Earlier this year, two brands owned by the carrier Red Pocket, Black Wireless and Mango Mobile, began offering what looked like a great deal. Subscribers that purchased six months of service upfront could get all of the following for only $16.67 per month: Unlimited minutes & texts 50GB of full-speed data 20GB of full-speed, hotspot […]
I’ve written a number of posts criticizing wireless carriers that label their plans “unlimited” while imposing limits. Usually, these carriers impose weird restrictions or slow data speeds for heavy users of data. If you’re feeling charitable, you could argue that most of these plans are still, in some sense, unlimited. Most of these plans don’t […]
Last week, the mobile virtual network operator Ting launched a new service running over Verizon’s network. The day it launched, I went to Ting’s website to order a SIM card and begin trialing the service. Ordering process Initially, I ran into a bug during Ting’s checkout process that prevented me from finishing an order. I […]
That’s the opening of a recent post by Mike Dano of Light Reading. Dano is referencing a service called SmartSIM that TracFone recently teased. TracFone hasn’t shared many details yet, but it looks like SmartSIM will allow subscribers’ phones to automatically switch between multiple networks based on the signal strength of each available network. Dano […]
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Yesterday, the MVNO Ting released a video and a blog post announcing that the company will now offer service over a third network. Hidden network partners In the announcements, Ting acknowledges contractual obligations that prohibit the company from explicitly mentioning all of the networks the company offers service over: Due to the restrictions, Ting makes […]
Alice Mobile recently increased its prices by $10 per month. Service now costs $30 each month for Optimum or Suddenlink customers and $40 per month for everyone else. In September, I argued that Altice Mobile was doing a lousy job of disclosing the limitations that came with the carrier’s supposedly “unlimited” plan. Given the recent […]
MWC 2020, the largest wireless industry conference, was canceled due to coronavirus concerns. Dan Warren, one of the people behind the creation of VoLTE, wrote about the ongoing importance of the GSMA (the organization that hosts MWC). A Reddit user suggests Mint Mobile’s policies may leave subscribers vulnerable to SIM-swap attacks. I haven’t dug into […]
Several state attorneys general have been suing to stop a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. Rumors came out earlier this evening that the judge presiding over the case is planning to rule in favor of the merger. Here’s a bit from a Wall Street Journal article: The rumors are almost certainly correct. Sprint’s stock soared […]
Wireless networks have finite capacities. If enough users try to send data over a network at the same time, the network will become congested and deliver slower speeds. Not all users will see the same decreases in speeds during congestion. Prioritization policies govern how different people on a network are affected by congestion. In many […]