MetroPCS cuts unlimited plan to $40 a month

MetroPCS, which has recently expanded its prepaid wireless service offering to several large cities throughout the U.S., has just lowered its unlimited monthly plan to $40 a month for voice, texting and Web access.

The new lowered prices ushers in a new era of competition in the prepaid market, which is heating up as Sprint Nextel announces this week its intent to buy Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million.

MetroPCS, a regional prepaid operator, is now adding unlimited email, navigation and social networking to its $45 a month unlimited plan. This is in addition to unlimited voice, texting and Web access. These plans are now $5 a month less than they were before the price cut was announced.

The company also offers a $50 a month unlimited plan for smartphone users, which includes unlimited HTML Web browsing.

The move is a clear indication that MetroPCS is ratcheting up the pricing pressure to compete more aggressively in the crowded prepaid market. TracFone, which is the largest prepaid carrier in the market, offers a $45 a month unlimited plan for voice, text messaging and 30 MB of data. And Sprint's Boost Mobile prepaid brand started offering a $50 a month unlimited plan in January. Executives are attributing the recent growth in its prepaid customer base to this new service.

MetroPCS's cuts could spark a price war, which could further drive down how much revenue is generated per user. In a market that already relies on heavy customer volumes and super low cost structure to reach profits, further pricing pressure will only make it more difficult for these carriers to make money with prepaid services. But the good news for consumers is that they will get access to some very good deals in wireless if the choose to take the prepaid wireless route.

[monkeyfun14]

If they can just get better coverage and more phone selection than Metro could be a major threat to big game.

[Poshie232]

Your right monkeyfun, coverage is Metro's downfall, I don't think it's worthwhile paying $5 less for bad network. I prefer to have Straight Talk unlimited for $45 which is on Verizon's network and far superior in quality. Unfortunately for them as they are, Metro is no threat in the industry.

[1g2j]

"But the good news for consumers is that they will get access to some very good deals in wireless if they choose to take the prepaid wireless route" is the correct sentence. Instead of "the choose"

[AppleSuxLeo]

Darn...I may go Ghetro PCS after all.

[sartor1]

Good deal if one could use a hacked iPhone on a MetroPCS plan..

[cvaldes1831]

Pipe dreams, baby. MetroPCS is a CDMA network.

[subslug]

Weird why these no contract companies never really get much play. You'd think as much as people hate contracts this would be the way to go. It's like buying gas for you car right? You buy it, drive till your out, then go buy more, no BS hassles with contracts.

Must be the coverage issue otherwise to me it seems this would be a no-brainer.

[cvaldes1831]

One problem is that these smaller carriers don't get the hottest new phones, especially for their prepaid plans. Without the sexy hardware, there's little for the tech media to write about.

Another problem is just plain and simple: pageviews. A regional cellular carrier is only relevant to a certain geographic area.

[Toulinwoek]

It's the coverage issue to an extent. And the fact that many of the nicer bells and whistles come with the plans. Not only that, while going prepaid is neater and simpler (I've been doing that way for several years and it suits me so far), the cost per minute is higher.
Since I only use my mobile when I really need to, I wind up spending about ten bucks a month. Of course, I can't do internet, email and such and I rarely text.

Oh, and I don't believe for a minute what this article says about haw "hard" it is for wireless companies to make profit. I'm not saying I KNOW it's not true, but I just don't believe it. I think they're making an absolute killing.

[Zaunto]

I had Metro PCS back in '02 and most of '03. Their coverage area was much smaller back then (not nationwide). I moved out of their coverage area, so I had to switch to a regular cell carrier (AT&T). Metro PCS may do better in this economy than they did back then because consumers are looking to cut costs, but one problem they have working against them are the prices of the phones. Pre-paid carriers have no incentive to subsidize phones, since they aren't locking anyone into contracts. The phone choices have gotten better over the years, but the nationwide coverage is spotty at best. Anyone who travels across the USA will be roaming in alot of areas and pretty soon, that $50 a month will become the $99 a month that Sprint charges for unlimited everything.

[jofssie]

I agree with Monkeyfun and Poshie - their coverage is not quite up to standard. Lots of dropped calls and bad sound quality. That and the fact that roaming fees will quickly add up if you are on Metro. I much prefer the simplicity of NET10 which has great coverage, good selection of phones and is real cheap at 10c a minute. A lot of contract plans seems like they charge 8 or 10c per minute but after you reckon in all the hidden fees and charges you end up paying much more.

[jhemraja]

Before I purchased MetroPCS, I read all these negative things about MetroPCS and I thought that these people must be crazy or picky. How can you go wrong with an Unlimited Everything plan for less than $50 per month? Well, I've learned the hard way that you can go wrong. If you rely on your cell phone for work, business, emergencies, etc, I would strongly advice against MetroPCS.

# 1: Their taxes are 25% of the cell phone bill. They charge MUCH MORE IN TAXES ND FEES than any other cell phone provider. I've had everything from AT&T to Verizon to T-Mobile to Sprint. I wouldn't be surprised if they are pocketing some of the fees.

# 2: Their customer service is absolutely horrid. If you ever had to deal with MCI Worldcom back in the day, and had billing issues with MCI Worldcom, then MetroPCS customer service is ten times worse than MCI Worldcom customer service.

# 3: Their billing system keeps changing the amount that's due so even if you are fully paid off till the next billing cycle, there is always the small chance that your phone will shut off because they decided at the last minute to add a a few cents to your last months bill. And I'm not joking. They will shut off your service for just a few cents.

# 4: If you have an issue with your service, it is almost impossible to rectify any customer service or billing issue unless you send an actual snail mail letter to Corporate headquarters because they don't accept email and their toll free customer service staff is not empowered to fix any customer service or billing issues.

I consider myself pretty smart when it comes to these things to I am still in shock that in the 21st century in the United States of America, a company such as MetroPCS exists. It is terrible what they are doing. If I was an investor, I would not invest in MetroPCS solely due to the terrible customer service and inaccurate billing. If a company can't even take care of its customers and bill them properly, do you really think that company has the ability to continue growing?

[LovingMomma]

I have had Metro for many years and the unlimited talk and text is great, but the coverage is not the best. I recently switched to TracFone and their new plan Straight Talk. With this plan, I can get unlimited minutes and texting for $45 a month and it operates on a much better network! Love my tracfone.

[yhicr]

My friend had Mero and it was awful. I can't spend a lot of money though and I keep hearing that Virgin Mobile has a $10 a month plan available for those who can't afford more but I don't see it on their web-site. What's up with that? If they have it, let's see it!

[deb2604]

The problem with Metro PCS is that their customer service SUCKS royally. If you get service with them, pray that there are no problems with the phone or the service. Their customer service reps seem woefully untrained and in some cases deliberately unhelpful. Of course there are exceptions but when you read the complaints online a pattern seems to develop. Additionally in some areas and in some buildings there is no service. I have to go outside my house to use my phone for example and I live in a city. Calls are constantly dropped or never go through or never register when they come in. Their unlimited plans are very attractive on the surface but there are too many drawbacks for the price to be worth it.