prepaid mobile

It's hard out there for a wireless carrier

Facing greater expenses, the wireless industry is trying to drum up profits by relying more on such services as prepaid and mobile broadband, says a report out today from PwC.

Surveying wireless carriers in the U.S. and Canada last year, PwC found a variety of challenges to their profitability.

Rising smartphone subsidies have forced providers to pay more up front for the privilege of carrying certain smartphones. Though obviously popular, the iPhone requires carriers to pay a huge subsidy, crimping per user profit.

And though providers have been pushing smartphones to their customers, the resulting rise in data usage … Read more

Ask Maggie: On unlimited data plans and prepaid vs. contracts

When it comes to wireless services, sometimes unlimited doesn't really mean unlimited.

Wireless is a competitive business, and sometimes operators say almost anything to get consumers to sign up for their service. Over the last few years, outraged customers have forced wireless carriers to stop throwing around the "unlimited" term so freely. As a result, a lot of mobile broadband services note in fine print that they are not, in fact, "unlimited."

But what if you truly want to pay for an unlimited data service? Do any even exist? I have answered this very question … Read more

China Mobile to require ID for previously anonymous prepaid users

China Mobile will start requiring prepaid phone customers to show ID when buying SIM (subscriber identity module) cards, the company's general manager announced.

The anonymity of phone service for Shenzhouxing (prepaid) customers, which ChinaTechNews says account for 70 percent of all users, made it important to hold on to your original SIM documentation in case you lose the phone. If you lose the SIM and its number, as far as I know, you can't get your number back.

This comes at a time when China Mobile will also begin allowing number portability among its services (but not with … Read more