Even budget carriers losing subscribers

[foobarX]

was chatting with someone on the forum the other day about how I think people will be getting fed up with their $80 - $100 plans and show interest in VM...

MetroPCS Stock Falls 35% as Growth Slows


BY GREG BENSINGER

MetroPCS Communications Inc. reported a sharp slowdown in subscriber growth as the sputtering U.S. economy forced customers to drop their wireless service, a trend the company sees continuing.
The news weighed on MetroPCS's second-quarter results and erased as much as 35% of the company's market value Tuesday. Rival Leap Wireless International Inc., which reports its results Wednesday, saw its shares fall up to 18%.
MetroPCS offers flat-rate wireless service without annual contracts, historically an attraction ...

Read more: MetroPCS Stock Falls 35% as Growth Slows - WSJ.com
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MetroPCS Stock Falls 35% as Growth Slows - WSJ.com

 

[KryptoNyte]

I've been researching "MetroPCS" for a bit now, and I'm having trouble associating their service with other said "similar" prepaid services, such as Virgin Mobile. When I consider that Virgin Mobile is available nationwide via their parent company Sprint, it further muddies the waters.

The common sense part of this situation that really baffles me is that folks in any $80+/month plan that are having financial trouble, would surely be looking TOWARDS options just like Virgin Mobile.

One step further ... of the roughly two or three hundred people that I personally know and communicate with on a monthly basis, I am aware that many of them are cutting off their home phone lines, cutting back on their cable bill, watching their fuel and electricity ... but I am not aware of a human who mentioned, "Golly, I think I'm going to terminate all of my mobile service."

Unless one is aware of a substancial dip in Virgin Mobile stock, I appreciate the reference to some obscure prepaid service, but I don't see the correlation to this particular forum.

 

[KryptoNyte]

I'm not trying to beat up on you Foobar as much as simply pointing out mass media's way of over-sensationalizing that good old "sky is falling" routine.

I'm also hoping to see folks take note of VM's service plans, and perhaps there will be a migration to lower costs which can drive down what seems to be severely overpriced high-end plans.

 

[pre]

I imagine folks might be opting for prepaid dumb phones rather than dropping out of the mobile market altogether. Prepaid makes up 2/3 of the new subscriber market now: Sprint Betting on Growth of Prepaid Market -- Trefis

As for landlines, I eliminated that long ago, opting for the miracle that is VOIP

 

[harvickchick]

Yeah I haven't had a home phone years. Also never heard of metro pcs lol

 

[foobarX]

krypto, oh I didn't really get that message from your first post. Sometimes MSM are chicken little, sometimes they should be chicken little and aren't. Basically, they are worthless - I am even disappointed by NPR usually.

pre, I imagine that a lot of people are like me and have absolutely no loyalty to any company since they would rather constantly work hard to dig up new customers than work just a little to keep the ones they have happy (opposite of the common sense business model.) It's too bad that Sprint has a track record of weaseling out of "lifetime" plans and grandfathered plans - I will not be surprised if they force everyone out of the good plans in some way within a few years (when inflation makes it so that $25 a month isn't enough for them.)

harvick, metroPcs is an option near me in California - I shop around constantly, that's how I stumbled onto VM. Last year after moving from a G1 to an N1, I couldn't deal with sacrificing too much on the phone - so I used SimpleMobile. But now, VM hit the sweet spot and it's all about the plan. The BeyondTalk$25 is so far better than any other plan I see I'm amazed more people didn't jump on it. Oh well, better for us I guess.

Not sure exactly what the demographics are, but it seems like 20somethings are really attached to their phone almost as their main computer and they are kinda nomadic so landlines make no sense for them. I still have a landline only because of things like credit cards, that have been around for a while reference them - path of least resistance. Also, somehow all the carriers have weak signal at my house, even though I live in a pretty dense suburb.

I am kind of surprised that I don't see more talk about VOIP / SIP on VM forums given most of the people on there are cost conscious.

 

[androidfonefan]

I imagine folks might be opting for prepaid dumb phones rather than dropping out of the mobile market altogether. Prepaid makes up 2/3 of the new subscriber market now: Sprint Betting on Growth of Prepaid Market -- Trefis

As for landlines, I eliminated that long ago, opting for the miracle that is VOIP

With the problems I have seen reported on these forums for android phones of all makes and providers, I would not be surprised if lots of people stop buying them and go to dependable feature phones (if there are any) or back to the old dumb phones.

For what people pay for these phones they should be 100%. Not these spotty work some times if they feel like it or if the wind is blowing the right direction at the right moment.

If I could, I would get rid of all my androids and find a good LG slider phone on Straight talk for 30 a month. Unfortunately I have 300.00 sunk in to the Triumph that I have to deal with.

 

[cutterjohn]

Yeah I haven't had a home phone years. Also never heard of metro pcs lol

I did, but I had forgotten about them until recently. Back in the day their schtick was this walkie-talkie like feature for their phones... no idea how it worked as I never knew anyone who subbed with them. (And since AT&T's coverage was sh!te back then as well, along with everyone but Verizon I never bothered to look... so many dropped calls by other people back then, bam go under underpass drop call, multi-expressway exchange bam drop call, etc. annoying as hell... I never had these problems but back then I was on Verizon...)

 

[insertusername]

Metro PCS is operated by itself and is not available everywhere. They don't have a 3G network either (only 1xRTT) ... it's pretty inferior for the price you pay.

I'd be willing to bet that most people on Metro PCS would switch to VM if they knew about it, but many don't. They're willing to spend more money on worst phones, worst coverage, and inferior network infrastructure.

 

[MacFett]

I would not be surprised if lots of people stop buying them and go to dependable feature phones (if there are any) or back to the old dumb phones.

If it wasn't for a smart phone I wouldn't have a phone at all. I got rid of my cell back in 2005. I had a VM phone off and on for the last year and finally got rid of it. Then someone gave me an iphone when they replaced theirs. That got me hooked on smartphones (but turned me off of AT&T). When I finally had enough of the iphone bill I picked up an optimus v and reactivated my VM account. Really happy with the V, sure there are things I'd change about it. But for what I paid I am really satisfied. Oh and last month I had 273 of my 300 minutes remaining.

 

[GadgetGator]

With the problems I have seen reported on these forums for android phones of all makes and providers, I would not be surprised if lots of people stop buying them and go to dependable feature phones (if there are any) or back to the old dumb phones.

Um, no. I will never go back to a dumb phone and doubt many others would either. Why would anyone? Even a half working smartphone would be better then a fully working dumb one.

For what people pay for these phones they should be 100%. Not these spotty work some times if they feel like it or if the wind is blowing the right direction at the right moment.

Well, the sad reality in life is that nothing is 100%.

 

[JollyRoger87]

Yeah I haven't had a home phone years. Also never heard of metro pcs lol

Have you heard of Cricket? That's just another name for Metro PCS throughout much of the US. Here in Phoenix its called Cricket.

 

[cutterjohn]

Have you heard of Cricket? That's just another name for Metro PCS throughout much of the US. Here in Phoenix its called Cricket.

Really?! That's VERY odd as we have Metro PCS here(for a VERY long time) but no cricket service as I also considered them until I checked and found no service in my state.

 

[Unaufhaltsam]

Have you heard of Cricket? That's just another name for Metro PCS throughout much of the US. Here in Phoenix its called Cricket.

Cricket is not Metro PCS. Metro PCS is actually bigger than Cricket at this point.
Also Metro PCS isn't really losing customers so much as they aren't gaining customers at the ridiculous pace they once were. That combined with their operating cost going up is what led to the stock price drop.

 

[androidfonefan]

GadgetGator and MacFett, understood.

Was speaking from my end. I get so aggravated with my phone some times when things that are supposed to work don't and I need them to.
At times I would almost rather have a separate GPS device and a dumb phone.
I still remember the simplicity of the phones and how they just worked.
While it is true that nothing is 100% these phones should not be sold with all the problems they are having with them. VM/Sprint/Motorola should have held the phones back until all ROM and hardware issues were fixed. Being a rebranded phone of one that has been on the market for a while they knew the problems with this phone. Rather than sticking their customers with a questionably usable phone they should have had these issues fixed and provided their customers with a phone that was as functionally dependable as the Optimus V was.
Because I can say for sure, My Triumph is not as dependable or accurate as my OV was.

 

[androidfonefan]

Have you heard of Cricket? That's just another name for Metro PCS throughout much of the US. Here in Phoenix its called Cricket.

We have cricket here in Missouri. They have one of the poorest service reputations in the state. They have nice looking phones, and they are said to have a 35.00 unlimited talk, text, and internet plan. But their service is spotty, calls sound bad and get dropped frequently.

I have had call quality like that in the past with a major provider, probably just a bad phone but my calls were a pain to take. I did not have those problems with my Optimus V. And so far calls are ok on the MT.
Random shut downs are problematic and the GPS issue?

 

[JohnACman]

Have you heard of Cricket? That's just another name for Metro PCS throughout much of the US. Here in Phoenix its called Cricket.

According to Wikipedia they are two different companies but use each others systems for roaming. I had a friend that bought a MetroPCS phone and then was transfered to North Carolina that had Cricket and the phone worked on their system just fine.
We have a Metro PCS store on every corner around here. Talk about over-saturation.