Archive for May, 2009
Rumor Mill: AT&T to possibly buy Leap Wireless?
Posted by Derek in at&t prepaid cell phones, prepaid cell phones on May 20, 2009
Yes, for now this is strictly rumor material, but it could shake up the prepaid cell phones industry if it happens: AT&T might be considering an acquisition of Leap Wireless, a prepaid provider.
This coming from The Wall Street Journal’s “Heart on the Street” column, and right now, the only smoking gun so to speak is that both companies cancelled an appearance at an investor conference. There could be other reasons why that happened, but sometimes this does happen right before an acquisition or deal of some sort.
But…there are a few reasons why such a deal might not make a lot of sense.
First and foremost: the network. AT&T uses GSM network, while Leap Wireless uses CDMA. Yes, they are different, and operating both at once can cause many issues (see: Sprint/Nextel for more proof of that).
While Leap may end up merging with someone (based on recent rumors), AT&T may or may not be the one they end up with in the long run. We’ll keep an eye on this.
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Outlook Good: MetroPCS enjoying a bounty of good fortune
Posted by Derek in prepaid cell phones, prepaid phones on May 18, 2009
Things seem to be pretty rosy for MetroPCS right now. They added lots of new subscribers last quarter, and they don’t seem to be doing much wrong. In the prepaid sector, they’re slowly growing to become a real force in the prepaid cell phones arena.
In fact, it’s left Metro with an odd quandry: Too many options. It plans to roll out an LTE network later this year. Maybe acquiring smaller carriers at some point? The CEO has said they’re not going to rock the boat too much, which is probably a good thing right now.
It’s even being touted by some as a replacement for landlines. With their unlimited packages, it replaces landlines perfectly, and Metro is definitely benefiting from this outlook.
Despite all this glow and warmth, they’re not revising their year outlook. They’re still projecting 1.4 to 1.7 million subscribers during this year, which is pretty good. We’ll see if their good luck holds out through the year.
New Model: AT&T GoPhone releases the text-happy Samsung a117
Posted by Derek in at&t prepaid cell phones, prepaid cell phones, prepaid phones on May 15, 2009
It’s a fact that prepaid cell phones as a service will really only move into the big time with the introduction of bigger and better phone models to choose from. Enter: The Samsung a117.
Samsung a117 is a new full QWERTY texting specialty phone for the AT&T GoPhone service. It’s nice for prepaid customers to have really nice QWERTY phones like these, even if they’re not the very tip-top of the line. Choice is always good.
That seems to be be the place many prepaid providers want o hit: those that talk and text pretty heavily. It looks sorta like the Samsung Blackjack, just without all the ultra-fancy features that many of us don’t use anyway.
You can grab one now at AT&T for $99, and no contract at all via their GoPhone service.
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