Posted on 07/10/2009 4:24:26 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Regional prepaid cell phone carrier MetroPCS announced Wednesday a new plan that allows its customers to make unlimited international calls to over 100 different countries for only $5 extra a month.
To be eligible for the $5 unlimited international calling plan, users must already be signed up to an unlimited national calling plan that costs $40, $45, or $50 a month. Making international phone calls from a cell phone has typically been rather expensive with major carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
For example, AT&T offers its WorldConnect service for $3.99 extra a month, which gives subscribers lower rates on international calls. This means that a call to France still costs 22 cents a minute even with the $3.99 a month WorldConnect plan. By contrast a call to France using MetroPCS' new $5 unlimited international plan is free.
MetroPCS mainly competes against other prepaid services such as Sprint Nextel's Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA. But recently as the economy has tanked, it has been stealing some customers from traditional carriers. With its unlimited plans and an expanding network, MetroPCS offers mainstream cell phone users an alternative to expensive contract services from the big carriers.
And now for people who make calls to friends and family in other countries, MetroPCS offers an even more compelling reason to switch to its service. Of course, the main drawback of the service is coverage. Even though MetroPCS is expanding its network to cities such as New York and Boston, its footprint is still relatively small compared to the major carriers. Most of the areas it covers are near major cities. But for customers in the MetroPCS markets who don't leave those markets very often, it offers a good deal compared to the post-paid, contract plans of the major carriers.
One other potential drawback is that MetroPCS, like other prepaid operators, doesn't offer the latest and greatest phones. That said, it does offer the BlackBerry Curve.
$5 per month unlimited international calls. UNBELIEVABLE! This has to be the best calling deal out there.
So what did Hugo say? Is the invasion still on?
That does seem like a pretty good deal.
"Pretty good deal?" That's an understatement. This is by far the best calling deal out there. It should save us about $30 to $40 per month on international calls.
I get 10,000 minutes, anywhere in North America, for less than 3 dollars a month, and I can make video calls with other Skype users for free.
Let me know how it goes and if there are strings attached. I have a buddy who calls his family overseas a lot, and I’m sure he would probably be interested in something like that. The charges can just be incredible if you don’t have a discount card.
My wife has already made several calls to Venezuela. No problems.
I think about half of Broward uses MetroPCS and a big chunk of them call overseas on a regular basis.
Another plus for SKYPE as well is that they can give you a local number assigned to your account and from there you can select people to call internationally and it will still be part of your skype service. I use it on my cellphone to cut down the times I have to be in front of a computer to make calls. Metro PCS is one of the cheapest phone companies out there but their roaming is terrible and customer service is nonexistent. But then again, you get what you paid for. I went from an AT&T plan of about 80-100 bucks to 50 bucks a month with Metro PCS.
When I visited my 85 year old Mother, I set it up for her with a web cam.
She thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!
:-)
Metro PCS offers rates as low as $20/month unlimited ,,, $80 for 4 lines ,, was $100/4-lines only a short time ago.
You pay $12.95 a month, and can call anywhere for 10,000 hours a month, max. 6 hours a day. ( I would never spend 6 hours a day on the phone.)
Over 10,000 mins./month, or 6 hours/day, they charge by the min....
.03c/min for most civilized countries, up to .41c a min. for places like Afghanistan.
Burundi is only .08c/min. (Lame Mark Steyn joke.)
I have a number on skype.
A friend uses majicjack and says the calls to Ireland are .03 per minute.
Sounds awesome.
My buddy is teaching English in India, my sister works in Hong Kong and my brother is headed to the Philippines.
I keep passing by those signs in L.A. for METROPCS but this time, I wont ignore it.
PS - I don’t work for them...just follow the cell phone industry, as I used to work for various carriers while I was in school. :)
Paying MetroPCS bills is convenient. You can pay at any Metro store, online, or at supermarkets which is what I did last week at Publix. I have a friend who used to sell cell phone service for another company. He told me that early in 2002, right after MetroPCS started their service, his business started a steep decline. I would say that at least half the cell phone users here in Broward Cty. use MetroPCS.
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