prepaid carrier

Prepaid or postpaid?: The fight for your cell phone dollars (Smartphones Unlocked)

By definition, the no-contract carrier model is designed to save you money over the two-year contract agreement that reigns supreme here in the U.S.

The question is: How much do you really gain by going prepaid, and what do you lose from the subscriber experience? Without a doubt, no-contract carriers like MetroPCS, Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Cricket Wireless can dramatically cut your monthly cell phone bill, but there are trade-offs.

I'm not going to dive into every carrier's pricing structure and phone offerings, so for the sake of comparison, I'm going to break down the … Read more

Can prepaid carriers quench consumers' smartphone thirst?

Relief is a little iffy for contract-free customers thirsting for smartphones.

Weak quarterly earnings for prepaid carriers, like leader MetroPCS, TracFone, and Cricket-owner Leap Wireless, are making the ability of these second-tiered carriers to act effectively as alternative smartphone providers to the big-four operators a little murkier.

Why? As CNET Senior Writer Roger Cheng noted, the overall growth of tier-two customers is slowing--even dropping, in Cricket's case--and in addition, smartphone-seekers appear to be signing on to other options, including prepaid plans with the major carriers like T-Mobile, or dropping down to government-subsidized feature phones in response to financial … Read more

Boost Mobile to expand retail outlets

With prepaid carriers enjoying good times in this recession, Sprint Nextel subsidiary Boost Mobile is preparing to reap the benefits. Matt Carter, Boost's president, told Reuters that his company will open 50 new retail stores by the end of the year.

The new outlets, which will open around the country in cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, will only sell Boost phones and services. Currently, Boost operates just three stores in Miami, Los Angeles, and Houston. Boost products are available at some Sprint retail locations, but they're typically regulated to a corner of the store.

Boost … Read more