Tel warranty on their phones is 30 days or 200 minutes. Common Cents warranty on their phones is one year
Boost Mobile, Common Cents and Virgin all run on Sprint with NO ROAMING, which is one major reason why their prices are lower. Plus Virgin and Common Cents are limited to ONLY THEIR PHONES. Sprint has a far greater selection of phones. Most of them can even be used on Boost cdma with minimal configuration.
Platinum Tel has a lower warranty then Common Cents but their text rates are three times better and their data rates are fifteen times better then Common Cents. Plus they have a far greater range of phones and can even allow some phones from other Sprint mvnos (but not Boost, Common Cents, or Virgin) onto their network (Kajeet, Air Link, Xtreme, Liberty wireless, etc) as along as you have their spc/msl code.
Limited BYOD on Platinumtel provides only talk and text for virtually all devices. One exception is some Kajeet phones, which work for MMS and web.
Platinumtel does not use Sprint roaming partners, just the Sprint native network. Mingo’s new Sprint service is the same; although their coverage map shows roaming areas, roaming is turned off.
Common Cents may be better for some users who almost always make short calls; the cost per time used could easily be lower than Platinumtel due to round down. It is hard to know for sure until after the fact, since calling patterns vary from month to month.