Prepaid Might Start Getting Smarter Phones
I’m on a prepaid plan. The benefits are that I have a no contract cell phone and I save a bit of money each month, which is important these days. On the downside is that the network I’m on doesn’t exactly offer extensive coverage and the phone selection leaves a whole lot to be desired. While I wish they had better phones for sale through my carrier, signs are pointing towards a change in the industry.
All the major carriers – Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile – not only offer prepaid plans, but are starting to expand that side of their business. Then you have some of the prepaid companies like Cricket who have recently expanded their network tremendously. For guys like me, you can only hope that leads to better phones and more of them being offered up for prepaid customers.
What is really crazy is that all of these companies have prepaid data plans, but they don’t offer a heck of a lot of smartphones. You’ll see the occasional one here or there, but for the most part you are limited to the rare Samsung phones or Motorola phones the sneak their way into the catalogue. Every now and again you might find a Blackberry, but for the most part you are stuck. However, there seems to be a definite trend emerging in the industry as people are tightening their belts. Hopefully that means the companies are going to offer better phones to their customers who simply can’t afford a long term contract or choose not to get tied down to one like me.